SPEAKER_09

Okay, good afternoon, everyone.

Today is September 16th, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

It is 2.03 p.m.

I'm Tammy Morales, serving as council president pro tem today.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_01

Present.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Saca.

SPEAKER_05

Here.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_05

Present.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council Member Kell.

SPEAKER_05

Here.

SPEAKER_03

And Pro Temorales.

Here.

Eight in favor.

Sorry, eight present.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you very much.

I move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_01

Second.

SPEAKER_09

It's moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be amended to remove item seven, which is the second executive session that was planned for today.

Hearing no objection, item seven is removed.

If there's no objection, the agenda as amended will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted as amended.

If there's no objection, the minutes of September 9th, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Okay, good afternoon, everyone.

We do have a presentation from our Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

We will hear the development process for the state legislative agenda today.

Before that, I do want to note, as part of the president's report, for the viewing public, we do have an alternative to Initiative 137 that was posted to Legistar today.

It has been reviewed by law, but at this point, it is still not on the agenda for approval tomorrow.

So we may be able to vote on it tomorrow, or we may need to have a special council meeting later this week to vote on it.

So please be advised.

And we will proceed tomorrow once we have more information.

Okay, we do have a presentation, as I mentioned, from our Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

So if I can have you all approach the table, that would be great.

I know we have a little bit of a new process for how we are going to be doing this this year, so look forward to hearing from our folks.

I ask you to introduce yourselves for the record, and we'll begin.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_11

Good afternoon, Council Member Morales and members of the committee.

I'm Mina Hashemi, the Interim Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And in just a moment, you'll hear from my colleagues, Samir Janejo and Ana Johnson, who direct the city state legislative program.

They'll provide a briefing on the 2025 legislative session and the city's process for setting the agenda.

OIR greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with council members over the summer to discuss your legislative priorities.

And we're excited to share with you and the public how that work is coming along and how we're preparing for a successful session.

And while council members know Samir and Ana for the sake of those watching at home, they are tasked with the important job of representing the city on the ground in Olympia, meeting with legislators to advocate for the city's needs, preparing testimony, and engaging with local governments and stakeholders.

So with that, I'll turn it over to them to say more.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_10

Good afternoon, my name is Samir Janejo, State Relations Director with OIR.

I want to start with just what is a legislative agenda.

So the state legislative agenda is an annual document that we produce that serves as a document that states the city's policy priorities and positions for the upcoming legislative session.

It also allows both the public and our state lawmakers to understand what our perspective is on what the state should prioritize and act on.

And while the agenda informs our lobbying team, which is us, but the city and its elected officials can have positions and advocate for issues that are not listed on the document.

Moving on to the timeline of how we developed this.

So over the summer, we gathered priorities from our city departments.

We met with city council members and staff to gather your legislative priorities, and then also gathered any additional priorities from the mayor's office and collated them all together.

And now I'll pass it on to my colleague, Ana.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Hey, everyone.

Good afternoon.

My name is Anna.

I'm the State Legislative Affairs Director in OIR.

So this brings us to where we are presently.

So today, we are giving you an update on our legislative development process to help inform you and help inform the public.

Some other milestones we have for this month is to prepare a draft legislative agenda.

So as Samir mentioned, we're taking inputs from the mayor, we're taking inputs from every council member, and taking inputs from the departments, and it's our tough job to come up with a kind of overarching legislative agenda, and we're gonna be drafting that this month.

And then we work through a final approval process from the mayor before we send over a draft version to you all, hopefully in early October.

Well, we'll give you a good amount of time to review that document.

Send us any concerns, feedback, changes that you wish to see.

Our job is to sort through those and work them out between you all in the mayor's office and then produce a final draft that the council president will eventually introduce probably in November through the introduction and referral.

And it's a resolution that will come before you.

And then in December, after you're done with your budget and a lot of other business, We'll come back and give you a briefing.

And then you'll also pass the legislative agenda resolution that month as well.

In December, we talk a lot about the issues that made it onto the legislative agenda.

We give you a preview of what we know is going to come up in the legislative session.

We give you an update on the results of the elections, what's going on with the executive branch, with the legislature.

And we really just give you a rundown of what to expect for the legislative session before it gets really going in January.

So you'll hear a lot more from us in December on specific issues and a preview of the session.

So in December, and kind of in the meantime as well, as we get to know what our priorities are, our job is to engage with legislators, find legislative champions, talk to committee chairs where our priorities are going to come before them.

It's also our job to work on the strategy with other interested parties, interested stakeholders, like Meena said, working with other local governments to find shared commonalities and help make sure that all of our priorities are going to be most successfully advocated on in the next session.

We're also closely monitoring the November elections.

So there's four very impactful statewide ballot initiatives that we're tracking very closely, as well as a number of executive-level state officials that are going to be new and also new changes in the legislature as well that are really going to impact our work and impact how our priorities are going to navigate through the legislative process.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, in early December, you'll also see the first bills being dropped, so legislators can start dropping bills right around December 1st.

