SPEAKER_06

Ah, there we go.

We are out of recess.

Welcome back.

Select committee, select budget committee will come to order.

It is 2.10 p.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_13

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_15

Aye.

SPEAKER_13

Council Member Moore.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member, Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

SPEAKER_14

I mean, present.

SPEAKER_13

Council Member Saka?

Council Member Wu?

Present.

Chair Strauss?

SPEAKER_06

Present.

Thank you, and I will note for the viewing public, Council Member Saka, Council Member Hollingsworth, we're here.

We added 10 minutes to our recess due to another meeting running late.

And so that was that disruption here.

I see Council Member Saka joining us again.

And Council Member Saka, I noted for the record that you were here on time.

Thank you, sir.

And we have Council Member Moore and Hollingsworth also joining us for the record.

We are moving straight into the afternoon session.

If, Clerk, you could read our third item of business into the record.

SPEAKER_13

Agenda Item 3, Office of Planning and Community Development.

SPEAKER_06

Wonderful.

If you all want to come on up, we are joined by Rico Kirandongo, Melissa Wilkie, Dan Eder, Director of...

City Budget Office, Ben Noble, our Central Staff Director.

Welcome, and I know it's gonna take you a second to get ready.

We have Council President joining us now.

But at your convenience, we will get ready to go.

Welcome, Director Kirandongo.

Please introduce yourself and take us away.

The floor is yours.

We'll hold our comments until after your presentation, and then we'll come back and flip through the slides.

Can you guys hear me okay?

Not yet.

And you gotta have the mic real close to your mouth.

You might wanna try a different microphone.

If you're not seeing the green light, it's not working.

SPEAKER_07

All right, can you hear me now?

Yes, we can.

Thank you all for having us here today.

My name's Rico Kirandongo.

I'm the Director of the Office of Planning and Community Development.

SPEAKER_10

My name is Melissa Wilkie.

I'm the Finance Manager for the Office of Planning and Community Development.

SPEAKER_09

For the record, still Dan Eder, Interim Director of City Budget Office.

SPEAKER_07

So, of course, we are here today to run through our Office of Planning Community Development budget projected for 2025 and 2026 and the mayor's proposed budget.

I wanted to provide some context of the work that our office has been doing in 2024 and how we are structured.

So, next slide, please.

I know that I had a chance to meet with each of you one-on-one to talk about our priorities in 2024, but I thought it would be helpful again for context just to go back through them just for an overview.

As you know, we're hard at work on the comprehensive plan major update.

You should expect that beginning in mid-October that we're going to begin another our next phase of community engagement.

and that we will be sending down to council the mayor's plan and the final EIS in December.

And then my expectation is that I will be in front of your committee, Council Member Morales, to do briefings in the first quarter for all the different parts and pieces of the plan.

and then subsequent actions, including looking at draft legislation, would happen in the second quarter.

Regional center plans, as you all know, Peterson Regional Council, starting in 2018, said that cities need to start presenting regional center plans beyond the general construct that's in our growth management strategy.

So this is the first time the city of Seattle has been required to do that level of planning.

So we have been heavy into that work this year.

We have three plans, which I will give a little bit more information about later in the presentation that are well underway.

The second set of three plans, we will dive into greater detail on in 2025. And then our intent is that beyond the draft plans and community engagement, that you would begin to see those being brought down to council in 2026 for adoption.

Our Equitable Development Initiative, which you're all familiar with, you all should be in receipt of the program report and update that we submitted to the clerk on September 24th.

I know it's 115 pages and you've got a whole bunch of other reading material to go through right now.

As you have a chance to take a look at that document, please don't hesitate to reach out to myself or our equitable development initiative director, Jenna Franklin, with questions.

And I'll talk a little bit more about ADI later in the presentation.

West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions, again, as you all know, we are looking at a over $50 billion largest infrastructure investment the city of Seattle will have seen in its lifetime so far.

And for our part at OPCD, we have planning staff that are working very hard in concert with SDOT and with Sound Transit and now also with Urban Land Institute to look at the station area planning at each of our 13 stations that are part of the ST3 program.

The ULI work includes looking at overbuilds for half a dozen of the sites.

And then finally, downtown activation plan.

You already heard a great deal about that from Markham, from Office of Economic Development earlier today.

We are very excited about our work with the mayor's office and with OED on a number of initiatives today.

some of which are OPCD led.

So one, and I want to thank you all for this, the passage of the office residential legislation earlier this year, which will make it easier for us to begin to see conversion projects happen, moving underutilized office building space into new much needed residential units.

One of the other big projects we're working on that's part of the DAB portfolio is a south downtown interagency coordination effort where we're working with WSDOT, with King County, with many of the organization, the community organizations in south downtown the stadiums, the Port of Seattle, labor unions, all to ensure that as we look at longer-term projects that have overlapping timelines and multiple considerations, including, for example, Dearborn Station and its impacts on the MIC, We want to make sure that everybody's on the same page, that we're all information sharing, and that we can find some joint solutions to opportunities and challenges that those projects may have.

Next slide.

So this slide is just a summary of our ADOPTED BUDGET IN 2024 AND THEN OUR PROPOSED BUDGET FOR 2025 AND 2026. WHAT YOU WILL SEE IS A SMALL DROP IN OUR GENERAL FUND ALLOCATION FOR 2025 TO 7.72 MILLION AND THEN A SLIGHT INCREASE TO 8.1 MILLION IN 2026. PAYROLL EXPENSE TAX CONSISTENT WITH THE PET ORDINANCE SHOWS A SLIGHT INCREASE IN OUR BUDGET IN 2025, AND THEN AGAIN ANOTHER SLIGHT INCREASE IN OUR BUDGET IN PROPOSED 2026, AND OF COURSE THAT PET ORDINANCE budget is entirely allocated to our Equitable Development Initiative program.

You have the line there for other funds, which includes both state dollars and federal dollars.

Some of that's comp plan related.

Some of that is our Reconnecting Communities projects, so both the Lit I-5 project and then Reconnecting Communities in South Park.

And then you will also note an FTE reduction from 2024 to 2025, which I'll talk about in the next slide.

So we have two and a half FTE reduction in the proposed budget.

Two of those positions are planning and development specialist senior positions, one in our land use policy and strategic initiatives division, and the other at the Seattle Planning Commission.

And then we also have a 0.5 FTE reduction that is administrative staff for design commission.

Next slide.

uh notable additions there are two one i spoke to already um so between our 2024 adopted and our 2025 proposed there is a small increase in our payroll expense tax of 1.2 million, which then is increased to another 2.3 million for 2026. And as you know, the EDI program is our most, for OBCD, our most impactful anti-displacement program that we have for the city that ensures that black and brown BIPOC not-for-profits are able to own the property that they work out of and provide much needed social services to the communities that they serve.

Next slide.

So just as a brief update, 2024 has been a rebuilding year for us, for the program.

We have new staff that have come on board, including our director for the program, Jenna Franklin.

As I mentioned in my opening, we have submitted to all of you for review and consideration a technical report that provides you an update regarding the status of our 75 projects.

So nine of those projects are complete.

66% of them are completed.

in process, either in phase one, which is pre-site acquisition, or phase two, which is post-site acquisition, where they're moving towards a construction project and towards a certificate of occupancy.

Like I said before, there's a lot to jump into in looking at the details of that report, so I would offer you to follow up with me with questions that you may have.

We have not issued a 2024 EDI RFP, and that was because we wanted to make sure that you guys had this report in hand before we took any action forward.

That report does inform us, particularly as it relates to identification what projects look like they are most likely to be completed next and what are ones that we can help move along.

And we know that's important related to kind of our fiduciary responsibility and kind of seeing a successful program forward.

So our intent with the 2024 RFP would be to try to infuse those identified projects.

So that's where we're anticipating and are working with the mayor's office on a proposal currently.

Next slide.

Looking ahead to 2025, and you will see this in the report, there's a series of improvements that we want to make sure that we can lean into related to the program.

So we want to try to find efficiencies as to how we work with the advisory board.

We want to work with our EDI partners to ensure that they are receiving the benefits support that they need, both technical and related to how they are setting up their individual programs to get to a built unit.

And that looks very different from one partner to the next.

We also want to continue some form of reporting moving forward, and I should have mentioned this before.

In addition to the technical report that you have in your hands today, we also want to provide another report that provides some additional contextual information about the impact of projects and progress on projects.

So that's something for you to look forward to as well.

And I want to make sure that we do that.

in successive years as well.

So that's something to expect from us.

Lastly, I would say that particularly as it relates to our analysis of phase one versus phase two projects, we want to try to set up a predictable structure for you so that you know on a percentage basis year over year, how are we approaching the funding and assessment of value related to phase one projects that are early on versus our investments in phase two projects that are further along in their work.

And note that that is scalable.

We also want to make sure that because these are multi-year projects that Similar to Office of Housing's portfolio are projects that often take seven, even up to 10 years, that we can provide the council information about how those projects are proceeding so that you know how that affects our management of the budget.

I think that's it.

Next slide.

The other significant addition to our budget, and you heard this in the mayor's budget speech earlier this week, the mayor has allocated an additional $350,000 to our office to invest in a supplemental environmental impact statement, which would take into consideration potential additional up zones that are not considered within our current comprehensive plan EIS.

So as you all know, the current EIS is largely focused on not only our compliance with HB 1110, and moving from former single-family zoning to a minimum of four primary units on formerly single-family lots to six units.

We're near frequent transit.

but also up zones in our new designation neighborhood centers, as well as up zones along transit corridors.

With the supplemental EIS, we will be informed by the community engagement of our regional center work so far, and that will be part of our small S scoping for the SEIS.

Uh, we, uh, also will be looking at, um, uh, both for regional centers and urban centers, uh, uh, potential up zones, uh, related to, um, our areas close to transit, um, our, those regional center and urban center designations in general, uh, but then, uh, also considering, uh, future TOD sites.

And I think I have one more slide.

Two more slides.

So related to an SEIS schedule, as I mentioned, obviously there will be the select committee that's looking at the comprehensive plan in the first half of the year in 2025. Our intent would be that we would contract with a consultant in the second half of the year in 2025 to begin the SEIS scoping and execution.

Next slide.

And then just related to the regional center planning, with the three that we are most furthest along so far, downtown, our phase two community engagement is well underway.

We just had a great open house in Belltown earlier this week.

Northgate, our phase one engagement is complete.

First Hill, Capitol Hill, we're wrapping up our first one engagement, so we feel like we're getting good feedback on what the community is interested in and wants to see in that planning effort.

So we're looking forward to being able to bring you more information about that work next year, along with our other three projects.

regional centers that we will begin more significant work on in 2025. And then, of course, we have the consideration of Ballard as a new seventh regional center as part of the consideration for the comp plan.

And I believe that's my last slide.

