Seattle City Council Briefing 10/19/20

We live?

Yes, feel free to start when you're ready.

fantastic.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I'm Lisa Herbold.

Um, I'm not quite sure if I'm pro tem this morning, but I think I'm filling in for pro tem, uh, council member Juarez.

Uh, and we really hope that, uh, Council President Gonzalez is feeling well soon.

Um, the October 19th 2020 council breeding briefing meeting will come to order.

It is 9 34 a.m.

Uh, will the clerk please call the roll council members to want your

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Juarez.

Present.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Here.

Chair Herbold.

Here.

Eight present.

Thank you.

And of course, Council President Gonzalez is excused from today's meeting.

If there is no objection, the minutes of the October 12th, 2020 meeting will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

So we are going to launch right in to a fantastic presentation from our 20 2021 Get Engaged appointments.

We will be joined by a representative from the mayor's office, Ari Einbinder, and I'm sorry, Amanda Holfield from the mayor's office and Ari Einbinder from the Get Engaged program at the Y.

and we will hear from our Get Engaged appointments.

Just so the viewing audience knows, Get Engaged is the way that the city of Seattle gets youth representation on our boards and commissioners.

And the YMCA manages the program, works to recruit and train young people between the ages of 18 and 29 to serve in this important civic role.

We're going to be hearing from, I believe, 20 Get Engaged nominees representing 20 of, I think, 21 different boards and commissions.

And I'm going to hand it right over to Amanda and Ari.

And I understand that we'll have one minute for each appointee to introduce themselves.

And with that, just hand it right over to Amanda and Ari.

Thank you.

Amanda, would you like to go first?

Let's see if we have a mute issue here.

I think Amanda is still trying to get into the meeting, FYI.

I'm on a troubleshoot connection.

You want to pitch it?

Sure, good morning everybody.

Thank you all for being here.

My name is Ari Einbinder.

I work for the YMCA social impact center.

We at the YMCA social impact center are thrilled to once again be partnering with the city of Seattle for the get engaged program this year.

This year, we, like many people in organizations, face some setback from COVID-19.

And we're initially unsure if we received the same number of applications that we did last year.

But I'm proud to say that this year, we received over 80 applications, which even outdid our performance of applications from last year.

We once again teamed up with board and mayoral liaisons for the daunting and difficult task of narrowing down the list of truly exceptional candidates.

After carefully reviewing the applications, conducting interviews, and much deliberation, we are really, really proud and excited about our 2020-2021 Get Engaged cohort.

Our cohort members this year are all motivated and passionate people working in various fields with a keen interest to improve public life in Seattle, as you'll see yourselves when they introduce themselves shortly.

The court is composed of local students, nonprofit workers, and various other skilled professionals.

These are all people who see and understand what a difficult period we are in now as a nation as well as a city and are eager to help us improve citizens lives.

We're also rather pleased with the composition of this group this year.

Get engaged, as you all know, was specifically designed to get younger voices and local government.

Additionally, the social impact center is committed.

To racial justice and diversity, as I know is the city and its board members.

This year's cohort is once again slightly more female, or I should say non male than male, and slightly more non white than white with an ethnic makeup that roughly parallels that of our city.

Our cohort also includes members from every city council district.

The cohort is also pretty well spread out in terms of age, with members as young as 21 and as old as 29, with an average age of 26. I'd also personally like to thank those who helped make this possible, such as all of the liaisons for the participating boards and commissions, and Tom Madsen from the city clerk's office, who once again proved invaluable in helping to see this process to completion.

I'd also particularly like to thank Paul Quinones Figueroa, who was then serving as the mayoral liaison, though he has since moved on to bigger and better things.

Paul was also invaluable in this very detailed and very lengthy process.

So my sincere thanks to you all.

We are truly excited about this great cohort and achieving some great things this year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ari.

I'm just checking here to see if Amanda has been able to join us.

And if not, I would just hand it over to our guests.

And I'm sure you have it all worked out, Ari.

Excuse me, who's going to go first?

Oh, you're on mute.

There you go.

Sure.

Yes, I have that worked out.

All right, I'm just going to go in alphabetical order, starting with Andrew Parker.

All right, Andrew.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Andrew Parker, and I'm serving on the Seattle Transit Advisory Board for the Get Engaged 2020 to 2021 cohort.

I received my bachelor's degree in marketing in 2017 from Woodworth University in Spokane, Washington, and now I'm pursuing a career in digital marketing.

and analytics.

I would say I'm excited to serve on the Seattle Transit Advisory Board because I want to provide safe and affordable solutions for all riders to access public transportation across the Puget Sound region as well as enhance the rider experience with clear and understandable tools to use the transit options available in the greater Seattle area.

What I hope to learn at the end of my term is to be a better informed citizen excuse me on how the local policy process is implemented in our community and also provide equitable solutions to those riders in our greater Seattle area.

Thank you so much.

Thank you Andrew.

Next we have Shalise Jacobson.

Good morning everyone.

My name is Shalise Jacobson and I am serving on the Seattle Women's Commission.

I live in Wallingford and I'm currently working as a management consultant at a local firm called Forum Solutions.

Before that I worked at Planned Parenthood for three years and had around seven years of volunteering with them before that.

And so I'm really excited to bring that broad experience supporting women's issues within Planned Parenthood to the Seattle Women's Commission.

Um, and I'm particularly eager to work, um, on issues that relate to women specifically within the pandemic and thinking through how to support them best during this time.

And so I've been thinking more about how, um, the pandemic impacts childcare and domestic violence and housing specifically.

And so I'm excited to bring some of those to the commission.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member, Amanda Holyfield's joined us on the line now.

She's joining us by phone.

Fantastic.

Amanda, we've begun hearing from the Get Engaged members.

And if that's OK, if we could just keep going through that, and we'll hand it over to you to wrap up.

And she'll need to push star six to unmute herself to reply back to you to get yourself up on mute.

So Amanda, please.

Plus star six.

Thank you.

Hi, Amanda.

Is that is that what I suggested?

All right.

We continue hearing from.

Absolutely.

All right.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

I'm so glad you could join us.

Thank you.

All right.

Fantastic.

Thank you, Shalise.

Next, we have Chloe Caswell.

Hi, I'm Chloe Caswell.

I am the engaged appointee for the Seattle Renters Commission.

I'm a mental health case manager at Downtown Emergency Services Center currently, and I have my degree from the University of Texas at Austin in African and African Diaspora Studies and American Studies.

I'm a resident of Chinatown International District in District 2. I am excited to serve on the Renters Commission because it will allow me to advocate for my homeless clients on a larger scale.

I work with folks on a daily basis whose lives have been ravaged by the lack of affordable housing in the city, and I'm deeply committed to ensuring that their experiences are heard by city leadership.

What I hope to accomplish on the committee is I would love to see Seattle eliminate homelessness.

And the only way to do this is through affordable housing.

As a member of the Renters Commission, I'll encourage the city to invest in affordable and fair housing for its citizens.

Thank you, Chloe.

Next, we have Connor Stein.

Hi, everyone.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today.

My name is Connor Stein.

I am a graduate student in the UW Department of Architecture.

I'm a native of Birmingham, Alabama, but now my partner and I and our two dogs are District 4 residents, and we live right at the cusp of Fremont and Wallingford.

I'm really excited to work on the Northeast Design Review Board because I believe in our city's Design Review Board's purpose, which is ensuring that our city's growth contributes to an active, accessible, and enjoyable public realm in our many diverse neighborhoods.

And during my term specifically with the Northeast Design Review Board I'm really excited to always work with that mission in mind just because of all of the growth that's happening in our district around our light rail stations.

And I'm really excited to work with the many community members architects and planners who are contributing to that development.

And as these neighborhoods continue to grow I hope to also you know work closely with and learn from my colleagues so we can you know do our part contribute to a better city for everyone.

I'm also looking forward to really, you know, serving with all of my Get Engaged colleagues and learning from them and just, yeah, getting to know one another.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve, and I really appreciate it.

Connor.

Thank you, Connor.

Next, we have David Kirichenko.

Hello, everyone.

First and foremost, many thanks to ARI, the Get Engaged program.

the City of Seattle for offering this opportunity to first partake and serve on a board and to really work on behalf of our community.

And it's truly a humbling moment to be here virtually, especially being a first person in my family to have gone to university and coming from a low background and being able to be in a spot like this where attending a Seattle City Council meeting and joining a board.

I'm very thankful and I currently work for Amazon based out of the South Lake Union offices.

And I also serve as an instructor at Green River College where I teach coding and data analytics.

I'm excited to serve on the Community Technology Advisory Board in the coming year and will do my best to serve the needs of our community.

