City Council 6/9/2026

Okay, the June 9th meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It's 2.03 PM.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, Council President.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Strauss?

Here.

Councilmember Foster?

Here.

Councilmember Juarez?

Here.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Lynn?

Here.

Councilmember Rink?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Here.

Eighth present.

Councilmember Rivera is excused until she gets here.

Colleagues, there's no presentation at this time and we're gonna transition right into public comment.

So the hybrid public comment period is now open.

Public comment is limited to items on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar and the council's work program.

The council cannot accept comments on quasi judicial items or campaign related matters.

As a reminder, please note that there will be an opportunity for parties of record only on clerk file 314549 under agenda item number four regarding the communication, ex-party communication, but you must be already a party of the record as well.

So clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up?

We have approximately eight remote that aren't all present yet, and I believe 54 in person.

Okay, awesome.

54 in person, eight that are online, remote.

So that means that we have 30 to 60, so one minute per speaker.

And will you please read the instructions for public comment period?

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not in their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

We'll begin with our in-person speakers.

Awesome, I'm gonna call everyone up by five.

So first we have Peter, followed by Darius, then we have Daniel, and then Sreeja, I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name, and then we have Patrick.

So we have those five folks coming up, Peter, Darius, Daniel, Sreeja, and Patrick.

And you can use either or microphones as well.

Welcome, Peter.

Good to see you.

Peter Hasegawa Good to see you.

Good afternoon, members of the City Council.

My name is Peter Hasegawa.

I'm a resident of District 7, and I'm here on behalf of my 6,000 union electricians, and particularly the 1,000 of them who are currently unemployed, and we're here to ask you to put a bond to renovate and decarbonize Seattle Center on the ballot for voters.

Seattle Center is currently emitting about 16% of the city of Seattle's own building portfolio's carbon pollution.

And we want to have a family-friendly city in the era of climate change.

This is a large facility.

My children love to go to Seattle Center to play at the Children's Museum.

After my son was born, this was the first place where we went out with him to the armory.

It's important that we have large, public-facing facilities available with cooling.

for the residents of our city.

So thank you very much for your consideration.

Appreciate you.

Thank you, Peter.

Next we have Deer is followed by Daniel.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Dharai Zharani.

I'm a software engineer and a member of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

Last week, I decided to be public in my support for regulating data centers.

I hear a lot of accusations that the growing anger over data centers is just fear of new tech, or that it's nimbyism.

But that's wrong.

Everyone I know who is serious about the transition to a healthier, more resilient energy system knows that comes along with building a lot of new tech in our backyards.

It means electrification, revitalized public transit, and energy independence through solar, hydro, and wind.

Five years ago, companies like Amazon and Microsoft seemed committed to being leaders in that transition.

But they've stopped leading since the AI race started.

So we need to lead now.

Big tech needs data centers more than we do.

Here are some ways we can push them to get the future that we need.

the city could regulate that data centers can only be built with 100% additional renewable energy.

We could tell them that they've got to make existing grid capacity more efficient through city-wide weatherization.

There are so many things we can do, but we will need the will and imagination of this city council and of workers to make them happen.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

My name is Daniel Richards.

I'm a member of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

I'm grateful to live in this city where employees who speak out politically are legally protected against retaliation by their employers.

I've worked for my entire career in regulatory compliance and customer protection.

I'm here today to remind city council that every powerful, positive, and legitimate use for AI creates an equally negative potential for bad actors to misuse.

The race to monetize large language models has opened a Pandora's box for stolen, fraudulent, and illicit material and made us all more vulnerable While this is being widely reported, instead of moving with urgency to address these existential threats, big tech companies are racing to build out as much compute capacity as they can as fast as they can before regulations can catch up.

If they're gonna avoid responsibility, this council should act.

We should demand any data centers in Seattle be built without the use of shell companies and NDAs and with a proper consideration of all environmental harms and risks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Daniel.

Good afternoon.

I'm Sreeja Nagareti, a member of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

I'm grateful to be in a city where employees who speak up politically are legally protected against retaliation by their employers.

A couple weeks ago, I walked by Mark Zuckerberg's mega-yacht.

It docked in Lake Union amid about 1,400 King County-based layoffs at Meta, with remaining employees being tracked down to the keystroke to train AI.

Meanwhile, in quarter one, Meta reported a net income of over $26 billion.

Amazon also recently laid off 30,000 people around the world amid record-breaking earnings.

It's great to see this council choose to empower ordinary people and workers over those who see them as expendable.

I ask the council to remove any subsidies for data centers and impose requirements for renewable energy use, labor protections, and even allocation of compute towards public projects.

It might sound like a lot to ask, but it's not a $300 million boat.

Thank you.

Hello.

My name is Patrick Schlesser, and I'm a member of Amazon Employees for Climate Change.

Last week, I took steps to be public for the first time because I'm tired of being afraid to stand up for my values.

I believe that tech workers have a role to play in this moment, and we want city council members to include us in the process of developing equitable AI and data center policy.

In that spirit, I'd like to invite anyone who works in tech in this room to please raise their hand.

I'd like to invite anyone who works in tech in this room to please raise your hand.

Next, I'd like to invite anyone who has previously worked in tech to keep your hand raised.

Now, for all of us, if you agree that this council should regulate data centers and AI for the common good, keep your hands up.

Thank you.

We are not alone.

Five, Nicole Grant, Rob Johnson, Ken Pitts, and Kevin Smith.

Is Nicole Grant here?

Oh, there she is.

Awesome.

Rob Johnson, Ken Pitts, and Kevin Smith.

Hello, City Council.

My name is Nicole Grant, and I use she and her pronouns.

I wanted to start by saying happy Pride Month to everybody.

I'm here to testify.

I mean, happy Pride Month, everybody.

I testify on behalf of my union in favor of a bond to decarbonize the Seattle Center.

This is a place that we all grew up, and it's a place that we want to spend time with our kids, with our parents.

It's the jewel of the city, and it deserves to be shined, to be cleaned up.

We have an opportunity right now to put kids from our communities to work.

My union has a pre-apprenticeship program at Rainier Beach High School, and we meet students every day who are learning our craft, but they need a place to practice this craft, and nothing would be more desirable than redoing the Seattle Center.

So thank you.

And Rob, before you go, one second, I'm gonna call the other speakers so they're on deck.

We have Billy, Justin, Calvin, and Luke.

Good afternoon Council, Rob Johnson, Executive Director of Seattle Center Foundation.

We're here to support the resolution in front of you asking for a public sector support for Seattle Center.

I grew up here, fifth generation Seattleite.

I remember fondly coming to all the great events that were happening at Seattle Center as a kid and having my mom talk about how Seattle Center hadn't changed much.

and here I am in the year 2026, reflecting on the fact that the last time we had a public vote for support for Seattle Center was 1991. 1991, I was in the seventh grade and today I have a kid who's gonna be graduating seventh grade, right?

Since that time, we've had literally billions of dollars in private philanthropic and business sector investments in Seattle Center.

It's time for our friends in the public sector to make this a priority again, not only for the labor community who's talked today, the business community who couldn't make it here today, who believe this is a priority for economic development, and the jobs that will come for the arts and cultural community that's a critical part of our ecosystem.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rob.

Next we have Ken and then Kevin.

Welcome, Ken.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Ken Pitts.

I'm the Vice President of Local 206 Carpenters, Seattle.

I'm here today on behalf of the Carpenters Union in support of Resolution 32-205.

One of the most important reasons we act now is simple.

The longer we wait, the more expensive this becomes.

We have all seen the impacts of inflation, rising material costs, and increasing construction expenses.

Projects that could have been completed years ago often cost significantly more today.

Delaying action rarely saves money.

It usually increases costs and pushes benefits further into the future.

At the same time, every year we wait is another year that workers are not being hired, local businesses are not seeing the economic activity these investments generate, and our community is not receiving the full benefits of the project.

I encourage the Council to move forward with Resolution 32205 and demonstrate the leadership necessary to invest in our workforce, strengthen our economy, and build for the future.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Kevin followed by Billy, Justin, Calvin, Luke.

Hello, Council Members and Council President.

My name is Kevin Smith.

I'm here today on behalf of Carpenters Union representing 57,000 members in support of Resolution 32205. This resolution represents an opportunity to invest in Seattle's future while creating hundreds and potentially thousands of family wage jobs for working people throughout our region.

Every major infrastructure and economic development project creates a ripple effect.

The jobs created are not limited to construction workers.

They support suppliers, manufacturers, transportation providers, and small businesses, restaurants, and countless local employers that benefit when workers have good paychecks and spend Council to support Resolution 32205 and send a clear message that Seattle is committed to economic growth, family wage, jobs, and long-term prosperity for working people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin.

Council President and the rest of the Council.

My name is Billy Hetherington, a proud member of Landville Local 242 and I'm here today as well in support of Councilmember Saka's Resolution 32205 to support putting a bond measure to support Seattle Center in 2027. As several of us here probably were in your ears, we would have loved to have got this on the ballot in 2026, but we know that having a thoughtful resolute or a thoughtful bond measure that maximizes state, federal, and climate commitment dollars in 2027 is the best option forward right now.

It produces middle-income jobs, apprenticeship opportunities, priority hire, local hire, and a lot of the programs that we work with each and every day.

I just encourage to move forward and hopefully in this upcoming budget we can improve construction drawings to 30% and keep Seattle Center moving forward until it gets its facelift.

Thank you.

Thank you Billy.

Next we have Justin followed by Calvin and Luke.

I'm Justin, a member of Worker Strike Back and a former tech worker living in Queen Anne.

I urge the council to pass the one-year data center moratorium, but this is the bare minimum.

We need a permanent moratorium on data centers in Seattle, and we need to tax the rich to fund a massive expansion of affordable housing instead built by union workers.

We are not gonna get any of this by relying on the Democratic Party, which is why I'm with Shama Swant's Independent Socialist Campaign for Congress that's fighting for these demands.

The Democratic Council members here won't even stop the dystopian surveillance in this city.

Mass layoffs, wars, genocide, and deportations are now all connected with big tech's push for AI.

Shama is the only candidate in this midterm election with a track record of defeating the billionaires, winning the nation's highest minimum wage, the Amazon tax, and unprecedented earners' rights.

That's the kind of political leadership working people need to take on big tech.

So let's do a chant.

Stop the data centers.

Stop the data centers.

Shama Sawant campaign for Congress.

Can we restart your time?

There's an uprising taking...

Hold on, we'll restart your time just to make sure.

But before you go, Calvin, I want to make sure we have other people lined up.

Give me one second.

I'm sorry.

We have Luke, former council member Shama Sawant, Bering, Ron, Clement, Noah, and then Michelle.

And when you start, we'll start the time.

I'm Calvin, I'm with the Kshema Sawant for Congress campaign.

There's an uprising taking place across the country against these data centers, and it's for good reason.

These hyperscale data centers cause massive air pollution, water pollution, and sound pollution.

They use enormous amounts of water and electricity.

They dramatically drive up utility costs.

The data centers and the whole AI project they're linked to are driving mass layoffs of already tens of thousands of workers, and they're coming at a time when the climate crisis is already taking us over the cliff of environmental disaster.

They are a disaster for working people everywhere, not just in the places where they're built.

The only reason so many are going ahead is because they mean big profits for big tech, so the richest billionaires can get richer at any cost for the rest of us.

They need to be stopped.

I support this one-year moratorium, but it is simply not enough.

We need them stopped entirely.

We need existing data centers to be taken into democratic public ownership because we can't control what we don't own.

I strongly support a permanent moratorium on the AI data centers, and I support from Congress in Washington 9th Congressional District.

This is a fight from the corporate bosses on working people.

As a rank and file union member in a year of contract negotiations, I'm demanding the Boeing bosses to respect expertise of engineers and technical workers who make Boeing planes safe for the public, paying us a salary that will make living in the area comfortable and in the face of inflation, and to keep Boeing jobs in Washington state instead of continued outsourcing to lower paying non-union states.