SPEAKER_06

Wonderful.

Just checking the table, Director Eder, Director Noble, anything to add at this time?

SPEAKER_09

Anything to add?

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you for the comprehensive presentation.

I'm going to turn it over to Land Use Chair, Councilmember Tammy Morales.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you very much.

Thanks for being here, everyone.

I just want to provide some opening remarks about these departments in general, and then I do have questions for you about your presentation.

So we know that OPCD has a really important role in aligning our city's long-term goals with our land use code.

So it's important that this department is well-funded.

If we want to carry out the One Seattle initiative, plan, comprehensive plan.

So I do want to start by thanking the OPCD staff, particularly the EDI folks for the status report that we received last week.

I do think it's important for us to understand how our investments are making meaningful change for our neighbors.

So I welcome the opportunity to evaluate the program to ensure that we deliver on the demands of our communities of color in particular, because we know that what they're really looking for is assistance in the kind of community development projects that they know will help them stay in place.

So I'm pleased to see that the mayor's budget commits to this program.

I do want to thank OPCD for work on the comp plan.

I know you all have been engaged for a couple of years now with the community, working with our regional partners to meet our countywide planning policy goals, scheduling briefings with each of my colleagues to preview the comp plan discussions that will begin once this budget process is over.

And just as a reminder, that discussion is a chance to talk about what should be in your neighborhoods.

At the presentation this morning with the Office of Economic Development, we talked about the need for grocery stores and childcare and pharmacies, the kind of services that make our neighborhoods thrive, and that's precisely the kind of conversation we'll be having through this comp plan process.

I will say I share Councilmember Hollingsworth's eagerness to get more local grocery stores in our neighborhoods.

And I can say from my previous life as a food systems planner that trying to recruit small-scale grocers is not an easy thing to do.

So if we can help build up some support for them to do that kind of work, that would be great.

I'll stop geeking out about food systems planning.

So I know that our district council members will have lots of ideas, lots of priorities as we move into the comp plan discussion.

I do encourage engagement so that we can meet our goals of increasing our housing capacity throughout the city in every neighborhood.

We also heard loud and clear that homeownership opportunities are a priority, so I'll be looking at these budget proposals in all of our departments with that in mind.

And as we hear from departments and later from central staff, I think we need to keep in mind that our housing targets can also help us address our homelessness crisis.

And we have to have the programs and the staffing in place to implement the work.

So with that, I do want to go into my questions about the proposed budget for this department.

And I'll start just by talking about the regional growth centers.

So I want to reiterate my interest, and I know we've talked about this before, Director, in working with PSRC to consider what it would take to create a regional growth center in the Rain Beach area.

I know that is for a future discussion, but the need to increase access to economic opportunities, to job centers, to small business development, the need to create that kind of an ecosystem in this area that is at high risk for displacement so that folks have access to good paying jobs is really critical.

Getting to your department, in 2024, we provided funding for a strategic advisor to work on the DAP.

And I'm wondering if you can say if there is funding provided for that position in 2025.

SPEAKER_07

So the answer would be yes.

So we have that position as filled.

Tina Martin in our office is filling that position, that SA1 position.

And that, I mean, it's been really great to incorporate him into staff.

And he's actually liaising with the Lit I-5 group and assisting with the coordination of our South Downtown effort and all the things that we're doing, well, our office of residential work as well.

SPEAKER_01

I would be interested to know, and this might be something I put in the SharePoint later, what it would take to provide that kind of assistance, those kinds of activation plan measures for other neighborhood business districts, neighborhood commercial districts.

So that's something that, what does it mean for your staffing capacity and what does it mean for your budget is a question that we have.

We also provided funding for a senior finance analyst for EDI.

Is that something that is going to continue in the next proposal?

SPEAKER_07

Yes.

So we are filling that position as well.

Do you want to speak to that?

SPEAKER_10

We just finished first round interviews this week.

We're very excited to get that position filled.

SPEAKER_01

OK.

So that is going to be something that we'll move forward.

The reason I ask is because we know, especially now as we're doing more evaluation of the program in particular, there's going to be a need for additional support for tracking awards, tracking grant budgets, insurance requirements, prevailing wage, general oversight of the RFP process.

And so is this the person who's going to be managing all of that?

SPEAKER_10

They will be involved in a lot of that.

And we are also working closely with IT to build out some technical systems for better tracking the awards and overall project management lifecycle.

SPEAKER_01

Terrific.

So I do want to talk about your two cuts.

I will say I'm really concerned about this.

You're in the midst of a lot of work around comprehensive planning, around light rail stations, Maritime industrial, like there's a lot happening.

And so I will say I am concerned about the ability of the department to deliver on the work that needs to be done in community and with our planning partners.

The planning commission's ability to fulfill their charter required duty to advise OPCD, to advise us, the council and the mayor is concerning.

I think the position that is being proposed for cut focuses on transportation, sound transit, maritime industrial.

So it's a really critical position and a third of the department's or the commission's staffing So I definitely want to be looking at that more closely to see if there is another way for us to make sure that the critical work that we haven't even started having that discussion in council, and we know that there will be a lot more planning work, comprehensive planning work for us to do well past June, which is as far as we've been scheduling right now, but the work continues.

And so the need for these positions continues.

So I'll leave it at that.

I do have one particular question, and it might have just been a typo.

But on slide seven, where you're talking about the supplemental EIS, it says that there's 350,000 proposed for that work.

But in the BIP, in the narrative section of the BIP, it says that 31 million has been allocated for this.

And so I'm trying to understand that very large discrepancy.

SPEAKER_07

That sounds like a typo.

350,000 is the right number.

SPEAKER_01

OK, because it does spell out the words million, 31 million.

So maybe we can follow up and just make sure we know what we're talking about with that.

OK, thank you.

SPEAKER_07

That would be a good thing for us to follow up on, yes.

SPEAKER_01

And then just related to the EIS, can you talk about what the, well, you talked a little bit about the timeline for that.

But given that...

you know, there are at least some state requirements that have to pass by May next year.

Can you just talk a little bit about the timing of that and whether it will be impacted by the other deadlines we have?

SPEAKER_07

Our intent is that we're providing the final EIS and final mayor's plan at the beginning of December, and that that would then provide the council the following almost six months to consider changes to elements, obviously the final growth strategy, as well as consideration of our zoning implementation maps.

And the legislation is broken out into phases.

So the phase one legislation that we would be providing, I believe at the end of March, would be related very specifically to HB 1110 so we can make sure that we meet that deadline.

Also in consideration of state deadlines, our assumption is that given that six-month period, that that gives the council enough time for getting familiar, making amendments that you want to make, voting on adoption by the end of May, so that then the mayor would be signing legislation in June, and that would meet our deadline.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

I have a long list of other questions, but I think I will save them for the SharePoint and pass it back to the chair.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Other colleagues, do you have questions, comments, concerns?

Council Member Sopkin.

I saw you that time.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You know I'm a curious mind, so I generally always have a question, but I guess first off, comment.

I hear a lot of great discussion with my esteemed colleagues here on grocery stores, and so Councilmember Morales and Councilmembers Morales and Hollingsworth from earlier.

It's not the first time you've heard discussion of grocery stores at this dais.

But I think we all understand, I love grocery stores, and I think principles of fairness, equity, and thoughtful planning require us to thoughtfully consider where grocery stores are and as we grow and how it intersects with our land use policy and our transportation policy, by the way, as well.

But one of my goals for, as I approach the comp planning process as to be shepherded by a chair over here.

I want to make sure that we end some notable food deserts in my district, District 1. So there's Georgetown, and there's, of course, South Park, so basically all the Duwamish Valley.

Delridge, particularly in North Delridge.

Not saying we're going to deliver a grocery store to all those areas, but I do want to better address that.

because we have a unique opportunity and that's just my dish that's just what i know about my district no doubt colleagues across our districts there's an opportunity to do exactly that i also heard um this notion of uh smaller scale grocery stores yes i 100 support smaller scale grocery stores and including co-ops as an option to do that um but i have always said we'll we'll continue to say you know we're not going to bodega our way out of this either uh and smaller-scale, less-resourced grocery stores, we need a range of options, and potentially including kind of mid-sized grocery stores as well.

We know that smaller-scale grocery stores don't always have the hours, the predictable hours or later hours that many workers who work various hours need to go to the grocery store at midnight for whatever reason.

So in any event, I support a range of options as we approach that.

But So that was a comment.

My question pertains to the comp plan process and outreach and engagement efforts.

So as we know, some groups and constituents did not hear about your community engagement sessions and the collective community outreach and engagement efforts.

THIS MOST RECENT ROUND, AND I REALLY, REALLY DO APPRECIATE YOU ALL WENT ABOVE AND BEYOND AND HELD AN ADDITIONAL LARGER SESSION FOR EACH DISTRICT, AND I APPRECIATE, I THINK MINE WAS FIRST, BUT WE HAD TWO ADDITIONAL ONES FROM MY OWN DISTRICT, BUT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT in these important strategic efforts is really, really important.

As we all know, understanding the pulse of the community and people's reactions up front can really save a lot of downstream cleanup and remediations.

And so that's why very, very critically important.

How are you, director, confident that you are prepared and prepared to ensure that as you continue this next round of engagement and outreach, you are resourced, you are adequately resourced.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you for the question.

So we have been deep in planning for the next phase of community engagement, which, as I mentioned before, will start in mid-October.

And it's been great being able to work with the mayor's office related to, like, what does that plan look like?

And how is it addressing multiple needs?

So you should expect that we will again do a information session face to face for each of your districts.

And that in addition to that, we will do an online engagement so that people, as they're looking at draft zoning implementation maps and they're looking at what's happening in their neighborhood, that they really do have the ability to call, planner, because everybody loves talking to planners.

They can call a planner and get more detailed information and answer their questions that's specific to their neighborhood.

I think that we are The plan that we have laid out over the months of mid-October through mid-December, we are well-resourced for.

We also have, as a partner, Department of Neighborhoods, who is going to help us both canvas neighborhoods, get the word out, and then also help us staff what we think are gonna be larger volumes of people coming to the open houses themselves.

I also really appreciate the collaboration with each of your offices related to identification of who are organizations and leaders that we need to make sure that we get information to in your neighborhood so that we can make sure that either they get the online information that's available, email information that they need.

We can get people to open houses as appropriate or get them information to be able to, like, enter into one of those virtual sessions for conversations.

So we do want to make sure that we don't leave anyone behind.

So, again, I appreciate the question.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

I appreciate your answer there.

And maybe well-resourced isn't the best...

term, maybe appropriately resourced to meet the needs is appropriate this year more than ever.

But yeah, like.

Not going to reach 100% of the people 100% of the time, but there is a bare minimum bar in Seattle of excellence in a standard that we need to hit.

In Seattle, it's a very, very high bar.

