Council Briefing 5/6/2024

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is May 6th, 2024, and the Seattle City Council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.01.

Will the clerk please call the roll, and I will note that Councilmember Morales is excused today.

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Wu?

Present.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Present.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight are present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of April 29, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

All right.

Today on our agenda, we've got one proclamation, a regular committee reports, and an executive session.

For tomorrow's City Council meeting, the only items of business are approval of the introduction and referral calendar and the adoption of the consent calendar.

And as for the the IRC, there are 13 items and they are the weekly bill payment ordinance and ordinance authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild that covers from January 2021 up until the beginning of this year.

Another ordinance authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement, this one covering employees of at Seattle Public Utilities.

Six appointments to the Board of Parks and Recreation Commission, two appointments to the Community Surveillance Working Group, two reappointments to the Community Police Commission.

And the consent calendar will include the weekly bill payment ordinance and two appointments from my committee.

One to the Ethics and Elections Commission and the other to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission.

All right, with that, we'll move right along.

Council Member Wu has a proclamation recognizing May 2024 to be Opera Month in Seattle.

Council Member Wu, please leave the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I request that signatures be affixed to it.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I want to thank my colleagues for your support on this and also the Council President's Office for making this happen.

So this proclamation proclaims May 11th, 2024 as Seattle Opera Day in recognition of the Seattle Opera's 60th anniversary.

I am thrilled to recognize the Seattle Opera and all of their wide-reaching programs throughout the state of Washington and their contributions to the region's economic vitality.

They've hosted many...

very famous people, entertainers there.

And Seattle Opera is one of the state's largest arts organization.

They employ hundreds of local singers, musicians, designers, backstage craftspersons, technicians, greatly contributing to the creative economy.

So this proclamation, as well as King County's proclamation, will be presented at the Seattle Opera's 60th anniversary concert and gala on Saturday, May 11th.

And one thing I learned is that the Seattle Opera is the administrative home of not only Seattle Opera, but the classic King FM, which is located next door to McCall Hall.

And so are there any further questions or comments?

Are there any further questions?

So go ahead, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council Member Wood.

The only thing I would, well, just to add is that the 60th anniversary concert is this Saturday at Seattle Opera, and just to put a little emphasis on that point as a reminder to everybody else.

Thank you very much.

You know, in 60 years, I read that the opera's only had four general directors, which tells you, if that is the case, that is testament to the stability and the, let's see, the reputation, the sterling reputation of the organization to be able to keep directors for that long.

I will note that because, you know, it's a great...

idea to present that in the field, so to speak.

And I would have liked to have seen Christina Scheppelman, the current director, and basically say thank you very much to her leadership.

And not only is the opera itself very active in broader issues of having to do with downtown recovery I see members of the leadership everywhere at different events around town.

So extremely civically minded organization as well as extremely well regarded and quite a treat to take in.

So thank you very much for putting that forward.

Are there any further comments?

With that, I think that we are ready to call the roll on the members that would like to affix their signatures.

Go ahead, please.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Eight signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

All right.

That is the proclamation recognizing May 2024 to be Opera Month in Seattle.

Thank you very much.

We'll now move on to the next agenda item, which is committee reports.

And this week's roll call begins with Councilmember Rivera.

So if you're ready, you may take it away.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

And thank you, Councilmember Wu, for bringing that proclamation forward.

Very much appreciate your efforts there.

Last week, I hosted my first in a series of small business public safety walks in the district.

My staff and I visited with three small businesses along the 55th Street corridor in District 4 to hear about their experiences and concerns.

Joining me on this walk was SPD Chief Diaz, North Precinct Captain Lori Agard, City Attorney Ann Davison, and representatives from the Department of Neighborhoods, Office of Economic Development, and Seattle Public Utilities.

These particular businesses have experienced break-ins in the last few weeks.

And it's really taken a financial toll on our small businesses across the district The purposes of these walks for me really is to hear directly from businesses and to bring folks from the city into the district To have everyone here from the districts I'm excuse me from the small businesses and to figure out ways that we can help them mitigate for getting broken into while we are waiting of course the the staffing numbers to scale up at SPD.

So it was a really great walk in that I think businesses felt very appreciative of us coming to them and listening and then trying to brainstorm how we can help them in the interim.

So that was really great and I really appreciate everyone from the city who joined me in that.

You'll be hearing from me again as to upcoming ones in the district.

Then I also attended a ride along with the unified care team in the district It was really helpful to be on site with the team to hear about how removals are prioritized and to learn more about how the team conducts outreach to those of our unhoused neighbors who are experiencing needs and who need services and also how they do outreach to the neighborhoods when these removals are conducted.

We visited a couple of areas in the district and discussed prioritization for these areas Areas more to come on that but really want anyone from the district who's watching to know that we are looking at the priority areas in the district and there's We really appreciate the partnership of the unified care team and let folks know that we are really working on all these issues the district.

