Seattle City Council Briefing 5/16/2022

We are now recording.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody.

It's good to be back.

My name is Deborah Juarez, and this is the Seattle City Council meeting.

Today is Monday, May 16th.

The time is two o'clock.

Before we call the roll, Councilor Mosqueda and Councilor Sawant will not be joining us today.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council Member Herbold?

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council President Juarez.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you.

Moving along in our agenda, we'll go to the approval of the minutes.

If there's no objections, the minutes of May 9th will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

I'll go to the President's Report.

First, I want to thank Council Member Lewis for serving as Council President Pro Tem, and I understand Mayor, as I was gone.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis, for stepping in for me.

I appreciate that.

Let's see.

Tomorrow, I want to give you a brief update of tomorrow in my president's report.

The consent calendar will include the minutes and the payment of the bills, as well as 11 appointments which were reviewed and recommended by the Land Use Committee.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss and committee members.

As a reminder, we will take one vote on all items on the consent calendar unless any Councilmember requests that an item be removed from the consent agenda.

We'll also be voting on two ordinances recommended by the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee, as well as a resolution regarding council rules recommended by the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee, and that would be me.

I know everyone has questions about public meeting requirements and the plan for returning to chambers given the change in the governor's order that will become effective, I believe, on June 1st.

I will be reviewing the plan for a department with staff, which we did this morning.

And also, I should add that we have been meeting with law, the clerk's office and our other legislative partners to discuss what the return to work and chambers will look like, not only for council meetings, but council briefings.

And our overarching goal is to make a priority public health, public safety and upholding, of course, the values of the open public.

How do I say that?

Meetings Act.

Thank you, Brenda.

OPMA.

OK, so with that, let's go to.

signing of letters of proclamations, and we have no letters or proclamations today or this week.

So move on to the next agenda item, and that is a preview of city council members giving us an update on their council briefings and regional committees.

The roll call order will start with Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Sawant is not here today, so this will be the lineup.

First of all, Council Member Strauss, Council Member Herboldt, Council Member Lewis, Council Member Morales, Council Member Nelson, Council Member Peterson, and then myself.

So with that, Council Member Strauss, where are you?

Oh, there you are.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, it's great to see you.

Last week in District 6, Woodland Park update, Phase 3 of the Woodland Park Outreach Plan ended last week.

And after four months of intensive outreach, we moved 85 people out of the park and into shelter, transitional, or permanent supportive housing.

This is the largest number of people in city history connected with sheltering services through the process of an encampment removal.

And in January, and this is because in January we created a by name list in February we finished the needs assessment for these folks and began moving people inside and out of Woodland Park.

The timeline of this encampment removal was dictated by shelter throughput as we did not have a shelter expansion during this time.

This extended the amount of time it took as compared to if we had received a shelter expansion during this period of time.

And during this, more people moved into the park who are not on our original census, also known as the By Name List.

In the last two weeks before the end of phase three, we surged our efforts to account for everyone living in the park.

And at the end of phase three, we were able to make 49 referrals in the week leading up to and on the day of the removal, including 27 of those folks were sheltered on the day of the removal because we had spent the time needed to create plans for them in that week leading up.

Again, totaling 85 people since January connected with shelter or housing services that meet their needs.

The lesson learned is one that we already knew going in, which is that this work's success is dependent on adequate shelter availability.

The pandemic ended our use of basic congregate shelter, which is an important and positive step.

Now the base shelter option is 24-7 enhanced shelter, where you can have a pet your possessions and be with your partner.

This is a better model than what we've relied on previously and we know most people desire a personal space, a shelter or housing option that has four walls and a door that they can lock.

Candidly, our city does not have the shelter capacity we need and we're doing more now than ever before.

Our shelter throughput is dependent on housing resources we fund, from permanent supportive to low-income housing.

Last year was the first year we met, as a city, we met our target of $200 million per year invested in housing.

And that was due to the jumpstart tax, mandatory housing affordability, and our housing levy, as well as federal COVID relief funding.

We cannot lose sight of funding our housing needs, and we need to scale up our shelter capacity while permanent housing is being built.

I'm confident that the phased approach model we used at Woodland Park and Ballard Commons, which gives professional outreach workers the time they need to build relationships and assess individual needs, contributed to this large number of people accepting shelter and housing.

I believe this model will stand the test of time and be used as a model moving forward for getting people inside across our city.