So I just want to make sure you all are appropriately resourced because very, very important.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07

Would it be acceptable for me to address your issue of grocery stores as well?

The only thing I would like to say is that, you know, beyond, you know, there's different planning tools for different levels of engagement.

And so the comprehensive plan will certainly address a certain level of intentionality related to what we do as a city.

I think that beyond that, though, so we are looking at hiring a community planning manager before the end of the year.

And once we have that person in-house laying out in 2025 and Council Member Morales, kind of made a nod in this direction, what is the work beyond June that we need to take into consideration beyond adoption of the growth management strategy and new comp plan elements?

I think that thinking about what is the impact of legislation related to corner stores, how does that actually get implemented in our neighborhoods?

I think looking at what does neighborhood planning look like in each of your districts and what are those needs, including food deserts?

And then what is the scale of implementation from small corner stores to medium-sized stores?

You know, we just saw PCC.

They're going to come back into downtown, but they're going to come in a smaller size.

How do we set ourselves up so that for every district we can solve the food desert problem that we are seeing where there are those problems and we can work with the development community to And our, like, grocers, be they mom-and-pop stores or big Kroger deliverers, how can we make sure that our citizens get what they need?

So I'm very excited to, like, dive into that work next year.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Good questions right there.

Vice Chair Rivera, Council President Nelson, and then Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for the presentation.

On the comp plan, it seems to be a lot of food discussion today because I too have concerns about some food deserts, particularly when we're building housing where there wasn't housing before.

And I have in mind in the district, Magnuson Park, where we have or see housing and solid ground housing and they need access to a grocery store, small or big, however, whatever is feasible is what is needed.

And so I too want to know how that will be incorporated into the comp plan and how you will reach out to communities that aren't part of the conversation.

I'd love to...

hear more about that.

And so that's more a comment on the comp plan and what is needed.

My question about the comp plan that may or may not be budget-related, but since comp plan is the huge piece of what OPCD does, it's like your main mission, is as we're going into this next phase, I heard a lot from constituents on these sessions, there was not enough information and the maps were not exactly helpful.

And I'm afraid that we are especially as we're incorporating HB 1110, that we're not giving folks a real flavor of what things could really look like.

And so are you going to be, you know, what are you going to be doing in that space, I guess?

And do you have resources within your budget to be able to do that in a way that's helpful to constituents?

SPEAKER_07

No, that's a great question.

So I heard that as well.

And I think that you know, our common response had been that we just, we weren't there yet.

And we are there now.

So we have literally block-by-block zoning, draft zoning implementation maps so that when we come out into community in this next information sessions, people can see what the literal impacts are, like...

what blocks are being rezoned, upzoned, what's the flavor, if you will, of the upzone, three stories, four stories, and then also ask for clarifications related to what the change may look like for them.

I also think that it's important to note that transition is challenging, and what I mean by that is from a built environment standpoint, when I think about neighborhood centers, we know that the neighborhood centers that we've identified for growth, that there's already an existing commercial center, an existing mom and pop shop, storefronts, where we want to capitalize on those existing investments and encourage there to be more density in those areas.

And I just want to acknowledge that that may mean that First of all, that change will be slow and incremental.

And so just trying to think about how that hits community and what that looks like, I think it's going to be an important part of the discussion as well.

SPEAKER_14

Yes, thank you.

I appreciate that, Director.

And then a comment on I want to thank you for having the report on EDI on time.

I actually did read it.

because this is something you and I have talked about, I care deeply about.

And I have to admit, it was a bit light on the status report, if you will, but I will also say you and I talked.

And I know that you will be working further to provide further details on status report.

And more importantly, how are we gonna get these projects to completion?

Because they're not impactful if we actually don't complete them.

And then you and I also shared that I had the pleasure of meeting with some of the awardees and they shared some really helpful feedback, which I shared with you, and one which I thought I heard about very clearly was convenings of all the awardees, and so I hope that that will be part of your plan, because again, a lot of these projects need more than just what the city's providing, and I've heard talking to each other, which is something that had happened when the program was smaller was really helpful to the awardees and I think that's important as well as what are the opportunities for private public partnership to make sure that these projects also get to completion because we know that the funding alone that the city is providing may not necessarily be what is needed and are we you know, not tapping a resource, if you will.

And something I appreciated about the budget is knowing that you are going to be looking at how to get one of the main focuses now is how how to get the projects to completion.

And so I appreciated that, that you have baked into the current budget.

So I look forward to hearing more.

Like I said, these projects are important and they are not helpful if they don't get completed.

So appreciate that that's gonna be the focus and the next biennium for you all.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you for that.

And thank you for diving into the report, even though you've got plenty of other things on your plate at the moment.

Just as it relates to completion of projects, it was very encouraging for those that haven't been able to see it yet.

You'll see on page 32 of the report a graph that talks about expected completion dates for upcoming projects, so we're expecting that an additional 40% of our project complement will actually be done by the end of this year.

These are estimates, so, like, you know, I know that, like, as a former architect myself, there's what we project, and then there's what actually happens.

So just even as a projection, it's nice to see that there's a high number there.

I would also say, and you'll see this on page 62 of the report, part of the survey asked the question, What are your money sources?

Who are you talking with?

What are you expecting from the city?

And I think that if you look at the total complement of projects that are still in process, the 66 that are not yet completed, they anticipate over $590 million in order to complete all of those projected projects.

But the total that they are looking to the city for, that they anticipate looking to the city for looks more like just $70 million of that almost 600. Why that's encouraging to me is it means that for all of them that are looking at their capital stack and their performance, they are looking for those partnerships.

I do think that for us, in order to ensure that the program is successful, we want to do our part to help there.

That's part of the feedback that we have gotten as well.

How can we help ensure that they get to the finish line?

SPEAKER_14

Exactly, and you and I have talked about that for a long time now.

It's how do we help these projects get to completion.

And I will say, colleagues, for those of you that haven't had the opportunity, the 60 of the 77 projects were surveyed for with various questions, including, you know, where they were in the process and who they've been working and reaching out to.

So, again, I'm encouraged that you are taking the time now to dig deeper with those projects to help them where they need the technical assistance and other areas to really match them up, if you will, and really get those projects further along.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Director Carandongo.

Council President Nelson and Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_12

I have three easy questions, so I'll just say them all at once, and then you can just answer them.

Number one, your total appropriation from 2024 to 2025 increases by 2.1 million, but EDI only increases 1.6.

And then in your presentation, you talked about a lot of reductions.

So what makes up the additional 0.5 million increase?

SPEAKER_07

So I'm going to look to Melissa to help me here, but I believe that a part of that may be from our other sources.

So are you just talking about general fund dollars?

SPEAKER_12

I was looking at your total appropriations.

SPEAKER_10

Councilmember, you're looking at the total budget going from $35.8 million in 2024 adopted and then the jump to 2025 proposed?

Yes.

Much of that is going to be due to city central costs, so cost of living adjustments and also the central allocations like HR and IT and FAS.

SPEAKER_12

That makes sense.

Okay, got that.

Your EDI receives two sources of funding, payroll expense tax and short-term rental tax.

The short-term rental tax, the amount for 2024, 2025, and 2026 is identical.

It's $5,134,948.

Why doesn't that number fluctuate?

Is it set that that's what you get and then the rest of short-term rental tax goes someplace else?

that amount fluctuates every year.

SPEAKER_10

This number for OPCD does not represent the entirety of the short-term rental tax fund.

OPCD gets an allocation of the five million which we put towards the EDI RFP, and then the 134,948 is also an EDI program for administration, so things like board stipends, convening for the commission, et cetera.

SPEAKER_12

So somebody said that you get a flat amount and that's what you get and then...

Right, correct.

SPEAKER_10

It's all non-labor.

There's no labor in that number.

SPEAKER_12

All right.

Thank you.

And then finally, you started your presentation talking about light rail and coordination.

So is OPCD the lead agency that's coordinating Metro, light rail, City of Seattle, WASHDOT, SDOT, et cetera?

Is that why you mentioned that?

SPEAKER_07

So I would say that we are not the lead agency.

I would say that we provide a strong support to SDOT.

As it relates specifically to South Downtown, we are taking the lead related to SDOT.

looking at the myriad of, call it a dozen projects that are happening in South Downtown specifically, but more generally related to our station area planning.

SDOT is in the lead and then we have regular coordination meetings that are internal to the city between SDOT and OPCD regarding station area considerations.

And then obviously are a part of other coordination meetings with Sound Transit staff where we're at the table, if you will.

I mean, to provide our planning expertise and to communicate what our conversations have been in community related to potential opportunities and impacts.

SPEAKER_12

Okay.

Is City Light part of that conversation as well?

SPEAKER_07

NOT AS A REGULAR MEETING, BUT I WOULD SAY ON AN AS NEEDED PERIODIC BASIS, IF THAT MAKES SENSE.

AND CERTAINLY THERE ARE LOTS OF IMPACTS THAT SEATTLE CITY LIGHT IS AT THE TABLE FOR.

SPEAKER_12

OKAY.

THANK YOU.

SPEAKER_06

THANK YOU, COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

SPEAKER_15

COUNCILMAN MCKOWN.

THANK YOU, CHAIR STRAUSS.

THANK YOU, DIRECTOR, FOR COMING.

Everybody that's remaining at the table, too, including our CBO and central staff leads, thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation.

I have not looked at the EDI report yet, but will.

And I appreciate, you know, getting more into that and then understanding, you know, per Councilmember Rivera's points.

And I think it's important to build that community as you're looking to do there at OPCD.

I also appreciate the downtown activation plan work with OED.

Very important as we were talking earlier about meshing all these different pieces together, which are very favorable in other areas too, i.e. public safety.

And the last thing for the comp plan, we had our discussion regarding downtown.

You know, obviously things are changing, obviously with the push for commercial to residential.

I just want to let you know that we now have a downtown community council for a voice for the residents, which is now part of our district seven neighborhood council, the council of councils, if you will.

And so we'll be looking to get these pieces in and the block by block is going to be very important to look at for the overall district seven.

And as noted before, interested in, and ideas related to the COMP plan, including neighborhood centers, which I always think would be better as skinny rectangles versus circular circles.

But I'll leave that for a follow-on discussion.

SPEAKER_07

And once the zoning implementation, the draft zoning implementation maps come out, you will see them as complex, orthogonal creatures, no longer circles.

SPEAKER_15

I appreciate that.

I think that's a step forward.

All right.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, anything else?

I'll walk through a couple of my reflections.

And this is department agnostic.

So for every department that is having position reductions, I'm going to be taking a pretty close look at this to make sure that the core functionality is able to be retained.

Both the Planning Commission and the Design Commission, our commission's that I rely on.

I rely on for their professional expertise regarding projects from alley vacations to sound transit, from the art that is in our city to how, whether, and again, two different commissions, one does planning, one does design.