Thank you.

My name is Shama Sawant.

I support the data center moratorium bill that is up for a vote today on the Seattle City Council, though a one-year ban is far from enough.

I'm running as an independent socialist for Congress.

Our campaign is the only one in this race fighting for an end to hyperscale data centers, for democratic public ownership of all existing data centers, and for a public sector living wage jobs guarantee funded by taxing the rich to counter the AI-related mass layoffs.

AI-driven hyperscale data centers are having devastating impact.

AI is now a central component of genocide and imperialist war, ice terror, the surveillance state, mass layoffs, and climate crisis because AI is the new frontier for super profits for the super rich.

They will absolutely not stop the AI juggernaut unless threatened by a powerful nationwide movement with leaders who have a backbone to go up against billionaires and a proven strategy to win for working people.

Both the Republican and the Democratic parties are owned by the billionaire class and that's why we need independent campaigns like mine.

Solidarity.

And I want to give this placard calling for a stop on data centers to Councilmember Deborah Juarez.

Thank you.

Do I not get one?

I can't?

Okay, I'm just fine.

Okay, Baring, is it Baring?

Yeah, okay, awesome.

Baring, followed by Ron, Clement, Noah, and Michelle.

Hi, my name's Baring Shanikski.

I'm not here about the data centers, even though I support all that.

It's common sense, come on.

I hear about KCRH missing funding and I want clarity about it.

I want to know what are we debating about it?

What's going to be done?

You guys can applaud all these little cubes going up today.

That's great and all.

But I've worked at Chief Seattle Club.

I've managed communities at Community Roots Housing.

I know what your policies look like when they hit the concrete.

I know what they look like.

I just wanna know, how are you gonna inject the community, everyone here, into healing Seattle?

We're gonna be the number one homeless community very soon, I promise you that.

I was homeless in 2017. I just wanted to know what we're debating about this.

That's it.

Thank you, Danny.

We have Ron, followed by Clement, Noah, Michelle.

Good afternoon.

I'm here to talk about the public developer.

They seem to have decided to change their charter, and they've added a lot of language in there that I don't like.

And because of that changes, I see a chance where they could acquire eminent domain rights to take my home.

And I wish to retain my right under the Fifth Amendment.

to keep that, retain my rights to sell my home, live in my home, and this is probably the sixth or seventh time these same people have tried to, involved in this, not the public developer, but have been involved in this, so.

I hope that you will ask them to change their charter.

I guess the council cannot do that right now.

All you can say is yes or no.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ron.

Next we have Clement, followed by Noah and Michelle.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Wait, hold on.

Is the mic on?

Okay, awesome.

Good afternoon, council members.

I'm Clement.

I'm a member of Worker Strike Back, and I'm here to reiterate what we've heard many times already today.

My firm opposition to the construction of AI data centers in King County The surge in construction that we've seen recently across the nation is nothing but a vain attempt to line the pockets of right-wing tech billionaires.

Everyone here knows that further construction will inevitably lead to disastrous environmental impacts and meteoric rises in energy costs.

A lot of my family lives in Virginia.

They're connected to the same grid as the Hyperscale Data Center near Washington, DC, and they've already seen their cost of living go up.

So the American people fiercely oppose the construction of data centers.

This is basic common sense, and the council cannot credibly claim to represent its constituents if it doesn't support the data center moratorium.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you, council members.

My name's Noah Williams.

I'm a member of the Transit Writers Union and Tech for Housing, and I'm also a DevOps engineer, which is essentially a cyber mechanic with experience dealing with every layer of the tech stack.

I'd like to draw your attention to two issues today with respect to data centers, emissions and design fungibility.

A facility designed to hold switches and routers for AT&T will very likely have different power and cooling needs than a facility designed for maximum slop output.

Do not permit the latter.

Second, I'd like to address the negative impacts to the community of backup generators, which aren't subject to on-highway emission standards like, for example, metro buses.

They burn dirty and loud and run more often than you'd think with regular testing required for normal service.

Now, this photo, is of a bus hooked up to emissions testing equipment in 2006. Seattle has led the way in emissions and air quality standards for the last 20 years.

Please do not roll back these protections just to profit from AI data centers.

Thank you.

There's Michelle.

I'm going to call the other people.

We have Dominic, followed by Coco, Rich, Rebecca Young, Lauren, Evan, Emily, I think this is Jody, Will, and then Scott.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Michelle Hausmann, and I'm here to ask you to vote yes on the moratorium for the data centers.

The data centers will only benefit the billionaire class and the Epstein class.

And what's at risk here is the future of our lives, your children's lives, my potential grandchildren's lives.

We need to be able to protect this environment that we live in, to have clean water, to be able to have electricity, and just to protect ourselves from the billionaires that do not have our best interests at heart.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

Nick Wolfgang Wallace, a member of Workers Strike Back, and Shama Sawant's campaign team for Congress against the genocidal Democrat Adam Smith.

The construction of hyperscale data centers has had devastating effects in the areas they've been built, including water shortages and even sludge dripping from people's taps.

I support that one-year moratorium on data centers, but this is the bare minimum.

When Shama Sawant was on city council, she led working people to win big gains, like the highest minimum wage in the nation, and the Amazon tax, which taxes the very corporations trying to build these data centers and funds affordable housing for Seattleites.

In other parts of the country, at least 48 data center projects have been halted this same way, including in Peckin, Illinois, where workers reached out to Shama's campaign, and she coordinated with them to help the fight back.

Worker Strike Back was a part of this movement showing up against Democrat and Republican parties who were both intent on laying out the red carpet for Big Tech.

There isn't a single representative on this council who leads working people in the fight back, but Shama is still here fighting with us and we need to elect her to Congress.

She's the only candidate fighting to take Big Tech into Democratic public ownership because that's the only way to make sure innovation serves to working people and not the billionaires.

Thank you, Dominic.

Followed by Rich, Rebecca, Lauren, Evan, Emily, Jody, Will, Scott.

My name is Coco.

I am a Worker Strike Back member and District 3 voter.

I'm here to urge the city of Seattle against AI data center expansion for not only a year at a time, but indefinitely.

The reckless actions of the tech industry regarding AI have completely disregarded the well-being of our planet and communities.

Millions of gallons of water are used daily, exacerbating issues in already drought-prone regions.

Electricity bills are raised, grids are destabilized, air pollution is worsened, and overall quality of life is jeopardized.

Does Seattle want to contribute to this destruction or be a national example that we don't have to bow down?

Protecting our environment, the beautiful land that we all get to benefit from by living here, and protecting each other should take absolute import over siphoning money into the pockets of big tech corporations.

Thank you.

I'm Rich Vogt and I'm in favor of placing a one-year moratorium on data centers.

During that year, please make your final decision through the filter of climate change.

Seattle's population will grow even more due to climate refugees while our water supply will diminish as lessening snowpack forms.

We are going to need lots more electricity because to address climate change, we need to stop burning fossil fuels and electrify our buildings and transportation.

Most data centers want lots of water and electricity, and you can kill them through regulation.

Tell them that they have to generate their own emission-free power.

Good luck on that.

on this side of the state.

They'll have to use a closed loop system for cooling and not tap into our water supply.

Our health and welfare depend on you being firm on these two requirements.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, and thank you.

My name is Rebecca Young.

I'm a parent, a voter, and a resident of District 3. I've emailed you all longer comments, so I'll be brief.

I'm here to strongly support the year-long moratorium on data centers and urge you all to vote in favor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rebecca.

We have Lauren, followed by Evan, Emily, Jody, Will, Scott.

Hi, I'm here again to ask the City Council to put a moratorium on data centers.

As I said the last time, water is a precious commodity.

We can live without AI.

In fact, I prefer to, but we can't live without water.

And so I really hope that you will take climate change and the economic impact into consideration while you make your decision.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

I'm a Seattle-born resident of District 6, a part of the Washington AI Resistance in the Seattle DSA.

Thank you for listening to What the People Want and for putting the interests of Seattle residents and our living ecosystems above the seductive but misleading AI gold rush.

We are already seeing the consequences of unchecked data center expansion in the Pacific Northwest across the Columbia River in our neighbor state, Oregon, where nitrate contamination from data center wastewater, proposals to divert water from Mount Hood area communities, and corruption scandals tied to Amazon-backed shell utility companies exist.

Look up the Wind Wave scandal if you haven't already.

We cannot allow these mistakes to be repeated here.

The moratorium is an important first step towards protecting our community here in Seattle, our land, our water, and our democratic institutions.

We look forward to working with you throughout this moratorium process and advocating for similar protections across King County and Washington State.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

I am here to urge you to vote yes on the moratorium, but more importantly, I would like to thank all of you for your quick and decisive action on this issue.

We are just two months from when this was first broken by the Seattle Times.

I would like to especially thank Councilmember Lin and my Councilmember Juarez for your leadership on this issue, and especially for engaging with the community, engaging with advocates, and taking our input seriously.

I would also, with a last moment, say hell yeah to the Seattle Center Levy.

Let's get some good work for our Building Trades members here in Seattle and fix up Seattle Center, where my oldest child goes to school.

Pearl Jam guy out.

Emily?

Yes, hi.

Awesome.

Emily followed by Jody Will Scott.

I'm Emily Johnston, also with Washington AI Resistance, and I have crazy amount to say about data centers, but today all I wanna say is thank you very much for getting moving on this moratorium, and thank you in advance for this vote.

We have a lot of work cut out for us in this next year to figure out how to make this work for Seattle, if it's gonna happen at all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is Jody here?

Oh, OK, got it.

OK, no worries at all.

So Will, then Scott, welcome.

Good afternoon, members of the Council.

As someone who currently sues AI companies and who is running a statewide legislative race with AI regulation as my top policy priority, I am here to applaud you for your action on this, which I anticipate, and to urge the passage of the data center moratorium.

I've called for a statewide data center moratorium until we get this industry under control.

And I look forward next year to working with colleagues in Olympia to get that done.

The policy aspect of this that I just want to make sure is abundantly clear is that there is no way to build new data centers that are 100% powered by new renewable energy in a way that does not still undercut our climate progress.

And the reason for that is that there are finite constraints on our ability to produce renewable energy in this country right now, both in terms of the materials required and in terms of the appropriate siting for .

And as a result, every data center that is built is necessarily drawing away renewable energy that could have been used to offset carbon emissions elsewhere.

Thank you.

Thank you, Will.

Before you go, Scott, I'm gonna say the next 10 speakers.

If you're listening online after we do these next 10, we're gonna come to online and then come back in person, okay?

So if you're online, please start coming in if you're remote.

The next speakers after Scott is gonna be Anne, Peter, Patrick, Adrian, Sarah, Clive, Ben, Audrey, Paul, and Nivy.

Welcome, Scott.

Hi, my name is Scott McClay.

I'm in District 1, a long-time resident, and I'm here to absolutely support the moratorium.

I think everybody knows all the issues with AI and how horrible, environmentally, it is and how horrible it is in many other ways.

And I look forward to working with you in this next year.

It's going to be very hard to get good criteria constraints, and it'll be a struggle, and I'll be with you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Scott.

Welcome in, followed by Peter, Patrick, Adrian, Sarah, Clive, Ben, Audrey, Paul, and Nivy.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Anne O'Neill.

I am also here to encourage a permanent moratorium on data centers in Seattle.

To date, data center consumption is estimated at 415 terawatt hours, which is 1.5% of global electricity consumption.

Furthermore, 3% of Earth's water is fresh water, and only 5% of that is safe for human consumption.

One data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of fresh water per day.

There are 5,388 data centers in the US right now.

We are also facing a climate crisis, so it seems to me it's a little counterintuitive to be using that much fresh water, which is already only 0.5% of that is accessible to humans already.