You also have on the 9th, 10th, 12th, and 13th, what are known as legislative committee days, and that's when the House and the Senate hold committee hearings and work sessions and kind of acts as a preview of the upcoming legislative session.

That's also when they host their committee on committees, which is what it sounds like when they do their committee assignments.

And also leadership elections are also held during that time as well.

So we'll know a lot more about how the makeup of the legislature will be around that time.

You also have in December the governor's budget.

So normally the governor will release his performance.

and then that acts as a blueprint or a first draft for the legislature for when they adopt their budget.

This year will be a little different in that this governor, Governor Inslee, will release his budget and then will leave office and then whoever the new governor is will then introduce a budget to the legislature and very likely will make tweaks to Governor Inslee's budget.

So we'll have another step in the process this year.

So that takes us through the end of the year.

And then as Ana said, we'll be back in December with a little more specifics about the agenda and also a preview of what the legislative session will look like.

But that ends our presentation and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_09

Great, thank you very much.

Really appreciate the opportunity to hear about this process.

I know in the past, we've had sort of a very long list of things that could get pretty clunky.

And so I know it's gonna be a little bit different this year and look forward to seeing what we come up with.

And also understanding that the, session will be very different given that we have a bunch of new leaders coming in from across the state, new committee assignments, all of that.

So it'll be really interesting to see how all of that plays out.

I see Council Member Strauss has a question.

Please go ahead.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Just noting in the past, thank you all for coming here.

It's been an absolute pleasure and delight to get to work with you in Olympia.

I know Council Member Morales and I both sit on Association of Washington Cities, which has a pretty active role in lobbying, and I really appreciate the work that we've done to set us up to be on the same page as AWC and have AWC be on the same page as us.

So I just want to thank you for that pre-legislative work.

And colleagues, I will say in the past, our legislative agenda has been more of a kitchen sink than a strategic document, which the rationale there was that if an item comes up in the legislative session that we weren't prepared for right now in September and November that we didn't know about, that we could have the rationale to weigh in on it.

I think that we all have a common understanding that we have the ability to respond to emerging situations even if it's not on the legislative agenda that is passed before session started.

And I know that your team has been working hard this year to make it more of a strategic document than a kitchen sink.

This whole commentary is just to say thank you for making that change.

And in your short time here, Director, I've seen great work being done to get us ready for this session because we're going into the next round, the next biennium.

And so I'm excited to get to work for you and with you.

Thank you, colleagues.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Really appreciate you being here today, some for the second time, but also good to see you here.

First is two floating heads on the screen, so it's good to have this opportunity to see you in person.

And we'll definitely, from a public safety perspective, we'll definitely be working with you because there's major issues and pieces that we need to work related to the state and also the county, but really with the state in this case.

And so I look forward to doing that with you.

And I think it's an opportunity to coalesce and find an opportunity to work with the state in the one Seattle way.

And then in partnership, hopefully with the county, to really make some progress on some of the public safety challenges that we face.

So I really appreciate your work ahead of time before you start doing it this fall.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_09

Any other comments or questions, colleagues?

Okay, well, we look forward to hearing more from you once you've made the rounds again.

Thanks very much for being here.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_09

Okay, we are going to move on to agenda item four.

Council Member Saka has a proclamation for signature today, proclaiming September 17th, 2024 to be Olympics, Paralympics Athletes Day.

Council Member Saka, I will hand it off to you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Madam Council President Pro Tem and colleagues.

Yes, we have an opportunity here.

We have an opportunity here today and tomorrow to recognize the outstanding contributions to our country in terms of representing our country well from a local perspective, and that is our local Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Today, I'm honored to present a proclamation recognizing, again, our talented local athletes who competed at this year's historic 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games in Paris.

This proclamation was signed by Mayor Harrell, and I'll read a few excerpts of it right now, actually.

So, it states in relevant part...

Whereas the 2024 Paris Olympics, the games of the Olympiad, what is that?

I think it was the 33rd Olympiad, hosted 10,500 athletes from around the globe competing in 32 sports and 329 engaging in events over the course of 19 days.

The Paralympic Games featured approximately 4,400 athletes competing in 22 sports over 11 days.

And whereas Olympic and Paralympic athletes show that anyone can achieve their greatest dreams through laser focus and with critical support, and their common stories of overcoming great challenges serve as an inspiration to us all, and whereas the City of Seattle pays tribute to our local athletes, coaches, and support teams, and whereas whether athletes won medals or not, They are all champions, competing at the highest elite levels.

And whereas 11 Washingtonians competed in the Paralympics, including Seattle sprinter Taylor Swanson, who won silver and bronze medals.