I rely on them both.

Regarding light rail, it was mentioned that it's coming to Seattle for the West Seattle and the Ballard extensions.

These two extensions are completely within the city of Seattle.

Sound Transit is a regional transit system, three county wide, but these next additions will be just in our city.

It has been mentioned during Office of Economic Development presentation that private business drives B&O sales tax, other tax generation that comes to us.

These are facts as well as mega projects such as the convention center and the waterfront and soon to be light rail will do the very same for us.

We saw great, we were able to receive a fair amount of sales tax from both the waterfront and the convention centers.

I do have some questions.

I did notice the Duwamish Valley Coordinator, this is not a position that is being cut, rather that it is being transferred to SPU.

Is this still gonna be general fund or are we moving this to rate payer funds?

Is this part of the settlement?

Is this a question you need to get back to me at?

And that's totally acceptable response.

SPEAKER_10

Council Member, are you referencing the Duwamish Valley Coordinator position with an OPCD being transferred to SPU?

SPEAKER_06

I am reading on page 293, the Duwamish Valley Coordinator.

SPEAKER_10

Yes.

That position was transferred in the Medeiros Supplemental Legislation for 2024. It was general funded in OPCD, but it had a sunset date on it at the end of this year.

SP will be picking it up, I believe, with repair funds, yes.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, thank you.

I DO APPRECIATE THAT THE POSSESSIONS THAT HAD SUNSET DATES ON THEM HAVING BEEN EXTENDED DEPENDENT UPON THEIR PROJECTS.

AS WELL AS I'M JUST GOING TO REPEAT BACK WHAT I THINK THAT I HEARD FROM YOU IS THAT YOUR DRAFT EIS FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN NEEDED ADDITIONAL WORK.

as determined by your office and the mayor's office.

And that is why there's funding in here for a supplemental EIS to add on to that work.

Is that a correct understanding?

SPEAKER_07

That is correct.

SPEAKER_06

I support that.

Thank you.

And then noting, you mentioned that Ballard will be designated as a regional center.

I believe that I did get a yes, no response from one Mr. Michael Hubner on this.

And the answer was yes, that Ballard already has the zoning that could be be designated for a regional the center, the difference is that by being designated as a regional center, we have access to additional grant funding through PSRC.

So even if we don't change the zoning in Ballard, this simple designation would be able to bring us more grant funding.

Is that a correct understanding?

That is correct, sir.

Fantastic.

And then as I'm looking at the 2019 to 2024 budget summary on page 137 of 224, NOTING THAT IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS, YOU HAVE HAD CONSIDERABLE GROWTH IN YOUR DEPARTMENT, IF YOU JUST LOOK AT THE PERCENTAGES.

WHEN I'M LOOKING AT THESE BAR CHARTS, IT IS ALMOST ENTIRELY IN EDI, EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE, AND I JUST WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I THINK THAT THAT IS A GOOD USE OF FUNDING.

EDI IS A PROGRAM THAT DOES PREVENT DISPLACEMENT AND CREATES CULTURAL GATHERING SPACES.

I think no question there, just a statement.

Those are all of my notes for you today.

Is there anything else that you'd like to share with us before I turn it back to the chair of your committee?

SPEAKER_07

I just want to say thank you to all of you.

I appreciate the hard work that each of your offices has to do and that you have to do to see all of this work forward.

And I know that all of your plates are very full.

Really appreciate being able to come to you today to talk about the work that we do at OPCD.

We're very excited to try to, you know, lift up the mayor's vision for a growing city and the needs of all of our residents.

Very excited for the conversations about comprehensive plan that are forthcoming, both with community and with all of you.

And, you know, I just wanna say, for me, like if there are questions that you have about any of the work that we do, like I, I really want to be able to be responsive to all of you.

Uh, and really this is the work that gets me out of bed every morning.

So like, uh, yeah, just very honored to be able to be a part of it with all of you.

SPEAKER_06

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01

Councilman Morales, anything to close this out?

I will just say thank you to all the people for all the things.

I think, you know, this is exciting for me.

I think the comp plan discussion, the work that this department does, really is...

The implementation of our values as a city, it is how we will meet our goals around housing, around job growth, around making neighborhoods thrive, around providing parks for our young people and community centers.

the work these departments do, that is how we manifest the things that are important to us as council members and as city leaders and as people who really want what's best for our neighbors.

So I'm looking forward to the conversations and I really hope that my colleagues take you up on your offer to be a thought partner with them when it comes to the things that their neighborhoods and their districts Could be so thank you very much.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you Thank you We're gonna transition now to the fourth and last item on the agenda today clerk We read this short title into the record and we can come on up as everyone's transitioning here agenda item for Seattle Department of construction and inspections Thank You Jody clerk clerk Jody Our next item is Seattle Department of Construction Inspections.

We have Director Nathan Torgelson, Shane Muchau, Dan Eder, Ben Noble, and a few others in the crowd, but doesn't look like you're at the table.

You're here for additional support as needed.

As Director Torgelson and Shane sit down, please introduce yourselves.

Looks like your presentation's already up and running, so I'm gonna turn it over to you to take it away.

SPEAKER_02

Good afternoon, council members.

Nathan Torgelson, director of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

SPEAKER_05

Shane Mukav, I am the finance director for SDCI.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

I also just want to introduce Jeff Talent, who is in the audience, who is our rental program manager, and also Scott Domanski from SDCI, who is our staff economist.

Both of them have a lot of expertise.

So first of all, good afternoon, council members.

I'm really excited to present before you today and very appropriate for us to go right after the Office of Planning and Community Development.

Much of the vision in the comprehensive plan, as you know, is implemented by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

So Mayor Harrell's priorities for SDCI are for us to continue to focus on our core services.

We will continue to improve the customer journey through our permitting process.

As you know, our permitting process is quite complex, and our goal is to always provide a better customer experience.

We have gone through organizational redesign to address this issue.

We have a new customer success and pre-application support team through the consolidation of some of our work groups.

And one of the key goals of this new division is to help infrequent customers.

Again, we have a lot of very sophisticated applicants who bring many permits through our department, but we also have one-time applicants or applicants that just come in a couple times.

And one of our key goals through this redesign is to help those people get through our process.

we are also improving collaboration communication and our processes by Merging our land use and engineering services division into one division This was one of the key recommendations that came out of the permitting audit that councilmember Strauss helped orchestrate back in October of 2023 and we're proud of these changes and are really confident that both of these organizational changes are going to help us provide better customer service for everyone.

So, STCI's vision is to set the standard for awesome local government service.

Our purpose is to help people build a safe, livable, and inclusive Seattle.

And our values, which we take very seriously, are equity, respect, quality, integrity, and service.

And STCI's work FALLS PRIMARILY INTO TWO COUNCIL COMMITTEES.

SO THE LAND USE COMMITTEE CHAIRED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MORALES AND THE HOUSING AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MOORE.

I WANTED TO THANK BOTH OF YOU FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP AND FOR REALLY DIVING INTO OUR ISSUES AND UNDERSTANDING WHAT OUR DEPARTMENT DOES.

WE ALSO WANT TO THANK YOUR STAFF AND COUNCIL CENTRAL STAFF who have spent a large amount of time providing support to your committees.

That's super helpful for us.

I also want to thank Councilmember Strauss as chair of the Budget Committee and obviously a previous chair of the Land Use Committee.

So SCCI has a somewhat unique funding structure.

91% of our fees are permit fees.

Again, I want to repeat that.

91% of our budget is covered by permit fees.

So that's a huge percentage.

And 9% of our budget, again, 9% of our budget is from general fund.

SDCI must demonstrate that its fees are set to recover no more than the cost of related services, and state law restricts us from the use of permit fees to pay for other government services.

In other words, a lot of the money in permit fees that's generated by our department can't be used for other government services.

STCI has realigned some of our work.

We have shifted some of our general fund money to permit fees, and you'll hear about that later on as part of our presentation.

But if you look at the chart below as part of our budget, you will see that in 2024, $105 million was covered by permit fees, $455,000 by the payroll expense tax fund, and about $11 million in general fund.

482 FTEs, and you will see the changes for 2025 and 2026 as part of the mayor's budget going forward.

A fairly large decrease to our general fund budget and an increase in the payroll expense tax fund, which we'll talk about in a future slide.

SPEAKER_05

All right.

I will cover probably our largest notable reduction right-sizing staffing in response to permits.

We have experienced a dramatic reduction in master use permits.

SPEAKER_06

Excuse me, Shane, can you pull just a little closer to you?

SPEAKER_05

Closer?

Sure.

Thank you.

Sounds good to me, but I guess it goes to you.

So we have experienced a dramatic reduction in master use permits since 2019. Permit timelines will not be affected, essentially, because the staff reduction PERMIT TIMELINES WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THE STAFF REDUCTIONS BECAUSE FEWER PROJECTS WILL REQUIRE A MASTER USE PERMIT AND THE RETAINED STAFF WILL BE SUFFICIENT TO REVIEW THE ANTICIPATED PERMIT VOLUMES.

Due to these economic pressures on permit revenue, SDCI is eliminating 20 FTE sunset positions at the end of this year.

They were scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, so we're moving this up by a year.

And we are also eliminating the funding for nine FTE regular positions, but we're retaining the pockets.

so that the main goal of that is so that we can ramp up quickly in the future if volumes return and revenues return.

We will have those pockets ready to go, and we can actually utilize something that we have called contingent budget authority.

We also call it CBA, but I know you have Council Budget Action CBA, so I don't want to get you confused with that, but we have continuous budget authority...

CONTINGENT BUDGET AUTHORITY THAT WE CAN USE VERY QUICKLY FOR STAFFING UP.

THESE ARE ALL LAND USE POSITIONS THAT ARE FUNDED BY PERMIT FEES.

SPEAKER_02

So the contingent budget authority gives our department a lot of flexibility.

We know the economy will come back.

And in the past, we had to go to council to ask for additional position authority, and then we had to advertise, and then we had to interview, and we were way behind.

So with a contingent budget authority, when the economy does come back, which it will, we can immediately go into the hiring process, which is a great benefit.

And then also just wanted to remind council members that permits, these tend to be the discretionary permits that we review.

So this is SEPA review, rezones, conditional uses, and design review is often incorporated into those projects.

SPEAKER_09

And if you don't mind me jumping in, I don't know if you were about to cover this, but maybe you could talk about the reasons that we're finding that there's less permit work to do and there's less permit fees coming in.

I'd be happy to talk about it or leave it to you if you'd prefer.

I'm going to jump in.

SPEAKER_02

Well, one of the major reasons why we're seeing fewer permits come in is just the state of the economy, and interest rates are actually obviously a lot higher than they were several years ago.

There have also been state actions and city actions that have eliminated SEPA review and design review for certain projects, so that's another reason.