Mayor Harrell's office and I worked collaboratively with agencies and neighbors for months to reach this positive resolution.

This collaboration allowed for a unified team of governmental and non-governmental agencies to focus on getting people inside and to return the park to its use as designed.

We would not have been able to shelter and house 83 people without the partnership with Evergreen Treatment Services REACH, the Finney Neighborhood Association, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and Mayor Harold's, Deputy Mayor, Tiffany Washington's leadership.

I want to thank all of the outreach workers, Clean Cities Team, Human Services Department in Seattle Parks and Recreation for their efforts in the park.

It is difficult, challenging, and oftentimes thankless.

And oftentimes the work goes unnoticed by so many.

And just in case they're listening, and even if you're not, I wanted to take this moment to give you the public recognition that you deserve.

Because after four months of intensive outreach, an unprecedented 85 individuals living in tents and RVs in Woodland Park were successfully moved to shelter and housing with the services that they need.

And that's thanks to the trained professional outreach workers from the city's Hope Team and Reach.

And these referrals helped people secure safer and more stable living conditions.

In other D6 news, my staff attended the Reimagine Aurora Coalition meeting.

I held a meeting about activation ideas for the Leary Triangle.

I met with the Woodland Park Zoo to discuss implementation of the operating agreement that council approved last year.

I hosted my weekly office hours with D6 residents from Thursday, 2 p.m.

to 6.30 p.m., where I met with two residents from East Ballard, one from Ballard, one from Fremont, one from Tangletown, and one from Finney Ridge.

We had a couple last minute cancellations and one person snuck in from District 3. We discussed public safety, homelessness, land use, and the comprehensive major update, pedestrian and cyclist safety, and the industrial district.

And then on last Friday, my staff and I walked and talked about Green Lake's outer loop with three D6 residents.

And as always, I continue to hold My weekly operations meeting, both last week and this week, coordinating with community leaders, governmental entities, and non-governmental entities to make meaningful interventions to address homelessness in specific places in District 6. This coming week in District 6, I'm looking forward to attending the annual Syttende Mai Festival in Ballard on Tuesday.

It's the third largest parade and largest parade outside of Norway, celebrating Norway's Constitution Day, including a luncheon at the Nordic Museum and a parade in the evening.

I'll be hosting my D6 office hours with residents on Thursday from 2 p.m.

to 6.30 p.m.

As well as on Thursday, I'll be attending the Nordic Summit where the President of Iceland will be presenting.

And my staff and I will be attending the One Seattle Day of Service this coming Saturday.

If you'd like to join the One Seattle Day of Service, you can sign up at seattle.gov forward slash mayor forward slash One Seattle initiatives.

day of service.

And after a day of service, I'll be attending the Ballard FC's inaugural game of their inaugural season, the sold-out match against Lane United FC and soccer legends ceremony at Interbay Stadium.

If you can't, if you didn't get tickets for this one, there's more matches coming up and it's going to be an exciting first season for Ballard Football Club.

And as always, I continue to hold my weekly public safety conferencing meeting with King County prosecutors, city attorney and SPD to address public safety in District 6. We are continuing to work with the mayor's office to fine tune this operational meeting.

This last week at City Hall, I met with OPCD Director Rico Quirindongo to continue the discussion on the Maritime and Industrial Strategy process.

I also met with International Longshore Workers Union and the Inland Boatmen's Union, and separately with representatives from the Stadium District.

I was also honored to join FAS's leadership forum.

Our staff in our city make our city work, and I've watched from my district office window and through many parts of my work how amazing our FAS team is.

From operating our buildings to service counters to operating the largest vaccination center in the country during COVID, FAS does it all and they do it very well.

Congratulations to you and your teams.

Separately, I met with Planning Commission Co-Chair Rick Moeller and with one of his students, a graduate student at the UW, to discuss a project mapping a project mapping duplex, legacy duplexes, triplexes, and apartment buildings and storefronts that exist in neighborhood residential districts of District 6 so I can better understand the current nonconforming buildings in our district.

Last Wednesday at the Economic Development and Technology and City Light Committee, I brought an amendment to the Surveillance Impact Report for the IBASE system on today's agenda.

and I also attended the Seattle Maritime Breakfast with the Port of Seattle.

My staff also attended the GSBA Scholars Celebration and Brunch over the weekend and the King County Regional Homelessness Authorities Continuum of Care Summit.

This coming week in District 6 in City Hall, I'll be attending the Association of Washington City's first interim legislative priorities meeting.