I also attended virtually the north precinct advisory council meeting with my colleagues council members Moore and Strauss.

We answered questions about public safety priorities in our individual districts on the north end.

I'm very appreciative to the North Precinct Advisory Council for having us on.

I'm especially grateful for their engagement and I very much appreciate the work that they do and the partnership.

I look forward to visiting with them again soon.

I also spent time one-on-one with constituents during the in-district hours in Wallingford at the Good Shepherd Center.

That was all last week.

And then this week, I'm chairing the Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee on Thursday, where the Department of Neighborhoods will give a presentation on their strategic partnership program.

I will also be attending the Mayor's Public Safety Forum in Bitter Lake on Thursday evening.

Unless anyone has any questions.

Yes?

I have a question.

You went on a walk on Northeast 55th, right?

Yes.

And so that caught my attention because there has been a lot of attention to the small businesses on 35th Avenue Northeast, I believe.

So that's north and south, and here's an east-west corridor.

Were the issues that small businesses were talking about different in any way?

Or what did you notice?

Because I do know that you participated in those conversations as well.

Yes, I did.

Thank you for asking, Councilmember Nelson.

The issues are the same.

They're getting broken into doors or being broken into windows, broken.

They've had to replace doors and windows.

A lot of inventory has been taken.

These three businesses were all very different.

There was a restaurant and two retail shops.

And so the restaurants, they're stealing alcohol and cash if it's available, if they have a register.

And then the retail, they're taking a lot of the clothing, et cetera.

A lot of these businesses, though, I was encouraged to hear that they did share with me when they called Seattle Police Department that folks from the North Precinct did show up.

So they were feeling like SPD was being responsive.

And that was really helpful for us to hear.

but the issues are similar to what the businesses in Wedgwood on 35th Street are experiencing, as well as, and we've been in contact with businesses, in particular, Great State Burger on Sandpoint Way.

We're also experiencing break-ins in some of those businesses, as well as in Wallingford, we've also heard that the businesses, and it's all the same.

It's windows getting broken into, doors being pried open and broken, and then inventory getting stolen as well as any cash.

So it really, the thing that I will drive home is these businesses, a lot of them have gotten dropped from their insurance because if they put in, for putting in claims and they're getting broken into multiple times.

So they're really having a hard time with that.

Got it.

And that is why some businesses do not report incidents.

And we know that we are supposed to always urge businesses to make that police report, even if they don't plan on filing a claim.

Correct.

And SPD drove home the importance of reporting.

And you can report online now.

You don't have to call.

And so they were encouraged to do police reports so that we have accurate crime data.

because otherwise it may look like things are improving when really they're not.

It's just they're going unreported.

Got it.

And it's my understanding that SPD does have a new reporting system.

So thank you.

Yes, they do.

Okay.

They do.

Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Rivera, I just wanted to highlight, and Council President particularly, as Chair of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, this is one area where public safety can bleed into the, and other committees, and so within the Economic Development Committee, We want to bring forward the, you know, to light, if you will, the organized retail theft report.

And because the, you know, the shoplifting piece is so important, and this is an opportunity to highlight it and look what we can do in terms of developing, you know, comprehensive approaches to mitigate it.

And I'm glad you brought up the insurance piece because the insurance piece is so key in so many different ways.

And by the way, if we do tackle it, it also tackles the permissive environment that I'm fond of talking about.

Yes.

Thanks.

And Council Member Kettle, I also want to say the conversation SPD talked about, you know, the importance of, let's for instance, surveillance, which is coming out of your public safety committee.

And just the ability to have, if the business has cameras, the ability to hook into SPD, they can opt in.

Of course, this is like coming down the pike to hook into SPD, their system, so that SPD can see in real time if something is happening at a small business to be able to make response faster, if you will.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Council Member Nelson, did you have another question?

here on your soapbox for just a little bit longer and note that while we talk about these This kind of crime is property crime.

We've talked about thefts, break-ins, et cetera.

But when I was going on these walks, so often what was repeated over and over again without exception from the small business owners is that there's often threats and violence against the staff and customers.

So it's not just property crime.

It really does take a toll on, and physical toll oftentimes, on the people.

that are staffing and patronizing these businesses as well.

Yes, and the emotional toll on the small business owners is really palpable.

I will say that all businesses told me that they're not going anywhere, that they're really here to stay, and that was really encouraging.

But, of course, we all know that if they're not supported at a certain point financially, you know, we don't know what's gonna happen down the pike.

But I was encouraged by what I heard, and I was also very appreciative for, like I said, all the colleagues across the city who showed up in support of the businesses.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

Then I'll pass it on to Council Member Saka.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Rivera, and thank you for sharing that important work.

And I love the resilient spirit echoed by the small businesses in your district.

I'll share that that's in line with the sense of resilience and optimism and admitted frustration with the current situation that I've been hearing from small businesses in District 1 through my own kind of stand-alone you know, listening tour, walking tours, sessions that I've been driving in District 1. So opportunity for further alignment and collaboration there, but thank you.