Anyway, it's unregulated.

It steals from artists.

It's not sustainable.

The list could go on and on.

Obviously, everybody here has more eloquent things to say.

Peter, welcome.

Hello.

Hello.

Hey, council members.

Thank you for your time today.

My name is Peter.

I'm here with the Seattle DSA, and I'm also a constituent of District 5. I'm here today asking you to vote in support of the one-year data center moratorium, not because I'm a Luddite, not because I'm anti-technology, but because I'm pro-human, okay?

AI technology is evolving at a breakneck pace and we need to buy time for the regulations to catch up with the technology or else the working class of this city and of this country is just going to be completely crushed.

We need you to fight with us.

Thank you for fighting with us.

I'm also here with Washington AI Resistance.

They're working on an AI Bill of Rights that is beginning to this regulation that data centers need.

I'd like to quickly discuss the four pillars.

Fairness, you know, it shouldn't drive up the electricity cost of consumers.

just because a data center was plopped down in their backyard.

Privacy, you should own your data.

Transparency, we should be able to see into these algorithms.

There shouldn't be a black box.

And accountability, we need to hold companies that break regulations accountable.

I also support the grant for the clean decarbonization of the Seattle Center.

That sounds awesome for union jobs and for the climate and for everything.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

Thank you so much.

We have Patrick followed by Adrian and Sarah.

Yeah, hi, my name's Pat McKee and I live in West Seattle and I actually think Luddites have gotten sort of a bad rap.

I just want to express my support for the council adopting this data center moratorium.

I want to thank you for the work you've done on both committees, and the real work is out there, because there's a lot of bad faith actors who are going to want to shape what's coming up.

So thank you for all of this.

That's it.

Thank you, Patrick.

Hello, folks.

My name is Adrian Reina Chabulla.

I live in District 2.

Shout out to District 2.

I'm in Beacon Hill.

I'm here to ask you all to institute a moratorium on data centers.

Simply put, more data centers means more surveillance at a time when we have a capricious, vindictive, authoritarian government.

Until we have common sense policies in place to set up guardrails, I'm asking that our city doesn't enable this big tech power grab.

Big Tech will say to you all in meetings that these are all alarmist concerns.

They're not.

They don't get to regulate themselves, period.

Stand with Seattleites and not with billionaires.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome, Sarah.

Hi, thank you for your time.

Let's reset our time.

We're going to pull the microphone as close as you can, and then we'll start the time.

Yep, so you can talk right into the mic.

OK, hi.

Awesome.

Thank you for your time.

My name is Sarah Shoemaker.

I'm here with Indivisible Civil Resistance, and I'm a District 2 voter.

I'll be brief.

I'm just here in support of the data center moratorium and a former tech worker.

Thank you.

Awesome Clive, Ben, Audrey, Paul, Nivy and if you're listening remote we're gonna go to you next and then we'll come back in person

Council Members, my name is Clive Hayward.

Resolution 32205 recognizes civic spaces as places of culture, gathering and public life, but public space must remain meaningfully open for public expression.

Today, expressive activity across the more than 20 acres of central Seattle's waterfront is effectively restricted.

to only five designated protected speech locations.

Under rules administrated and enforced by Seattle Center personnel, this is not meaningful access to public space.

For over a year, I've raised these issues through public comments, notice of claims, and letters to the mayor's office across administrations, yet the city has still not provided meaningful public explanation.

after repeated notice, unanswered requests for engagement, and Seattle's own judicial history.

Continued enforcement of these rules risks becoming knowingly and willingly disregarding .

This is not theoretical.

Enforcement has already led to threatened detention, use of force.

Thank you, Clive.

Thank you, Clive.

I know we didn't mean to cut you off, you can put more in there as well.

Thank you, Clive.

Next we have Ben, followed by Audrey, Paul, and Nevy, and then we'll go online.

It's always difficult to go after someone who wants to be heard, so it's gonna take a sec.

Let's restart your time so you have your full one minute, one second.

All right, go ahead.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ben Jones.

I am the Digital and Communications Director for 350 Seattle.

I'm testifying in support of a data center moratorium in our city.

This council has received now over 98,000 messages, endorsed by over 50 community organizations in support of this moratorium.

Over 100 people, at least, in this room, I didn't even know I wasn't counting today, have testified in this chamber in support of this moratorium.

It's my understanding that if this moratorium is passed, Seattle will be the largest city in the United States to have passed a moratorium like this.

I just encourage this council to sort of like take this moment.

I urge you all to build on that story.

I urge you all to help set the national agenda for what it looks like to put people before big tech.

Also encourage you all to sort of set the agenda for our state about how we're going to regulate these industries.

So thank you.

Thank you, Ben.

Audrey, Paul, and Nevy, and then we will go online.

Hello, council members.

My name is Audrey Wong-Guslin.

I'm an engineer specializing in power and renewable energy, and I live in District 2. I am also a board of director member for 350 Seattle, and I co-lead Out in Climate, an organization for LGBTQ folks who work in climate.

As an expert in energy and sustainability, the development of AI data centers greatly concerns me.

They threaten to decimate any hope we have of mitigating the effects of climate change.

Furthermore, it is a distraction from building out the clean energy infrastructure we desperately need.

So, vote yes on the moratorium.

Thank you.

from Paul.

It's a nice hat.

Oh, you're taking it off.

It's nice.

It's very nice.

And then Neve.

Is Neve here as well?

Awesome.

Go ahead, Paul.

When you start, the time will start.

Thank you.

We need a moratorium on data centers because we know that their race to build data centers is a race against regulations.

It is a race against better regulation regarding power, air pollution, water pollution, et cetera.

It is also a race against regulation considering new uncovered nuisances.

Consider infrasound, constant harm that you can't hear, but you feel it.

Some data centers produce infrasound that are felt up to five miles away, and this is typically not covered by zoning laws.

Consider local heat increase in an average of plus 3.6 Fahrenheit and up to 16 Fahrenheit in some cases, with effects stretching as far as six miles.

And we know the Tech Billionaire's motto, move fast and break things.

Also break the law when given the opportunity.

In Mississippi, Musk used unauthorized gas generators.

In Fayetteville, Georgia, they stole 30 million gallons of water.

We'll go online and we'll come back in person.

Welcome.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Nivy.

I am the founder of Soapbox Project, Seattle's most joyful community space for climate action.

So if you're free tonight, come have dinner with us in Belltown.

I am here in strong support of a data center moratorium.

I started an organization to convene community because I was feeling really anxious and afraid that our future was being stolen by tech billionaires and people that wanted to extract our resources.

And so I just want to say, coming here, three public comments in a row no one wants this.

There has not been one person in support of data centers, and that makes me extremely happy in a time when polarization is on the loose.

And so I just wanted to look around and savor this moment of unity and mutual hatred of billionaire capitalism.

Awesome.

And for the record, Councilmember Rivera, thank you, Councilmember Rivera is here in person.

All right, let's go ahead and go online.

And don't worry, we're coming back in person.

So we have Katherine Dawson, followed by Jacqueline.

Please press star six to unmute yourself.

Hi, I'm Catherine.

I'm a Seattle resident in District 3, and I'm calling to voice my support for the moratorium on data centers in line with many community organizations and unions.

As we know, AI is already an environmental nightmare that ultra-wealthy tech elites are intent on forcing upon us.

We don't need to further invite that nightmare into our city.

Seattle is a city facing an affordability crisis and a world facing a climate crisis, and AI data centers would exacerbate both those issues, so please vote yes in this moratorium.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be Jacqueline Kletzner.

Please press star six.

Hello, council members.

My name is Jacqueline Kintzner.

I'm a proud resident of Seattle in Fremont and a software engineer who worked for five years for Microsoft and now works at a locally based AI native startup.

Day in and day out, I work with AI technology and am confident when I assert that the cost of the AI gold rush and the data centers being erected are not worth the trade-off.

While advancing technology has a lot of opportunities, I urge you to learn from the mistakes of unfettered commercial advancement in the past, such as the contamination by 3M factories that began in the 1950s, was discovered in 1975 and continued through 2025, but led to PFAS and other forever chemicals ultimately being spread globally and affecting the health of all living humans and animals in ways we can't anticipate.

Plenty of others before me have already detailed the cost we already know that these data centers have, so I will end with simply pointing out that these data centers are being developed for consumer enterprise and governmental AI use today, but with their computing power could just be adapted for widespread surveillance and suppression tomorrow.

Vote yes to impose the one-year moratorium today and begin work to create a permanent moratorium now.

Thank you.

We have Aiden followed by Annie.

Please press star six to unmute yourself.

Good morning, afternoon.

I want to suggest other ways that a moratorium like this can and must go further.

We know that sometimes the best way to target something harmful is to target the secondary and tertiary supporters of its causes and its associates.

And that includes ICE and the war machine.

It also includes the motive behind most of the AI make a desire to replace wages.

This is a solution in search of a problem.

We have more than enough wealth to create the universal jobs guarantee and basic income that we need to address the inequality crisis, the housing inequality crisis, the environmental disaster, and the crime.

The Aurora crisis is real.

Thank you, Aiden.

Next we have Annie followed by Adara.

Star six, unmute yourself.

Hi, my name is Annie and I encourage you to vote yes on a data center moratorium.

I'm a union steward at UAW 4-121, which already endorsed the letter sent to the city council, encouraging this moratorium.

And I'm a PhD researcher at University of Washington, researching data centers.

I'm also a former software engineer and I'm speaking as a member of the Washington AI Resistance Coalition.

Seattle needs to follow other places including tribal councils that have endorsed moratoriums.

At least 57 counties, towns, and townships across U.S. have active moratoriums across bipartisan lines like Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arizona, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan.

California, North Dakota, Maine, Ohio, Alabama, North Carolina.

So Seattle needs to join that place.

Thank you.

Thank you, Annie.

Adara, followed by Rose.

You're not present.

We'll come back to you.

Rose, Allison, Aubrey.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you loud and clear.

Okay, great.

My name is Adara Schilling.

I'm also a UW student, and I'm sure you're getting sick of hearing this, but hopefully it just makes it clear how important it is.

I'm also here to support the moratorium against AI data centers.

Here in Seattle, we are entering our fourth year of severe drought.

We just cannot afford this.

It makes no feasible sense.

Thank you.

Rose, we see Allison, followed by Aubrey.

We see you're unmuted.

Allison, go ahead and start speaking.

You might be muted on your phone.

Oh, hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

All right, thanks.

Hi, I'm Allison.

I am a lifelong resident of Seattle.

I'm asking that you vote yes on the data center moratorium and introduce a permanent ban on them going forward.

Seattle is experiencing an inexcusable level of homelessness, our food bank lines are out the door, our unemployment is sky high, our parks and schools are underfunded, and many of our native flora and fauna are already suffering.

Allowing techno-fascists with short-sighted, selfish monetary goals to rush through data center production that will only exacerbate these issues, along with exposing our city to more air, noise, and water pollution is unfathomable.

Last week, Councilman Lin said that we are barely towards a climate crisis.

We can all agree on that, and we can all agree that what is best for our environment, our community, and our future generations is to put as many safety measures and guardrails in place to keep Seattle's land and inhabitants thriving and free from more harm than by corporations that need to care about their bottom line.

Please vote yes to protect this beautiful place.

Thank you.

Bye.

Unmute yourself, Aubrey.

And then Alexa is next, followed by John Bito.

Star six, there you go.

Hi, my name is Aubrey.

I'm a young adult.

Oh, you can hear me?

Yes, now we can.

We'll restart your time.

One second.

All right.

Hi.

Go ahead, Aubrey.

Hi, my name is Aubrey.

I'm a young adult from District City.

Like everyone else here, I'm here to communicate my support for the More 21 data centers.

I am extremely concerned about the environmental impact of data centers and about higher bills in an already expensive city.