And certainly I hope to bring a fresh perspective to the board on a variety of issues ranging from greater access to broadband for low income households, to bridging the digital divide between our communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Next, we have Elena Arakaki.

Hi.

Thanks, Ari.

Hello.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Elena Arakaki.

I use she, her pronouns, and I'm serving on the Urban Forestry Commission.

I earned my bachelor's degree in environmental studies and sociology at Whitman College, and since then I've been working as the urban to wild coordinator at the Wilderness Society.

I live in Lower Queen Anne, District 7. I'm excited to serve on the Urban Forestry Commission because trees are so important to urban livability.

They provide shade, they help combat the effects of climate change, and they are associated with better health outcomes.

I'm passionate about equitable access to nature and creating communities where we can all thrive in place.

During my time at the Urban Forestry Commission, I hope to learn how decisions are made at the city level and how residents can get involved.

I would also like to work on finding community source solutions to closing the racial equity gap in tree canopy cover that exists in Seattle.

I look forward to this opportunity and to getting to know the other cohort members.

Thank you.

Thank you, Elena.

Thank you, Elena.

Next, we have Elrohi Shugi.

Thank you Ari and thank you all for having me this morning.

My name is Elrohi Shugie and I'm currently a senior at the University of Washington, majoring in sociology with the aspiration of pursuing a career in law.

I plan on graduating summer 2021. I currently live in Shoreline, Washington, which is also known as district number five.

I'm the appointee for the Immigrant Commission.

I'm more than excited to work for the Seattle Commission.

As an African immigrant from Ethiopia, I have definitely experienced different forms of marginalization and have had many opportunities feel out of reach, sometimes not impossible.

So I'm very excited to amplify the voices of the voiceless.

And also being able to make a positive impact in the community in an uncertain time like this is very exciting for me.

During my time on the board, I really hope to increase accessibility and to my best ability, implement different resourceful institution that help decrease achievement gaps in different immigrant communities.

And also just be able to increase professionalism among the demographic is some of my goals.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jessica.

Hi, good morning.

My name is Jessica.

I use she her pronouns.

I live in Columbia city, so I'm a district to resident and I currently work at for Tara, where I do stakeholder engagement and policy work around a variety of land use issues.

And I am excited to join the board of part commissioners because.

You know, through my work, I know that the way that we use public space has a huge impact on countless socioeconomic outcomes, in particular in our cities.

And I look forward to being part of the conversation around, you know, how we proactively use and manage Parkland to address racial inequities in our communities.

So through my time on the board, my main goal is to strengthen and diversify community involvement in board processes and decision-making.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica.

Next, we have John Rodesno.

Hello.

As Ari said, my name is John Rodesno.

and I'm serving on the Landmarks Preservation Board.

I'm a graduate of the University of Washington with my degrees in architecture.

For work, I currently am a drafter at My Cabin LLC.

We are a construction company located in Bellevue that specializes in building accessory dwelling units within homeowners' backyards.

Living in the Bitter Lake neighborhood, I currently reside in Council District Number 5. The reasons I'm excited to serve on the Preservations landmark preservation board is to fill my societal duties as a resident of the city of Seattle.

gain experience and exposure serving as a landmark preservation board member, and finally to best preserve the urban fabric of the City of Seattle.

What I hope to accomplish during my term on the Landmarks Preservation Board is to succeed at fulfilling my role as a Landmark Preservation Board member, show the general public the great capacity in which historic buildings retain their usefulness and longevity, and ultimately learn how historic preservation and new development can be mutually beneficial to one another.

Thanks again.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

Next, we have Jose Nino.

Hi, my name is and I have been a Seattle resident for the past.

5 years currently living in the neighborhood on district 4 this year.

I'm honored to serve as the get engaged member of the Seattle bicycle advisory board.

I have been an avid biker for over a decade now and believe that bicycling is a safe and enriching avenue for recreation, travel, exercise and transportation.

So over the next year serving on the board, I plan to work for our citizens to expand access to Seattle bikeways in an even more inclusive and equitable manner.

I hope to leave this year at the board, a more active citizen with a community of beginning gauge members to support years and years of activism.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you, Jose.

Thank you, Jose.

Next, we have Caleb to all day.

Hi everyone, my name is Caleb Tewolde.

I currently work at Rainier Scholars as an academic counselor.

I live in the Wedgwood neighborhood in District 5. I'm excited to learn about what goes into the planning commission and what what it takes to plan and advise the city, especially in a city that's ever expanding.

I hope as a member on this commission that we can continue to commit to affordable housing, especially in a housing crisis and homelessness crisis in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Caleb.

Next, we have Kim Baker.

Hi, everyone, my name is Kim.

I'm going to be serving on the Seattle design commission.

I'm a recent grad from the University of Washington in the masters of public health as well as certificate and user centered design.

And what I'm really excited about this commission is that there are so many areas of our city that have been really intentionally and thoughtfully designed and those are.

spaces like I've come to enjoy.

And I think there are so many more areas of our city that could be more thoughtfully designed for like racial equity, as well as health and environmental resiliency.

So I'm hoping to, you know, bring that voice to those discussions.

And I'm really looking forward to being a part of this amazing program with a great cohort to learn more about civil engagement.

So thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you, Kim.

Next we have Maggie Honig.

Hi everyone, my name is Maggie Honig and I am a graduate of UW with a master's degree in civil and environmental engineering and I work as a design engineer at Magnuson Clemencic Associates and I live in District 3. I'm really excited to join the East Design Review Board because of the important work that the board does to consider the public benefits that private projects have.

And during this term, I aim to broaden my perspective as a civil engineer through engaging with community members and helping influence the design of upcoming projects so that they elevate the sense of connection and belonging that community members have with their surrounding built environment.

Thank you.

Thanks, Maggie.

Thank you, Maggie.

Next, we have Marie Claire Sokolowski.

Hello, all.

My name is Mary Claire Sokolowski, and I go by MC for short.

I'm an East Coast native, and I attended Drexel University in Philadelphia, where I graduated in 2014 with a degree in entertainment and arts management.

I moved to Seattle in 2017, and I'm currently living in Ballard and a proud constituent of District 6. I work as the whole body buyer at the Whole Foods store in Interbay.

I'm very excited to serve on the Seattle Center Advisory Commission because it's the hub for arts and culture in the city that is very active and engaging with the community through a variety of programming.

And I'm also a really big hockey fan, so I'm excited to get the crack in.

in there.

And during my term on the commission, I just hope to kind of bring live events back into the city in whatever post-pandemic world we're living in and really focusing on safety and new innovative ways to put on events and to also make sure that they are inclusive and representative of our communities and all the culture that Seattle has to offer.

Thank you.

Thank you, MC.

Thank you, MC.

Next, we have Ori Bryan.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Ori Bryan.

I use he, him pronouns.

And I live in District 3. And I'm the appointee for the Pedestrian Advisory Board.

I'm originally from the Los Angeles area.

But last year, I graduated from the University of Chicago, where I studied economics and East European studies.

And I currently work at Amazon.

Seattle seems especially dedicated to pedestrian access and mobility with the pedestrian master plan.

So I'm looking forward in particular to joining the board as a steward of that plan.

And I'm also interested in the work that the board is doing internally regarding racial equity and Seattle's pedestrian environment.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the other cohort members and after my service I hope to become an ambassador for other young people to become civically engaged.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ari.

Next we have Paula Orego.

Thank you so much, Ari.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Paula and I attend the University of Washington, where I am studying speech and hearing sciences.

I am so excited to work on the Commission for People with Disabilities.

I cannot wait to learn from my accomplished cohort and serve my community by facilitating communication with city government.

My goal for this term is to especially bring the needs and interests of children with disabilities to the commission, city council, and mayor.

Thank you so, so much, and I hope to earn your trust.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paula.

Next, we have Raquel West.

Hi everyone.

Good morning.

My name is Raquel West.

I use she her pronouns and I'm from District one.

I recently graduated from the University of Washington in geography and history, also with a minor in American Indian Studies.

I currently serve at the Bill Holmes Center.

Center Study for the Northwest Native Art at the Burke Museum.

And I'm the Collections Outreach Coordinator, where I ensure and help facilitate easy access and the accessibility of the collections to our stakeholders, and in particular, the Native community of the Pacific Northwest.

and I'm serving on the Seattle Arts Commission.

I'm really excited to be serving on the Arts Commission because I've seen the way that making space and art in particular creates and facilitates agency and change in communities.

In particular this year, I'm excited about making digital spaces and ensuring that our artists of Seattle are supported in these unprecedented times that particularly affect profit and the ability to reach their audiences.

And I'm really honored to be here.

So thank you all.

Thanks, Raquel.

Thank you, Raquel.