Colleagues, this week from the mayor, we are expecting to see the legislation, the official legislation that would place the transportation levy before voters.

You may have saw my own press release issued immediately after the mayor's presser on Friday, We have a lot of the important substance and details that was publicly released.

And so just waiting on the formal proposed legislation and some additional layer of detail around that.

And I think we can, as I'm told, we can expect that in the coming days or so.

But I don't know about you all, colleagues, but I'm fired up.

I'm excited.

I'm ready to roll.

I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.

We have a very unique urgent opportunity to review the levy and shape the contours of it and ultimately put it before voters.

And this is a really, really exciting once in every decade or in this case, eight year process that we have to do exactly that and really shape the contours of transportation policy in our great city again for the next likely eight years.

So I'm fired up.

I hope you all are as well, because tomorrow to that end, we will be having our very first Transportation Select Committee meeting at 10.30 a.m.

And I apologize to my colleagues who also sit on the regular Transportation Committee meeting or committee, rather.

We have our regular meeting immediately before that at 9.30 a.m., and then at 10 30 is when we'll have our select committee so it'll be a long between that and regular council meeting we'll have a long day of public meetings uh but a lot of important substantive items for us to consider and work our way through so again hope you all are as excited as me and at that select committee meeting tomorrow We will get the opportunity to hear directly from SDOT and the mayor's office about their transportation levy proposal, as well as the levy oversight committee.

And there will be slide decks for each of your reviews and documentation for each of your reviews prior.

You may have already seen central staff's initial memo on the levy proposal topic, and no doubt there will be further memos forthcoming.

So we will meet at 10.30 a.m.

on the first and third Tuesdays of May, each of May and June, with the final committee vote currently scheduled for July 2nd.

And that is intended to give us enough time and meet certain deadlines with the county elections to get stuff, specifically this, before the voters and meet their deadlines.

There are two public hearings scheduled as part of this process.

And they will be at 4.30 p.m.

on May 21st and June 4th.

There will be more information forthcoming, including information on amendment deadlines, so stay tuned.

So aside from that, again, hope you all share my energy and enthusiasm for the Levy Select Committee.

Bob's giving me thumbs up awkwardly over there on the side.

Great, thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

But we are also, aside from that, we are tallying the results of our transportation priority survey that me and my office recently sent to our constituents in District 1. And happy to report we received over 2,000 responses and over 400 responses.

comments.

So me and my office will be sharing those out.

And we're currently gathering, compiling, and analyzing that data.

We'll share it out collectively.

And no doubt that's going to help inform our view of the transportation levy process.

Also, as an aside, last week had the pleasure of visiting the SDOT Operations Center directly across the street at SMT last week.

really, really cool, innovative stuff that the teams there do.

So when I think about transportation, you know, transportation and transportation infrastructure, you know, that's roads, bridges, sidewalks, that's, you know, transit, that's freight mobility, that's pedestrian, that's cars, that's, you know, and plenty more.

That's all of the above.

And it ends up being a lot of concrete and, you know, and steel and, you know, SPU drainage kits amongst other things, but getting a chance to visit the operations center last week is really where I think the intersection of all those things, the hardware, if you will, and the intersection of that and the technology, and make sure it all runs seamlessly together, and make sure that we are able to proactively monitor the situation on our streets in Seattle, anticipate needs, plan accordingly, and respond in certain instances So really cool, kudos to the team out there who do that work every day.

It was such a pleasure for me.

And then finally, I'll note that Mentioned this in my newsletter as well, but we had a great visit with Council President last week at the Southwest Precinct.

I went to the third watch roll call with Council President Nelson, and I had previously visited at the West Precinct specifically, and I had previously had the opportunity to visit the West Precinct one other time, so that was my second time.

So far, it's been...

had three visits to roll calls.

So really enlightening, got a chance to hear directly from our officers.

And yeah, so I will pause there.

I welcome any comments, questions, feedback from you all.

And if there are none, go ahead.

Oh, okay.

Okay, colleagues.

If there are none, then I will pass it on to Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council Member Salk.

I can tell you I'm fired up and ready to go.

Let's go.

Let's do it.

With that, and thank you, Council Member Rivera, for mentioning our time at North Precinct Advisory Committee.

It sounds like we had very similar weeks because I, too, also visited some small businesses that had been broken into.

It's always great to get out in the community.

And so as always, I come back to you talking about finance.

Native communities and tribal governments, as well as the Select Budget Committee.

We are gonna have the Select Budget Committee next week on Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

We do have three bills that we are voting on.

So as always, I ask, please receive a briefing before you come, especially if you do not sit on finance, native communities and tribal governments, because we did have the briefing in committee last week.

and so we will be voting on them next week.

I'm just gonna pause there, because I'm seeing a lot of faces.