And whereas these athletes serve as an example for future generations of young athletes who are on a journey to achieve their greatest dreams and goals and Whereas the Olympic and Paralympic athletes advancing the enduring spirit of One Seattle, representing the commitment of excellence, tenacity, and hard work that inspire us all.

And finally, and whereas the city of Seattle celebrates our Olympians and Paralympians, this is an exciting moment.

opportunity again, colleagues, to recognize the really thoughtful contributions of the talented athletes that have direct ties to the city of Seattle and who all represented us so proudly at the most recent Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

I ask for your support.

Today I'm wearing a Team USA jersey.

I guess this is a bit dated because this is from the 2020 games that happened in 2021. This is a Sue Bird jersey from that period, who also has, of course, strong ties.

But...

This is a really exciting thing.

Tomorrow, so I ask for your support today, colleagues.

Tomorrow, at tomorrow's council meeting, I hope to present this to a number of Olympic athletes, current and former, and coaches, and community members.

So again, colleagues, I ask for your support.

You all know I love the Olympics.

Me and my family carve out a lot of time during the Olympics and Paralympic Games to watch the exciting coverage.

And we all know that their contributions are not only a great credit, reflect great credit on them individually, also their countries, of course, but our broader community here in the case of the city of Seattle.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you again ask for your support welcome any comments and questions as well Thank you very much councilmember Saka colleagues are there any questions for councilmember Saka about this proclamation I Not seeing any.

Okay, so there's no further discussion.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation recognizing September 20th, sorry, September 17th, 2024 to be Olympics Paralympics Athletes Day.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_04

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

And President Pro Temorales.

Yes.

Eight signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

SPEAKER_09

Very good.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Let's see.

Moving on.

Okay, we'll next begin our discussion of a preview of City Council actions, Council of Regional Committees, and the order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for the City Council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by a last name, with the Council President being called last.

This week's roll call begins with Council Member Moore.

Council Member Moore, I'll hand it to you.

SPEAKER_08

Oh, thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem Morales.

So on tomorrow's full council agenda, up for vote from Housing and Human Services Committee, there will be four LGBTQ commission appointments, as well as Council Bill 12081722. Multifamily tax exemption sunset date to March 31st, 2025. Additionally, the Housing and Human Services Committee passed Council Bill 120858, which is the amended and updated KCRHA interlocal agreement, which will be up for full council vote next week.

Just want to note that all those bills did pass out of committee unanimously.

And thank you to my committee members for that.

On tomorrow's full council agenda, there is Council Bill 120836. That is my legislation to disrupt the criminal enterprise of commercial sexual exploitation along the Aurora corridor.

I want to reiterate that this legislation was developed with the active involvement of survivor groups.

the human trafficking unit of SPD and community members.

And as a result, has been amended to prioritize diversion for sellers as well as allowing SPD to more effectively target promoters and buyers.

And would note it was passed unanimously out of the Public Safety Committee last week, and thank you very much to my colleagues for that.

I know that moving on to the proposed amendment to I-137, I want to take this opportunity to thank sponsor and drafter Councilmember Rivera for doing a fantastic job of putting together what I think is a very thoughtful and truly viable alternative.

It's meant to provide a true option for people to contemplate.

and to really provide funding for social housing.

So I commend you for that.

Thank you for giving us that opportunity, and I'm proud to co-sponsor.

I may not be, depending on when the vote is taken, may not be able to vote on it, so wanted to make it clear that I do support this amendment.

I also wanted to note that on Saturday I had the pleasure of touring Allied 8, the Corvalli Day Housing, which is an affordable housing cooperative in South Seattle, which is a somewhat unusual model out here.

They're more commonly used back east.

But it is a cooperative home ownership model, which was really inspiring and something that I am looking forward to The Housing Committee and Land Use Committee looking at exploring more opportunities to bring a similar home ownership, truly affordable home ownership model to the city.

I wanted to note that two Saturdays ago, I attended a litter pickup in Lake City, which was hosted by the Chamber.

And we had a great number of neighbors and community members, but I was really happy to see that we had residents of Tent City 4, which has recently moved into Lake City.

I know there was some community concern around that.

And so to date, it seems that Tent City 4, they have been really receptive and very good neighbors.

and they regularly clean trash in the few block radius of their site.

So it was exciting to see them, and it was great to have an opportunity for Tent City 4 and the Chamber to make that connection.

improving the environment in Lake City for all.

I wanted to lastly note, as many of my colleagues have also been hearing from constituents about the proposed closures of 21 Seattle public elementary schools and removal of option schools, language immersion programs, and K-8 programs.

I just wanted to say that I too have serious concerns about those plans and I do look forward to hearing from SPS leadership, which is independent, just want to be clear for the record, SPS leadership is independent from the Seattle City Council.

So I am looking forward to hearing from them about how those decisions have been made and what their plan is for, if those closures do proceed, what their plan is for the buildings that will be closing.