I will be meeting with Marshall Foster to continue the discussion of Sound Transit 3 and West Seattle Ballard Link Extension EIS process for D6 residents, Marshall Foster is the city's designated representatives to Sound Transit.

On Friday, I'll be joining parents and students of Adams Elementary for a bike train to highlight the need for safety improvements to the school.

and on Friday I'll have my standing meeting with SDOT director Kirsten Simpson to discuss many of these things.

Lastly, I'll be meeting with SDOT frontline staff to discuss the safety improvements to Ballard Avenue.

In the Land Use Committee, it's been a couple of years since we had neighborhoods, the May 25th meeting of the Land Use Committee has been canceled, so the next meeting will be on June 8th.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report.

Colleagues, any questions?

Seeing no questions, I will pass it on to Councilmember Herbold.

Take it away, Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Strauss.

Much appreciated.

So let's scroll on up here.

There are no items from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on today's full council agenda.

There were two items that were voted out of committee at last Tuesday's Public Safety and Human Services Committee by a 4-1 vote.

We are not hearing them at this week's full council meeting because of the council rules that require us to delay full council action on bills that are not unanimously supported in committee.

Those two items will be heard at full council on Tuesday, the 24th.

for folks reference, those two items are Resolution 32050, sponsored by Council Member Nelson, expressing support for future allocation of funds for SPD officer hiring and retention incentive programs, and Council Bill 120320 that I sponsored that releases funding for SPD officer moving expenses, at SPD.

recruitment, sorry, yeah, recruitment hire request that SDHR amend personnel rules to allow departments greater flexibility to pay moving expenses for new hires.

And the bill also moved out of committee with an amendment sponsored by Council Member Nelson that supported additional funding for a consultant to assist with the police chief search, as well as some advertising to support recruitment to fulfill the council's support for SPD to hire 125 officers in the course of 2022. And there is no Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting this week.

some other updates out of the departments.

Just wanted to let folks know, I know there's a lot of interest in the funding that the council made available to increase license capacity in preschool and childcare facilities across the city by funding some physical facility expansion or modifications.

The Human Services Department is making these dollars available.

They'll provide grants of up to $2 million for nonprofit center-based providers and preschools, and up to $75,000 for nonprofit home-based agencies.

And those funds will be made available for the period of August 2022 through December 2024. There's an information session that HSD is hosting for folks who are interested in applying.

That is a week from Tuesday the 24th at 1030 a.m.

You can find out more on HSD's website by going to seattle.gov forward slash human services and clicking on funding opportunities.

A couple things to mention regarding public safety and public health.

Starting with public health, I just want to recognize that sometime over the last week, the nation passed a tragic milestone.

One million Americans dead from COVID.

That figure is roughly equal to how many Americans died in the Civil War and World War II combined.

And among the dead include more than 241,000 children who lost a parent or caregiver.

That's a huge burden of grief for a whole generation of young people.

The U.S. has had the highest reported COVID death toll of any country in the world.

Predictably, the burden of loss has not been shared equally.

Three out of every four deaths were people 65 and older.

Black, Hispanic, Native American people have been hit twice as hard and they are twice as likely to die from COVID as their white counterparts are.

Unvaccinated people have a 10 times greater risk of dying from COVID than the fully vaccinated.

I just want to take this opportunity to lift up a thought from the CDC's statement on this particular milestone.

Every life lost to COVID-19 is a tragedy and should be a reminder to continue taking precautions to prevent further serious illness and death.

Moving on to public safety.

Last week, I met with Captain Rivera of the Southwest Precinct and Inspector General Judge.

This morning, I met with Public Safety Director Meyerberg in the mayor's office.

And later this week, I'll be meeting each with the police chief, Seattle Fire Department Chief Scoggins, the CPC, and interim director, the interim director for the OPA.

I'll also be meeting with the police monitor later this week to go over the comprehensive assessment that he filed on Friday with the U.S.

District Court.

That comprehensive assessment is available at the monitor's website at seattlepolicemonitor.org.

A High-profile instance of a shooting in District 1 is one I want to just take a moment to talk about.

This was a shooting on Southwest Andover Street.

This is the second recent shooting at this location.

Folks might be aware that this location is a place where there have been a number of RVs parked with people living in them for over three years now.

and this is a location that I've asked for and received significant support from executive departments to do things like RV remediations in the purple bag project with litter pickup and addressing the needs of folks living in those RVs for to make sure that the waste is not going into the stream.