Everyone okay with that?

because we're moving forward.

We got a lot of work to do.

Awesome, I'm seeing thumbs up.

Moving on, central staff will also at this meeting, next select budget committee will be presenting on the economic, April economic revenue forecast and how that impacts our budget.

And we'll be continuing what I am calling our select summer series of budget committee.

Last week, central staff presented the 244-page document, which is the 2019 to 2024 budget review and examination of our five-year look back on our budget.

This has never been done before in the last 25 years.

This is meeting Merriam-Webster's definition of an audit.

As we continue to pour over this analysis, central staff will present on other aspects of the city's budget.

We will continue our budget deep dive review and examination Next week, we will have two select meetings in June.

We do not currently have a select budget committee scheduled for July, although I could make one if you all really want, but I strongly suggest we wait until August when we will have our next economic revenue forecast.

and then we move straight into the fall standard budgeting process at the end of September.

So as always, I hope that you, by the end of this process, you will start making jokes about the fact that I will always ask you to get a briefing before committee.

So here I am one more time asking for that.

Moving on, any questions on budget or select budget committee?

Vice Chair.

Yes.

Hi.

Thank you.

I just wanted to clarify that we are not doing an official audit of the budget that would go through the auditor's office and it would cost money and would be take quite some time what we're engaged in is a thorough review of the budget And it is my hope that and I as I've said before and I think this is a point to underscore I'm Encouraging all my colleagues to go through the departments that are under each of your committees and that you review very carefully the programs and projects under those departments budgets so that you can engage in a deeper dive and as you're reviewing the budget this year.

Thank you.

Thanks, Vice Chair.

Yes, there are many different types of audits.

The city auditor does perform official audits.

However, they do not necessarily produce performance review audits or fiscal audits.

As the city auditor does follow government auditing standards issued by the U.S.

Comptroller, and they they do actually focus on sorry i misspoke they focus on those performance audits auditor uses laws leading practices to evaluate city departments and make recommendations but these come down into policy categories policy decisions for us most of the time there are other types of audits irs audits which is a review and examination of an individual's accounts or financial information to ensure that information is reported correctly via tax laws.

There's forensic audits that examine and evaluate a firm or individual's financial records to derive evidence used in a court.

There's also CPA audits, a professional examination conducted by a CPA in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards of a financial statement.

What I shared is we are doing a deep dive on our review and examination, which, as I said, meets Merriam-Webster's definition of an audit, which let me just bring it up here, a formal examination of an organization or individual's accounts or financial situation.

So that's where we are today.

But I'm gonna keep moving us on just to talk about something.

Oh yeah, Council Member Moore, please.

I'm sorry, can you explain what you're asking us to be pre-briefed about?

That took me by surprise.

Yes, there are three bills.

So there's the museum PDA bill, where we are essentially refinancing their PDA.

It's a 30-year bond with two opportunities to refinance, and so there's just information about that.

There's also a carry-forward bill, which is regarding...

elements of a department's budget in which they did not fully spend last year and they hope to finish spending this year.

And then there is an exceptions bill where a department may have overspent their line item and they are now asking for forgiveness for an exception.

And so the last bill, the exceptions ordinance over the last number of years has gotten shorter and shorter and shorter.

because it is not necessarily best practice.

This year, I believe that there are really two general items, which is a reduction from past years.

So there's the refinancing, there's permission to spend more, and then there's forgiveness for they overspent last year.

We had hoped that we would have amendments in by today.

There's not really a lot that you can do to amend these bills, just really frankly.

Those are the votes that we'll be taking.

We will be having more central staff analysis being presented in committee next week regarding the revenue forecast from April and the impact on the current budget, as well as some other policy areas that we continue ticking down and through all of the different aspects of a city budget.

Okay, great, thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate the clarification.

Appreciate that.

that council president i just want to say that the carry forward it's it's it's money that departments are asking permission to carry forward into next year those departments and programs you can review as part of this year's budget in terms of upcoming the upcoming budget so if you look at the carry forward and you have questions i encourage you to ask the questions and you can always What I'm trying to say is passage of this carry forward request doesn't take the place also of reviewing the programs that are asking for carry forward authority as part of the budget analysis for next year, if that makes sense.

And then while I appreciate the chair's going through all the various definitions of audits.

What I am really interested is in making sure that members of the public usually know an audit to be a financial review, a formal, and this is not what this is.

And this is important because I want to level set expectations as to what we are doing.

And so it really is a review and there isn't a separate official audit that's going to be taking place because most people know financial audits to be an official review by a separate body, if you will, notwithstanding the definitions and all the various types of audits that you outlined.

So I just want to make sure we are level setting for the public.

Thank you.

Conducted by our homegrown central staff who who are deep in the weeds all the time, every day, every year.

That's what you're saying, but not having the imprimatur of a third-party validator.

And I could have this conversation with you all day just to say that the CBO, Central Budget Office, is the office that creates the official budget.