I want to note that I think there are going to be serious impacts on the future of livability in Seattle and the ability of SBS to maintain enrollment and the state funding that comes with it under these plans.

So it is critically important that this process be really thoughtful, that we maintain options, because that is one of the things that makes Seattle schools vital and attractive, and having families be an important part Families are an important part of the fabric of our community, and we need to do everything to continue to keep families in the city, so I will be monitoring that.

And I also wanted to note that I have a hard stop at 4.30, so apologies for the late notice, and to request an excused absence from any special meeting of the council that may be scheduled later in the week.

I don't know whether that's happening, but just wanted to make that request.

So, thank you.

And I guess I will turn it over to Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, thank you, Council Member Moore.

Thank you for bringing up the alternative to I-137, colleagues.

I will be co-sponsoring an alternative to I-137 with Housing and Human Services Chair, Council Member Moore, and Council Members Kettle and Wu.

make no mistake we need more affordable housing in Seattle I think we're all in agreement on that.

This alternative measure balances the need for innovation with the need for accountability.

It allows the new public development authority to demonstrate proof of concept rather than the city simply handing over a blank check to yet another new agency with no track record of creating housing.

The alternative aligns this new social housing effort with the safeguards that apply to existing affordable housing providers to ensure public dollars are spent wisely and effectively.

As stewards of public funds, we're ultimately responsible for ensuring that taxpayers see the intended outcomes from this investment.

the pda and opportunity to deliver housing in a timely sustainable and cost-effective manner if they succeed in delivering positive results the city can expand this effort in the future but we need to receive results first and foremost as you know colleagues both pieces of legislation would appear on the ballot in february for voters to decide this alternative will appear for a vote before the full council in a special meeting this Thursday September 19 at 2 p.m.

And I hope to have your support on this alternative to go along on the ballot in February along with the I-137.

separately colleagues I will be meeting next week with Seattle public schools to learn more hopefully learn more about the potential closures that councilmember Moore just raised we have many residents in the D4 as well who are concerned as am I about potential closures to schools on the north end and across the city.

So I hope to be able to share more once I meet with our partners at SPS.

I also continue to talk last week and this week with residents in the D4 about the fatal shooting, sadly, at Magnuson Park and continue to talk about ways that we can address public safety, despite the fact that we have low police staffing numbers.

I will say, and I think I shared last week, that North Precinct has been great partners, Captain Agard, on the activity that's been happening at Magnuson Park all summer with the noise.

We've also had a great partner in Superintendent A.P. Diaz, who's had emphasis, Park Rangers there, and I will say SPD had has had police officers stationed at Madison Park Friday, Saturday, and Sundays from 10 p.m.

to 3 a.m.

This particular incident happened at 3.30 a.m.

right after police had just been there.

So it is unfortunate.

And my staff, my team is working on putting together a public safety meeting to talk about This and other public safety Concerns in the district and I will share more information as I have it.

I've reached out to the mayor's office They're supportive as well.

So look for some information about that as we develop that I also this week will have my monthly check-ins with Seattle Public Libraries as DCI and FAS also will be sitting on land use committee this week and And we'll be meeting with University Heights.

I also mentioned last week about the issues at that building with, drug dealing and crime that is happening at that building where there are a number of schools, including two preschools.

I'll also be touring the Ballard Locks on Friday as I sit on the WIRA 8 Sandman Recovery Council.

I want to learn more about the locks.

And I will also be meeting with, having a sister city meeting as Beersheba is the sister city for Seattle and I, that's That is under my purview.

And then I will say that last week I also had a great tour of Mary's Place.

We all know, I think many of us have toured Mary's Place, what great work they do there for homeless families.

They really have a great facility, and I'm so grateful for the team there and all the work that they do.

And I think that that sums it up for me.

Unless folks have questions, I will turn it over to Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_09

I just want to make sure that...

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

I just want to make sure that everybody understands that because we cannot...

A bill cannot be introduced and passed in the same meeting since we are just going to be discussing the alternative tomorrow.

That's the reason why we have to have a special meeting a couple days later so that we can abide by the rules.

Council Member Saka, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_04

All right, thank you, Madam Council President Pro Tem.

So, colleagues, for our Transportation Committee meeting tomorrow morning, it will be our final Transportation Committee meeting before we begin in earnest budget deliberations, likely one more at least post-budget this calendar year.

But it will be our last one before we begin budget conversations.

So tomorrow, amongst other things, we're going to take up and consider a number of appointments, including our transit advisory boards and our bicycle advisory boards, also voting on legislation and considering and voting on legislation to implement the proposed financial task force transportation task force if the levy passes so we're ready and and prepared if if it is approved by voters and then the third substantive item on the agenda colleagues is the Sue Bird ordinance street name.

As you'll recall, there is a honorary street name near Climate Pledge, and so this is implementation legislation to allow us to do exactly that.