Next, we have Robel Mulugeta.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Robel Mulugeta.

I use he, him pronouns, and I'll be serving in the Get Engaged cohort for the Seattle Human Rights Commission.

Currently, I work at Zillow Group as a rotational associate and graduated recently from Yale.

where I studied economics and urban policy.

I'm from the Beacon Hill area, so District 2, and I'm really excited to be working on the Human Rights Commission because I see it as a really just amazing opportunity to advocate for racial and economic justice on several avenues for our underrepresented communities here in Seattle.

I'm especially interested in opportunities to advocate for housing equity in the city as well as other opportunities to connect and amplify the voices of local organizations that are reimagining our city's criminal justice and public safety systems.

Thank you so much to Ari and all the council members, as well as my Get Engaged cohort for this amazing opportunity to allow younger folks to participate in local government.

Thanks, Rabel.

Thank you, Rabel.

Next, we have Robin Kim.

Hey, everyone.

My name is Robin Kim.

I use she her pronouns.

I'm a musician and producer with a background in the service industry through bartending and bar management.

During the pandemic, I've been volunteering on various actions in South Seattle.

I live in Columbia City with my partner and three cats.

I'm excited to make new connections and build relationships through the Community Involvement Commission.

I'm hoping to accomplish lasting change for underrepresented and marginalized groups.

And I'm eager to learn more about building equitable policy strategies and how to fund BIPOC community-led projects.

But yeah, thank you so much for this opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robin.

Next, we have Sam Dawson.

We're not hearing you, Sam.

I'm so sorry about that.

I have two mute systems.

Thank you, Ari, and thank you, everybody, for the incredibly warm welcome.

My name is Sam Dawson.

I am a development coordinator at Landesa, which is a Seattle-based international non-governmental organization that works to secure land rights all around the world.

In that capacity, I work and support our fundraising team there.

I am going to be serving on the Pioneer Square Preservation Board where I am very, very excited to learn more about the intersection of preservation as well as development and how a microcosm of a community like Pioneer Square really exemplifies how to balance those two objectives.

So incredibly excited to be serving on that board and learning more about how they serve that particular community.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you, Sam.

Our last Get Engaged cohort member, Jasmine Aceves, is unfortunately unable to attend today, but I believe Janet Stafford might be introducing her in her place.

Janet, do we have you with us?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Happy Monday, everyone.

My name is Janet Stafford, and I am the Commission Lead Officer of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, in specific, the LGBTQ Commission and the Disability Commission.

Unfortunately, Yasmin Aceves had a scheduled conflict and couldn't attend today, but she has asked me to share the following.

Yasmin Aceves, who goes by Yazzie, uses she and her pronouns.

She lives in the 47th district, is a proud queer Latina ex-woman with a professional background and elevated leadership with a focus on diversity and inclusion.

She is ecstatic to be able to work closely with the LGBTQ Commission to bring into focus the housing and career safety concerns.

In addition, she's excited to continue her journey with demystifying the inner workings of our local government and use her force of work ethic to continue to drive tangible and long-lasting solutions.

While on the commission, she does plan to continue to raise awareness around the housing and career safety concerns and continue to drive focus on closing the gap using her background and leadership and job placement training to create more active career placement functions and agency-centered and effectiveness we are facing as a country.

Thank you.

a fantastic job to get to work with all of these fantastic young leaders who are running towards the challenge of contributing to our city and to our nation and to our world at this very, very challenging time.

I am in awe of your of your commitment and of your willingness to share your skills and talents and passion.

So thank you so much.

I'm feeling really optimistic this morning.

Amanda, are you there?

Oh, I am here.

Fantastic.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Perfect.

So yeah I just kind of wanted to echo what you said Council Member.

We have a really great cohort of Get Engaged candidates this year.

They're just all very talented and engaged.

Very excited to serve the city and the people of the city.

And we are very excited to put them forth for appointment.

And I think they're just all going to be great assets to the boards and commissions that they serve.

Thank you Amanda.

And it's gonna be a little challenging for me because we have so many, I've got so many thumbnails to look at, but I'm just scanning through to see whether or not any of my colleagues have their hands raised.

And if anybody wants up, Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem for the presentation this morning.

And thanks to all of you.

This is a really inspiring way to start the week and gives me a lot of hope and optimism for what's to come in terms of policy recommendations to the city.

We've received a number of letters recently from the commissions that really helped guide us as we think about the budget priorities for this upcoming year.

And I just want to say that those letters don't go on a shelf somewhere or in a file.

We really do circulate them.

We talk about them when we deliberate.

various budget issues, and those policy issues get elevated when we work on policy changes throughout the year.

So everything that you're doing, yes, it looks great on your resume as well, and I think it's actually going to lead to real change.

And speaking of resumes, just a reminder for everyone, you do not have to hit a certain age threshold or have a certain number of things on your resume to run for office.

I hope you are all thinking about that as well.

I think the youngest person at the state legislature was 22 or 23. So anyway, just want to put that on your list of to-do items as you think about various things in your future, because this would be a true representative body in any elected position, and it's really exciting to see all of your faces.

So I look forward to not only hearing more about the policies that you're going to provide for recommendation to the council, but also hoping to hear more about where you head I think it's important to think about how you bring this representation to other places in your early careers.

It's never too early to think about how you bring this representation to other places as well.

Tao, Paul, Ari, for all of your behind-the-scenes work with our Get Engaged appointees.

Hearing from the appointees Andrew, Shalise, Chloe, Connor, David, Elena, Arobi, Jessica, John, Jose, Caleb, Kim, Maggie, MC from Ballard, Ori, Paula, Raquel, Ravel, Robin, Sam, and Yazzie, we are excited to continue hearing from you for years to come in an official capacity on your boards and commissions.

I just want to really thank you for the presentations that you provided us this morning.

We're excited to hear from you as we move forward as commissions and boards provide important feedback for us as we're making important policy considerations.

And as I'm not the youngest person on the city council, I will still echo Council Member Mosqueda's comments about it's never too early to think about running.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Morales, did I see your hand up?

No, but I'm happy to comment.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Sure.

Well, I will just say, as the person for whose committee would be seeing the Human Rights Commission, Women's Commission, People with Disabilities, the Arts Commission, I'm really excited to see such a diverse group of folks, particularly young people who are eager to get engaged and participate in local government and really help shape some of the policymaking and budget thinking that we do here at the council.

So I want to congratulate all of you and really look forward to hearing what you have to say and what you can contribute to the work that we're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

I just wanted to take a second as someone like a number of my colleagues here who is a past city commissioner, that this is just great that you're standing up to serve in a volunteer capacity to represent.

your neighbors and to work on these important policy areas with us.

I'm working on a number of different pieces of legislation right now.

As a former commissioner, one of my first calls is always to take advantage of the expertise, diligence, and commitment.

of the people who serve on these boards and commissions.

So never hesitate to reach out if there's a project you're working on where you think my office can be an effective collaborator.

Really looking forward to the commitment and service all of you are going to make.

And know that it doesn't, not only does it not have to stop here in terms of running for public office, But a number of people I served with on the Human Rights Commission went on to serve on other boards and commissions as well after this initial foray into public service, or went on to get appointed to a full-time position after GetEngaged to the commission.

So if there's a way I can be helpful in the mentorship capacity for that, please let me know.

It is a great wellspring of talent, the people that come in through GetEngaged.

and you are the, in a lot of ways, you're the farm team for the mayoral and the council appointments to the commission.

So hang in there and really appreciate you stepping forward.

And I'm here to help in any way that I can for your public service to be impactful here.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Swann.

Just wanted to thank everybody who is getting appointed and has offered their services and time.

And just one specific note for those of you who are either going to be serving with the renters commission or are otherwise interested in renters rights or affordable housing issues, because how could you not be?

I mean, the state of affordable housing crisis in this city has predated the pandemic by nearly a decade.

So I just wanted to offer for any of you who's interested in issues related to that or in general, of course, human rights issues and the question of economic and social and racial inequality.

But I just wanted to specifically mention renters issues because as we go forward in the next months, my office is working on transferable, developing ordinances to allow transferable rental histories.

Standard residential leases.

These are two very important things that need to be done to expand the bill of renters rights and those of us who are who have rented or are currently renting will know exactly what I'm talking about.

So I really urge you all to get connected with my office and use your positions to really push for these kinds of advancements in renters' rights and the rights of ordinary people, because as we know, it not only affects the vast majority of people, but also disproportionately affects already marginalized communities.

So I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that.

And also just to say that some of the commissions and the commissioners have played a really courageous role in putting forward issues that may not get immediate support from the politicians and City Hall, but that because they believe that this is the right thing to do, they will bring that forward.

And I would urge you all to use your positions in that way as well.