We, as having our central staff, do act as a third party.

In this year, we are...

We have never done this level of analysis in the last 25 years that some of the central staff have been on staff here.

And so Council Member Rivera, I'm seeing some body language just returning back to what I have said through and through.

This is a deep review and examination that meets Merriam-Webster's definition of auditing.

And there are many different types of audits withstanding There's more conversation about additional third parties getting involved, but we're going to reserve that for a future conversation.

Correct, and we're also going to agree to disagree on the definition of an audit.

Again, I just want to level set for the public what we are doing, and it is a review of the budget in partnership with the central staff, and it is not an official third-party audit.

Anything further?

No, thank you.

Thank you.

In my external committees, small update from last week, I did jump in to attend the policy committee at Association of Washington Cities because Seattle does not have a representative on that committee right now.

I stepped in to just, keep the ball moving forward since I am a board member on that committee.

I do find a lot of value in working at Association of Washington Cities, so if anyone on the team is interested in stepping up into that role, it is a really good opportunity to work with cities from all across Washington State.

I also sat in on the bylaws meeting this last week.

It does not seem like bylaws will be changed ahead of June, so that is a change from the past.

This coming week, I will be chairing the SIRS Board of Administration meeting, and I'll be attending the Sound Transit Expansion Committee meeting, which I said will be taking up the South Lake Union Station locations.

I host office hours every week.

This week's no different.

And that is my report.

Colleagues, any other questions?

Wonderful.

With that, Council Member Wu.

Thank you.

So last week, I celebrated my 100 days in office.

Appropriately, it was a busy week.

Some of my highlights include attending the Fund the Fun Breakfast in support of Seattle Parks and Recreation's Swim Seattle Initiative.

I also attended UW.

Sigma Psi Zetas Step Out Against Domestic Violence event, benefiting API Chaya.

I also walked the pier and waterfront to learn more about the partnership with the City of Seattle and Friends of Waterfront.

It was just so amazing to see the inclusion and intentional planning that goes not only to the built environment, but in the programming, and how we're connecting different neighborhoods from Pioneer Square to Seattle Center to downtown CID, and focusing not only on tourism, but also on locals as well.

So over the weekend, I sat on a panel moderated by Waanawari Central Area Cultural Ecosystem to talk about black legacy, home ownership, anti-displacement and policy engagement.

Thank you to the department neighborhoods for hosting the important discussion.

I also got to attend the opening doors for the arts fundraiser at the Paramount Theater hosted by Seattle's Theater Group.

and I attended the Lion Tells His Tale at Intiman Theater, which was just an amazing performance on history of black America.

Also attended at the Seattle Center Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander celebration for this month.

Also, this week, I wanted to thank the Queen Anne Community Council for having me in their monthly meeting, and also to the North Precinct Advisory Council for hosting the Public Safety Forum that Council Member Moore, Council Member Strauss, and Council Member Rivera spoke at.

I also want to thank OPCD and the dedicated staff for all the comp plan open house meetings I went to.

to the D7 comp plan and also to the virtual one last week and they were great ways to engage with people and to hear valuable feedback about the comprehensive plan.

I was also able to join Council Member Kettle's office to attend SBD's North Precinct shift change.

So thank you, Council Member Kettle for inviting me and thank you to SBD's North Precinct for having us.

I also met with the executive director of King County Sexual Assault Resource Center and met with LEAD to discuss their work with the city in addressing fentanyl drug abuse and the crisis in Seattle.

Next week in committee will be Seattle City Light's interim general manager and CEO, Don Lindell's appointment for discussion and possible vote.

This will take place May 17th at 9.30.

Thank you to my colleagues who have added their questions for the nomination process.

And our office is set to go over the formal questions to our nominees.

We went over the questions with the nominee last Friday, and we look forward to distributing the responses by Monday the 13th.

And if there are no questions or comments, I will send this to customer Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council Member Wood.

You are busy, girl.

I looked down my, boom, boom, boom, you everywhere.

That's great.

Colleagues, good afternoon.

Parks Utilities Technology Committee will be this week, May 8th at 2 p.m.

On the agenda, the presentation we have is SPU.

That actually will be presenting the actual audit of, I know we had a discussion about definition audit.

This is an actual audit that they will be presenting to us that they do with SPU.

And then we also have on the docket Council Bill 120780, which is discussing the Duwamish Waterway.

It's the South Park Water Quality Facility property acquisition, which are some parcels in...

South Park that SPU needs to acquire to continue maintaining that watershed.

Last week, that's it.

Oh, and then we have some appointments and we're looking forward to Superintendent Diaz to come and talk about the appointments for Seattle Parks Board.

Last week in community, so there's no regional committees I have.

Last week in community, attended the Garfield Community Public Forum.

This is one of the mayor's community public safety meetings that he put on.

This was number two.

Had a chance to join the mayor's office and the 14 city departments.

that were there as well.