Speaking of Sue Bird, here it is.

Here it is.

Goat, goat.

Hey, wish we could have made it work with having Sue Bird at our at our uh...

that the session tomorrow of course the timing the schedules in a line which is totally fine as you bird next time real gets you here uh...

but we do appreciate you uh...

and uh...

and we're gonna honor you tomorrow in a really geeky way uh...

legislatively at our committee meeting at our transportation committee as we consider and and potentially vote on the ordinance to implement your street name all right fourth item is that uh...

We're going to have just a basic streetcar presentation on our streetcar transit investments in the city from central staff.

And then finally, alley vacation briefing discussion and possible vote on, again, more kind of routine items.

This will be, I think, the final.

to have this at committee level, so hope to vote on it.

This is a proposed alley vacation at Taylor Avenue North and Sixth Avenue North.

So those substantive things for transportation committee meeting tomorrow, excited about them.

On our regional committee work, really over the last week, one substantive item to note, Councilmember Kettle and I both sit on the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board.

And at our meeting last week, we, amongst other substantive agenda items, we considered a proposed regional transportation plan.

So we're in the ideation phase of that process and that effort right now.

Look to make better progress and have a an initial draft, I think, timeline-wise by the end of this calendar year.

But as you know, colleagues, we recently went through the creating, the process of creating and amending and ultimately approving Seattle Seattle transportation plan.

So we're doing effectively the same thing right now at the regional level.

And so if you have any ideas or things you'd like me to advocate on your behalf or of your constituents, please let me know.

We're also similarly going through a financial strategy and potential revenue, new revenue sources exercise as part of that as well.

So again, more ideation phase at this early stage, but more to come.

In the community, The only thing, been very, very active and engaged.

But the only thing worth, I guess, calling out and mentioning right now is had a blast on Saturday at the South Park Parade.

Was honored to join that parade with Councilmember Wu.

And what I'm talking about is the Fiestas Patrias Parade in South Park.

Pardon my butchering of that phrase.

But really, really fun, really exciting.

Got to see and engage with members of our community from CMAR, from Chief Self International High School.

Intercepted a few passes from some of the football players at Chief Self.

No, but it was really fun.

Guys saw the cool lowriders.

I don't know.

It was just a good community event.

In any event, I welcome any questions, comments, colleagues from you all.

And if not, I will pass the baton on to Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_01

Viestas?

SPEAKER_04

Viestas?

SPEAKER_01

Patrias.

SPEAKER_04

Patrias.

SPEAKER_01

You got it.

Viestas Patrias.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I can roll my R's.

I just got to work on it a little bit.

I got it.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Wonderful transition.

Thank you, Council Member Stocker.

Colleagues, this week we have our last Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee before we are doing all budget all the time until Thanksgiving.

So this week, we're going to have one vote, and that will be on the priority hire legislation that was briefed in, I believe it was July.

It's updating zip codes to the priority hire policy.

So if you have questions about that, we're going to take that at the top of the agenda, vote it out, and head right into the bulk of the agenda, which is a follow-up from our Tribal Relations Director, Tim Raynon, and Indigenous Advisory Council Liaison, Francesca Murnon.

This is a one-year look back and report out from the first ever Tribal Nations Summit, which happened last year.

And so that was on May 2nd, 2023. This was the first time that we had government-to-government consultation of this level.

for the City of Seattle baseline period, and so this time we are going to have Chair Leonard Forsman of the Suquamish Tribe join us, as well as Councilmember Donnie Stevenson from the Muckleshoot Tribe.

We're gonna spend the majority of the time this Wednesday discussing with them where we've been in the last year, where we are today, and where we need to go into the future.

I'm excited for this because in future years, this year we spent the majority of the year focused on the budget.

We started select meetings in April.

Next year, I would like to really focus the committee's priority time or the time from January to August on native communities and tribal governments issues and then take up the budget in the fall.

So you'll see that change coming next year.

For full council tomorrow, I've spoken to Council Member Kettle and Council Member Moore.

I need to come find you right after this because I just finalized some amendments that I'm gonna be bringing to SODA.

I'd like to bring them to SOAP as well, but I'd like to have that conversation with you before I make that final decision.

I have three amendments.

One is regarding whereas clauses at the beginning from recitals.

A second is within the body of the ordinance requesting an auditor's report and audit in the future.

And it describes that and what we want to be looking at as well as a renewal framework.

So requesting Seattle police department and the, attorney's office to come back and report out to the council committee regarding these zones.

You'll see those in the inbox or if the council president or council president pro tem is able to attach these to the agenda, we'll make that happen.

I just want you all to be aware that I'll bring these amendments tomorrow.

Later this week, I'll be attending the Association of Washington City's Board of Directors meeting.

In the past, I have taken the AWC meetings and city council meetings at the same time.

I will tell you it has been disruptive to both bodies because I have not been fully present in either, and it causes a bit more of a distraction than a benefit for either group.