And with the fact that the executive is beginning to start enforcement of the 72-hour notice, so 72-hour parking ordinance, I began to have some conversations with the executive about how they intend to prioritize locations.

This particular, this is not the first time I've had a conversation with the executive, but it is the first time I've had an interaction with them about this location since the announcement that they're going to begin to identify locations throughout the city for prioritization for enforcement.

I have discussed this area with the Southwest Precinct Captain nearly every time I meet with him or his predecessor.

I really appreciate Captain Rivera just recently providing a breakdown of police responses to calls over the last several months at this location.

And I think it's also important to notice that the council did approve funding for a safe lots program last year.

As we all know, the previous administration did not implement the council's funding.

And since that time, the funds have moved from the city over to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

It's about $2 million when you add in the county's money and RHA has issued an RFP for these funds and has also convened a vehicle residency work group that's working on solutions for vehicle residents across a lot of specific subplans.

As it relates to this particular location, a suspect was arrested for the first shooting and is in jail, but really want to urge the executive to continue its work in developing objective criteria for how to prioritize the enforcement of the 72-hour ordinance in a way that, you know, recognizes the impacts of ongoing residential I think it's important that we focus on the impact of activity in neighborhoods and around business districts.

I feel really it should not be an approach, I think we all agree, that is the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but that the And as part of that, the development of that objective criteria, it is important that the city also consider the history of crime in that area as well.

It's a difficult endeavor indeed, especially considering that there's an estimate of 400 RVs throughout the city that folks are living in.

Just wanna also close out my remarks with recognition that as we read the news this weekend about the horrible racially motivated attacks and murders in Buffalo, New York.

I really urge us to also spend time thinking about the accounts of extremism and racial hate in our own community and in our workforce.

As reported in mid-February, we know that there was a news found in Fire Station 24. This was the second news found in recent years.

And we all received a letter last week from the city's RSGI network stating their concern and asking about actions being taken to address this terror-inducing activity.

Here's just a quick excerpt from that letter.

Both Fire Station 17 and 24 have Black officers in leadership within the organization.

The threat for Black employees to know your place has deep historical roots in America, tracing back to slavery, the Klan, Jim Crow, and it persists today.

This targeted attack was committed in an attempt at making our black colleagues fear for their safety, security, and life.

As we are sure you agree, this behavior is beyond acceptable and is a violation of the city workplace values of equity, inclusion, and accountability, and falls under the definition of any workplace malicious harassment.

I did express my concerns with Chief Scoggins back in February when this news was initially found.

I have followed up since receiving this letter to inquire about what steps have been taken to date with Chief Scoggins, and I also want to highlight that I have been working with SDHR Director Dr. Kahn to support her efforts.

to develop an anti-extremism curriculum for city employees.

If you have questions about that, don't hesitate to get in touch.

I'd really like to have the council build some additional support for those efforts coming out of SDHR.

As far as events coming up, This coming week, I just want to highlight that this week we have a Board of Health meeting on Thursday where we'll be continuing a conversation about the state-mandated restructure of the board.

In my meeting with Public Health Director Worsham last week, we did discuss ways that the county and the city might ensure access to abortion for residents and anyone seeking abortion care.

here in Seattle.

Director Worsham also informed me of a troubling increase in congenital syphilis statewide.

Congenital syphilis is incredibly dangerous for babies, but is entirely treatable if it's found in time.

I just want to say how grateful I am for public health for its close monitoring of the data and its quick response to provide treatment directly to patients in the field under a standing order.

Also coming up this week, the Office of Police Accountability Director Search Committee is meeting again.

We'll begin interviewing candidates coming up pretty soon here.

And then I want to note that my team is joining the Mayor's One Day of Service on Saturday, and we'll be helping out the West Seattle Food Bank with cleaning and restocking and showing our appreciation for all the work that the West Seattle Food Bank does to serve clients here in District 1. Thank you.

That's all I have.

Do any of my colleagues have questions or comments?

Chairman Nelson?

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

I wanted to simply thank you for elevating the terrible milestone that we just passed in our country with deaths from COVID and also for your remarks on the shooting and reminders about the need to be vigilant here, even in Seattle.

So thank you very much for those comments.

Thank you for saying so, I appreciate it.

Any others?

All right, not seeing any others.

I will pass it on to Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Lewis.

Thanks so much, Council Member Herbold.