Thank you.

Thank you Council Member Sawant.

I'm just looking through here.

Well, this is really, again, a great way to start the week.

And really, I'm so inspired by, again, your willingness to serve in this very challenging time.

And in the spirit of Council Member Solange's comments, please, I do understand that your role is to work with your with your cohort, but it's also really to push us to make sure that we are representing the interests of the city as it relates to your charge on your board or commission.

So again, I also want to give my apologies to Jessica Vu, whose name was misspelled on the council briefing agenda.

I know you all are going to do fantastic work.

And with that, we are going to move into the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is a preview of today's city council actions and council and regional committees.

We'll begin the item on the agenda with, again, a preview.

I will call on councilmembers as established by the rotated roll call for all City Council meetings which is designated alphabetically by last name and with the Council President called last.

This week's roll call rotation begins with Councilmember Sawant followed by Straus, councilmembers.

And then we will conclude this agenda discussion.

And so let's get started first with Councilmember Sawant.

Good morning, everyone.

There are no items on today's city Council agenda from the sustainability and renters rights committee which has no regularly scheduled meetings until the budget are being discussed currently as form A's and that I hope we can discuss as form B's.

Please let my office know if you support any of these proposals and would like to sign on as a co-sponsor.

Last week, I expressed my concern about council members not being required to publicly in open meetings show whether or not they're supporting a given amendment during this budget.

But in this email that we've sent to all your offices, we've provided all the budget amendments that my office has proposed.

And also I would, Just reiterate what I said last week is if your office has any questions, please feel free to reach out to my office anytime.

And I welcome all council members to co-sponsor the amendments from my office, which are also the proposals from the People's Budget Movement.

And as I also mentioned last week, the People's Budget Movement will be having its town hall over Zoom on Tuesday, October 20th, which is tomorrow at 6 p.m.

And I urge everyone to attend.

All council members are warmly welcomed.

And as always, my office is working with community activists, labor union members, many in the city who are pushing for affordable housing, renter's rights, who are opposed to the cuts from the mayor, And in fact, one of the major things that the people's budget this year is fighting for is to stop Mayor Durkin's proposed draconian budget cuts, which in reality are well over $200 million to parks, libraries, roads, and not just that, but also to affordable housing and the lack of investment in the Green New Deal.

And so, and we are also pushing for defunding the police by at least 50% as seven of the nine council members promise to support at the height of the justice for George Floyd movement in the summer.

The people's budget movement is, is, you know, the point that that is being made here is that defunding the police by 50% and a small increase in the Amazon tax rate could prevent all budget cuts to all departments and also help increase funds for social programs at this moment with the majority of our city's ordinary people reeling under the pandemic and the deep recession.

The People's Budget Movement has a six-year track record of having won crucial victories for affordable housing, renter organizing and defense, homeless services and tiny houses, and restorative justice.

So I look forward to this conversation.

Thank you, Council Member Swan.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

There are no items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's introduction and referral calendar or on the agenda.

Regarding the budget, my office submitted 13 form A's.

We took one back, and I spoke to the majority of them last Friday.

I'll be speaking to two more this week.

Here in District 6, I had my town hall last Tuesday.

I changed the format from our panel of community councils and residents to focus just on Q&A because the previous town hall, I removed the Q&A portion so that we could focus on a conversation on race in District 6. So the town hall this last week had a Q&A, what's happening in District 6, what I'm working on, and how I'm making decisions around the budget.

We had 356 RSVPs, town hall last nearly two hours, and I was able to answer about 25 to 30 questions covering issues ranging from public safety, to homelessness, to trees, to transportation, and I really want to thank Not only my staff, the communication staff, Vanna, Stephanie, Joseph, and IT, Eric, Ian, and Sun for making this happen.

Thank you District 6 residents for asking all of the great questions, sending them to me, and we look forward to following up with folks that we didn't get to answer their questions in real time.

The Town Hall is now hosted on the Council Commons YouTube page, so you can watch it at your leisure or convenience or every night if you want.

As always, I continue to host my District 6 resident meetings, even during weeks that we had the Town Hall.

This week will be from 5 to 7 p.m.

and during the resident meetings last week, we continued to discuss homelessness, public safety, and the majority of the folks I talked to were from Green Lake.

Please continue to send your meeting requests for District 6 meetings.

Just for everyone's awareness, we are scheduling about three weeks out at this time.

I'm a small business category.

I was happy to work with a small business owner about cafe street permitting and coverings.

Currently, the governor is requiring two-sided tents, which makes sense.

Although as we move into colder, wetter weather, we are going to need to be changing these regulations, especially as one business owner in my district with bubble tents, which just create a bubble for that one table so you don't have a larger tent with multiple seats under it.

Thank you to the mayor's department, mayor's staff, and OIR for indulging me in these conversations.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report for this morning.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Juarez?

Thank you, Council Member Herboldt, and thank you so much, Council Member Herboldt, for covering for me this morning.

I really appreciate that.

So there are four items on the Public Access and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's City Council agenda.

We're gonna start with Council Bill 119875, an item relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation, authorizing an amendment to the interlocal agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Park District.

This item is concurrent with the Metropolitan Park District process that we will run through this evening at 5.30 to delay the 2021-2026 MPD strategic planning process until next year.

So this piece is the twin or city side of the interlocal process.

I'll speak more to this this afternoon.

Second, I was nice to hear from Jessica Vu and Mary Skokowski.

I knew I was going to get this wrong, Mary Skokowski.

We are looking at those two appointments, so at the time I would like to speak to both their appointments.

Jessica will be with the Board of Park Commissioners, and I understand that Mary will be with the Seattle Center Advisory Commission.

So looking forward to speak more to that this afternoon.

Lastly, resolution 31974, a resolution setting the time and place for an additional appeal to the hearing examiner's report of the waterfront lid final assessment role.

In regards to the Metropolitan Park District today, the meeting at 5.30, the agenda includes, number one, board nominations.

We will need to hold elections for the next president and vice president of this board at the start of the meeting.

Then we'll dive into public comments.

After that, we will listen to or hear from Superintendent Jesus Aguirre for the presentation on the 2021 proposed MPD budget.

After the presentation, we'll take up two amendments Again, one that would delay the 2021-2026 planning cycle due to extingent circumstances, i.e., the coronavirus.

And this is concurrent with Council Bill 119875. And last, but not least, we will hold a public meeting, a public hearing to consider the 2021 proposed MPD budget.

Tracy Radcliffe will be by our side, as well as Nageen.

Thank you both for working so hard on all of this.

Second, parks update.

This morning, my office will send out our parks weekly COVID-19 updates, and I'll cover a few highlights.

The Amy Yee Tennis Center reopened on Friday, October 16th for rentals only.

Previously closed parking lots will be reopened by the end of today, October 19th.

Our indoor shower program continues to be successful and helpful for those who are unsheltered neighbors.

From October 6th to October 13th, we served over 235 users.

Delridge and Miller are closed on Saturdays.

All centers are closed on Sundays.

Meadowbrook was closed on October 13th due to a power outage.

Delridge and Rainier assisted over 70 users each during this reporting period.

A week ahead for me, starting a lot of stuff, but this Thursday I have a Sound Transit Board of Directors meeting.

I'm sponsoring an item on the agenda to rename the 140th Street Light Rail Station, yes, to the 148th Street Station.

and accurately represent its physical location.

Yes, I would have liked a better name for that, but I don't think that was going to happen, so.

I look forward to supporting the North King subarea this Thursday and my Linwood neighbors.

Second, I will be supporting another item on the agenda that would transfer 10 transit-oriented development sites in the Rainier Valley at no cost to the city of Seattle for affordable housing development.

There are two other sites that King County Council member and I have been working on for his Youth Achievement Center.

Those have recently been approved by the federal government to be transferred to King County, which is great news.

So the transfer will hopefully happen before the end of this year, and Sound Transit staff have worked really hard to get this across the finish line, and I want to thank them for that, as well as Council Member Girmay, Zahila.

Last week in review, we had a big D5 town hall meeting.

I hosted a budget town hall meeting with budget director, Dr. Ben Noble, and Esther Lucero, the CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board and member of the Community Police Commission.

And we had Jason Johnson on, the Human Service Department director.

We had well over 180 RSVPs to the event.

We received over 50 questions from participants.

I want to thank everyone for their participation and interest in our city's budget, and give a special shout out to our comms and IT department for making it happen.

Dana, Joseph, and Eric know how bad I am with technology, so thank you for helping me.

Our office is working to provide answers to questions that were not addressed during the town hall, so we'll be doing that through our weekly North Star newsletter, and I look forward to continue creating opportunities to virtually engage with constituents in the coming months, As you guys know, I will be the Pro Tem Council President this afternoon, so I'm looking forward to seeing your mugs.