That was great because a lot of the people in the district got to see the faces of our departments and who did what.

And so that was important.

They had different tables that had, we had a SPD table, we had three SPD tables.

They had a fire department table, neighborhoods, I mean, all SDOT table.

It was great to talk about safety through the lens of the 14 city departments.

Also visited, Wanted to highlight Minister Hurd.

He has an after-school program, which is off of Holgate.

It's a church right across from the tennis center off of MLK, and he had 30 children there, 20 to 30 children there.

He does it from Monday through Friday.

As I'm navigating the district, I'm finding about the different places that do a lot of after-school programs, and I had a great time there.

Also visited our 911 call center, with Chief Smith, got to see the great work that they do behind the scenes, from dispatching to taking calls, the professionalism, the amount of care, attention that they do.

Also get to see the technology, how they dispatch as well.

It was really great to see, and then obviously the data behind everything that they do with Chief Smith is great.

I know a lot of my colleagues have gone there to see that.

Also went to the Tech Alliance annual luncheon.

That was great to hear.

the two mayors, our mayor from Seattle and the Spokane mayor talk about what can tech do.

One of the things they talked about was housing.

We know that we're in affordability crisis here in Seattle and a lot of people talk about how, and we feel it on the street and understanding that it's Seattle's becoming more unaffordable and housing is definitely a number one thing that we hear.

And then also shout out to Cafe Vita, Owner Deming, he owns a bunch of small businesses in Seattle.

He has he's like, I won't say the king of Capitol Hill because I think that would insult a lot of people on there.

But he is definitely one of my favorite people on Capitol Hill who cares so passionately about the health and vibrancy of our community and our city.

And the more small businesses I have met and I've talked to my colleagues about this a lot.

The more I appreciate, as a small business owner myself, the amount that they have invested in our city, in our community, and how they want to help and make it better.

They just need some sense of direction, and how they are on the front lines of a lot of the stuff that we are experiencing in our city.

And I will continue to hit it home every single committee meeting how impressed I am with a lot of the small businesses and the resilience that they have.

They just wanna see it at the table too and looking forward to working with them.

This week, I'm gonna go tickle and play with red pandas at the Woodland Park Zoo.

I know everyone, when I said tickle, they looked at me like, what?

I get to go tickle red pandas and pet giraffes at Woodland Park Zoo.

Also, I will be joining tonight the Seattle Police Department Community Dialogue with Seattle U as well, which is important.

Last but not least, I know this has been in the news a lot.

We have been on the front lines of asylum seekers and people that have come seek refuge to our community and they are now in Powell Barnett Park.

And so all weekend I've been on the phone with different residents along there around the park.

kids, families, communities.

We know that a lot of people are impacted by this.

And so looking forward to our county and our state helping address this situation.

And we'll be providing an update to folks via our newsletter and a statement as well about where we're at because right now it's just not sustainable what's going on in the park.

So I'm looking forward to working there as well.

So without further ado, without any questions about me tickling red pandas, I will pass it off to Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Quite the lead up there.

Looking forward, in terms of committees, we do not, because of the five Tuesday, there's a little gap week essentially for our committee.

So our next public safety committee meeting won't be until the 14th, May, Tuesday the 14th.

where we'll be formally introducing the vacant building legislation in support of fire.

We had to do a pre-introduction briefing of that because of how it came to us in terms of timing to get into the calendar.

That said, my hope is to look at it and potentially vote on it at that same meeting, because we did have the briefing already.

We also had the same thing with the fire board.

We'll have them, you know, a couple of members for the fire board.

And lastly, the ALPR, the Automatic License Plate Reader, will be introduced.

Not voted on that, you know, one time only.

This week, I just want to highlight that I already met with the Seattle Theater Group this morning, and it's really important to meet with the various...

you know, pieces of the arts and culture community, in this case, part of the historic theater juristic district, and to see the common challenges and the common opportunities that exist for the arts and culture community and how we need to support them and, you know, and make sure that they're plugged into all the various elements that we interact with to help provide a, you know, strong base for our arts and culture community.

Tomorrow, I'll be at the South Lake Union Community Council, meeting with them, and then afterwards, meeting with the Seattle Storm leadership team.

I look forward to that.

kickoff for the WNBA with our preseason game tomorrow night.

Wednesday, tour Fred Hutch.

Also, we're having an Amazon fireside chat for veterans with my fellow veteran, Council Member Saka.

So the two veterans on the council will be having a fireside chat.

at Amazon, and then that night, there's the Belltown Community Council.

As you know, I'm a very strong proponent of the community councils as part of our District 7 Neighborhood Council, and lots of talk related to Belltown on public safety, but also transportation, as mentioned, move, levy, and the like, and there are other issues that exist.

On Friday, I'll be meeting with the Consul General of Korea, which will be my second Consul General to check in with, and also having a visit to the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, which I think is important.