Jumping right into it, there are no items on this afternoon's agenda from the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee.

We do have a committee meeting on this Wednesday, May 18th, It should be a fairly short committee meeting.

The only agenda item that we will be hearing is a RSJI presentation from the Seattle Public Library.

And it was great two weeks ago to hear the RSJI presentation from Parks and Recreation.

Look forward to having a similar presentation from Seattle Public Library on their progress in the same area of the race and social justice initiative.

So looking forward to that I would like to take a moment to thank all of you for joining us on this important committee this coming Wednesday.

Clean City Initiative updates.

Between May 2 and May 6, the Clean City Initiative recovered 602 needles, 67,100 pounds of trash from 10 different locations.

For this last week, We do have a comprehensive Clean City Initiative update for April of 2022, just last month.

In that month, the Clean City Initiative recovered 5,036 needles from Seattle public rights away and cleanup locations, 326,995 pounds of trash from 131 different trash pickup locations.

This included emphasis cleans at Little Brook Park Longfellow Creek, Seward Park, Discovery Park, Miller Community Center, and the Genesee headquarters grounds, all receiving focused treatment.

Moving on to Seattle Public Library, starting in May, on May 23rd, the library is going to be returning to pre-pandemic borrowing policies, and I believe that was recently reported in the news.

So this is a really encouraging milestone as we continue to bring city services back to pre-pandemic expectations.

Maximum time books, CDs, DVDs, and other physical items can be placed on hold, and that will change from 14 days to seven days, and accounts will be suspended for overdue items after 14 days instead of 31. The library will continue to automatically renew items up to three times if another person is not waiting for them.

And this is a reversion again to the pre-COVID policies of the Seattle Public Library on borrowing.

So looking forward to that taking effect.

I will also be joining our new chief librarian Faye on Thursday of this week.

at the Seattle Magnolia branch of the Seattle Public Library.

So looking forward to introducing our new chief librarian to the community in the Magnolia neighborhood and looking forward to having some time to talk about the future of the library and programming at the library as we come out of pandemic era restrictions.

Last week, I had a great tour on Friday afternoon of youth care at the Orion Center in District seven in the South Lake Union neighborhood, highly recommended council colleagues to take an opportunity to go and visit the Orion Center and see the variety of offerings for young people experiencing housing insecurity or other public health barriers to accessing housing insecurity.

It was really great to meet with outreach workers, helping to connect young people with medicated assisted treatment, to meet with clinicians on site who offer health care for people who are enrolled in services with youth care at the Orion Center.

And just to hear about programming for young people and young adults put on by youth care to encourage social activity and to hook people up with resources and everything else.

It was a really great opportunity.

I appreciate Jesse Friedman with youth care for reaching out to my office to set up that tour.

and really appreciate the difference they are making in District 7 and beyond in the city and the region.

So thank you so much for that opportunity to join you, Youth Care, last Friday.

The Regional Policy Committee met last Wednesday, where we had very robust conversations from both I just want to say a couple of things.

I want to talk to King County officials about the state of care in the annual report over the mental health levy and resources that King County has and the strains and demands on our mental health system in the region.

As well as a meeting from the expanded into a conversation about inadequacy of mental health care and the burden on the district court of deficiencies in our mental health system.

It was a really interesting conversation and appreciated, you know, as always, our role as the City of Seattle in being at the table for the Regional Policy Committee to discuss these issues that affect all of us, and really put front and center that such a big component on one of the other boards that I sit on, the Regional Homelessness Committee, is very much related to these deficiencies in our criminal legal system and our behavioral mental health system that feed into and contribute housing insecurity and chronic homelessness.

I'm really looking forward to additional follow-up and action with the presenters in the Regional Policy Committee to see how that might inform some of our discussions going forward in the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee on how we can be a good regional partner in resourcing and expanding the ability to provide mental health resources for people in our community.

Similarly, to Councilmember Strauss, I will be attending a One Seattle Day of Service this coming weekend in the Pioneer Square neighborhood, working with the Alliance for Pioneer Square and other neighborhood organizations at Occidental Park.

very much looking forward to doing that, and strongly encourage community members to similarly come out and join us on our One Seattle Day of Service.

Council Member Strauss, I will also be joining you at the Ballard FC game.

I love that Ballard FC plays in District 7. It may have a D6 name, but they're going to play in District 7 at Interbay, and very much looking forward to attending the inaugural game, as I know you are, and inviting that we are going to be able to bring this new sports team and new sports tradition into the inner bay neighborhood.