Bye.

You're on mute there, Council Member Hurdle.

That's what that one more minute here.

I said, Thank you guys.

Bye.

Thank you.

See what I mean?

All right, you're busy.

All right, Councilmember Lewis, let's hear from you.

Thank you so much Council Member Herbold.

So there are no items on the agenda this afternoon, though I am going to walk some legislation on for introduction and referral and I'll get to that later in my update.

First, a couple of updates from last week and then events later this week.

Last week, I had the pleasure, following in the example of Councilmember Mosqueda, of a ride-along with HealthONE.

I want to give a shout-out to Doug, Roger, Teresa, and Ashley.

Thank you so much for letting me ride along with you on Wednesday morning and for showing me the power of low-acuity first response.

The commitment to public service and the compassion with which you greet a tough job on a daily basis was inspiring to see.

Just as a little bit of background, although I'm sure the viewing public is very familiar with HealthONE at this point, given our deliberations, HealthONE is an integrated team of HSD workers and firefighters that respond to low acuity public health-based responses in the field.

So a lot of the things we've been discussing replacing sworn armed officer response with, it really put in stark reality for me that we have a model staring us right in the face that is a viable first response alternative to armed police to address these kinds of calls.

And it is a moral imperative that calls regarding behavioral mental health and substance addiction receive a public health response and health one can be that response and I look forward to pushing in this budget in 2021 with with all of my colleagues here.

to make that a reality and go forward with expanding the scope and scale of HealthONE.

Highly recommended, just as Councilmember Mesquita said last week, that everyone take advantage of the generosity of HealthONE.

going to have a ride-along with them, just as they did with Council Member Musqueda, they also implored me to relay that, that they eagerly would like to give everyone the same ride-along opportunity.

And I'll just say this too, they are, as I'm sure Council Member Musqueda can attest to, they are also just an extremely approachable, I just can't say enough about how good it was to spend a morning with them.

And also just the optimism with which they face this task, this job, and just the hope that they instill in you that this can be a new system that brings forward a new reality that moves to a more responsive and equitable method of first response.

So I really appreciate their service and appreciated that opportunity.

And we'll join Council Member Musqueda Similarly, encouraging everybody to take advantage of that ride along opportunity this Thursday.

I will be attending the Puget sound regional council operations committee following that.

I will be attending a meeting of the Puget sound regional council board.

And I want to pivot now to discuss legislation I'll be walking on this afternoon.

All of us have seen over the last several months, more than ever, that thousands of our neighbors are living in vehicles and tents without the adequate support and services that all people are entitled to in a city as wealthy as ours.

This requires urgency from city leadership, from the mayor, from the council, from all of us working together.

And in that spirit, I'm pleased to announce today the first step in a new collaboration between the council, the mayor, and our service provider community.

This afternoon, I'm gonna walk on a proviso to amend some legislation from the summer balancing session to free up some resources to allow the executive in collaboration with the provider community and the council to stand up the on-sheltered outreach and response team, which will be the city's central coordinating team to empower and collaborate with the outreach efforts of our contracted providers.

Contrary to popular belief, and as many of us here well know, the city's outreach efforts have never exclusively been the purview of the old navigation team.

The dedicated staff of REACH, Chief Seattle Club, Downtown Emergency Service Center, The Urban League, the Defender Association, and many others have always been the fundamental core of our community-based outreach model, and they remain that today.

I do want to just say for members of the viewing public concerned about the absence of the navigation team, robust outreach is continuing.

Robust outreach has been continuing, and it has been from our community-based providers that far outnumber the outreach that was done by the navigation team and always have, and that work has continued and that work does continue.

In that spirit, this new team that would be in HSD is focused on building on and empowering that tradition of centering outreach and community providers first.

By proviso, this team will not be authorized for infield outreach.

That'll be the exclusive purview of our community-based outreach providers.

Rather, this team is an acknowledgement that our provider community are capable and diligent infield outreach partners and that their service can be enhanced by partnering with the city to bring to bear resources only the city can get out into the field to assist in their mission.

It goes without saying that this team will be exclusively civilian.

The city practice of using armed and uniformed police as agents of homelessness outreach and coordination is resolutely over.

This new model will acknowledge the strength that the city can bring as a partner by coordinating in a variety of essential services to support the provider community.

This includes garbage pickup.

This includes sharps disposal.

This includes standing up hygiene facilities and many other services.

To give a little bit of detail before this shows up on IRC this afternoon, I will give you the top line of the bottom line, so to speak.

This proviso would appropriate $1.8 million for third-party outreach.

This is including a little over $1 million of new outreach funds from HSD savings.

and from finance administrative services contract savings.

The additional $7,500 is money for reach that was already in the budget, but will now be released with more expediency.

In addition to outreach, This money can be invested in behavioral health services, flexible financial assistance, case management, and housing navigation.

This is per feedback from the provider community on the needs that they face in the field and what they would like additional city assistance to address.

This would also release $245,000 to be spent on HSD salary on this new team with a cap of eight approved FTEs for that $245,000.

This is only for 2020. This provision will not extend into 2021 unless we decide to do it in our fall budget session.

This bill comes out of weeks of negotiation between council, mayor and service providers.

And I wanna thank council members Herbold and Morales for being steadfast partners in helping those negotiations along.

I wanna thank Deputy Mayor Sixkiller on the executive side for helping convene the table and to work with council and our provider community to find common ground that addresses all of our common interests.

And of course, I want to thank our outreach partners at REACH, the Defender Association, Chief Seattle Club, and many others for the work they do every day, and also for their contributions to this process that centered their voices and centered their needs in determining what a new outreach model towards chronic homelessness is going to look like.

The navigation team model is gone, and we're on the forefront of a new and collaborative model centering outreach and the needs of our neighbors living unsheltered.

I'm available this week to discuss this proposal in more detail with any member of the council, and I'd note that this measure represents the beginning and not the end of this new approach.

I want to note that productive negotiations are ongoing between the executive and our provider community, and more than any law or appropriation the goodwill, the patience, and the respect that has defined these discussions will shape the future of our homelessness response.

I look forward to discussing this legislation throughout this week and hopefully passing it next Monday.

And I'm happy to answer what questions I can now and note that the legislation will be on IRC, hopefully to be walked on with the indulgence of the council this afternoon.

So thank you for letting me provide that update.

I have no further updates at this time.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Does anybody have any questions?

Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning.

Thank you very much Councilmember Lewis for that summary.

I look forward to reading the proposal in more detail and really appreciate the work of you Councilmember Herbold and Councilmember Morales as you have tried to make sure to both identify how the funding that the City Council had appropriated was or was not being used at this moment and really to clarify both to the public and work in partnership with the to make sure that they have the support that they need.

I appreciate you underscoring that the role of a police-led homelessness response is no longer the process that the city will engage in, and that is true under the model that you're proposing here.

I heard you say that clearly.

And so just to offer sort of maybe one example, I mentioned when we were out with the NAV1 team, and it could have been any team, it could have been REACH or it could have been LEAD or it could have been Colleen's group and the outreach work that they do through Chief Seattle Club.

They had built this tremendous trust with the individual who was outside and needed support services, including clothing and food and the ability to have a place to go for shelter.

And after they had spent, you know, 20 to 40 minutes building trust, the individual sort of let their guard down and they were able to engage with him.

And then they found out that, yes, he does need access to shelter services.

He was concerned that he wasn't going to be able to get back into one service.

So the team spent quite a bit of time trying to reach various shelters on the phone.

And unfortunately, as you can imagine, given our shelters are out of capacity, they've been stretched thin with COVID.

They have already competing crises because they've been underfunded for so long.

They weren't able to get somebody on the phone because of the sheer amount of work at many of our shelters.

And given that our shelters are currently at capacity, I'm wondering, under the model that you're talking about here, is this a way for the behind the scenes work to be done by HSD so that some of those outreach workers, whatever entity they're with, are not then hitting a roadblock when they run into somebody and that's perhaps the type of work that can be coordinated behind the scenes so that outreach person is actually continuing to engage in conversation and continuing to build that trust so that behind the scenes they're figuring out how to get that person into either housing or temporary shelter.

Is that the type of work that they would do instead of being in the field with a police presence?

Yeah, that is the general vision of what this new approach would be for this to be a hub that can coordinate the resources of the city, be it shelter capacity, be it coordinating Seattle Public Utilities and deploying hygiene resources, be it, like I said earlier, you know, like distributing sharps disposals, purple bag program.

I mean, just going down the list, instead of having a system like the NAVTEAM system, where all those resources were monopolized by an entity that was also the primary outreach organ of the city, in this system, the only outreach So the only people in the field would be the providers.