SPEAKER_99

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, move on to the next slide.

OK, so this tells the story.

We're going to look at three slides here.

The first is master use permit applications.

The second is construction permit applications.

And the last one is to show our plan review backlog.

So this is the master use permit applications.

On the left is the intake volume by master permit type.

And the green lines are primarily design review and SEPA.

The blue is everything else, rezones, conditional uses, variances, short plats.

And the slide on the right is the fees invoiced by master use permit type.

Again, the green is SEPA and design review and the blue is everything else.

Design review and SEPA require more complexity and more hours and generate more fee revenue.

SPEAKER_02

So again, the chart on the left is the number of permits and the chart on the right is the fees that we have collected.

SPEAKER_05

OK, let's go on to the next one.

Construction permit applications.

So construction permit application volumes have begun to rebound in 2024. However, the project types are less complex with lower project value and lower fee revenue as a result.

On the left is the construction permit application volume, which you can see from the last downturn in 2009 and 10 increases to a peak in 2017 and then it's receipts from there.

But we do see a bump up in 2024. The chart on the right is the construction permit project valuation.

The numbers on the left are in billions.

And there are a couple of spikes that you see here, one in 2016 and one in 2020. And those are because those were some kind of major technical code changes that happened at that time, and there was a vesting rush that drove those large projects.

So right now the the volumes are still here and they're they're lower than they have been but it's the project valuation It's the large complex projects that we are not seeing right now and that really Hurts the revenue that we bring in So we're still seeing a fair number of cranes on our skyline, but obviously those permits were processed a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02

I

SPEAKER_05

And this is the SDCI.

This is plan review backlog.

Throughout 2024, the number of projects under review by SDCI has been hovering around a five-year low.

Permitting timelines have stabilized or improved during this timeframe.

The chart on the left is the projects under review.

The dark blue is the initial plan review.

And the light blue shows the correction plan cycle.

And that's been at a five-year low over the last year, year and a half.

The chart on the right is construction permit intake issuance time.

This is the average days in SDCI's possession, so it does not include the customer's day of possession.

For the complex permits, the dark blue is...

is held pretty steady around 180 days.

The light blue or medium blue is simple to medium projects and those have, the days of STCI possession have decreased since 2021. Moving on, we have another notable reduction in terms of budget, the transfer of the side sewer program back to SPU.

In 2003, SPU, Seattle Public Utilities, delegated authority of the side sewer code to SDCI, and we've been managing that since 2003. SPU requested to transition the side sewer program back to SPU.

And in order to do that, they have their own budget request with some positions that they're asking for.

But as part of this, we are transferring 10 FTEs from SDCI over to SPU.

And these are in five site review inspectors from the inspection services and some permit reviewers from our land use and engineering services.

So the FTE transfer at the bottom of the table is not a reduction of city staff.

It's just a transfer from STCI to SPU.

All right.

SPEAKER_09

I apologize.

We may have had a mismatch of the right presentation.

We're missing a couple of slides.

Oh, it is there.

Okay, very good.

SPEAKER_01

We got a new version sent out at lunch.

I see.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

So this slide has to do with STCI's tenant services budget and contracts.

And the next slide after this will show other city departments and state money that also services and provides support to tenants.

So STCI, as part of the budget, is maintaining $1.76 million to support tenants.

And this includes $527,000 for rental assistance.

This does reduce the ongoing investment by $811,000.

But again, the next slide will talk about how the state...

And there are other resources to help tenants.

I also just want to point out that during the pandemic, the mayor at the time and the council added significant resources to help tenants during that difficult time period.

So yet another reason for the increase.

This budget provision removes the general fund appropriation and shifts the remaining appropriation to the payroll expense tax.

So I just wanted to point that out.

SPEAKER_09

So I wanted to set the last slide that Director Troglason was just talking about in the context of what else is happening in the rest of the budget in other departments besides SDCI.

Director Torkelson talked to you about what's happening with $1.7 billion ongoing, including $500,000-plus of rental assistance included in the budget.

For the same purposes, and...

Other departments are also making investments, so I thought that's an important bit of context.

HSD's homelessness prevention includes about $4.6 million for similar purposes.

We, through HSD, contract with the partner agencies that you see on this slide.

Too numerous to read all of them, but the uses for rent and utility arrears perspective rent and security deposits and some case management, similar to the work that's happening in SDCI.

In the Office of Housing, there was $6.5 million provided one time in 2024. We will not be able to get all of that $6.5 million out the door and expect to carry forward some portion amount to be determined into 2025 for similar purposes, supporting rental assistance and addressing rent arrears.

And finally, during the overview presentation, I indicated that one of the questions that Mayor Harrell challenged all the departments and CBO to look at is how does the city's work intersect with the work of other governments?

And the last bullet describes some work that the state has recently begun doing in the last couple of years to provide support for eviction defense.

And they provide about $4 million in total to King County, not all of which is available to the city.

Of course, it's a big county, but that is outside the city context as well.

So I wanted to make sure that I provided that kind of fuller view.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Okay.

And a notable addition is our enterprise content management upgrade and migration.

This is driven by Seattle IT.

It includes other departments as well as ours.

The current infrastructure for the electronic content management is not going to be supported after December 2026. So Seattle IT wanted to get a start on on upgrading this.

And the electronic content management, I believe, has approximately 25 terabytes of documents from SDCI.

It's primarily from Accela.

It's all the plan reviews.

It's just everything that we process.

So it's an important piece of our work and important to get upgraded.

Another notable addition, every year we propose fee legislation, and this is for the 2025 and 2026 years since it's a biennial budget.

Our proposed fee revisions include inflationary adjustments of 6.5% in both 2025 and 2026 to keep up with the cost of doing business.

And the legislation also includes an increase in value-based building development plan review and permit fees in 2025. It also includes increases to inspection certificate fees for boiler, pressure vessel, and elevator equipment beyond the 6.5% in 2025 and 2026. And then there are some other revenue-neutral technical and language changes that are always included.

SPEAKER_02

I just want to add that the workload for boilers and pressure vessels and elevators increases every year, which is one of the reasons why we're increasing the fees, because we do annual inspections on those devices.

Safety of those devices is paramount.

And also, any new construction is going to have inspections in those areas as well.

And we have not increased fees among those periodic inspections since 2003. That concludes our presentation, and we are happy to entertain questions and really appreciate your attention to our department.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

I'm going to turn it over to the land use chair, Councilmember Tammy Morales.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you very much.

Thanks for being here and sharing all of this with us.

As Nathan mentioned at the beginning, OPCD updates our land use code to align with our policy goals, but it's SDCI that really administers those codes through our permitting.

And so it's important that we make sure.

the two are working well together and that both are equally well resourced.

So I do want to take a moment to thank you for your work to constantly improve the customer service experience.

As you mentioned, we had the audit come out last year and we took a quick look at the kiosk that is in SMT as an attempt to make sure that there is an actual person because some people, as you said, want to talk to an actual person.

when they're trying to understand what is required of them in their projects.

So thank you for moving in that direction.

That being said, after looking at the budget here that is being proposed, I do have some concerns.

STCI serves a really important function in the city.

This proposal is making significant cuts to staff.

And we know that there is currently a backlog of compliance complaints.

So these staffing cuts could negatively impact SDCI's ability to get through them, never mind any future complaints that we might be receiving.

This is one of the few departments that is self-funded.

As Director Torgelson mentioned, less than 10% of SDCI's budget is funded by the general fund.

And the general fund primarily funds activities that can't be supported by fee revenue, like investigations related to complaints of code violations, some new development of regulations, and in the last several years has also funded tenant services grants and contracts, which similarly can't be funded through fee revenue.

As I'm reviewing this proposal, if we want SDCI to be able to carry out their work, we need to fund their staff and their programs because we can't constantly be critiquing the inability to meet goals without providing the sufficient funding to carry out those goals.

So I do want to make sure we are very thoughtful as we go through this.

So, I will get to my questions, and if we could go to slide three.

I do want to talk a little bit about this permit—master use permit issue.

Oh, did I just get out of line in my slides?

So, we know that you're abrogating 20—the proposal is to abrogate 20 positions.

We know they're sunsetting early, but there's this assumption that there will be fewer MUP reviews because of changes to SEPA, because of changes to design review.

But there's two things that I think it's important for us to consider.

One is that we have yet, as a council, to make a policy decision about what a future design review program might look like, and that is work that is just beginning, or how broadly applicable it might be.

And two, it's likely that changes to ADU regulations could increase permit volumes for subdivisions, which would require more staff.

So I know you said that there is this contingent of nine staffers, presumably that is who you would look to if there's an increase here, but if you're talking about two times as many being laid off, I wonder if you can tell us how the council could assess the need, particularly given we haven't seen any design review changes yet.

SPEAKER_02

So, we do have a proposal that will be coming forward next year on reimagined design review program.

Obviously, we do have higher design review thresholds.

coming forward per state legislation and some city ideas about how to move that forward.

We do envision that there will be fewer projects going through design review.

So I think that's one change.

I think with the accessory dwelling units, part of that process is to simplify the permitting process.

We do have some pre-approved plans for detached accessory dwelling units, and we're hoping that some of our applicants will continue to take advantage of that process.

And again, as you mentioned, Council Member Morales, we do have the ability to very quickly hire additional staff.

If we get into a situation where the economy rebounds much quicker than we are anticipated, then we will be in a situation where we will have to come back to council and ask for addition position authority.

SPEAKER_01

Which will delay the whole process, as you mentioned earlier, potentially.

SPEAKER_02

That does take time, but of course we will use those nine positions immediately.

SPEAKER_09

Okay.

Council Member Morales, if I may also step in to help answer your question.

The staff who are part of the reduction in force, are, as I believe Director Torkelson mentioned in his prepared remarks, are doing different bodies of work than some of the work that you talked about is, as the preamble to your question, code compliance and similar type work.

I just wanted for the listening public to draw that distinction.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

Well, we've got something like 9,000 outstanding code compliance issues, so that is, to your point, still a problem.

So looking at slide four, so SCCI's response to the SLI, the report on options for code enforcement staffing models, indicated a need for an additional five staff to achieve 2018 response levels, response times.

So, this budget proposes to reduce compliance staffing by eliminating an unfilled position, for example, in the property owner-tenant assistance group with no new staff being proposed.

So, how does the department propose to address the ongoing backlog in code enforcement complaints?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so we will be coming forward to you with a plan for how we're going to address that.

We do have a big challenge.

We have done a lot more outreach about how to file a co-compliance complaint During the pandemic, we had a lot more people who were working at home, more eyes and ears on the street, which is a good thing.

But the number of code complaints that we have received has gone up dramatically.

So it is a challenge that we are facing.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, which is why I sort of flummoxed at why we're cutting positions in code enforcement and compliance.

So if we are looking at cost recovery for compliance functions, or how successful is cost recovery when there is a sustained notice of violation?