And as mentioned, Arts and Culture this coming Saturday, as I mentioned at the very beginning, Seattle Opera 60th Anniversary Concert on Saturday.

Last week, continuing the theme of arts and culture, I had a fantastic visit to Benaroya Hall, Seattle Symphony.

A lot of things going on at Benaroya Hall.

Great to get the insight.

And also, how I can look to do, take our work, like the Public Safety Committee, in terms of the exterior.

Like, how can we support, again, how can we support the arts and culture community?

Had, last week, had my North Precinct roll call with Councilmember Wu.

Not a competition, but my fifth, and I have now been to all five precincts, which I think is super important, particularly in my role as chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Really wanted to highlight that day too, we had our ComPlan open house in McClure, which is a fantastic opportunity to hear from the community regarding the ComPlan.

Heard from many, many people, really appreciated that.

I also appreciate Colin talking about small business.

Last Wednesday, Allied Arts of Seattle held an event on Third Avenue at a location that was formerly the Bergman luggage that was down and out and within less than a year has been revitalized.

And that's the kind of energy and spirit that we need downtown.

That's the energy and spirit that we need on 3rd Avenue, never mind downtown overall, but specifically on 3rd Avenue.

And we should, again, look to celebrate that and encourage that kind of activity.

Also on Wednesday, staff attended the Queen Anne Community Council.

And then on Friday, two great visits, one with Crisis Connections, which I attended with King County Council Member, Jorge Barron.

And later that day, the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

And not to make my colleagues jealous, but yours truly was the first one to climb the steps over the overlook and get a selfie at the selfie location on the overlook as you look at the new aquarium and the waterfront.

Don't be jealous.

I was wearing a hard hat just to make sure you all knew that.

With that said, Council Member Moore?

I have a question if that's okay, Council Member Carroll.

I believe I was the first one.

You can look at my Instagram.

I just wanted to throw that out there.

Did you climb the stairs?

I did climb the stairs, and I have a hard hat on, so I just want to let you know you're number two today.

She's got receipts.

Well, I'll have to be checking in with the leadership team of the Waterfront and Civics Project team on that.

All right.

The picture of myself, he will be in the newsletter that's going out like right now.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Kettle.

So, let's see.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the North Precinct Advisory Council meeting where I spoke with Councilmember Rivera and Councilmember Strauss, learned some very interesting information from my colleagues, and thought we had a productive interview with the community group and appreciated that opportunity.

I also was able to join the care team and went with a ride along and walk along in the Pike Pine Corridor with them, very instructive to see the good work that they're doing, and also the incredible presence that we have down there, both the care team, We Deliver Care, the mid workers, and quite an SBD presence.

So it was interesting to see all of the groups that are coming together to try to improve the pike pine and the blade, as they call it.

Also was able to meet with members of the staff for the Shoreline City Council.

Excuse me.

They have an interesting tradition in that I didn't realize they are a part-time council, but they have a Monday night dinner where they bring all the council members together.

They note it as a special meeting.

So members of the public can attend, but seems like a pretty nice team building effort.

But reached out to them to find out about the work that they're doing on the border of 145th with their opening of their light rail station in August, just looking for opportunities to partner more with Shoreline.

And they were very appreciative of the outreach to them.

So this week we have our Housing and Human Services Committee meeting.

We have three appointments to the Advisory Council on Aging and Disabilities and one reappointment to the Women's Commission and one reappointment to the LBGTQ Commission.

And for a little change of pace, since we've been sort of doing our briefings and one-on-ones, we're going to be having, excuse me, one-on-ones, we will be having more of a opportunity to have a briefing and discussion on a broader sort of theoretical view.

We will be, members of the Ruckelshaus Center will be presenting their report on Pathways to Housing Security in Washington.

So looking forward to, with Phyllis Schulman.

Right, yeah.

Is that an annual event?

Here's what I want to know.

Can people still go to that?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, you can.

All right.

So yeah, just to get more of a kind of theoretical framework and discussion.

And I think that's the main highlight of my week so far.

So I'll pass it on to Council President.

All right.

Well, I will make this really quick.

So let's see.

As I noted earlier, there are two items from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee on tomorrow's consent calendar, and those two items are Mayoral Appointment 02833, reappointing Kristen Haas to the Ethics and Elections Commission, and Mayoral Appointment 02850, appointing Dr. Marissa G. Baker to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission.

The next meeting of the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee will be this Thursday, May 9th at 2 p.m.

And as of now, the two items on the agenda are a discussion and possible vote on council bills 120766 and 120755. And any amendments to either bill will be circulated and posted on the agenda in advance of the meeting.

All right, what happened last week?

Well, Council Member Saka already mentioned having crashed my visit to the Southwest Precinct Third Watch roll call.

It was great to have you there because you had more familiarity with the precinct, and so it was great to sort of be there with an insider, so to speak.

I have to say that my usual plan when I go, and I have to thank Captain Rivera for working with my office to make this happen.