So this team would sort of by necessity have to collaborate with the providers on how to distribute those resources.

So this marks a massive shift in approach and doctrine from the old model, which combined monopoly on city resources with an outreach team.

This does more of a Respecting the different competencies, the city and the outreach community bring forward and would add that that this division of labor is being forged through these discussions between the executive and the provider community, which has been happening in a more.

in intense and proactive way from what I can gather from all parties than it has in the past, and really brought into focus what the city is uniquely positioned to provide, and then what the provider community is uniquely positioned to provide.

A lot of the details are gonna start getting filled in more once they can stand up these FTEs, but the critical component is, from the discussions with the executive, a team like this is essential to get a lot of these additive resources that we have appropriated in the summer out in the field where it can actually be helping folks and to provide a degree of city tracking of how those resources are being deployed and making sure they're getting to the providers that need them.

Thank you, councilmember Lewis.

If there are no other questions, I just want to thank you, councilmember Lewis, for your leadership on this issue and really express my appreciation for all the work that you've been doing both with the mayor's office, myself and councilmember Morales and the provider community.

I agree with you.

There is a new a new willingness between the provider community and the executive departments to really figure out how to do this differently instead of the sort of historical approach of concerns about the way the nav team was functioning on one side and resistance to making changes to the nav team function on the other.

This is truly a new approach.

We have heard Deputy Mayor Sixkiller say repeatedly that This new approach is one that leads with outreach, and I think the very best way to cement that philosophy is by supporting the efforts of our professional outreach providers to do this work.

with, again, city staff acting in a coordinating role to support that work.

And I think that's a wonderful model.

It reminds me a little bit of what the city auditor recommended a couple years ago with what's called an incident command system approach, where, again, we have folks who have access to resources across the city, across many, many, many different departments who are coordinating with the folks in the field to address the needs of people at specific critical incidents, in this case, encampment locations.

I was really dismayed at the end of September when we heard from the executive that they were disbanding the NAV team.

but that in their description of next steps, there was nothing said about how they intended to reallocate the funding from the NAV team as the council included in our legislation and our rebalance budget, how they were going to reallocate that $1.4 million to outreach contracts, housing navigation services, case management and financial assistance.

we felt the council felt really strongly we didn't want to just get rid of the NAV team without creating something new and I appreciate, again, your pulling everybody together, Councilmember Lewis, to make sure that happens and looking forward to taking a look at the newest version of the updated proviso.

So thanks again.

I'm feeling a second reason this morning to feel optimistic.

All right, moving forward to our next speaker, that would be Council Member Morales.

Take it away.

Thank you, Council President Tim.

I do want to thank Council Member Lewis.

It's been very interesting conversations that we've been having over the last several weeks, and I agree that It seems there is a fundamental shift in the in willingness from the executive office based on the conversations we've been having with Deputy Mayor Sixkiller.

to really think more carefully about the really important work that our service providers are doing in terms of outreach and making sure that we center them and put forward their work and their relationships and their, you know, real engagement on the ground.

So I'm looking forward to this conversation about how we deploy resources for the rest of 2020. And then, you know, moving on, we are in the middle of or the beginning of conversations about what 2021 should look like.

So that will be the next round of conversations.

This afternoon, there are five Get Engaged appointees from the Community Economic Development Committee.

I'm looking forward to getting those folks confirmed.

Robel Mulugeta from the Human Rights Commission, Yazia Seves from the LGBTQ Commission, Shalise Jacobson for Women's Commission, Paula Orego from the Commission for People with Disabilities, and Raquel West for the Arts Commission.

I want to thank Council Member Juarez for the work that she's been doing on getting land transferred from Sound Transit for the Youth Achievement Center.

As we've talked about a few times here already, this is going to be a really important and significant piece of the broader strategy in the South End for addressing restorative justice, mentoring, getting young people on the right path and providing better access to opportunity for them.

And so this Achievement Center is one piece of that, and we're really excited about the opportunity to secure that land so that we can move forward with the rest of the planning there.

Last week, I visited encampments in Georgetown with an outreach coordinator from REACH.

I was able to hear from our unhoused neighbors firsthand their requests for hygiene services, for enhanced shelter, for access to water, and for the city to focus its priority on supporting agencies like REACH and others at our unhoused neighbors trust over city interventions.

I was also able to visit with Recology in Georgetown to hear their concerns about safety and talk with them about the impacts on their business and how we can work collaboratively to address some of the issues in the area.

I'll be going back to Soto to have similar conversations with businesses and with our unhoused neighbors there this week.

Last week, I also met with neighbors from Beacon Hill to discuss air and noise pollution.

If you don't know, the Beacon Hill neighborhood is impacted by flights that occur every 90 seconds with decibel levels between 70 and 90. The population in Beacon Hill is 72% people of color, 44% immigrants, one of four are poor, And so there are really clear health disparities and climate disparities for folks who live on Beacon Hill.

as a mitigation program to alleviate noise.

And unfortunately, folks on the Beacon Hill neighborhood aren't eligible for that program, despite the adverse health and environmental impacts on community members.

And so they are asking for our support to allow neighbors to participate in the, I believe it's a relatively new equity community advisory committee at the port.

so that they can provide some meaningful input to the Port of Seattle.

So we will be working with neighbors there to try to facilitate that.

Last week we, as I mentioned, we've shifted our office hours during budget to Sunday afternoons from three to five.

And so yesterday I had conversations with constituents around affordable housing, how we help our homeless neighbors, in addition to how we can respond to gun violence.

I'm sure everyone knows we've had several really tragic events in the last several weeks.

And so we're talking with neighbors about what they would like to see.

city council do.

And folks who want to have conversations with our office can sign up for office hours on the council website.

We also this week will be launching what we're calling front yard forums.

These will be small socially distant outdoor meetings with neighbors so we can hear directly from them and what's hearing literally on their block.

So folks can join our email list to find out how to sign up, host, or to attend an event in their neighborhoods.

And then finally, I am looking forward to my conversation tomorrow evening with Girl Scouts from the South End.

They are earning their democracy badges.

So I will be listening to their questions and sharing information about how local government works.

And I'm looking forward to talking with young girls, young leaders in our neighborhood and convincing them to think maybe it's not for 10 years, but certainly put in the idea in their head that they can someday run for office as well.

That is all I have, colleagues.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Let's see here.

Next we have Council Member Mosqueda, please.

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

Councilmember Morales, I love the front yard forums.

It's a great idea.

Thanks as well for all of the council members who have been sharing footage and feedback from the conversations you've been having with constituents to inform the budget priorities.

There was a great video that the communications team put out last Monday, and I hope that folks had a chance to share that around to show the various ways that we've been engaged with trying to get feedback from the community.

And I can imagine that the front yard forums are another great opportunity to feature.

how constituent feedback is being folded into the budget meetings.

Thanks as well to everybody who has sent in footage and information from your town hall meetings.

Also very impressive.

I know that these are ongoing discussions.

So just want to thank you for sharing the feedback you've received so far.

That's all been very helpful as we think about the budget deliberations coming up and sharing with the public the ways you've been engaged.

So thanks so much.

On today's introduction and referral calendar, there are no items from my committee and there are also no items from the finance and housing committee on today's full council agenda.

Do you want to provide you with a brief update for the budget deliberations?

We again will be sending a Monday memo out to all of our colleagues.

Every week we are endeavoring to share with you information about what you can expect in the upcoming budget committee, what you need to know in terms of internal deadlines, and what the communications team is working on to help push out the information that you're collecting from your districts and what we're hearing from constituents across the city, and ways in which we can help deconstruct the budget process for the public at large.

So we will be sending that memo around very shortly, midday today.

We have a quick preview, you will see on there, that we are featuring the continuation of issue IDs.

Last week, we went into the issue ID discussion, where council central staff walked through various issues that they had identified in the budget.

And we also got the chance to see where the council ideas or issues aligned with central staff's issues that they had identified, in which there were very many cases in which there was alignment.

And I wanna thank again, central staff for their walkthrough budget details and for providing us with various options as you identify various issues as well.

Thanks again to council members who presented on their issue IDs.

You all were very succinct.

I really appreciate it.

We got done on time on both Thursday and Friday, and we'll endeavor to do the same upcoming on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A reminder for Tuesday, we're going to start with public comment again for the first 30 minutes.

If you do want to provide public comment, please note that public comment link goes live at 730 in the morning, and we will try to get through everybody who has signed up.

Again, we'll reserve the first half an hour for public comment, and then we will go into parks and Department of Transportation.

In the afternoon, we will have a presentation from the central staff on issues relating to the Seattle Police Department.

On Wednesday, we will start again with public comment for the first half an hour, followed by a presentation on community safety.