And so this year...

I took a hard stance that I'm going to just be focused on AWC.

So that is why I won't be at the special committee on Thursday or at committee on Friday.

And I know Council Member Wu, I have been told that we both need to chat so that if quorum for your committee has to happen, we'll be able to figure something out.

With that, lastly here, District 6 office hours are going to be changing.

It was a pleasure to get to talk to folks last week during office hours.

I had a really nice chat with some Moms Demand Action D6 residents, and as we move into budget, office hours will be changing, and I will be committed to keeping them on a regular cadence.

With that, colleagues, any questions?

Seeing none, I'll pass it over to Council Member Wu.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

So I'll start with some highlights from last week.

First, the Chinatown International District, we had a public safety forum.

Thank you to Council President Nelson, Council Member Kettle, and Morales, Chiefs Amy Barton and Sue Rahr, and the Mayor's Office.

We had about 80 seniors there.

We had brought in translation devices and a Cantonese translator.

And it was just interesting to hear what the seniors had to say.

It was heartbreaking, actually.

We heard stories from the seniors saying they did not feel safe in their own homes, that, you know, they would huddle inside their rooms while people they did not know were knocking, trying to get through their doors.

But I am grateful that many people were there to share their stories with us and had an opportunity to speak.

Our translators did a great job, as did our moderator, Ricky Serna moderated, Alan Lai helped translate, and I wanted to thank all the staff members from Council Room Kettle and Councilmember Nelson's office, as well as many of my staff members who helped make everything run as smoothly as possible, as well as make the mic time as equitable as possible given our time constraints.

Second, I also participated in the International Special Review District Panel at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Historic Preservation Forum.

The CID is is a wonderful jewel and was amazing to share the neighborhood with so many people from all over the U.S. and talk about collaborative efforts for preserving neighborhoods going forward.

Also, I was excited to join Councilmember Saka and the Fiestas Patrias.

Councilmember Ritza might have to help me with this parade in South Park.

And this year's theme was unifying our communities, and it was great to celebrate among so many amazing organizations and groups and to see so many neighbors out and having fun despite the rain.

Tomorrow, during council, there will be two resolutions coming from the Sustainability City Lights and Arts and Culture Committee, a resolution relating to the...

participation of Washington's Clean Fuel Standards Program, as well as adopting the 2024 Food Action Plan.

And I will talk more about these two resolutions tomorrow and hope for your support.

If there are no further questions, I will pass this over to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Parks Utilities Technology Committee, our next meeting won't be until December 11th.

So we had a full amount of legislation that passed out of our committee that is on the calendar and looking forward to earning everyone's support.

So thank you.

We have the Regional Transportation Committee, and I'll be joining that meeting with Councilmember Saka.

Really excited because the G Line is open.

I had a chance to go this weekend on the G Line.

It was pretty phenomenal.

It had that clean, new bus smell, which for me, I love clean, like new shoes, and I could smell new shoes all day.

I could smell clean buses all day.

It was pretty...

Pretty phenomenal.

So I hope everyone gets a chance to ride the G line.

Come be a G with me for the day.

Also, this past week had the chance, FAME Housing opened their doors, 101 units, Bryant Manor.

The reason why I think it's really special is along the Yesler Corridor, you have FAME Housing.

We have Bennu, Africatown.

We also have Langston Hughes, Powell Barnett Park, excuse me, not Powell Barnett Park.

But you have Pratt Park.

But you have all this corridor, and then you also have the William Gross Center.

So it's just a revitalization of the Central District and black community, which is amazing.

Also had a chance to go to the GSBA Economic Conference.

That was held at Amazon.

Great, great job.

Had a lot to meet with a lot of business owners and connect with our LGBTQIA community who are in business, small businesses in Seattle and got to hear about their stories.

Met also with the Meals Program Coalition.

This program is close to my heart because they help extend the life of food in our city.

They are incredibly important because they are able to turn around food that would end up in the trash or expire that's still great food and turn it into meals and feed our community.

And they are part of mental health and food security services.

and safety in our community.

And so I just wanted to give them a shout out because they do a lot for our community.

Also had a chance to visit the McKinney Center, which used to be the SVI Center as well.

And looking forward to some of the ongoing improvements.

Want to thank...

Representative Tomiko Santos for her continued support of that and Representative Street for their investment.

So we'll be trying to work with the state to continue that part.

And also had a chance to connect with Northwest Harvest as well for their panel and their work.

meetings that they've had to talk about food insecurity in our state and kinda what's the next steps as we are trying to make sure we localize our food resources.

Last but not least, I know two council members mentioned it, but definitely wanted to mention it to the people on the Seattle channel.

We have two school closures that are proposed in our district, Topsett-Seward and McGilva School.

I am alumni of Topsett-Seward and so, I will be meeting with those families tomorrow.