SPEAKER_02

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

SPEAKER_01

How successful?

Yeah, so I'm looking at the, particularly in the tenant complaints, right?

So we have a lot of tenants who are trying to take advantage of their right for habitability in a unit and taking advantage of the landlord-tenant protection, landlord-tenant compliance requirements.

code compliance that is existing.

But we know that there is a backlog of some of those complaints.

And so I'm just trying to understand, what is the right model for making sure that you have the staff you need to be able to clear that backlog so that we have tenants who are living in units that are habitable?

Right.

SPEAKER_02

If I may, could I bring up Jeff Talent?

Sure.

Who administers that program and can help address that question.

Welcome, Jeff Talent.

SPEAKER_06

And Jeff, just as you are joining us, I know many of us up here know you, but could you introduce yourself and your title for the viewing public?

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

Jeff Talent, rental programs manager for SDCI and also one of the managers in our code compliance division.

SPEAKER_06

And that division is the property owner tenant assistance group or something different?

SPEAKER_03

We have code compliance division.

We have property owner and tenant assistance as a group within that division.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

So, I mean, the question was, is there a way, I guess, for some sort of fee-supported or something like that to support co-compliance functions?

So, as was noted earlier, our work needs to be funded by general fund, or at least can't be funded by permit fees, so that seems like a pretty hard line in state law.

Otherwise, we don't generate revenue.

We do assess fines and penalties.

Those tip not entirely, but mostly go into the general fund or into like an abatement account to support some of the other compliance-related activities.

They don't go to staffing.

And they'd also be a very variable revenue source, right?

Counting on penalties to support staff would be a real challenge for us.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so we're losing staff, but we have an increasing number of issues that need resolution, is the point I'm trying to make here.

And I think it is dangerous, frankly, for us to be eliminating staff who could help keep tenants in their homes when we have...

an ongoing housing crisis.

So we'll continue to look at that.

The last question I have, in 2024, STCI received $200,000 for a consultant to identify ways to improve the rental registration and inspection enforcement.

So can you tell me if we hired that consultant and what their recommendations were and if this budget addresses those recommendations?

SPEAKER_03

I'm sorry, I'm trying to place this.

You said 2024 we received funding for a consultant?

SPEAKER_05

Is it the 50,000?

SPEAKER_02

Is this for the renters?

Yeah.

Yes, there was a sly for the Renters Commission to appoint stakeholders as part of that process.

And to date, we have not implemented that program.

We have reached out to the Renters Commission to explain this, and we have talked to them.

But to date, we have not implemented that program.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Colleagues, any other questions?

I can jump in if...

I see Council Member Wu, Council Member Moore, Council Member Rivera.

Take it away.

Council Member Wu, you're up first.

SPEAKER_11

Thank you.

So I have two quick questions.

The first one is, I have the old version of the slide deck, but can you talk more about software upgrades or lack of, or there was that one slide that talked about how it would not get upgraded past a certain point in time.

Is there any mitigation efforts?

SPEAKER_05

So the enterprise content management software upgrade is something we weren't aware of until Seattle IT reached out to our department and a few other departments, maybe SDOT and maybe SPU, that the infrastructure, the Oracle ECM software would no longer be supported after a certain date.

at the end of December, end of 2026. And so they need to upgrade that software for us because we have so many documents on there.

We rely on it for software and for documents.

To me, we don't have a lot of choice but to actually do this upgrade.

It's all permit fee funded.

SPEAKER_11

And does that include the conversion of putting everything in a cloud-based software?

SPEAKER_05

I believe it is to cloud-based.

SPEAKER_11

And has that already started, or is that the upgrade?

SPEAKER_05

I believe they're starting in 2025 and continuing it into 2026, because we're paying for it over two years.

SPEAKER_02

And our Accella system has migrated to the cloud, which has pretty dramatically reduced the number of problems that we have had.

SPEAKER_11

That's good to hear.

I heard there.

I saw the number go down.

Also, my second question is, when we look at the staffing in response to permits, some of these positions had, due to the hiring freeze, been unfilled.

But we're looking at sizable layoffs, as Councilmember Morales has stated.

Are there any impacts to these layoffs in terms of permitting times?

SPEAKER_02

So we believe with some of the structural and organizational changes that we've made in our department and the customer success division, that those impacts will be very minimal.

Especially with the additional hand-holding of one-time applicants or infrequent applicants, we feel that that problem will be resolved.

SPEAKER_11

And currently, the people who are in these positions, what are they doing?

SPEAKER_02

they are reviewing permits.

SPEAKER_11

And with these people's jobs being reduced, we feel like that the current timeline of permit reviews will still be able to be staying the same or effective?

Correct.

SPEAKER_02

We have just implemented these organizational changes, so we're excited to see how that works, again, especially for the one-time applicant and for the infrequent applicant.

SPEAKER_09

And if I can jump in, I'm very thankful for the work that STCI has been doing to expedite permits and review their processes.

We fund these staff with permit fees.

The permit fees are not there to continue supporting the employment of those staff.

So consequences could be worse.

And we'd still not have the money to pay for the staff because the permit fees haven't been there at a level sufficient to keep those people employed.

SPEAKER_11

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you very much.

Thank you for the presentation and for adding the portions relating to tenant services.

So I guess I'm kind of confused.

The first thing that I want to say is that in looking at the, I asked for this from central staff, where did it go?

So the city received federal money for rental assistance.

So in 2020, we received $5.2 million, 2021, 18.8 million, 2022, 26 million, and 2023, 5.75 million, and received data from United Way, which manages rental assistance both for the city and the county that currently there are 5,800 Seattle residents on their wait list for rental assistance.

So I just think that the data is quite clear that we need more rental assistance, not less rental assistance.

And so while I appreciate that some has been maintained, I really think that we need to be going big.

And I also think that increasing rental assistance, being able to be more proactive about when we provide it, will also help us on the other end relating to evictions that are generated by people who cannot afford.

So there are a variety of reasons that people are being evicted.

Many of the reasons relate to behavioral health challenges and that we need to address those separately.

Others relate to inability to pay and others relate to a willful refusal to pay for a variety of reasons.

So I do think that we need to be looking at how we can increase rental assistance across the board and perhaps utilizing PET rather than general fund to do that.

I have a question, this is more a structural question than a budget question, but when I look at it, there are three departments that are managing some form of rental assistance, SDCI for evictions, then OH, and then HSD.

And I know you are not, to your knowledge, why is it housed across three departments?

And how efficient is that?

SPEAKER_03

I don't know if I have a precise answer for you.

I think it's mostly an artifact of how the money came and when it came.

So it's hard for me to speak to like HSD, but for them, those were a lot of those federal dollars that came in as part of the pandemic response, and that was a logical department for that to end up with.

FOR SDCI, I THINK THE COUNCIL CHOSE TO GIVE US SOME RENTAL ASSISTANCE MONEY, AND IT WAS PROVISOED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH EVICTION DEFENSE SO THAT EVICTION DEFENSE PROCESS COULD BRING THAT, YOU KNOW, RIGHT INTO THOSE EVICTION HEARINGS AND HEAD OFF IN EVICTION, AND I PRESUME THE NOTION BEHIND THAT WAS BECAUSE WE ALSO WERE FUNDING THE EVICTION DEFENSE PROGRAM.

But we are, I should say, we are in communication.

We talk to each other.

In fact, we loaned one of our staff people during the pandemic to HSD to help with their RENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, SO WE HAVE CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THOSE DEPARTMENTS AND STAY COORDINATED.

I'LL ALSO ADD, AS WE'RE PUTTING TOGETHER OUR CONTRACTS NEXT YEAR FOR TENANT SERVICES, WE'LL BE TALKING WITH HSD AND OH ABOUT WHERE THEIR FUNDING SOURCES ARE AND SORT OF WHAT THE PRIORITIES ARE IN THE COMMUNITY SO WE CAN TAILOR THE GRANTS WE'RE GIVING OUT IN A WAY THAT'S COMPATIBLE WITH THE OTHER PROGRAMS.

SPEAKER_09

I would add that the mayor has recognized that there is both within the city of Seattle but also at King County and the state a labyrinth of different funding sources and programs that are suited to address different ranges of needs.

I think that is helpful on some level because because of the breadth of services offered, but it also can be overwhelming as someone who is just in a sort of a state of acute need and is looking for a one-stop shop to address their needs.

The mayor gave direction for us to pull together such a one-stop shop, which now exists as a corral of information where people can sort of plug in to what their needs are and address those needs, either with the city or with other jurisdictions.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I just think that if we can streamline it and make it a one step for landlords, for tenants, for CBOs, that that would be more efficient.

And if we have one pot of money in one place, it's easier to keep track of how it's working.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

And as a process of facilitation for the departments in which a person chairs in their committee, I'm going to ask that they speak up should they desire to in the middle.

So, Council Member Morales, it sounds like you've got a comment on this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I just want to sort of to the point that Council Member Moore is making.

In 2023, I did put in a CBA for $50,000 to create sort of a landlord and tenant work group that could lead to...

at least do a feasibility analysis of what it would mean to have one office that could do all of this work rather than having sort of disparate departments doing different pieces of it.

Unfortunately, the mayor chose not to spend that money.

It remains unspent and that work remains undone.

So I think it would be a good idea for us to review that decision and really start to understand what we could do to be more effective and efficient in how we assist folks in getting the services that they need.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you.

Thank you.

Going on to Vice Chair Rivera, followed by Council Member Saka, Council President, and Council Member Kittle.

SPEAKER_14

Thank you, Chair.

Actually, my question was going to be the same questions that Council Member Moore raised, so I'll just lend my voice to this.

Just so I understand, in addition to that, just so I understand, the reduction of the $811,000 for the tenant piece, SDCI, does not correlate, it's not increasing in one of these other departments, Dan, it's just, so it is still a reduction of 811,000.

That is a fair characterization.

Okay, great.

I mean, not great, but I'm glad that I can understand it.

I just, this is an area where I feel, and we keep having the conversation, and I know everyone's struggling with it, where we need to have some attention to and obviously a place, whatever makes most sense for a one-stop shop, as we've heard, is really critical because this is a critical need and we need to add to it, not decrease given the housing crisis.

And so however we can get creative in addition to making sure that we are streamlining and making sure you know putting this somewhere where someone has oversight with whatever city department it is they have the complete oversight because I what I have found at the city in my years here is if no one's you know if everyone's in charge nobody's in charge a little bit to a certain extent because if everyone's managing their own piece of it it's just hard to get everyone together and moving in the same direction, as you know.

And then just in terms of the, I had the same questions about the permitting.

I mean, Nathan, I'll say I understand That the 20 positions were sunset, that means they were temporary to begin with.

You're just ending them earlier.

They were supposed to end at the end of next year.