And in the afternoon, we will have a presentation on the homelessness response and the Human Services Department issues.

That will wrap up our issue identification.

Again, this has been four days of deliberative engagement on diving into the details so that we better understand the proposed budget as it was transmitted by the mayor's office and some initial ideas that council members and central staff have flagged of possible areas for future amendments.

A reminder that these form A's that we've been discussing are not self-balancing.

They do not have to be self-balancing.

Some of them do have large dollar amounts associated.

A reminder for all of our offices that the Form B's do need to be self-balancing, so begin thinking about your various priorities and ways in which you can make sure that they are balanced.

We will look forward to having more discussion on those various Form B's, and the concept here is to try to narrow down from Form A, Form B, and then to the Form C's.

A reminder that the Form B deadline is Thursday, October 22nd at 5 p.m.

So Thursday, October 22nd, 5 p.m.

That's this Thursday.

Please start working with central staff early if you have any questions they can help get through.

Any ideas, strategies, issues you may want to debate, sorry, debate, to include, and that way we have a more streamlined discussion at the full select budget committee meetings.

Central staff is really amazing about thinking through how various priorities can fit within existing or competing priorities in the proposed budget.

So do take them up on getting those formings in early or having discussions early.

They are there to help brainstorm with you as well as process the information that your offices generate.

Thanks again for all of your participation.

It was pretty robust last few meetings, and I want to thank you in advance for your time and engagement over the next two days.

Again, we will have a hard stop at 5 p.m.

each day, and we will make sure that everybody gets a full hour break between 1 and 2 p.m., if not a little bit longer like we were able to accomplish on Friday.

Okay, that's it for me, Council Member Herbold.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

And next we'll have Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

I didn't know if there were any questions for Council Member Mosqueda or not first.

Are there questions for Council Member Mosqueda about the budget process or anything else?

Anything else?

Okay.

Thank you.

Hello, colleagues.

The Transportation Utilities Committee has no items on today's full City Council agenda.

Our Transportation Utilities Committee will resume its meetings on Wednesday, December 2nd after the fall budget season.

I think Council Member Herbold might talk more about this, but quickly about the West Seattle Bridge.

In the next three weeks or so, our Seattle Department of Transportation and Mayor are planning to recommend how best to restore traffic on the West Seattle High Bridge.

The decision to repair or replace the damaged sections of the bridge will be informed by our teams of engineering consultants, our large and diverse community task force, and a cost-benefit analysis to be published this week.

Last month, the City Council already authorized the financing necessary for traffic mitigation and to stabilize the high bridge, because we need to stabilize the bridge, whether we repair or replace.

SDOT will be seeking funds from the state and federal government for larger costs that will likely be coming.

Many sources of information on the West Seattle Bridge, including SDOT's blog, the independent West Seattle blog, and, of course, Councilmember Herbold's office, which has been providing detailed information on her newsletter and blog.

We will schedule a briefing on the West Seattle Bridge definitely at our next Transportation Utilities Committee, Wednesday, December 2nd.

Before that time, we might work with the Council President's Office to schedule a briefing on the cost-benefit analysis or other key issues happening during budget.

I know I sound like a broken record on this, but this crisis situation of the West Seattle Bridge combined with the report from our city auditor on the aging condition of our bridges makes a strong argument for increasing the funding for bridge maintenance during this budget cycle.

Regarding the navigation team announcement this morning, I want to thank Council Member Lewis as chair of our Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments for leading this collaborative work with the Durkin administration to craft a compromise on this issue.

I personally believe we can get to better, more sustainable solutions when we work with Mayor Durkin and her teams who I believe bring expertise and also care about our city just like we do.

I'd like to lift up and commend the work of our city government employees from many departments who have served on the navigation team.

I continue to be a strong supporter of the original navigation team, but I also look forward to this proposal and outreach and response.

So thanks again, Council Member Lewis.

In District 4, this weekend, I visited the brand-new park that opened at Portage Bay.

It's called Fritz Hedges Waterway Park.

It's located at 1117 Northeast Boat Street.

That's east of University Bridge at the southern point of the University District, just a block west of Aqua Verde Restaurant.

I saw many families with their kids and others enjoying this lovely new connection to our waterfront, courtesy of our Seattle Parks Department.

More information on this new park is available on my blog.

It includes links to the Seattle Times article about this new park.

Regarding the Get Engaged appointments who we heard from, I support all of the appointments, including those impacting my committee.

There's a few from transportation-related advisory boards and also the technology advisory board.

That's all I have, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

I believe Council Member Mosqueda wanted to take just another minute to clarify something about the council budget process.

Thank you so much.

And Councilmember Pierson, thanks for flagging that park too.

I used to work at Agua Verde and spent a lot of time down there.

If folks haven't been there, incredible restaurant with amazing owners and team.

So just plug to go check out the park and maybe grab a taco.

I also wanted to ask, thank you very much Council Member Herbold for letting me have a quick second back.

Quick clarification, we do need to have proposals from Council Members be self-budgeting eventually, but Form Bs do not actually have to be self-budgeting.

that we are trying to hone in and will eventually need those forms to be self-balancing.

Councilmember Herbold.

Councilmember Mosqueda.

Allie, do you want to chime in here?

Sure.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, Chair Mosqueda.

I think the chair just summed it up well.

Form B's don't need to be self-balancing, however they can be.

But they do require two co-sponsors in addition to the primary sponsor to be included.

on the agenda and for discussion in committee.

And then the next, following the Form B submission, those proposals will be discussed on the 28th through the 30th.

And then we will work with the chair to put her balloting package together.

And then following that, our Form Cs, which are required to be self-balancing.

So I'll just say again, Form Bs are not required to be self-balancing, but you are welcome to submit ideas for how to fund those proposals that will help inform the chair's package as we move into those discussions in a couple of weeks.

Thank you, Allie.

Any questions from anybody here about that?

If I may also go back and ask Councilmember Peterson a question about his presentation.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Councilmember Peterson, thank you so much.

Could you remind us what type of information is being announced today?

I know Councilmember Herbold, you maybe alluded to it at the beginning as well regarding the West Seattle Bridge.

Is there an announcement coming today or this week about

No, it's the cost-benefit analysis, which is just one piece of information that will be used to decide the best course of action.

That cost-benefit analysis will be available this week sometime.

It's not so much an announcement.

It's just a sharing of information.

And it's one of the inputs, as Council Member Peterson explained, one of many inputs that is going into the decision to be made by the mayor.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Seeing no hands from my colleagues, I will go into my presentation for the day.

As I usually do, I will start with the report from the Seattle Fire Department on their COVID-19 tests being administered at four sites throughout the city.

Since June 5th up through October 17th, the Seattle Fire Department at these four different locations have administered I just want to remind everybody that this Thursday, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which the Human Services Department and the Office of Labor Standards have recognized as a time to remember victims and survivors of abuse and exploitation, to raise awareness about violence and its effect on families and communities, and to acknowledge and highlight those working to end gender-based violence.

In Washington State, 41% of women and 32% of men report experiencing violence from an intimate partner.

The City of Seattle invests more than $10 million annually in community programming focused on gender-based violence.

Through these investments, HSD and partners support more than 10,000 survivors every year.

While domestic violence does not discriminate, Language barriers, lack of culturally relevant services, threats of deportation, and fear of isolation put marginalized communities at an increased risk of experiencing gender-based violence.

Women of color and Native women are two to three times more likely to experience a gender-based violence-related fatality than their white counterparts.

If you or someone you know needs help, you can call, chat, or text 24 hours every day at the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.

Just a little bit more about the West Seattle bridge in addition to the release of the cost benefit analysis this week.

Just want to share with folks who participated in the survey that I did last.

I guess starting on October 12th and running through 7 p.m.

on October 14th, I conducted an online survey asking folks whether or not people supported a repair, which then, of course, involves the continued planning for an eventual replacement.

I provided some summary baseline information about information that we have gleaned so far about the cost-benefit analysis on values such as impacts to the cost benefit analysis that we are working to put sort of a value on all of these attributes associated with the different The geographic representative responses weren't necessarily representative district one overall, but I do think it's useful for receiving feedback from constituents at this point in time, much like the mayor is receiving feedback from constituents through the West Seattle.

community task force.

So really appreciate everybody who participated as of 7 p.m.

on October 14th.

Approximately 7,000 people had participated by that time.

59.8% favored repair, 36% supported replacement, and about 4.2% supported, either didn't know or supported another option.

39% of the replies were from the zip code 98116. and that's the zip code furthest north in West Seattle.

And we have a, thanks to Joseph Peja, we have a sort of a breakdown of the different responses in different zip codes.