I went to college near Hillsborough, Oregon, a town that isn't big but it has over 20 data centers and I remember hearing the like electric buzz that comes off of them.

Really though noise pollution is only the beginning, these data centers demand resources from our communities without investing back in them.

They require so much power and water without even providing a significant amount of jobs while unemployment is extremely high.

We need to set up legal protections now.

I'm asking you and thanking you for prioritizing the people of the city over big tech development.

Please pass this moratorium on data center construction to begin this process.

Thank you.

Next we have Alexa followed by John, then David.

Hi, my name is Alexa.

I live in District 2. I'm a parent of young kids.

and for the sake of our kids and the future of humanity, I'm asking that you vote yes to the moratorium against AI data centers and hopefully a permanent ban for all AI data centers in the future.

Thank you.

John Beto followed by David Haynes and then Michelle Atkins.

Hi, this is John Vito.

I'm in District 4, a member of the 36 District Democrats, and listening to all the comments on the moratorium, it's just astounding to me that it is currently legal for these corporations to put these systems in that would extract so much of our needed resources with the purpose of eliminating jobs so that more wealth can be accumulated by the owners of these systems.

So, yeah, I hope that we can rectify the situation and enact a moratorium and bring about a regulation that will protect us from the consequences.

Thank you, John.

Next, we have David Haynes, followed by Michelle Atkins, Rose and Natalie, who are not present, but you have signed up.

Hi, David Haynes.

We need a new police chief.

It's obvious the city council is not ready for World Cup, the mayor's not ready, and yet we still got this virtue signaling about how much you're concerned about BIPOC repeat offenders who get prioritized for housing and services.

Okay, so next we have Michelle Atkins, and then we will go back in person.

Hello, Council Members.

I'm in District 2. I support the moratorium and I support a thoughtful oversight and regulation of AI-related development.

However, I respectfully ask that any moratorium include a grandfather provision for the former Bed, Bath & Beyond site.

and similar projects already underway.

This project is not simply another commercial development.

It is an emerging arts and music center that is still establishing itself and working to become a sustainable cultural asset for Seattle.

The center has potential to create jobs, support local artists, and create businesses, activate downtown, attract visitors, and provide much needed community gathering space At a time when Seattle is working to revitalize its urban core, we should be careful not to unintentionally hinder projects that are contributing to the city's cultural

All right, and now, thank you, Michelle.

Now we're gonna go back in person.

So we have Bobby, followed by Hunter, then we have Austin, we have Sophie, Keith, Catherine, Howard, Kendra, Alicia, and Brian.

You are all up next.

So we have Bobby, Hunter, Austin, Sophie, Keith, Catherine, Howard, Kendra, Alicia, and Brian.

Welcome.

I was gonna say we're numbers, we're on number 41. I did let people know what their numbers were.

Okay, perfect.

I'm sorry, thank you.

So we're on number 41, thank you.

And we have a total of 54 in-person speakers and then whatever's on that list over on the side.

Welcome, number 41.

I'm Bobbi Riggi, I live in Finney Ridge.

I've been here in Seattle about 46 years.

I love Seattle because of the beauty and because that people take on the issues.

They don't just let steamrollers run over them.

And I think that the big AI corporations like Meta and Amazon, once named two that are here and they're probably more, are kind of surprised because they thought they could get away with doing whatever they want.

We're not a company town, at least I hope we're not.

We don't owe our soul to the company store.

So I wanna encourage you to put out, okay, this moratorium so everybody gets a chance to think about and talk about what regulations we need.

I mean, we've heard a lot of them today.

So that we won't owe our soul to the company store.

Thank you.

Thank you, Papi.

Welcome.

Good afternoon council members.

My name is Hunter Adelson and today I am speaking in favor of the one-year moratorium and beyond that hopefully a permanent moratorium on data center construction and expansion.

I'm 26 years old and as long as I can remember I've been watching droughts and grid failures become increasingly common and these data centers would only exacerbate that.

Furthermore, as far as I'm aware, AI use reduces the capacity for creative thinking, which terrifies me when it comes to the future generations and the kids who are in school right now.

I feel confident in saying I don't think anybody wants to live in a world where these data centers are hoovering up all our water and electricity in service of a tool that does nothing but kill jobs, reduce creative thinking, and everything.

Thank you.

and Sophie Keith.

Good afternoon Seattle City Council members and members of the community.

My name is Austin Zacher and I'm a resident of District 6. Firstly, I support a permanent moratorium on the construction of new data centers and I implore you to do the same.

Second, I want to express my concern and maybe curiosity over the 301 Virginia Street project not being subject to this moratorium.

Given that Mayor Wilson floated this moratorium on April 18th and the 301 Virginia filings reportedly were expedited and arrived in May, I find that timing a bit curious, especially since two people have already spoken to the contra of that.

The Seattle Times and others seemingly defended this as not an AI data center, but quote, a highly connected network dense facility.

Personally, I don't really care if you call it a Waldorf school for machine learning algorithms, regardless of what you call it, we need to evaluate these projects on the impacts that they have on residents' electricity and water prices, environmental impacts, and the broader implications these facilities have on directing resources away from people and towards the narrow interests of capital.

Please say no to data centers and maintain a high transparency on adjacent projects.

Thank you.

The moratorium is a great step, but we want more than just kicking the can down the road.

We want a permanent, outright ban on AI data centers right now.

These facilities poison communities.

They drive up electricity costs and all for what?

All to power unwanted, inaccurate, plagiaristic slop.

Normal people do not want our city crucified on a cross of slop.

Passing a one-year moratorium does not absolve you of your responsibility to your constituents.

Thank you.

I am Keith Carpenter.

I'm the pastor of Epic Life Church.

I'm going to be the one outlier here.

I'm in North Seattle, and I want to remind us that, meanwhile, There's 12, 13, and 14-year-old girls being trafficked along Aurora Avenue in motels and back seats of SUVs, and nobody's doing anything about the pimps and johns and taking these girls off the street except for us and a couple organizations who are finding them naked on our front porch in the morning.

I would ask you to not remember.

Councilmember District 5, please show up.

Mayor, please show up.

People are being shot at.

Houses are being shot at.

There's bullets coming through walls where infants are sleeping inches away from them.

And I just ask you not to forget what's going on and actually .

the previous administration, things were happening and crime was going down.

Now it's hockey sticking right up and straight and things are back to normal.

And I ask you not to forget.

Catherine followed by Howard Gale, Kendra, Alicia, Bryan.

Hi, my name is Catherine Teer, and I'm a resident of Capitol Hill.

Along with the vast majority of people, I'm here to support the one-year moratorium of data centers, and I encourage the council to consider a permanent moratorium.

I have yet to see a positive use for AI, particularly generative AI.

While I've heard of positive things in the medical field, the negatives far, far, far outweigh the positives.

In addition, I would like the 301 Virginia Street attempt at a data center shut down immediately as it violates this moratorium.

In addition, as a employee of the Seattle Center, specifically at Quampage Arena, go Local 8. Local 8, I agree on getting it decarbonized and updated.

If badly needs it.

Anyways, thank you for your time.

Mr. Gill.

Today's resolution, 32205, endorses a significant modernization project for the armory at Seattle Center.

After major armory renovation in 2011 and 12, there was a concerted effort to make the armory inhospitable to the unhoused, sanctioning certain behaviors and denying people access to the then newly installed AC power outlets, a critical need for the unhoused by installing lock covers on every public publicly accessible outlet in the Armory.

These policies were promoted by private companies that contracted with the city.

Because of the shameful history ignored and forgotten by our electeds, Resolution 32205 needs to include provisos to ensure the Armory and all of Seattle Center will be welcoming and accessible to all users and to include the unhoused in any decision making.

There should be provisos for close monitoring of any private investments or contracts to prevent these entities from shaping policies affecting how people get access to services.

You guys have consistently demanded accountability for social services, but you fail to demand accountability when things like what happened in 2011 and 2012 happened.

Thank you, Mr. Gill.

Thank you, Mr. Gill.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Thank you.

All by Alicia and then Brian.

Good afternoon, counsel.

My name is Ken.

I'm a candidate member of the American Party of Labor.

I've been here the last few weeks pressuring you to pass the moratorium, but today I'm here to talk about how you are failing our unhoused neighbors.

During a press conference this weekend, the mayor boasted a 50 unit shelter development, which is only 10% of what she promised by the time the World Cup came around.

This morning, the Associated Press also reported on this development.

I'm gonna read what they said.

They said, new Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is set, inset, excuse me, new Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson set a goal of 500 new units of shelter before the World Cup starts, but her administration fell short by hundreds.

Now, anyone who hears that can understand that the Associated Press is calling the mayor and by proxy this council, massive failures.

Continued forcible displacement increases the mortality rate amongst unhoused people, people who are still your responsibility and your constituents You need to pressure the mayor to stop wasting money on sweeping our neighbors for optics.

And deliver on her campaign promises of shelter units and actual resources.

You are killing all these people in this city by sweeping them.

Show!

Next we have Alicia followed by Brian.

Welcome Alicia.

Hello council members, my name is Alicia and I live in District 3 and I'm here to urge you to vote yes on this data center moratorium.

As I've learned more about data centers, it's actually ludicrous to me that anybody thinks that they have the ability to take this many resources from the earth and from the people.

If big tech wasn't already comic book villainy enough, this is next level.

They are completely out of touch with the earth and the ecosystems and what people need.

There was a recent interview with Jeff Bezos.

He full on looked like Lex Luthor.

Let's call these people what they are.

they are villains and they are trying to take our future from us.

Our future is not theirs, our future is ours.

Let's use this year to think, to learn, to decide, and to shape the future that we want, not what they wanna buy.

Thank you.

Hello council members, my name is Brian Dang.

I'm a displaced tech worker and a human artist.

Last Wednesday I spoke at the committee meetings in support of the moratorium on hyperscale data centers and about the power outages I've already had this year.

Today I wanted to add that the one-year moratorium is only the start of preventing and reducing harm.

If we allow existing data centers to expand 20 megawatts each, AI tech companies will find a way to exploit that loophole because they already are.

In the mid-Atlantic, Google is financing Voltus, which is a startup that will pay other households and businesses to curb their consumption at certain times in exchange for 100 megawatts for a virtual power plant.

AI does not need more megawatts.

It needs more mega regulation.

Ashley followed by Alice.

Renaissance, Anoop, Miss Yvette Dynish, and then Valerie.

And those are our last speakers today.

Ashley, Alice, Renaissance, Anoop, Yvette, and Valerie.

Welcome.

Hello.

Wait, hold on.

Let's make sure that it's on.

Just test it out real quick.

Okay, so when you start talking, we'll start the time.

Go ahead.

Hello, my name is Ashley.

I am a resident of District 3, and I'd like to urge you to support the moratorium against data centers.

I'd also like to urge you to continue to protect us, our city, and our region from the harmful environmental and economic impacts of data centers by implementing a permanent ban.

I'd like to reiterate what somebody else said earlier, we can live without AI, we cannot live without water.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Alice Lockhart.

I live in District 5. I used to work for Microsoft back when that was something one could be kind of proud of.

I currently house a brilliant summa cum laude Computer science graduate who is either, depending on the week, unemployed or severely underemployed because AI.

I organize with 350 Seattle.

Seattle solidarity budget and Washington AI resistance having changed my focus from climate all up to AI because I believe it's the very biggest threat.

And I just wanna thank you for the work you are doing and hope that your consulting moving forward looks a lot like this room and the expertise we see in it.

Thank you.

I'm Renaissance.

Are you Renaissance?

I am.

Awesome.

Welcome.

And then Anoop, and then followed by Yvette and Valerie.

I'm Renaissance.

I am one of the directors of campaigns at 350 Seattle, and I am in support of both the moratorium and the resolution passing today.