You're ending them earlier.

So they were temporary positions to begin with.

So you're not eliminating positions that weren't permanent.

Correct.

So I understand that piece.

And I understand the fact that departments often get position authority is important because you're able to quickly hire up if you need to versus if you don't have the position authority in your budgets, which sometimes happens where you get the position authority removed.

So basically, these are just positions that are in your department.

They're not funded, so you'll have to figure out how to fund them, but you can scale it up more quickly than having to come to council and ask for budget authority for those positions to begin with.

But nevertheless, and I get there's a color of money issue here because the permitting positions come with the permitting fee or paid for with the permitting fees that are going down.

So that's the issue there.

And then on the code compliance side, you can't use permitting fees and you couldn't even if you wanted to because those fees are going down anyway for code compliance and vice versa.

So I don't know how we correct for that, but there's obviously a need on the code compliance side.

So would love to hear more about your ideas for how to manage that so we don't get further and further

SPEAKER_02

behind on that and given the you know this rental assistance conversation we had a general fund cut reduction as part of our budget process with the executive the vast majority of that was with the contracts for tenants and then we used the additional payroll expense tax that came into the city to help fund those contracts and that's not

SPEAKER_14

for 2025 anticipated?

SPEAKER_99

2025, 2026?

SPEAKER_14

Or it is?

SPEAKER_99

2025.

SPEAKER_14

2026. Oh, you're using pet dollars.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

To backfill.

Oh, okay.

Those contracts, we have a competitive process where various not-for-profits can compete for those dollars.

We haven't issued that RFP yet, but we do that at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_14

Oh, thank you for the clarification.

I didn't quite get that part.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And I guess, first off, thank you all for being here and sharing this presentation with us.

I will start off by saying plus one to the idea of a one-stop shop.

Terrific idea.

My colleagues have already eloquently commented on that, so plus one.

On, if you can turn to slide four, please.

So as part of the consolidation and making sure, you know, the personnel allocations are mapped to existing demand and priorities, what you call right-sizing staffing in response to permits.

So I understand, you know, we talked about that nine FTE positions are going to be eliminated.

But you're going to keep those or retain those positions, billets.

You're going to retain those billets until the economy picks up.

And that will, with the rationale being as I understand it, help us more quickly be able to ramp up to meet the need at a future time once the economy picks back up.

What budget impacts, if any, does that have keeping those billets open?

SPEAKER_02

There should be no budget impact because we are not funding them.

We just have the position authority.

SPEAKER_04

Got it.

And how much additional time, by the way, is that...

I think you mentioned the technical term, the contingent budget authority...

to retain those positions, right?

SPEAKER_05

We have contingent budget authority built into our budget, and the way it works is it's a very quick memo and request justification of what our need is in terms of positions.

We send that memo to CBO, to the budget director, They review, we may meet, they approve right away.

We have the budget authority for that year, so we can just use that contingent budget authority.

We need the positions normally, which is the tricky part, but if we have the nine pockets in our department without the budget, we can use that contingent budget authority right away to ramp up and fill those.

SPEAKER_16

If I could explain a little further.

It's a unique arrangement in the city budget in recognition of the fact that the SDCI is virtually entirely funded by permit fees and that forecasting permit fees is a fool's errand, if you will.

It's very hard to do.

So the idea is that they have budget authority that is contingent upon the actual receipt of revenues, in this case fee revenues.

So if they can essentially certify, if you will, to the budget office that they have received these fee revenues, and they're easy to see in the system, they can then...

increase their ability to spend money.

Otherwise, you are in general, you the council, you grant budget appropriations, you grant the authority to spend.

In the case of SDCI, you have granted, this has been done historically, you've granted them this contingent authority.

Again, if they get the revenues, then they can circumvent the normal process of having to come here in the supplemental to get the budget authority.

Similarly, by leaving the positions vacant, they don't have to come in here and get position authority.

And this is a decision that was made that it is expedient for all.

And your nodding your head makes me think that maybe you agree with that sort of the arrangement.

It is a very unusual one, but you can see, I hope, how it can work and why it has been established so that the city can respond very quickly.

The theory here is there's no meaningful loss of control on the part of the council because it's contingent on those revenues being there, and you would want them to be spent in this way if they came in, and that's exactly this discussion.

But if you want further background, we can provide it, but hopefully that helps.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, no, very helpful.

So thank you all.

Yeah, this definitely strikes me as, I don't know, I know more now than I knew earlier, but it definitely strikes me as something that is a mutually beneficial arrangement and most importantly benefits the taxpaying public.

But also just curious, what is the anticipated time savings as part of this?

So you don't have to take that extra step and come to council for the authority for these positions.

How much time is that realistically going to save?

SPEAKER_02

That's a great question.

SPEAKER_05

Ballpark.

Let's imagine it's January and there's a building boom happening and we're realizing more revenue and we realize that we need to hire up very quickly.

Typically, we would have to wait until the first quarter or whatever we have now, the second quarter supplemental, to request the positions and the budget.

When that gets adopted, August?

SPEAKER_16

I would say it's minimally three months time saving.

It's potentially six.

Okay.

Someone asked a question on the executive side, so I won't own the entire potential delay there.

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

As chair, I'll just jump in to say that that position authority would have to be allowed during the supplemental budget process.

For us, that just ended a couple weeks ago.

So six months.

SPEAKER_16

And just to add to this, we have, in an effort to enforce some level of discipline about supplementals, we've actually, the council and central staff established that we're not going to take up a supplemental every month and take one-off requests.

So part of this is that, and this is, again, That sort of creates some level of delay, and this is the solution in the cases where we need it.

So there's a balance there.

SPEAKER_04

Got it.

Got it.

Thank you.

And final question here.

I've learned as part of this initial diligence process on my end in my office, I've learned a lot, in this case, about vacant building compliance response times.

And so as I understand from our central staff, that it took approximately 99 days on average to resolve a complaint in 2024. You're to date.

compared to 84 days in 2023. And resolution times were 375 days, 24 in this year, year to date, compared to 323 days in 23. So as we know, vacant building violations are still high.

And the city council, we also know, passed emergency legislation to address public safety challenges associated with vacant buildings.

The budget does not propose additional compliance staff for vacant building monitoring on my read.

So just be curious to better understand how will SDCI address the current backlog and improve public safety issues associated with vacant buildings.

SPEAKER_02

So vacant buildings continues to be a huge and increasing challenge in our city.

We do have a very effective vacant buildings team that is comprised of people from the police department, the fire department, SDCI, and the utilities that meet on a quarterly basis to discuss vacant building issues and to go through specific projects.

I will acknowledge that it continues to be a huge challenge FOR OUR CITY, AND I BELIEVE A LOT OF THAT FUNDING AGAIN IS THROUGH CODE COMPLIANCE, SO IT'S GENERAL FUND POSITIONS THAT ARE ADDRESSING THESE ISSUES.

IT'S A CHALLENGE, MR. SACA.

SPEAKER_06

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, MR. CHAIR.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL MEMBER SACA.

PLUS ONE TO THAT, COUNCIL PRESIDENT NELSON.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you very much.

So regarding the fees on page five, you showed the fees invoice for MUPS.

What is the fee structure?

Is it by project or by hour?

I believe it's by hour.

What is the cost per hour?

Is it the same across the board for all different kinds of permits?

SPEAKER_05

For master use permits?

SPEAKER_12

And I have a couple other questions, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I can't remember the exact cost per hour.

Scott might have that.

For master use permits as 497 per hour Is that pretty standard for?

Other permits no for the are for all the construction permits.

It's very 200 And then at 253

SPEAKER_12

Okay, that's just helpful for me when we're talking about staffing and everything.

SPEAKER_02

We can give you more follow-up information on that, how the hourly charge works, and then also how the charge works based on the valuation of the building, if that would be helpful.

SPEAKER_12

Sure.

And by the way, I really do appreciate you including the application data on here.

And here's a plug for putting that back on the dashboard, seeing the data on permit applications.

That's helpful.

Okay, another question in the spirit of what councilmember Moore and Rivera were saying of the total 1.76 million in tenant services Why do we provide less than a third for direct rental assistance?

Is that an upper limit as set by the housing authority?

I mean, why do we pay only a third?

Because I always prefer direct rental assistance, especially given that the state is now paying for eviction prevention.

SPEAKER_03

I'm going to let Mr. Talad.

Yeah, so that...

So if we go back two years, council chose to add one time, two times in a row, $1 million for rent assistance tied to eviction defense.

So those were one-time ads.

They expire at the end of this year.

Next year, the mayor's budget is proposing to preserve $527,000 of that for rent assistance because we've seen the value of that.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, but there were other things being funded by these grant funds that we also want to preserve, so those are Those are also there, so I guess it was, you know, trying to roughly prorate everything and leave enough on the table for many of the different services being provided.

SPEAKER_12

Okay, so there's no statutory limit?

No, there's...

Okay, thanks.

And my last question is, are you staffing for things like...

Or are you anticipating staffing needs for kind of big projects like revising code if...

I-2066 happens, for example, or revising design guidelines or anything like that.

I just don't want to be kept.

SPEAKER_06

I don't want you to be surprised.

Council President, I just want to check.

Is that a budget question or a policy question?

SPEAKER_12

No, it's not a policy question.

I'm just saying, are you anticipating other needs?

There are buckets of other needs that I can see beyond just permit review.

SPEAKER_02

So we have a small land use code development team that's led by Mike Padowski.

There are not cuts proposed as part of that unit, and that unit works very closely with the Office of Planning and Community Development.

And we meet on a regular basis and sort of figure out, like, OPCD has the major policy role, but we do work on some code development issues, so we are constantly meeting and working out that work program.

SPEAKER_12

Great.

SPEAKER_02

So no cuts proposed for that team.

But we are anticipating some of these issues and initiatives.

We are meeting on that on a regular basis and figuring out how we would address that.

SPEAKER_12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council President.

That was a really good question.

SPEAKER_15

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you, everyone, for coming.

Director Torgerson.

My question is basically, well, my series.

One is...

In my interaction with the public, obviously the public that's engaged with SDCI, one of the things is, and I mentioned, Council Member Morales mentioned the kiosk, I think she did, but they really talk about the need for the in-person interaction and questions on this, and I don't think a kiosk really does what they're talking about.

My understanding is, obviously the executive is going to three days a week in early November, but Would SDCI given its kind of public facing and this kind of interaction really benefit from a legislative department four day a week in person to facilitate this in person interaction with those that are looking through these permits?

SPEAKER_02

So I will say that we do take in-person appointments.

Obviously, you have to have a pass in the elevators in the Seattle Municipal Tower right now, but we will do and we do in-person meetings.

I also want to put in a plug for the Seattle Home Fairs that are coming up where there'll be numerous SDCI staff.

There's one in October at the Meadowbrook Community Center.

and one at the end of October at the Filipino Community Center.