With that, Madam President and council colleagues, I don't have any additional items to report and I'm happy to open it up to questions or comments.

Councilmember Herbold.

Oh yeah, I'm happy to get that if it was not.

I don't know if I if I have like a physical kind of like they made up a PDF of it but I definitely have all those all the stats and where the stuff happened.

So I will disseminate that to the council for sure.

Appreciate that.

And then as it relates to your upcoming committee meeting, perhaps you could give us an update on your intent mentioned at the last committee meeting to have a future discussion on the Unified Care Team?

Yes.

We are still seeking a good time for the Unified Care Team to present to committee.

the notice was not sufficient to produce a presentation for this Wednesday, but my hope is that two weeks from Wednesday, we will be able to have a presentation from the Unified Care Team.

Council Member Herbold, I am just as eager to hear from the Unified Care Team as you are, and I think you know that.

So I am looking forward to getting that agenda item for some much-needed questions about the activity of the unified care team, but also how we as councilmembers can engage with them in terms of priorities and projects in our districts.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Any other comments on my presentation?

Questions?

Seeing none, I will pass it on to Councilmember Morales.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Let's see.

Last week, the Neighborhoods, Education, Arts and Civil Rights Committee voted to advance three appointments.

We have two for the Pike Market Historical Commission and one for the Pike Market PDA.

Those will be advanced to council.

I believe it's for next week.

They aren't on the agenda for tomorrow.

I don't have any items on tomorrow's full council agenda.

We also had a first discussion with Hamdi Mohamed, who is the mayor's appointment to serve as director for the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

It was a great conversation.

We will have a second discussion at my next committee meeting, May 27th.

So if you have any final questions, please do send them my way.

I anticipate voting on that appointment at my May 27th meeting.

Last week, I attended a retreat for the FEPP Levy Oversight Committee on which I sit.

We did a deep dive into the data from the 2022 annual report with Dr. Fajardo from Diehl, who shared some of the successes that we've had as a result of our FEPP Levy investments.

And also we talked a lot about some of the challenges presented by COVID and the fact that our students were out of school for a year and a half.

We also did hear from CBO about the city's financial context and began discussions about some of the constraints that the committee might need to consider as we move forward with our current financial situation.

This week, I'll be attending the Board of Health meeting.

I'll also be touring the Seattle Center to get a better understanding of the potential impacts of the light rail expansion and of the need for mitigation plans for the performing arts and cultural spaces that are there.

This week I do have my monthly meeting with the Office of Civil Rights and with the Arts and Culture Department.

Let's see, last week on Friday, I was honored to be invited to speak at an abortion rights rally that was organized by the city's high school students.

We had about 100 people out at Westlake, so I want to thank the young people for being engaged and being active on issues that are important to them and should be to all of us.

Also on Friday I announced that our office had secured $1 million in funding to sustain the Seattle Maritime Academy's operations for the 22-23 school year.

This $1 million comes from our ARPA funding.

of the $1,000,000, $750,000 will provide gap funding for Seattle colleges to operate the Maritime Academy for the next school year.

And then the remaining $250,000 will be allocated to Seattle Public Schools for the Maritime Vessel Operations Program.

And that's part of the Seattle Skills Center at Seattle Public Schools.

This is really important funding.

I'm excited to be able to support continued operations of this program because it's a really important opportunity for Seattle high school students.

particularly for students of color to learn about maritime careers which can offer some very well-paying jobs and financial stability and security for their families.

So I want to thank OED's Maritime Lead John Persak, Governor Inslee's Maritime Lead Stephanie Bowman, Mayor Harrell and Deputy Mayor Yamaguchi, who were part of the press conference that we had on Friday.

I also want to thank Barrett Erickson, who's the Director of Workforce Development for the Sailors Union of the Pacific, for speaking at the conference, and Dan Golisman, who's the current principal of Seattle Skills Center.

And I finally want to thank Forrest Rees, who is a current student at the Seattle Maritime Academy.

Forrest came out Friday morning and joined us at the press conference to talk about why this is such an important program to him.

So there was a lot of great collaboration among different jurisdictions that helped make this happen.

And I'm excited for the opportunity for our young people to learn more about the maritime industry.

Last week, I took a walking tour of Little Saigon with Congressman Adam Smith, OED Director, Mark McIntyre, and OIR's Director, Hamdi Mohamed, and other representatives from across the city.