And it's very interesting to see how in some zip codes, there's stronger support for a repair, and in some zip codes, there's stronger support for the replacement.

Moving on to another topic that was a hot topic last week is the issue of separations from the Seattle Police Department.

Separations are typically either retiring, a lateral move to another department, or a resignation.

And we heard last week that the executive shared information about the number of separations received through the end of September.

Just as background, the council, by statement of legislative intent, has a sort of a standing request for monthly staffing reports that provide this information.

We have not received the monthly staffing reports since February.

I did, because of COVID-19, I did give the department permission to report less frequently than monthly.

But again, we have not received any reports at all since the February report.

And going into budget, I knew that this was really important for the council to get this information.

So even before the budget process began, I've been asking the budget office since September 13th and the police department since September 16th.

And because I wasn't receiving it, I did request information through SharePoint.

That's the process for viewing public by which the council asks questions of the department during the budget process as a way to streamline the ability of the executive to provide this information to the council.

I made a request on October 1st.

The information we received sometime after that date identified that through August 20th, even though the information was given to us after October 1st, they still were only reporting through the end of August.

And at that point, we were at, for the year, a separation of 63 fully trained officers, and that included 16 resignations, four retirements, two terminations, and one death.

The SharePoint information, as I said, only gave information through August, although, again, because I didn't receive it until sometime after October 1st, presumably they did have September information.

And then the SharePoint information gave a projection of future separations of September through December, and they only projected another 21 separations.

So based on those projections received just a couple weeks ago, the executive was projecting a total of 84 separations for the entire year of 2020. even though the annual estimate of separations that we received at the start of the year was 92 separations.

So for context, in 2018, there were 109 separations, and in 2019, there were 92. The council's 2020 rebalance budget estimated an additional 30 above the annual projection of 92 for a total of 122 separations for 2020. And so I think that's really, it's an important number to hold on to is this number of 122 separations, that was the number that the council projected during its summer rebalance budget that we would see for the entirety of the year of 2020. As it relates to actually the reasons for separation, there are exit interviews that are done for individual officers when they leave.

And I believe central staff receives that information.

I'm not actually going to ask central staff to review that information for September, because I know we're really bogged down in budget.

But this is really important information to have that level of detail.

So that's something that I think we should take a look at.

But I do understand from the statements that the Southwest precinct captain has made about what's going on in the department that many of the officers that Chief Diaz redeployed from specialty units to patrol are the ones that left the department in September.

I really support Chief Diaz's strong leadership to deploy officers from specialty units to patrol where they're needed most.

And I do just want to say that officers who don't want to follow their chief in those changes that he identifies as best for the department and best for the city might find more job satisfaction elsewhere.

As it relates to officers who left for other reasons, I really understand that working for months at a time, managing multiple crises has made this a really hard year for our workers on the front lines.

As a comparison, as of August, there were 45 Seattle Fire Department separations, but at the beginning of the year, we were anticipating only 38. Seattle Fire Department separations for the year.

So just like we're seeing in the police department, we're seeing more people leave the fire department than we had anticipated in the beginning of the year.

Again, receiving this information from the executive is really important.

It allows us to keep an eye on it.

It is important to understand the reasons why officers are leaving.

It's also important to recognize that one month's data doesn't make a trend.

The separations projected from 2020, again, at the start of the year was 92 officers.

The September numbers bring us to 18 more than the entire year's annual projections, not including the additional estimate that the council had of an additional 30 officers.

This number also includes six officers who were terminated and one who has died.

Typically, terminated or deceased officers are not included in the annual projections.

And so that number, that 92 number for the start of the year did not include an estimate for terminated officers or deceased officers.

I'm really glad to have learned that the mayor's office is working hard to finalize the contracts for the council's $4 million allocated in the 2020 rebalance budget for community safety programs.

with an aim to scale up and amend contracts and expand services as soon as possible.

This is critically important to work on further support, financial support from the city to do this violence prevention work.

There is another $10 million that the council allocated for mental health professionals, substance disorder professionals, domestic violence professionals, violence disruptors, and others, so that we can create the crisis response infrastructure to help HealthONE to respond to 911 calls that don't need an officer to respond.

As we know, 56% of calls that the police department responded to in 2019 were non-criminal.

The mayor really needs to get these dollars out the door ASAP.

I know we have a little bit of a back and forth going on about how those funds will be supported.

The council recommended an inter-fund loan so that we could get those dollars out the door in 2020. Again, I appreciate that the mayor has made a commitment to get some of those dollars out in 2020, even with the unanswered question of where the funds are going to come from.

Finally, I just want to flag that in addition to the work through the $10 million that the council has allocated for this new crisis response network, through the budget process, we're working with parking enforcement officers so that they can do some of the work that police officers currently do, like verify automated enforcement tickets.

respond to non-injury collisions, report to and report on minor thefts and car break-ins, act as flaggers at construction sites and events.

Again, the goal is for sworn officers to do less of what they don't need to do so that we can ensure that the force has the person power to do the work that they must do.

As far as events coming up this week and things I did last week, I do have virtual office hours this Friday between 2 o'clock and 6 p.m.

There is another West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meeting this Wednesday.

And at this meeting, as Councilmember Peterson explained, we will consider the cost-benefit analysis.

SDAW has indicated they will be releasing this analysis today.

I also want to share that I was invited and I will be attending an RV pump-out event hosted by the Seattle Public Utilities in St. Vincent, DePaul.

This is Friday.

This is an event again with St. Vincent DePaul volunteers working with SPU workers to provide pump out services and basic hygiene supplies to the occupants of recreational vehicles.

In last year's budget process, I worked to add about $180,000 to fund an RV pump out program that provides contracted mobile pump out services of black and gray water to recreational vehicles located in environmentally sensitive areas.

The effort was in response to recommendations of the city auditor about how to do a better job protecting our environmentally sensitive areas when those areas are occupied by people living without hygiene services.

The program was originally planned to service between 40 and 64 RVs per month.

And at the beginning of the public health emergency in March, Seattle Public Utilities expanded their goals to provide increased hygiene services, and that included increasing the number of pump-outs.

So between July and August, SPU averaged over 100 pump-outs a month, and they expect to continue providing this level of service.

And they have developed program flyers for outreach.

they've created a text service to communicate with RV occupants about when and where the next pump-out will take place.

And this partnership with St. Vincent DePaul will help enhance the ability of providing services during the pump-out events.

So this is, I think, really groundbreaking work, and I'm really grateful to Seattle Public Utilities for taking on this work in earnest in view of the great need.

Just a couple of highlights from last week.

Saturday, I also participated in a Girl Scouts Democracy Badge event.

Over 2,000 participants participated from across the country.

Other participants included State Senator Manka Dhingra, Mindy Lindquist, and Kyla Blair from Senator Murray's office, and federal judges Frick, Taylor, and McCandis.

I also participated in a meeting on Tuesday hosted by the West Seattle Junction Business Improvement Area to discuss their concerns around the Junction Plaza Park and specifically concerns around a hygiene station there.

I was really pleased that the city's executive branch was represented by members of the hygiene station team, including the senior advisor from the office of the Mayor, Tess Colby, Department of Neighborhoods Strategic Advisor, Tom VanBronckhorst, representatives from Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Public Utilities, the city attorney's office, and the Seattle Police Department.

We also had Aaron Burkhalter, program manager from LEAD in West Seattle.

And LEAD is now connected with the Junction BIA in coordinating neighborhood input to begin to address some of the concerns that have been expressed about Junction Park.

And then one of the things that I asked the executive to look at as it relates specifically to hygiene stations is whether or not we could use the contract that we have with the Millionaires Club to provide cleaning services, staffing and security like they do currently at the hygiene trailers.

I've been working with the city of Seattle to figure out whether or not they could do that to the 17 or so hygiene stations throughout the city.

And then finally, I let folks know that as part of the budget deliberations, I'll be proposing the addition of a homeless outreach worker dedicated to west Seattle and south park.

And thank you for your patience.

I appreciate your indulgement and a long report.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Councilmember Herbold, thank you so much for the summary of the history behind the data that you have been trying to receive about possible exits from our public safety departments.

I think it's really important that we have that historical context to know that you have been trying to receive that.

This is something that you used to receive on a regular basis and how it compares to previous years.

Do you mind sending that to us just so that we can have that in hand as well?

I think that's really important information to help sort of be clear about what the record was from the council's perspective.

And anything else that you have is also appreciative because I know we've been getting a lot of questions and that kind of historical context is really important.

Yeah, I'd be happy to share that information and council members feel free to use it to respond to questions that you might be receiving from constituents, absolutely.

If there are no further questions for the good of the order, we will conclude the council briefing meeting and it is now 1127. We'll see you all at two o'clock and we are adjourned.

Thank you.