There is an event at the gymnasium so we can talk to the parents as Councilmember Moore Mentioned school district is separate from Seattle City Council, but definitely want to use my platform and resources and connections and relationships to be able to elevate a lot of the issues that parents are having.

With some of the proposed closures, very concerned.

Tops at Seward is a phenomenal school and offers great, great programming.

Our slogan growing up was, together our pride is showing.

And the...

The proposed school closures are very concerning because of the specialized program they have, the specialized program at TOPS.

I would not be the person I am today.

My public speaking, my confidence, all these different things, the arts, would not be the person I was today without TOPS at Seward.

So very concerning.

We'll be connecting with our school elected officials to talk about next steps and kind of what this looks like.

So anyways, without further ado, I will pass it off to Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

For this week, public safety at full council, we do have, as mentioned already, Council Bill 120835, which is the stay out of drug area or soda bill.

And as Council Member Moore mentioned, Council Bill 120836, also known as SOAP, the State Out of Area Prostitution.

Both bills cleared Committee 5-0, and I look for your support on both of those.

We do have a special Public Safety Committee meeting this Thursday on the Real-Time Crime Center and CCTV.

We'll also have an update for our fire code that day, and this will set us up for our last meeting before budget, which is on the 24th of September, the following Tuesday.

We're also looking to have an update on 30 by 30, as I mentioned, seems like months ago, probably just weeks.

This week, Board of Health on Thursday, very important in terms of government committees and the like.

Separately, Housing Our Neighbors tomorrow, Housing Connector on Wednesday, and Confronting Hate Together on Thursday.

So these are the other additional meetings that we'll be attending this week.

Last week, I did have a great meeting with the All of Us Alliance in terms of helping women and members of different communities in the contracting, general contracting and subcontracting area.

Also, Operation SAC Lunch, those are doing great, groups are doing great work, Operation SAC Lunch.

And the Urban Forestry Commission had a great rundown in terms of their efforts.

As mentioned by my esteemed colleague, Chair of the Transportation Committee, we did have the Puget Sound Regional Council Transportation Policy Board meeting, so he covered that quite well.

And on Friday, oh, I should also add on Thursday, before jumping to Friday, I joined the LEAD policy coordinating group meeting, which was a very good meeting to jump into.

I came late following the Governance Accountability Economic Development Committee meeting.

But they took up action that related to the SOAP bill.

So I really appreciate LEAD and the overall policy coordinating group for their work as it related to that.

Bill and then finally last week Friday We had our latest district 7 neighborhood council, which is a council of councils where we bring in a various community councils, whether it's Magnolia, Queen Anne, South Lake Union, Belltown, Uptown Alliance and the like, plus some other groups together.

We had basically a meeting focused on parks and design review, two important topics as everyone knows.

And separately, and I'm really proud to announce that we now have a downtown community council.

So this is great news.

The residents, as you know, we, from a policy perspective, we're trying to encourage more residents downtown and we have a downtown community council.

I think the downtown Seattle association from like a BI perspective does great work across the board, but the residents voice also needed to be heard in a slightly different forum and to include the district seven neighborhood council.

So I'm really excited to now have a downtown community council.

And then I also on Friday met with Bird Safe Seattle.

If you don't know about the threats to birds in Seattle, as Council Member Strauss knows, please inform yourself, very important.

And then lastly, I just wanted to note, I just wanted to thank Council Member Wu for a fantastic public safety forum in Chinatown.

She noted the 80 seniors who were telling their truths and the challenges they face on a public safety side.

It was really good to hear.

And there was others.

I counted at least 125 plus, so the 80 seniors, but then also many others representing communities within the CID, but other parts of Seattle.

And it was a fantastic lineup, starting with Chief Rohr coming across towards me, and then Chief Barden, former Chief Smith, Chief Barden.

And then Director Walton Anderson, our new, not so much new anymore, Director of Public Safety, Council Member Wu, Council President Nelson, and then myself.

And then the event was moderated by Enrique Serna.

So it was a fantastic event last Wednesday and a great opportunity for me.

So thank you very much for letting me to participate in that.

So thank you.

And with that, Council President Pro Tem, over to you.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you very much.

Can you, so Council Member Kettle, you said you were having a special public safety meeting on Thursday the 19th?

SPEAKER_06

Thursday, yes, 19th.

SPEAKER_09

Do you know what time that is?

SPEAKER_06

Sorry, 9.30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_09

That's 9.30.

And then do we have a time for the special full council?

Full council at 2?

2 p.m.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

I will say that we have no items on tomorrow's full council agenda from the land use committee.

We do, however, have a very full land use committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 2 o'clock.

We've been hearing and getting briefed on five different bills.

So we will hear the omnibus bill, design review exemptions, construction code updates, the co-living congregate residence bill.

All of those will be up for continued discussion and possible vote.