I'm very grateful, very happy that all of you in both of the committees, both land use and sustainability and parks and city light, have taken this upon yourselves in response to the community's concerns, to move forward so that we can have the time to form the legislation and the regulation on an unregulated industry that has been proliferating across our nation and around the world.

Something that catches me by surprise is that in all five of these meetings, I haven't heard one pro person for data centers show up here.

I'm sure they're in your mailboxes, but this is the community who is taking the time to come out.

So please continue doing what you're doing, and we'd love to work with you through this process.

Thank you.

We have Anup followed by Yvette, Valerie, and then Bennett.

Hello, council members.

My name is Anup.

I'm here to, one, just see how much people are all in favor of this moratorium.

I, too, am in favor of this moratorium, as I think it is symbolic of the times we live in and that if we look at the historical context of what technological progress has been.

In my mind, it's a systematic issue stemming from the legacies of colonialism, of imperialism, of this idea that because we can make the best technology, quote unquote, best technology, that we are above nature and above the planet that we live on.

And AI is the ultimate hubris of these big tech companies, that they can create this reality.

that is not connected to the world we live in, that takes resources from the world we live in.

We need to take a pause on these data centers and make sure...

Nice carrot sweatshirt.

What do you call a mad carrot?

A steamed vegetable.

Okay.

That was good.

Miss Yvette followed by Valerie and Bennett.

Good afternoon.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It's nice being at the end because I got to hear a lot about the AI thing and a thought occurred to me. why not use AI to create environmentally and ecologically friendly AI and to create well-paying AI jobs?

And lastly, I thought political signage and campaign was not allowed in council chambers.

Just saying, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Yvette.

Next we have Valerie followed by Bennett.

Welcome.

Hello, I'm Valerie Costa, I'm a resident of District 4 here in support of the moratorium and just wanted to say, you know, the reason I'm here is because I see the data centers as like a symptom or symbol of something much larger that's wrong and we know we are currently living in and on a rapid trajectory toward a much more repressive, oppressive surveillance state, a violent state here in the US and globally.

And we're going to be asked to do very difficult things and stand up against those with power, with money, and now the money to actually buy our reality through AI, through knowing what's truth and what's not.

So I thank you for being really responsive to the residents of the city when the Seattle Times article came out, and thousands of us sent letters to y'all.

And it's really beautiful to see you responding to the residents.

And thank you for that, and hope you can do much more.

Before you go, Bennett, if you're online, Rose and Natalie, if you come on, we'll go back to you.

But Bennett will be our last speaker today.

Welcome.

Thank you.

So regarding the issue of people making inflammatory references to people's race and sexual orientation at public comment, and I'm not talking about anything this week, but you all remember I'm talking about from last week.

This is something that I know something about, because I've been dealing with this in the protest community for a while, but people have said much worse stuff than that, you know, long live October 7th, or we need more dead cops in the streets.

Some people have tried to say something about it.

Here's the problem.

Some of you mentioned last week that this person was white.

What most of these people have in common is not being white, What they have in common is that these are women in their 20s.

And when someone like me says, hey, can we not be saying that stuff, they go around saying, oh, this guy's sliding into my DMs.

It's obviously intended to deceive people into thinking that I was hitting on them instead of telling them to stop saying racist stuff at city council meetings.

And that not only doesn't solve the problem, but it leads to actual violence at the time or stopped.

There we go.

Hey, wait a minute.

That's not how much time I have left.

Hold on.

You're OK.

You're good.

Hold on.

We'll reset it 30 seconds.

I don't know where it stopped at.

It's about 30.

OK.

Give us one second, Bennett.

We'll wait till it goes down.

OK.

Hold on.

No.

I'll take a minute 25. All right.

It was 30 seconds.

Please.

Hold on.

We got you, Bennett.

Don't have a heart attack.

You're good.

OK.

All right.

Okay, so not only does this not fix the problem, this is what leads to most of the violence that occurs at left-wing process in Seattle.

This is what one of her friends posted about me over the weekend.

Look at this.

Texas dad beats child molester to death on the spot.

Fear his father catches blah, blah, blah.

This is what needs to happen to Bennett.

This is what somebody posted about me.

And reminder, this is because of me telling women in their 20s to stop saying racist shit at city council meetings.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bennett.

Okay, is there any other more comments, additional comments?

Nope.

And then let me just check online.

I do not see it.

Okay, so the public comment period is now closed.

Thank you all for coming down and speaking with us today and your comments in the email and online or if you see us in person.

We are very grateful for the comments and I'm looking forward to getting started with the meeting.

And so if there's no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

Now, before we adopt the agenda, I'm gonna, if there's no objection, the agenda's gonna be amended to have agenda item number seven be under committee business to be the first thing that we hear, which is the appointment of Dr. V. Is that okay?

If there's no objection, awesome.

All right, so we're gonna jump right into that.

or if there's no objection, they'll be adopted.

So hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

Awesome, all right.

Will the clerk please read item number seven into the record and then we'll jump.

Consent calendar.

Oh, okay, before we do that, sorry, I didn't do the consent calendar.

We'll now, thank you, we'll now consider the consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar include the minutes of June 2nd, 2026, Council Bill 121223, payment of the bills.

Are there any items council members would like to remove from today's consent calendar?

Hearing none, I move to adopt the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second to adopt the consent calendar.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?

Councilmember Strauss.

Aye.

Councilmember Foster.

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez.

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn.

Yes.

Councilmember Rink.

consent calendar items are adopted.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the consent calendar on my behalf?

Clerk, we're going to jump right into the agenda.

Will you please read item number seven into the record?

Agenda item seven, the Committee of Human Services, Labor and Economic Development.

Appointment 03497, the appointment of Sandra J. Valenciano as Director of Public Health Seattle in King County.

The committee recommends City Council confirm the appointment.

Awesome, Council Member Rank as chair of the committee, you recognize in order to provide comment, committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, as Chair of the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee, I am truly happy to recommend Dr. Sandra Valenciano as Director of Public Health Seattle King County.

With all of us having experienced the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I think we all have come to realize how fragile our public health system can be, especially now, and why it is critical to have thoughtful, knowledgeable leaders in charge of our institutions.

So, colleagues, and for the viewing public, the public health director is a unique position because it must be confirmed by both Seattle City Council and the King County Council as they report both to the Marin County Executive.

King County Council voted just today, maybe an hour ago.

I'm looking at the audience, amazing.

And now we are taking up this vote today.

Dr. Valenziano is a board-certified physician in internal medicine with a master's in public health and currently serves as the department's acting director and primary medical expert, guiding policy and practice with scientific rigor and a deep commitment to equity.

and before joining Public Health Seattle King County, she led the DeKalb County Public Health in Georgia as medical director and district health director overseeing services for more than 780,000 residents.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as incident commander ensuring equitable vaccine access, improving efficiency and distributing all of that while also guiding department-wide strategic vision focused on equity, efficiency and engagement.

Dr. Valenciano also brings

There we go.

Awesome.

Is mine out?

There we go.

Okay.

Wonderful.

I'll jump right back in.

Thank you.

Dr. Valenciano also brings national public health expertise from her service as an epidemic intelligence officer at the CDC, where she led outbreak responses and strengthened our national security system.

And she has also been an educator at Emory University School of Medicine.

So with that level of expertise, colleagues, I believe we will be very well served by Dr. Valenciano as Director of Public Health Seattle King County.

The committee voted unanimously to support her appointment, and I hope you all will vote yes today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rank.

Colleagues, are there any other comments about Dr. Valenciano?

Let me make sure I go to my thing.

Council Member Rivera.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

I just want to say I've had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Valenciano and I am so thrilled that she's here and so happy to be able to appoint her.

I found her to be really thoughtful and thorough and very experienced and we're happy to have that experience here in Seattle.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Colleagues, is there any more regarding?

I'm happy to support this.

I voted yes in committee.

Dr. V is phenomenal.

Oh, I see Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to say two words.

I'm obviously in support, two words, but go Terriers.

Awesome.

Are there any other comments on the floor?

All right.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Oh, do you have any final comments, Councilmember Rink?

My apologies.

Now please vote yes.

Awesome.

All right.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?

Councilmember Strauss.

Aye.

Councilmember Foster.

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez.

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn.

Yes.

Councilmember Rink.

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Saka.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries.

The appointment's confirmed.

Congratulations, Dr. Valenciano.

You were recognized to provide brief comments to the members of the public, so congratulations.

Thank you, Council President and Chair Rink.

It's truly a privilege and an honor to be considered for this role.

I am grateful for the trust that you have placed in me, and I look forward to working with each of you as we continue to improve the health and well-being of Seattle residents.

I welcome the opportunity to come back to Council to present on important public health outcomes for the City of Seattle later this year and to learn more about all of the services that we provide at Public Health Seattle and King County.

One of my priorities is strengthening how we, Public Health, communicate with all of you and to make sure that we are aware of the important needs of our residents and the communities that we serve.

My goal is that you have clear visibility into our work and that the work that we do meets the needs of Seattle residents together.

I also want to express my deep appreciation to my public health team for their support throughout this process.

I've had four confirmation hearings, so I appreciate all of you council members for taking the time to meet with me, and I look forward to meeting with those who I haven't had the chance to meet with yet.

Thank you for sharing your priorities with me, for reflecting about the needs of the residents that you serve, and I'm truly grateful for this opportunity and excited to get to work.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Dr. Valenciano.

Very happy for your confirmation.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right, next will the clerk please read item number one into the record.

Agenda item one, resolution 32208, a resolution retiring introduced and referred council bills, resolutions, clerk files, and appointments that have received no further action.

Awesome colleagues, thank you clerk.

Colleagues, no explanation really needed.

This is something that was brought by clerk's office and central staff and it's basically a technical resolution so we can retire some stuff that is in legislature still be in there, but if it needs to be reintroduced by someone, it will be.

So if there's no other comments, I'm going to move to adopt resolution 32208. Is there a second?

It's been moved in second.

Are there any additional comments?

No.

Will the clerk please call the roll on adoption of the resolution?

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

Motion carries and the resolution is adopted.

Will the clerk please read item number two into the record?

The report of the Parks and City Light Committee, Agenda Item 2, Resolution 32204, a resolution relating to data centers committing to studying the potential for data centers to impact electrical grid capacity and reliability, water usage, utility rates, land use and development, jobs in the economy and public health, and requesting engagement and cooperation from the executive in the development of data center policies and potential legislation and anticipates related legislative action, the committee recommends Council adopt as amended the resolution.

Council Member Juarez as Chair of the Committee, you're recognized in order to provide the committee report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Before I begin, do I go ahead, do you want me to speak to everything now because I know Council Member Kettle has an amendment.

Okay, thank you.

You want to do an introduction and then we start doing the amendments?

Sure, because I have a lot to say.

Yeah, I think an introduction and then we'll do amendments and then whatever.

Okay.

However way you want to do it.

Okay.

Oh, thank you.

It's your vibe.

All right.

I'm just going to do a brief introduction, save my comments for the end because there's some groups that I wanted to thank.

And one thing I wanted to say is that this City Council, and particularly Council Member Lynn and our committee and our D5 group, have been working on the data center in the issues in the fall and well before the media or the Seattle Times or whomever wrote about it.

I think that's important to note.

Anyway, I'm going to save my more intense comments for when we actually move the bill and Council Member Kettle makes his amendments.

but I just wanted to share that we have had two committee hearings in our committee that dovetailed with Councilmember Lynn's Land Use Committee to make sure that we covered all the bases.

So with that, I'm going to withhold the rest of my comments.

I'll let Councilmember Kettle do his amendments and then if I can come back on the record and then close us out.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle, you were recognized to move your amendment.

Thank you, Council President.

I move to amend Resolution 32204 by passing Amendment A as shown on the agenda as Amendment A.

Second.