We had a great talk with many of the business owners in the neighborhood about their concerns, the things that they would like to see from the city, and especially about small business technical assistance.

There's a lot of interest in getting more support for how to navigate lease agreements between our small businesses, locally owned small businesses and the property owners from whom they rent.

Also, a lot of interest in increased language access for city programs, particularly funding programs and public safety.

So later in the week.

I also had the bi weekly meeting that I have with little Saigon stakeholders, where we heard about a proposal for the beginnings of a neighborhood safety model from the friends of little Saigon, there's a lot of community interest.

in creating something like this.

And so we are using these meetings to start talking through what a neighborhood safety model might look like.

And my staff will be working with Friends of Little Saigon to gather more information in the coming weeks.

My staff also attended the Mary's Place celebration and the Day of Action Dream Big at Seattle Center.

So I want to thank Mary's Place for all the work they do providing shelter and services to women, children, and families in Seattle.

Staff also attended the celebration for Key to Change, which is an arts nonprofit that provides violin and viola lessons to middle and high school students in South King County.

They just marked their five-year anniversary, so I want to congratulate them and thank them for all they do to build access to the arts for our young people.

And then finally, colleagues, I am very sorry to report what you probably also already heard, which is that last Wednesday morning, a person driving a Jeep struck and killed someone biking in Soto.

I haven't been able to learn the name of the person killed, but I do want to extend my condolences to their friends and family.

I want to remind my colleagues that in January, Antonio Tiongo was killed as he biked across Holgate at 3rd Avenue.

January of 2020, Douglas Mayhew was killed as he was walking across Holgate 8th Avenue.

There is no marked crosswalk, despite those being very wide lanes.

October 2020, another pedestrian was struck and killed at First and Holgate.

And I say this because I think it is very important for each of us to acknowledge that the safety of Seattleites is at risk if we don't invest where we have said for the last decade, we're going to invest in safety infrastructure for our neighbors.

As I said last week, there are over 4,000 miles of road in the city of Seattle.

Less than 1% of it is protected bike infrastructure.

We know that we have sidewalks that need improvement.

We know that we have handicap ramps, ADA compliance that we need to improve throughout the city.

These fatalities are completely unacceptable because they are completely avoidable.

There is no excuse for not increasing the safety of our streets and sidewalks for the people of Seattle.

No excuse.

Even in parts of the city where industry thrives, there will be people who cannot or choose not to drive in this city.

They deserve to be safe too.

So I would like to request the transportation chair, who I've already touched base with about this.

I'd like to request that we schedule a Vision Zero briefing in committee.

And I'm particularly interested in an update on what is being done to build safety measures that have already been designed and have already been included in the city's prior Vision Zero plans.

I'm not interested in hearing about any more studies.

And finally, I do want to let folks know that I'll be joining, my staff will also be joining Seattle Day of Service at the Rainier Beach Food Bank and look forward to providing our assistance to our neighbors and to thank the staff at Rainier Valley Food Bank for all the work.

Colleagues, that is my report for today.

Does anybody have any questions or comments?

I don't see any.

I don't believe Councilmember Mosqueda is here, so I think I'm handing it over to Councilmember Peterson.

No.

Sorry, Councilmember Nelson, my apologies.

I do know my alphabet.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Morales.

Good afternoon, everyone.

There are two items on the agenda for full council tomorrow from the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee.

And they are Council Bill 120307, which would authorize approval of the surveillance impact report of SPD's continued use of audio recording systems.

And Council Bill 120309 would do the same for SPD's continued use of IBM i2iBASE, which is a link analysis software program.

Both pieces of legislation were amended in committee and passed unanimously out of committee.

and they'll be voted on tomorrow as noted by our council president.

Also last week, as noted, resolution 32050 in support of a staffing incentives program to hire more officers more quickly was passed out of the Public Safety Committee.

And I do want to just simply extend my appreciation to Chair Herbold for hearing this in her committee and for and to Council Members Peterson, Lewis, and Herbold for their support.

Also last week, did you know that the maritime industrial sector contributes about $38 billion to our regional and state economy?

Well, that is their economic impact.

And I didn't know that either, but I found out when I was preparing to give some remarks at the annual Maritime Breakfast last Friday.

And this was hosted by the North Seattle Industrial Association, the Propeller Club, which represents maritime businesses and also hosted by the port.

And so I have to say, not to belabor a bad analogy, but this sector floats our economy, and so I thought it was important to participate there.