Colleagues, if you have amendments, please do make sure that those get posted.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle, for mentioning to me that you have an amendment coming.

And then the fifth bill will be the Living Building Amendment Bill.

We will have a public hearing on that bill because we've already scheduled it.

But I have heard from law that because there is an appeal on that bill, we will not be voting on it yet.

Okay, moving on.

On Tuesday, my staff attended the Rainier Vista Community Safety Meeting with King County Councilmember Zahilay, and then Wednesday attended the CID Public Safety Forum that Councilmember Wu held.

That same day we also hosted our fourth roundtable discussion on economic development, arts and culture, and accessibility.

So I want to thank again all of the community stakeholders and organizations, community members who came out to share their ideas and their priorities for how those issues relate to the comp plan discussions that we'll be having next year.

On Thursday, my team met with representatives from Bird Safe Seattle as well.

Interesting to hear about some of those priorities and making sure that our fowl are able to navigate the city built environment safely.

I also met with our Seattle Office of Civil Rights regarding the soap and soda legislation last week.

On Friday, I met with Chief Amy Barden at the Care Department.

I am really excited about the work that's happening there and really appreciate the time that she took to talk with us.

I think it's really important that as we move into the budget conversation, we're prepared to fully fund care and the dual dispatch.

Since 50% of 911 calls that are received are not for SPD, I think care is the appropriate responders to these incidents, and it's really important that we make sure they can do their job.

So looking forward to those discussions coming up.

This week has already been very busy.

Yesterday was the 10-year anniversary gala for the South Seattle Emeralds.

It was great to hear from so many people who've been positively impacted by the Emerald's presence as an independent, very local news source for folks in the South End.

If you don't know, this organization, this community presence started as an attempt to really respond to what is very often negative news coverage about the South End.

There are lots of beautiful people with brilliant ideas and important work happening in the South End.

And so the Emerald was really started by Marcus Harrison Green as an attempt to make sure that people get to hear the good things that are happening in the South End as well.

So it's really great to be at that gala.

This morning I joined Mayor Harrell at the groundbreaking for Habitat for Humanity's largest home ownership development in the world.

Right down on MLK, just south of the Columbia City light rail station, there will be 58 units of affordable home ownership opportunities in the south end.

So really important opportunity, as we all know, the need not just for affordable rental, but for affordable homeownership opportunities is critical in the city.

So this is going to be a great condo, stacked flats, studios, ones and twos for families in the South End.

We also did get to hear from A new homeowner, she won't be living there, obviously, because it's not built yet, but she is a Habitat for Humanity owner and really illustrated the challenge of affordability in Seattle.

She is actually a researcher at the University of Washington, but the cost of living is so high here that she actually qualifies for homeownership assistance.

So it's just a really important opportunity.

about what it means if you're looking at 80 to 120% in the city of Seattle, it means that you could still use some assistance to actually be able to afford something.

I was excited to have a conversation with Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, who's really a champion of this work and really made an important comment about the need for us to increase density in the city if we are to meet our housing targets.

And he said, you know, you basically have two choices.

We can increase density and go up across the city, or we can contribute to sprawl and really start to build outside our urban growth boundary, which is really not an option for us because that means that then we have to deal with all the infrastructure and utility investments that go with that as well.

So important reminder about the critical work that we have ahead of us.

I also did briefly attend the UFCW rally downstairs here at City Hall, where Attorney General Bob Ferguson was present to talk about why the merger between Albertsons and Kroger would be really detrimental to consumers.

We've all seen grocery prices go...

incredibly high lately and reducing the number of grocers and reducing competition is certainly not an answer to that, not to mention the impact that that would have on workers if grocery stores are closed.

So really happy to be part of that conversation.

I want to thank my colleagues who went down to South Park for Fiestas Patrias.

My daughter's folklorico group, Hoyas Mestizas, performs in that every year.

And it's always fun to see the parade, the horses, the low riders, and really just to celebrate Mexican culture.

So that's always a fun, colorful, joyful event.

As Council Member Strauss mentioned, this week I'll be attending the AWC retreat in Richland, Washington.

So colleagues, if there's anything you need from me before Wednesday, please let me know.

After that, you can contact my staff.

I do think I'm going to try to make it, even if it's remotely, to the special council meeting on Thursday.

We'll see how it goes.

We'll see how it goes.

Okay, any questions or comments?

Yes, Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, I just wanted to let you know, as you know, I won't be at the land use committee meeting, and I have potential amendments that I would have to bring as walk-on at full council, so.

Okay, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_09

Anyone else?

Okay, if there's no further business then, we will move into executive session.

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

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorney as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present.

to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

I expect the time of the session to end by 421. Okay.

It's going to be a doozy.

Okay.

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

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

The next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is on September 23rd at 2 p.m.

The council is now in executive session.

Council members, please log on to the executive session Zoom meeting.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_99

Thank you.