It's been moved and second to amend the resolution as presented on Amendment A. Council Member Kettle, you're recognized in order to address it.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to start by saying I support this resolution from Council Member Juarez and also Council Member Lynn's ordinance with respect to data centers.

I also want to thank the Council Members and their teams who have worked with my team on both this amendment and a bunch of different pieces as it relates to the resolution and the ordinance.

I do believe it's important to have a deliberate and complete review approach.

I think it's also important to discern between hyperscale data centers with those what I call traditional data centers.

I've been engaging with a lot of conversations, a lot of different people, and it's interesting, there's not really a term, so I'm sticking with my term traditional data centers.

You know, I think it's important to look at our local data centers, of which I visited one.

It's actually here in downtown.

It was very important, interesting.

Interesting to note that the data center actually heats six, a half dozen buildings in our downtown.

It was interesting to see that, and it also has the capacity to do a few more.

This is the kind of environmental piece that we should be looking at and considering, you know, in terms of how can we best do these data centers.

I also looked at, you know, are local, obviously there's been a lot of comment regarding Amazon and Microsoft.

I've been meeting with them over the years regarding AI, before the most recent ramp-ups, but for both.

And I think it's also important, particularly as we look at hyperscale data centers and being smart about moving forward, to see what they've done.

It's interesting, both Amazon and Microsoft did not have data centers in Seattle, or greater Seattle.

Amazon, you know, in my discussions with them here, you know, Eastern Oregon.

So it's interesting.

Not necessarily in one place, it's like a cluster in Eastern Oregon.

And for Microsoft, it's in Quincy in Grant County, which is just north of George as you drive on 990 from east to west.

If you're at George, just turn north and you'll run into that data center.

and I think it's important as we do this review to look at these pieces and be complete and deliberate on those as we look to be smart about moving forward because, you know, as noted in the local data center, the one digital realty, you know, it runs our first responders.

It supports our first responders and I think that's important to remember.

It also supports the UW digital access project, you know, to give access to those that have difficulty in terms of digital access.

And so I think it's important to have these pieces in there.

And I also wanted to note, as the vice chair of the City Light Committee, that we definitely need the partnership.

This is, you know, we have the, you know, from land use, this resolution is coming out of the City Light Committee.

We have to fully understand everything that relates to City Light, where it is, and the capacity, and the issues that relate to City Light.

and people note climate change, for example.

All these different pieces need to be factored in with what we're doing and the City Light Committee is the place to do that.

To hear from the experts, hear what the factors are that are impacting City Light to include things like chargers, what's going on with vehicles.

There's so many different pieces that go into our electricity usage and that we need to have these all considered as we, you know, what is the impact on City Light?

You know, this has to be a comprehensive piece and I think it's really, this, the data center piece really highlights what is going on at City Light and to include, as many have mentioned, I'm looking at this gentleman here because I remember him speaking about climate change in the future, you know, what are the impacts on City Light?

and I would add just briefly, we need strong leadership at Seattle Light 2. I won't go any further on that.

That's been discussed before and I'll be discussed again, but this is not the place.

But I just wanted to close, colleagues, I'm just basically doing my remarks now, is that on the question of AI, I hear the concerns of all the public commenters here and I too have conflicted.

It's like, hey, I think of AI and I see the possibilities in the medical field where we can gain from that.

and other areas as well.

But I'm concerned.

There was an individual who was a young man who was speaking and I can't see him right now.

But the idea of critical thinking, you know, I have a daughter who's in school finishing up her last week of fifth grade and for me it's always about critical thinking and the ability to communicate.

And what are we doing here?

and I think that's also important to consider and the person was speaking to that point, it might have been you sir, and you know, the bottom line here is that we also need to be thinking of our humanity.

and I think that should be a guide as we do these reviews both in terms of the bigger picture pieces and also in more detail like I was speaking with Seattle City Light because at the end of the day we need to be moving forward where we can but also mindful of the impacts that we may experience and that area of critical thinking and ability to communicate and basically our humanity is really important.

So thank you, Council President and colleagues.

I just ask for your consideration and support for this.

Basically, it's just an additional area of study for us to ensure that we do have a complete review moving forward, particularly in the area of hyperscale data centers.

So thank you so much.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Colleagues, is there any other questions, comments?

Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you for bringing this forward, Councilmember Kettle.

Just so I'm clear, and I know we don't have staff at the table to brief this amendment, and I know it's not up on the screen right now for broader review, but with the language I'm looking before us, this is just, if you could confirm to me, this is just adding to the recitals section some additional points about our current state and having some smaller data centers that exist within Seattle, and the current uses related to healthcare facilities, and it does not change the work program or anything else that this resolution is trying to do.

Is that correct?

Correct.

This is just, again, just an additional area of duty in the recitals in Section 1H.

Thank you.

That was just a point I wanted to clarify.

Sorry.

Councilmember Cattle.

Yes, it's basically, as I said, it's, you know, the, as written, the businesses, government entities, public safety, healthcare facilities, basically what I was saying in terms of like the data center that is supporting our city here downtown and to ensure that those pieces are covered within this review that we're doing moving forward.

Understood.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rank.

Colleagues, is there any more questions regarding the amendment?

Can I say something?

Council Member Juarez.

Council Member Kettle, I know that we talked about this, I'm just going to clarify, and thank you, Council Member Rink, for bringing that up.

Yes, sir, the two changes are in the recital, and the third change, the amendment would add to the list of subjects for study regarding the potential impacts of data centers, which is starting on page three in the Be It Resolved and then begins on page four, which would add a section H.

So we have two additions in the recital and then one change on page three, starting on page three, be it resolved.

That's the clarification.

Yes, that's it.

It's page two of the resolution itself, but page three.

The floor is still yours, Councilmember Rank.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you all for just clarifying that point for me, that the amendment before us is adding to recitals and purely expanding the scope of what will be studied.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rank.

I see Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Council President.

Actually, I had my hand raised previously because I wanted to clarify.

It's my understanding that there is an expansion of what's in the study, and that was counter to the first comment, but I think we've just clarified that, so I'm going to put my hand down.

Awesome.

Great question.

So just to clarify, this is an expansion of the study that's currently in there that Council Member Kettle has brought before us.

Are there any more additional comments regarding Council Member Kettle?

Councilmember Kettle's amendment.

I'll go to you for closing comments and then I'm going to go to Councilmember Juarez for any other additional comments and then we'll vote on the resolution or the amendment, excuse me.

Councilmember Kettle?

Nothing further.

Just ask for your support.

Okay, any other further comments regarding the amendment before we call for the vote?

Alright, will the clerk please call the roll on amendment A?

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

9 in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries.

Amendment A is adopted.

Are there any additional comments on the resolution?

Council Member Wares.

Thank you.

I'll do my comments now.

Then if we need to come back, I can close this out.

So I want to just start with that.

I want to thank Council Member Lynn and his work on the Land Use Committee on the moratorium, which is Council Bill 121214, which is next.

and add that the resolution and the moratorium dovetail and complement each other quite well.

This is Seattle's position on AI and data centers.

And second, we had two committee meetings to go through all of this information and public hearings to hear from the public and, of course, the written comments that we had from the public as well.

I want to thank my vice chair, Councilmember Kettle.

I also want to thank my committee members, Councilmember Rivera, Strauss, and Saka, who all gave me good information and insight on the data centers, the AI and the information that was incoming.

I have a prepared statement that I want to, some of you have heard some of this in committee, but we want to pull it all together based on what we were hearing from the folks that showed up at public comment and the correspondence and the letters that we received from constituents citywide as well as out of state.

We are a city of technology.

This resolution is focused on responsible exploration of this new field for this and future generations.

Due to the boom in artificial intelligence, these data centers are being built in a rush by organizations and companies that are only concerned with the race to extract resources.

Rapid data center development focuses on short-term gains while disregarding the well-being of communities that they are built in.

Water and these other natural resources are finite resources for all people.

In our research, we have found that these data centers have the potential to significantly burden our community and impact the electrical grid by, number one, forcing substantial capital improvements at high costs.

Two, consuming large quantities of water resources.

Three, occupying large amounts of commercial and industrial space.

Four, impacting jobs and the economy through a boom and bust employment and automation.

Five, the effect of public health by producing noise, light, water, and air pollution.

And this doesn't even address the whole issue of outsourcing and using our water for public transport.

Well, I guess the point I want to say is, we should not be outsourcing our critical thinking.

And we should not be using water so people can use AI to make art, because that's basically theft.

And at some point, if we go through with, I think it's Senator Sanders is talking about a sovereign bill.

where you are taking all this data that you think is just out there, and it's theft, and it's being sold back to us, and we have no guardrails, and we, again, I'll get to the federal government in a minute, and we haven't had an opportunity to slow this down.

If I could today, I know, if I could actually do this today, I would do a complete stop of AI and data centers, and I'll get to that point in a minute.

This resolution addresses the need for city departments to take a look at the long-term effects of data centers on the electrical grid, residential utility rates, land and water usage, economic development and public health, and we haven't even addressed the global hype of what it's done to markets.

It is just inflated.

We know right now that Amazon and Microsoft have it, I think, are hovering between $500 and $600 billion to invest in data centers.

This is a technology, again, and I've said this in committee, where it takes a while for society to catch up with technology.

And for once, maybe we can get ahead of that.

council, which I'm very proud of, during the 2025 state legislative session, we tracked nine data setter bills.

and of the nine, only one bill passed, Senate Bill 5984, and that had to do with chat bots.

So I'm hoping that this crowd understands, and I know you do, that when this next legislative session comes around, that people show up in Olympia and send and talk to your elected representatives because this council was active on that.

This council was engaged on that.

I want to thank Council Member Saka from his background in the tech industry that gave me information and helped us understand some of these issues.

Our policy director, Paul Menefee, has been attending the Washington Attorney General's AI Task Force meetings.

That was created by former now Governor Ferguson.

If you get a chance to get online and dial into that, those are very interesting meetings, but that's another point of entry for public comment and what you believe and how you feel about data centers and what our government should be doing.

We also met with an incredible group more than once and got a copy of their pleadings in the court hearings, a group called Media Justice.

And we learned about ongoing litigation like Project Blue that was being funded by Amazon.

And also the No Desert Data Center in Pima County, Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona.

And they shared with us all of the information and resources and a toolkit that I provided to Councilmember Lin's office and other folks, including folks at Seattle City Light.

While we cannot look to the federal government for leadership, we can look to tribal governments.

The Seminole Nation was the first tribal council that passed a moratorium on hyperscale data centers in March.

The Sotsua, St. Maria Tribe of Chippewa Indians and many other tribal nations have followed suit.

As the Muskuki Band representative Glenn Chabon Cornell said, this is the threshold.

There is no turning back.

Once we used up and contaminated all of the water resources, this is it.

Indigenous folks and tribal leadership, since post-colonial contact, we are no stranger to excavation and mining mentality.

And in the 21st century, it hasn't ended.

And we're seeing it now again.

So today we follow the example that tribal nations again have set, that we start on the path to ensure that we protect our finite natural resources.

So before I go on, I want to give a huge shout out to my colleagues up here.

I know it sometimes looks like we're all maybe not agreeing, but what I want to do is that this Seattle City Council, under the leadership of our Council President, has shown me that they have given the example of shared leadership, which I have seen and how I was taught in Indian Country, that we can come together on the issues that matter and we can have our disagreements, but we certainly know when there's an existential threat, not only to our city, not only to our state, but not to our country, but to our world.

There's some more, I may be a little bit repetitive in thinking, but I do wanna say this on the record.

Again, I wanna thank Council Member Lynn and his team, Thaddeus Gregory, for the work that they did.

I wanna thank Council President Hollingsworth for her leadership.

We had long talks about how we would attack this, what our media strategy would be, how we would work with the mayor's office, and how we would work with Council Member Lynn's committee.

A special thank to my D5 team, Kelly, Kimmy, Paul, and Sophia.