My usual plan, which always works well, is to say a little bit and listen a whole bunch.

And so basically talked about the legislation I'm trying to get across the finish line to improve staffing at SPD, and then just listen to what's really going on with them with amongst the rank and file, the morale, the issues that they're seeing out in community, etc.

Sounds like everybody here already understands the importance of these visits because you're all attending roll calls.

So thank you very much for that.

I think that it shows the The officers that we are paying attention and we care, and also we're bringing back what they tell us and trying to improve public safety based on their input.

All right.

So I want to...

You, Council Member...

I will note, it is a little anticlimactic to talk about what I did when everybody else has already said it, but I can just fill out things that weren't mentioned.

Council Member Kettle, you talked about the Allied Arts Beer and Culture event last week, and I do want to shout out to Tom Graf for inviting me and the organization itself.

Allied Arts is a storied...

civic organization, they've had beer and culture events for decades, and I think that that slowed down a bit during the pandemic, but it's great to see everybody, to see the attendance at that venue.

The panel discussion was included Andrea Newton, executive director of ULI Northwest, Tom Graf of Ewing and Clark, also main person of Belltown United, and Leslie Bain, co-founder of Framework Urban Planning.

So great ideas for assisting with Third Avenue.

Looking ahead, this Thursday, my chief of staff and I will be attending the opening night of the Seattle International Film Festival.

Congratulations to CIFF on celebrating their 50th anniversary.

So I was thinking, this is a big year for major anniversaries of our major cultural institutions, 60 for the opera and 50 for CIFF.

All right, so congratulations, and I'm sure that you all got an invitation as well, so perhaps I'll see you there.

I'll be meeting with representatives of a regional residential and intensive outpatient treatment center to discuss how to best operationalize the $300,000 of funding that I got into this year's budget that will provide on-demand, friction-free access to, like I said, in-person or residential or intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment.

So, I mean, it's designed to be easy for our contracted case managers and service providers to get people in there, and I just want to make sure that this initiative has the best chance of success.

On Friday morning, I will deliver the keynote address at the Seattle Maritime Day Breakfast, an annual event put on by the Propeller Club, which gathers members of the region's maritime industrial community, including the Port of Seattle, the Seaport Alliance in King County, all in celebration of the contributions of individuals and businesses and organizations.

to the strength of our maritime economy.

Without spoiling the surprise of this year's Merit Award winner, I'll just note that it'll make quite a splash.

So perhaps you'll read about it in the paper if you don't attend yourself.

Boom.

All right.

Glad you got that one.

Okay, at noon on Friday, I'll also attend the annual Jewish Family Service Community of Caring Luncheon again this year.

Did you know that Jewish Family Service was founded in 1892?

Can't do the math on this anniversary, but that's a long time ago.

And since then, they've been helping people achieve well-being, health, and stability through...

financial assistance, older adult services, outreach and education, food bank, domestic violence services, refugee and immigrant services, and supportive living services for people with disabilities.

So one organization getting a lot done.

All right, I think I'm almost wrapped up.

I will stop there if there are no questions.

I'll see you at that luncheon.

Excellent, okay.

All right.

No questions, Madam Council President, but I do want to thank you for your partnership and the collaboration for letting me crash the roll call last week.

Yeah, very last minute, but through the benefit of us sharing out what we're working on here, I'm paying attention to what you all are saying, so double-checked.

I do a lot in the evenings and weekends like I know you all do, so I Thank you for your collaboration and partnership.

I also want to thank my wife.

Always welcome.

Because, you know, for allowing me to do that as well that evening.

That was the one day we didn't happen to have any, you know, kiddo logistics or sports or anything, too.

So it worked out well on all ends.

It did.

Thank you.

Yeah, and I learned about other events up here, too.

Okay, moving right along, we do have an executive session here today.

So let me get back to that part of my script.

Did you raise your hand?

Oh, I did, Council President.

I don't mean to interrupt.

I was wondering if I can be excused from council briefing on May 13th, which is next Monday.

All right.

Hearing no objection, thank you very much for letting us know.

Thank you.

Okay, seeing no other comments going on right now.

If there is no other business, we'll move into executive session.

Hearing no further business, we'll now move into executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session, the purpose of which is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

And the executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss questions.

Confidential legal matters with city attorneys is authorized by law and a legal monitor is always there to make sure that we don't get into the realm of talking about policy in a closed session.

I expect the time of this executive session to end by 3.30 p.m.

And if the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I'll announce the extension and the expected duration.

AT THE CONCLUSION OF THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION, THE COUNCIL BRIEFING MEETING WILL AUTOMATICALLY ADJOURN AND OUR NEXT ONE IS SCHEDULED FOR MAY 13, 2024 AT 2 P.M.

ALL RIGHT.

WE'RE NOW IN EXECUTIVE SESSION.

THANKS, EVERYONE.

you