That's where a ton of SDCI staff and staff from other departments.

It's a low-key environment where you can sit down and talk to staff from various departments.

But back to your question, Councilmember Kettle, we're always happy to do in-person appointments.

We just have to have an SDCI staff person come down and escort that member of the public or an applicant up into our offices.

SPEAKER_15

Sounds like that would be facilitated better if there's more people in the SMT to be able to come down the elevators.

So the three or four day option.

SPEAKER_02

Correct.

And as you know, we will be towards the end of the year going to a three day in office requirement per the mayor's directive.

SPEAKER_15

Just channeling some of the many, many people I hear from and their frustrations just so just so we're clear.

I appreciate that.

The second one was.

As someone who's constantly on the public safety side, the SBD staffing, King County Correctional Facility staffing, marshals at the court, which is all very difficult across the board, you seem very confident in the ability to ramp up if needed.

How is that in terms of if you were to really to bring people back?

Is it that easy, or is it just the small numbers?

How do you succeed where it's such a challenge elsewhere, basically?

SPEAKER_02

Well, that's an excellent question, Councilmember Kettle.

We do have the ability with those nine positions to hire back quite quickly.

We have...

In the distant past, when we've been in a similar economic situation, we have laid off staff, and then when they come back, some of those staff are eager to come back and work with us, and they have already had the training, so we're able to rehire them.

Obviously, some of those staff do go and find other jobs, but through those nine positions, we can hire pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_15

There's a lot of jealousy, no doubt, in other departments on that point.

So, yeah, they're definitely jealous of your ability to do that.

And who knows what might happen, I mean, with the FRED rate changes and what I've been reading in terms of anticipated rate changes.

That in combination with public safety, I don't think people realize how many public safety impacts the calculus of those looking to go forward on a project.

Trust me, I've gotten many calls on that as well.

I also wanted to note, you know, Design review reform is going to be big in this next year.

Granted, we just did the three-year holiday, but design review will be with us, and it will be interesting how that impacts the volume as we go through the state law changes.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

We have a deadline of next year, and we will be coming to council with proposed changes.

SPEAKER_15

My next question is, We've had size sewer and parks, public utilities community and technology committee.

So aware of that, aware of the costs of that, and there's programs to offset the cost.

So in a lot of ways, it makes sense for it to transfer from SDCI to SPU.

And with that in mind, and I'm not on land use and I'm not on housing, but going to kind of these earlier questions, I'm kind of scratching my head why, the tenant services is even in SDCI in the first place.

It doesn't strike me from a good governance perspective.

It should be in either HSD, OH, or HSD, and not SDCI.

So I'm just scratching my head in terms of why that is.

I know that's a bit of a policy question, but the budget can drive how these things play out.

And it also kind of reinforces the idea, and I've not had a chance to fully talk with my colleague here who chairs the housing committee, that we really need a Seattle housing plan that mimics the rigor and so forth of the Seattle transportation plan.

Because every time I dig more into land use and housing, the more I realize that it needs a Seattle housing plan.

We need a Seattle housing plan.

Because, like, this is a perfect example.

I have no understanding, you know, from good governance, it doesn't make any sense, you know, in terms of efficiency, expertise, and everything else.

So I'll work with my colleague.

But it just strikes me, because I brought it up before, and Director Eder was talking about the labyrinth.

We don't need to make it more of a labyrinth, I don't think.

The last thing is...

Please continue to work with a fire chief vacant building abatement When it comes to public safety and if there's a public safety threat Chief Scoggins is the decision-maker on this and I know there's protocols But the bottom line is at the end of the day It's Chief Scoggins call and we have to have this all set The good news is that this law is already encouraging owners to take action based on my discussions with Chief Scoggins And so hopefully, you know, we can get a lot of benefit out of the vacant building abatement law.

So, thank you That's it, Chair.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

I'm going to do a little bit of response regarding to why a property owner tenant assistance group is in SDCI, just from my time as the previous land use chair, in the same way that vacant building monitoring is in SDCI as compared to being in fire, police, or Office of Emergency Management, because rental units are...

dictated by code, and the code compliance is housed within SDCI.

So the fact that there's a carbon monoxide monitor, that there's a window in the bedroom, that there's a closet that makes it a unit, these are aspects of building code compliance.

I'll talk to you more then.

I'm happy to have the conversation.

SPEAKER_15

Bacon buildings should rely with STCI.

Use the microphone.

Yeah.

Bacon buildings in itself should reside in STCI.

It's just when they cross the line in terms of becoming a public safety threat.

That's the change.

So I'm not saying that.

And I hear what you're saying.

SPEAKER_06

I'm open about the rental assistance aspect.

But when we're talking about strictly code compliance, it's...

I mean, it's the same way that...

Well...

We can talk some more.

I'm going to go back to our five-year review, the 2019 to 24. I see in your department you, from a general fund standpoint, increased by about, I'd say, $5 million over that time.

And then...

In that, it was mostly in the code compliance.

It is my understanding that these additional $4 million over those five years was within the property owner tenant assistance group.

Is that generally correct?

SPEAKER_03

anyone from sdci yeah i mean so this is over the last five years at sdci um yeah i mean we've definitely seen some growth in the in the co-compliance division more inspectors especially more staff supporting landlord tenant issues as the array of landlord tenant laws have expanded i can't say those numbers are all co-compliance or not

SPEAKER_06

I'll circle back with central staff since this was a central staff document.

My apologies for putting that on your doorstep.

I'll tick through.

I really appreciate, colleagues, all of your comments.

I am subscribing more and more to this Roberts Rules of Order where the chair goes last because all of your comments have been really spot on.

In person at SDCI for those meetings is really important.

Thank you for meeting that recommendation of the permitting audit.

And I know that you have a desk on the first floor and that you still need to assist people up to your floors in Seattle Municipal Tower.

I will say that over the course of my time in office, I have only heard negative reviews about the permitting system.

That is part of what generated the audit.

For the first time, unsolicited, I heard from an architect and a developer that SDCI's permit review staff were doing a really great job.

So I want that on the record.

Again, it's anecdotal.

But it's a big, for me it was a really big moment, because for four years I've only been hearing one thing, and this was the first time that I've heard something different.

So I can't let that moment pass without putting it on the record.

Because I do know that SDCI has been doing a lot of work to increase how quickly permits are reviewed, issued, and inspected.

And you also don't control all of the other departments that also have permit review desks, some that are not even within the jurisdiction of the city.

Going to slide five, if we could, real briefly.

This slide really tells the story of the contingency fund and where we are in our cycles of growth and stagnation.

If you look closely on the left-hand chart, which is volume, not fees, 2024 projected is just below 2010, which was the low point of the law that we work for.

I know in taking my permit courses with you and Andy Higgins over the course of the last four years, that when we had to lay off staff at that point, it did create an issue coming out of that recession in 2011, 2012, 2013. Colleagues, again, from my conversation yesterday about housing funding and mandatory housing affordability, we can see that the permits dropped off in 2019 as we went into the recession and the pandemic.

This is all, I just really appreciate this graph because also coloring it out by types of permits really helps me understand the issues before us.

SPEAKER_02

I will say that we are in a much better position today than we were in 2009. When I became the director of SDCAI, I realized pretty quickly that our department had not raised fees in something like seven years.

and had not even kept up with the cost of living.

And so I appreciate the support of the previous council that brought those fees back up to at least a cost of living increase.

So anticipating the very situation we're in today so we don't have to lay off nearly as many staff as we did back in that last recession in 2009, because we know the economy will come back and we'll be much better positioned.

SPEAKER_16

Just to add to that, part of it wasn't just increasing fees.

The department has purposely established a reserve, a reserve that has been running down over the last couple of years, but the reserve was designed to maintain a core staffing level so that once we turn back up, we're not in a position as we were at the end of the Great Recession of not having a staff to be able to actually process the permits and help drive the growth back into the economy.

SPEAKER_06

And because these are fee-generated positions, if we wanted to backfill and retain these positions during the lull, that's why we would have to use the general fund.

So just thank you for being very clear about that.

If we could go to slide eight very quickly.

Side sewers, I know I've been in disagreement with the county about their understanding of what is a side sewer and a side drain and how is it plumbed and permitted for people ADUs or DADUs, I believe that their understanding is incorrect.

How is this going to help us or set us back in that conversation by sending it back to SPU?

SPEAKER_02

It's really a completely separate issue.

It's basically just how much King County charges for that discharge.

It's not who actually administers the program.

So this is a case where this is Seattle Public Utilities Program and SDCI has been administering this program on behalf of SPU for several years and SPU has decided that they would like to have the program back.

SPEAKER_06

Let me be a little bit more clear in saying that I appreciated SDCI having this in your portfolio because I thought you did a good job advocating for the needs of Seattleites to King County, who I believe is incorrect on this decision.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

That's helpful.

SPEAKER_06

So note to SPU, we expect you to meet SDCI's level of intensity here.

On slide nine, property owner tenant assistance.

It's already been talked about.

We don't need to go over it.

Rental assistance is incredibly important and helpful.

I agree, plus 10. And inspection fees.

The last time inspection fees were raised was in 2003. Colleagues for your, I know Council Member Hollingsworth teases me about his history here.

This building was completed in 2003. And so if you need a physical context of how long it has been since we've raised the fees, it has been since the doors opened on this building.

Last point here to the point that I was making earlier about us doing our, us as council members helping departments get the word out to community about the things that you're doing.

If you could send the information about the home fairs to my team, I'd love to include it in the newsletter.

And anytime that you're doing that stuff, just please know you can count on it.

SPEAKER_02

Our council liaison, Christina Postolay, will be sending that out to all of you.

SPEAKER_06

Fantastic.

Lastly, I miss getting to chair the committee.

I miss getting to talk to you so often.

It's great to still be on the land use committee and see you on a regular basis.

Thank you to Jeff for stepping up and Scott for having the facts right on hand.

That's all I've got.

Colleagues, Council Member Morales, would you like to close this out with SDCI?

SPEAKER_01

I just want to thank you all for being here.

This is really helpful, and I look forward to following up on a lot of the questions I have.

Thank you very much for being here.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you for your time and attention.

SPEAKER_06

Fantastic.

Colleagues, we have reached the end of today's committee meeting agenda, day one of department presentations.

We have three more to go.

We'll start bright and early on Monday at 9.30.

We will have an hour lunch at 1 o'clock until 2 o'clock on Monday.

Our next verbal public comment period will be at the public hearing on October 16th at 5 p.m., where everyone who attends will be given two minutes, no matter how many people attend.

For Monday's meeting, we will only be accepting written public comment, as we had public comment at the beginning of this series today.

Colleagues, is there any further business to come before the Select Committee before we adjourn?

Seeing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you for all your questions today.

Very astute.

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_99

Thank you.