And last time I forgot Kimmy, so I wanted to make sure I said it this time.

And now there's some other groups that I want to thank because I got to know them over the last, I don't know, two months.

All the current and former tech workers, thank you for coming out.

The Amazon Climate Change Group, thank you for coming out.

The AI Resistance Group, a very, very interesting, fun group.

350 Seattle, a huge shout out to Alice Lockhart and those folks.

They were on the webinar that we attended with Tribal Nations and Seattle University School of Law this past Friday, just did a huge AI data center, indigenous communities at the law school on Friday, which my office attended.

So I'm not sure who else was other folks, Seattle City Council staff attended, but we did.

I also want to thank the tribes.

I had been in contact with tribes in the Midwest and the Southwest and their legal counsel and how they're approaching this.

And that's really important that we have the shared leadership that I believe is intuitive and in all of us.

And also I want to thank the soapbox folks.

Did I get that right?

Yeah, they were very fun.

And thank you for coming to public comment.

And last but not least, I want to thank Pearl Jam Guy.

I don't know if he's still here.

There he is.

I don't know his real name, but he's been helpful.

And I told him I did not know any Pearl Jam songs.

And I don't.

No, I don't.

I don't know one.

Different generation with real music.

Okay.

So I'll leave that alone.

And so with that, Council President, I just want to get all of those comments out and on the record and thank people who did the work.

and thank my staff who attended the webinars and everything else that I've asked them to do, and also my colleagues.

And with that, I would hope I would have your support on today's resolution.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Are there any other comments before we call the roll for the resolution as amended?

Yeah, there is.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Apologies, Council Member Juarez.

I didn't give my comments before you gave your final, but I really just wanna acknowledge and recognize you and thank you for all the hard work that you did.

You know, I love Rivera due diligence.

You gave Juarez due diligence and I really appreciate that.

And I'm saying it a little cheeky, but I do mean it sincerely.

You put a lot, you and your team of work into this and meeting with all the groups and I very much appreciate all the work that you did.

And I was not present at our committee meeting where you voted.

I would have voted in favor of the resolution.

So I really just, I'm gonna vote today yes, of course, but I do wanna recognize all the hard work and thank you for the record.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Are there any other comments about the resolution before us Okay, awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez, obviously for your leadership.

You said closing remarks.

That is, you did the mic drop.

That is enough, all right?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the resolution as, excuse me, the resolution as amended.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Before I say aye, I forgot to say something.

Council Member Sacco is a co-sponsor.

Aye.

Oh, did I say it?

Okay.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Lynn.

Yes.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Awesome.

Resolution is adopted and the chair will sign up.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Congratulations Council Member Juarez.

All right.

Good job, council member Juarez.

It must be the haircut.

All right.

Will the clerk please read item number three into the record?

Agenda Item 3, the report of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, Council Bill 121214, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning introducing a new definition for data centers adopting a moratorium on the filing, acceptance, processing, or approval of applications for the establishment or expansion of or change of use to data centers in amending section 23.84A.008 of the Seattle Municipal Code approving a work plan declaring an emergency and establishing an immediate effective date all by a three-quarters vote of the City Council.

The Committee recommends City Council pass, as amended, the Council Bill.

Awesome.

Councilmember Lin is Chair of the Committee.

You are recognized to provide the report.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you to Councilmember Juarez and to all my colleagues.

Thank you to all the members of the public today and the past few months who have been deeply engaged on this issue.

And the land use moratorium is really just the tip of the iceberg around this larger discussion around the impacts of AI, the concerns around the environmental impacts, the impacts to our economic inequality, which continues to grow around our democracy, around who owns our, information and data, and, you know, the list goes on and on.

And again, this is just the tip of that iceberg.

I want to say thank you to my colleagues, many of whom were working on this issue well before I was, to Councilmember Choyers, Council President, Councilmember Rank, and who graciously allowed me and my staff to work on this moratorium.

This is an issue that is not just a Democrat, Republican, Socialist.

This goes across the political spectrum.

This is not just a city issue or a rural issue.

We see these impacts across our country, across the world.

And this is a rapidly developing technology and I already had concerns about the role of technology in our society and this has just expedited those concerns substantially.

As elected leaders, it is our job to make sure that technology works for the benefit of all of us.

Our tech companies, their job is to maximize profits for their shareholders.

It is our job to address the impacts, to develop regulations, to prohibit certain activities if they cannot be regulated appropriately, and again, to make sure that the benefits are for all of us.

If it doesn't benefit all of us, we don't need that technology.

And so, again, this is just a start.

We will have a work plan where we will need to engage, continue to do this work.

We will need to work with our regional partners, our state legislators, both on data centers, but probably more urgently around the impacts of AI.

and just want to say again, thank you for everyone here to being engaged in this, to working with us urgently.

It is hard for government to move quickly.

It is hard to stay on top of this evolving technology, but we're going to need your help.

So with that, Colleagues, again, thank you for all the work behind the scenes, and thank you in advance for all the work to come.

I urge your support.

Awesome.

Good job, Councilmember Lin.

Councilmember...

One more thing.

I just got to say thank you to all the staff and our council central staff who have really done the work behind the scenes, so thank you to them.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Or excuse me, I'm sorry, Councilmember Lin.

Councilmember Kettle, you're recognized, followed by Councilmember Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

I just wanted to quickly say, you know, I really enjoyed working with Councilmember Lin and his team in terms of, you know, again, working through this in a complete and deliberate way to ensure that we're covered in all bases.

And I just wanted to do a special thank you because my team has been working really closely with Mr. Gregory.

his policy director and a key person in this.

And so I just wanted to say thank you to Mr. Gregory specifically.

Thank you, Council Member Lynn, and thank you, Council President.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Gatto.

Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to kick it off by thanking the organizers behind this effort.

It has been absolutely remarkable to see the engagement from the public on this issue, and I know that was a fair amount of work to organize that effort.

I know my office alone received 8,000 emails.

I heard a figure floated during public comment.

Was it 90,000 emails total sent?

I'm looking at some nods.

Higher?

More?

that 98,000 emails sent.

That is absolutely incredible.

And beyond just emails being sent, every committee meeting where this issue was taken up, there were folks present, engaging, making their voices heard.

And I hear you, and I wanna thank you for your engagement and all of the work that went into organizing our neighbors and sharing just about this issue, sharing information about the issue of data centers and about this work.

So huge gratitude to you all.

And to stay on that note of gratitude, I want to speak both to the item that we just voted on and the item now before us and express my gratitude to Council Member Juarez as well as Council Member Lynn for your steadfast leadership on both the City Light and Land Use Committee on this issue.

And let's be clear that the proliferation of these mega hyperscale data centers pose serious risks to our communities for so many reasons.

energy demands that could raise the cost of power for everyday people, water consumption in a time where healthy, clean drinking water and rising droughts are spreading across the globe, and pollution that we are already seeing impact across the country, poisoning communities.

if we do not legislate or regulate this right, the people will bear the brunt.

And I believe we have a moral imperative to put the well-being of our residents, our climate, our future above the profit margins of tech billionaires.

So...

And from my perspective, and Committee Chair Lynn put it really well, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

This legislation before us is just the beginning to start charting that course.

And I'm looking forward to working alongside the organizations present today to work on regulating this industry and as we work towards permanent legislation on this topic alone.

Again, huge thank you to the committee sponsors of these bills, Council Member Juarez, Council Member Lynn, thank you to you and your teams for your steadfast work.

Thank you.

to the board.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

every individual who's carved out time out of your very busy lives to attend today's meeting, showing up at other meetings, taking the time to email our respective offices, call us, whispering, you know, having side conversations with us in the bread aisle at Safeway in West Seattle.

I've heard it all, and I really do appreciate it.

This is not an organized effort.

This is a 100% grassroots effort.

Sure, there's some leaders, but absolutely this is 100% grassroots, and people are rightfully concerned.

We've seen associations, groups of like-minded people across the political spectrum, across the divide, all walks of life, all organizing, rallying around a common initiative to stop the expansion and pause the expansion of data centers in our community to allow us to be more thoughtful about how we responsibly allocate the benefits and burdens of data centers and AI technology and better regulate these big companies.

Because today, as we know, The profits are quickly exported across Lake Washington, Bellevue, or to Silicon Valley, and here we're left dealing with the fallout of price spike hikes, water shortages, severe climate impacts, and more.

Kudos to everyone who's carved out time, former tech workers, parent groups.

I'm told that there was folks asking people to testify and show up in various West Seattle mom and parent groups on social media.

This is truly a diverse group of stakeholders, so thank you for you all being so generous with your time and your perspectives.

Within two months, from the time to introduction to passage, we are aspiring here to be as responsive as we can.

And I also wanna thank the committee chairs on this, starting first with Council Member Juarez, the senior states person on this body.

Really appreciate, and I mean that in the most respectful way possible.

But I really do appreciate you and your leadership and your vision, and honored to be a part of executing this vision from a policy perspective, and you as well, Land Use Committee Chair.

Lynn, appreciate you and all you have done, and just really driving this to this all of us to this point right now, incredible leadership, and again, importantly, allowing us to be as collectively responsive as possible.

So thank you, and that is all.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Are there any further comments regarding the bill before us?

Councilmember Lynn, do you have any closing comments?

Just want to say thank you for co-sponsoring, Council President, and for all your support.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

You led with incredible diligence, research, education, intellectual ability, like, just amazing.

And so just really grateful for your leadership and also your staff as well.

It was fun to be in the passenger seat on this one and tell you about your blind spots left and right.

All right.

Next, will the clerk please call the roll on the bill before us?

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Council Member Foster.

Yes.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Lynn.

Yes.

Council Member Rink.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Bill passes.

Chair will sign it.

Clerk will- I think they liked it.

Okay, awesome.

Great.

And you didn't have any blind spot, Councilman.

I didn't mean that in any, it was just, you know, I'm a backseat driver.

Okay, anyways, will the clerk please read item number four into the record?

Agenda Item 4, Clerk File 314-549, the application of Eagle Rock Ventures and 5201 Rainier LLC for an extension of the contract re-zone of the property at 5201 Rainier Avenue South.

Original contract re-zone application approved through CF, Clerk File 314-311 and ordinance 125632, project number 3018378-LU type 4. The committee recommends City Council grant the clerk file.

We'll be at ease right now.

We still have our meeting.

The gentleman in the back, we're still...

Yeah, you're good.

You're good.

No, you're good.

You're good.

Thank you so much.

We support it.

I just want to say that.

Okay, perfect.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

All right, awesome.

So we're gonna, Council Member Lynn, as chair of the committee, you're recognized to provide the committee report.

Thank you, Council President.

This bill and the next one relate to a contract rezone extending it for an additional two years.

As you probably know, this is for hopefully at some point housing on this site, but as we know development has been difficult for many of our developer, housing developers due to things like interest rates and other costs.

And so this would simply allow two more years for this development to hopefully break ground.

And that's something I know many of us are concerned about is doing everything we can to allow our housing developers to break ground.

but this would just extend the rezone for two more years and I would urge your support.

Awesome, thank you Council Member Lynn.

I'm gonna now, I want to provide an opportunity for parties of the record or individuals who commented on SDCI recommendation to rebut the substance of the communication on the record and invite anyone here to do so.

This opportunity is to address the ex-party communication only.

If anyone agrees, then they can confirm that they are a party of the record.

Ketel will share the list and provide them allocated time.

Hearing none, we will proceed with a vote.

Will the clerk please call the roll on granting the clerk file.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Council President Allingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The clerk file is granted.

Will we please read item number five into the record?

Agenda Item 5, Council Bill 121220, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning approving the extension of a contract rezone approved by Ordinance 125632 and accepting an amended property use and development agreement for a property located at 5201 Rainier Avenue South, application by Eagle Rock Ventures and 5201 Rainier LLC.

Clerk file 314549, SDCA project number 3018378-LU.

The committee recommends City Council pass the council bill.

Council member Lynn, chair of the committee, you're recognized.

Thank you, Council President.

This is the corollary ordinance to allow for that two-year extension.

I will have one amendment which is just to attach an executed version of the property use and development agreement for the unexecuted version that was previously included as amendment A to the ordinance.

So at the appropriate time, I'd like to move that.

Awesome, I believe this, yep, this is about right.

Okay, so I move to amend Council Bill 121220 by passing Amendment A in an executed version of the property use and development agreement for the unexecuted version of the property use and development agreement as shown on the agenda as Amendment A. Do I have a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second to amend the bill with the executed property use and development agreement as shown on the agenda as Amendment A. Council Member Lane, you recognize in order to address the amendment.

This is just a clerical issue to have the executed version.

There were no other changes.

So I urge your support.

Awesome.

Are there any other comments on the amendment?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment A?

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council Member Foster?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Lynn?

Yes.

Council Member Rink?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Mine in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries and Amendment A is adopted.

Are there any further comments on the bill as amended?

Any closing remarks?

Council Member Lynn?

No closing remarks.

Awesome.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill as amended?

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Linn?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the clerk will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read item number six into the agenda?

The report of the Transportation Waterfront in Seattle Center Committee, agenda item six, resolution 32205. A resolution affirming the importance of Seattle Center as a central civic, cultural, and economic asset for the city of Seattle, acknowledging the urgent imperative to restore its aging infrastructure and grounds, renovate its buildings, and revitalize the Seattle Center campus.

requesting that the mayor direct city departments in a capital planning effort for Seattle Center, anticipating a decision on a bond measure to fund its capital investment by the end of 2027, committing to exploring all viable funding options to support its modernization, declaring council priorities and calling upon the executive to direct departmental resources and budget allocations in support of its capital improvements.

The committee recommends city council adopt the resolution.

Councilmember Saka, as chair of the committee, you are recognized to give the report.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

So first and foremost, I want to thank Mayor Wilson for her partnership on this and everyone in the mayor's office, including Deputy Mayor Surratt.

This is, colleagues, a reminder, this is a joint mayoral council resolution.

with the mayor signing on in concurrent.

So really appreciate the partnership from our executive on this one.

Colleagues, members of the public, this is about putting people to work.

This is about supporting good living wage union jobs.

This is about workforce development and promoting a skilled and sustainable workforce.

This is about addressing climate change.

This is about decarbonizing this important civic and cultural asset.

This is about supporting our arts, cultural, creative, and sports economy.

Yes, sports.

It's about restoring our iconic Seattle Center to its original vibrance.

It's about building back better.

It's about creating vibrant places for residents, workers, and visitors to gather and enjoy such a wonderful civic space.

The Seattle Center, as we know, hasn't been materially updated or touched almost 60 years, urgently needs investment.

As one of the members from the Carpenters Union pointed out earlier during public comment, the longer we wait, the more expensive this becomes.

Also, we learn from public comment, and I agree with Nicole Grant from IBEW, the Seattle Center is truly a jewel of our city and we need to protect it, we need to restore it to its original vibrancy and build back better.

Heck, even a few of the commenters who spoke about the data center moratorium were supportive of this.

So shout out to the Pearl Jam guy, unfortunately he left.

But this is, at the end of the day, colleagues, this is a piece of paper.

It's also a commitment to, next year, put a ballot measure on the ballot for a bond measure on the ballot to renovate the Seattle Center once and for all.

But more than a sheet of paper or commitments for next year, this reflects a winning coalition.

You heard from many members of the coalition today, and it was only a sliver of many folks who've been involved in this effort over many months and many years now, predating my tenure in this role as chair of the council committee that oversees the Seattle Center.

Union, unions, labor, private philanthropic organizations, business community, Many of the tenant organizations of the Seattle Center themselves and beyond.

People who support a vibrant arts and cultural and sports scene.

A lot of people want to get this done next year, wanted to get it done this year.

And I hear you.

But I'm excited for next year.

2027 is the year.

likely August 27, certainly no later than the November 27 general election.

And also want to close by highlighting what I think is a pretty cool aspect of this legislation here.

Colleagues, as you'll recall, a few months back, back in April of this year, we passed yet another joint mayoral council resolution affirming our city's readiness to welcome back the Sonics, reaffirming Climate Pledge Arena's readiness today, to welcome back an NBA franchise, which it is, yes, today, ready.

The Climate Pledge Arena is ready today.

Perspective Ownership Group with Samantha Holloway et al. ready today.

So this legislation actually builds upon that because we are committing next year to put a ballot measure on the ballot to actually renovate the Seattle Center.

So it's an opportunity for us to back our prior policy values and statements that we just said on a different piece of paper a couple months ago.

It's an opportunity to back those prior policy statements and value statements with tangible dollars in investment and a concrete, specific plan, timeline and schedule next year to get this done.

because we need our sonics back, we need to put more people to work, we need to save our environment, we need to have vibrant arts cultural spaces, we need to do all those things and more.

And this puts us on track to do exactly that.

And as chair of the council committee that oversees the Seattle Center, formerly the Transportation Waterfront and Seattle Center Committee, aka STEPS, as committee chair, next year I will hold quarterly or bi-monthly, if needed, briefings and discussions on the status of this effort to keep us on track to make sure we're making progress.

The actual writing of the package isn't that complex after all, turns out there's a few technical nuances I know firsthand, but we will be keeping on track and holding ourselves accountable to getting this done next year.

Again, I want to thank the mayor's office, Mayor Wilson, everyone in the mayor's office, and excited about helping us take the next step in so many ways, including being the cherry on top to welcoming back our Sonics.

Last but not least, Council President, I want to thank you for your leadership and your thought partnership in all of this.

You've been a terrific sounding board for ideas on this and so many things pertaining to the Seattle Center, but I'm grateful for your partnership, your leadership, and look forward to strengthening our collaboration going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Saka and for your leadership on this and carrying the flag over for this process.

It's been very fun to watch your love and passion for the Seattle Center and then all the groups that are involved that were here today.

And so, oh, I didn't see hands.

My apologies.

Sorry about that.

Okay, so we do, oh, and we have amendments.

Duh, I'm sorry.

So, okay, colleagues, give me one second.

So how we'll do this.

Thank you, Council Member Sacco for the opening comments.

Can we do amendment first?

Let's talk about that and then we'll do comments regarding that.

Is that okay, colleagues?

Awesome.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Thumbs up.

Council Member Kettle, can you go ahead and move your amendment to the resolution?

Thank you, Council President.

I move to amend Resolution 32205 by passing Amendment A as shown on the agenda as Amendment A.

It's been moved, oh, is there a second?

Thank you.

It's been moved and second to amend the resolution as presented on Amendment A. Council Member Kettle, you're recognized in order to address it.

Thank you, Council President.

And first, I want to say thank you to Council Member Saka for his work on this very important You know, the engagement, it's surprising how much engagement and the breadth of the engagement that's needed.

So thank you for your work to include here in Chambers, Seattle Center Foundation Head, former Council Member Rob Johnson there.

Colleagues, I just wanted to note, Seattle Center is an iconic civic centerpiece for our city.

Again, an iconic civic centerpiece for our city.

And it's done so, by the way, in partnership with Memorial Stadium, with the Space Needle, with Pacific Science Center.

The partnership that's been built on that is even made it even that much more of a centerpiece.

And so I thank those entities and all the work that goes behind that work, particularly like Memorial Stadium as an example, but also the leadership scene at Spice Needle and specifically the specific Science Center.

It's incredible the amount of work that has been done already with Memorial Stadium and Climate Pledge Arena.

home of the Kraken, the Torrent, and of course the Storm, the Kettle family favorite.

But as Council Member Saka noted, and soon, the Sonics.

But I want to thank the One Roof team, starting with Sam Holloway and the work that she's done in the leadership of that entire group and the partnership that they've shown in leading what has been up to this point across the Seattle, you know, with the arena, with Memorial Stadium and so forth, a private philanthropic and business effort.

They've been the lead over the past decade, particularly the last half decade.

and it's time for us to move forward on the public side.

Over the last two years, I've had a number of meetings at Seattle Center or here in my office talking about the different challenges that Seattle Center has faced, including the Armory, including tenants within the Armory, meetings at the Rep, talking about the challenges the Rep was doing in terms of the work to take care of their systems and the like.

And what that's taught me is that there's so much more work to be done.

There's so much more work to be done.

And on that front, I thank the Building and Trades for being out, the electricians, the carpenters, all their advocacy, to include the point about electrification and decarbonization, which ties into, by the way, my remarks on the last, in terms of the data centers, the work that needs to be done there.

This amendment is just one added piece because one of the things that we should be really engaging, those that come in that work at Seattle centers, but also the adjacent neighborhoods.

I've done this prior to my service here on city council in terms of Queen Anne and Uptown specifically.

but the Uptown community has been such a strong supporter of Seattle Center and its entities, the Queen Anne community, South Lake Union and Belltown.

And so it's important to engage with these entities and these neighborhoods to ensure everything is smooth as the projects are being put forward and as we improve, again, what is iconic civic centerpiece.

So colleagues, I just ask for this outreach and this engagement and ask for your support.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Are there any comments regarding the amendment before us?

And then we'll vote on the amendment and then we'll vote on the, oh, Council Member Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

I'll just say, I think this, as the chair and the sponsor of this, I view this as a friendly amendment, just seeking additional collaboration and partnership, which nothing inherently wrong with that.

It's common sense.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

Any other additional comments about Amendment Number A?

All right.

Will the clerk please call the roll on amendment of the adoption of Amendment A?

Councilmember Strauss.

Aye.

Councilmember Foster.

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez.

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn.

Yes.

Councilmember Rink.

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera.

Aye.

Councilmember Sacca.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Nine in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries.

Amendment A is adopted.

Colleagues, these are now the time for us to give our final comments about the resolution before us, and then Councilmember Sacca, I'll come to you for closing remarks.

Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Council President, and thank you so much, Councilmember Saka, for bringing this resolution forward.

It was fantastic to hear from so many incredible partners and supporters of this resolution today, and I'm excited to vote in favor of it.

I just want to take a second to express both my support of this resolution as well as something that I've mentioned a little bit in committee previously, which is the need to ensure that as we are making progress on investing in Seattle Center, which is just absolutely such a gem for our city.

And I think we've heard it called in committee, the face of our city, the heartbeat of our city, the center of our city, so many things that we are also engaging in a really important conversation about support for all of our arts and cultural institutions, many of which have been unfortunately at the receiving end of devastating federal cuts, changes in consumer behavior, and also have a real significant need for capital infrastructure investments.

So as we continue to make progress on this important place, I want to make sure that the process that we begin in the next coming months also takes an appropriately broad look because we know that Seattle Center's success is also tied to the success of the rest of our arts and cultural institutions, the folks who are activating it, the folks who are there for Festall, and that they're just so critical.

So I look forward to making sure that they are an important part of this conversation.

The second is, and we heard some public comment about this today, I just want to express my support for ensuring that we get this absolutely right and that we have the investment to make sure that we get to the appropriate level of design so we know what's under the hood.

And so I look forward to that process and seeing that information come to Council in the coming months.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Foster.

Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Committee Chair Saka and the Mayor's Office for bringing this forward.

You know, a couple weeks ago, the panel discussion we had in committee, including center leadership, the Seattle Center Foundation, and our labor partners really clarified to me how much this effort represents an opportunity for our city to spur a major civic project, support our arts and cultural institutions, decarbonize Seattle Center, and invest back in our community.

Everyone has a Seattle story.

Some of you may know I used to be a waitress, but I don't think many of you know that the place where I used to wait tables is quite literally next to KEXP, where nearly all of my customers were at Seattle Center.