This coming week, on Wednesday, I'll be meeting with Amy Lillard, who is the Executive Director of Washington Filmworks.

And Washington Filmworks is the nonprofit that manages the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program, as well as a diversity of resources for the creative industries in Washington State.

And just from their website, Washington Filmworks' mission is to create economic development opportunities by building and enhancing the competitiveness, profile, and sustainability of Washington State's film industry.

These are people that are appointed by the governor.

They were instrumental in the passage of House Bill 1914, which allocated $12 million to be used as incentives to attract more film production in Washington State and also support our local and state workers in the film industry and film economy.

And of course, my interest in this meeting is to figure out how to best position Seattle to take advantage of this new resource as we strengthen our film economy here.

Also, this coming Thursday, I will be going to the Tiffany Ridge neighborhood to see A training that is that the Seattle Fire Department puts on to for new recruits.

You know, to put out house fires, and so I don't know if many people know this program, but basically when property owners in this case homeowners.

getting ready to demolish their home or they sell it and it will be demolished, the fire department gets first dibs and uses that structure as a training ground for their folks to hone their skills in putting out house fires.

So I am looking forward to seeing those that inaction.

So that is on Thursday.

I will also be meeting this coming week with the CID Public Development Association leadership to talk about their that's Chinatown International District.

This is the organization that represents neighborhood businesses, and I will be learning about their priorities and concerns for what's coming up with Sound Transit three and then I too, on Saturday, will be volunteering for the One Seattle Day of Service.

I was invited by Mayor Harrell to join him in Pioneer Square for a street beautification project.

And apparently we will also be joined by Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and athletes from the Sounders and O.L.

Ray.

And just for the public, you too can join in the fun.

I just wanted to let folks know that this was something that engaged a lot of city employees, but members of the public, if they want to volunteer, can go to this website and sign up for one of the many, many, many volunteer opportunities throughout the city.

And that website is seattle.gov forward slash one dash Seattle dash initiatives.

forward slash day dash of dash service.

So that is again, Seattle.gov forward slash one Seattle initiatives forward slash date of service.

That does it for my report.

And now I will ask for any questions.

And if there are none, pass it on to council member Peterson.

All right, seeing none, take it away council member Peterson.

Thank you, Councilmember Nielsen.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are no items from our Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Our next Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities is tomorrow, Tuesday, May 17, at 9.30 a.m.

This Committee tomorrow, we're considering six items, which will include the renewal of three term permits, two for existing pedestrian tunnels downtown and one for an existing skybridge in Cherry Hill.

We will vote on a term permit for the installation of conduit pipes for a construction project in District 4. We'll also hear the RSGI report for Seattle Public Utilities.

And finally, we have a briefing on the annual financial audit of Seattle Public Utilities, which, as we know, is a $1 billion enterprise with several lines of business, solid waste, drinking water, wastewater, and drainage.

As I mentioned last week, Sound Transit is giving themselves another month to make some decisions on the West Seattle Ballard Link extension routes and stations.

So instead of tomorrow, we hope to discuss a joint resolution with the executive regarding Seattle's preferences at a June 7 committee.

We'll then have a second committee meeting on July 5 or July 19 to potentially vote on that joint resolution.

Also at the June 7 committee meeting, we will vote on mayor Harold's nomination of Andrew Lee to become the permanent general manager and CEO of Seattle Public Utilities.

As chair of the committee that includes SBU, I'm following the confirmation process outlined in resolution 31868. We already circulated the mayor's appointment packet to you, and it was also on the introduction referral calendar earlier this month.

As with all the mayor's appointments, the council is asking questions for the nominee to answer beforehand about their experience and priorities for the department they hope to lead.

Therefore, well in advance of the June 7 confirmation vote at our committee meeting, we will also circulate interim director Lee's answers to those questions.

I really appreciate all the references from colleagues today on various areas of public safety, safety from gun violence, safety from traffic collisions, safety from fires, and increased safety on all fronts is a theme I'm pleased to see from the Harrell administration in general.

Utility bills.

I can't remember, Council Member Nelson, did you talk about the three pieces of legislation?

Are those going to be on the IRC?

No, I did not.

I will leave it to you.

Okay, great.

I'll address them very quickly.

So tomorrow's introduction referral calendar will have three bills from the executive to help Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities customers who are still struggling with their utility bills.

This includes extending the waiver of interest fees on utility bills and extending the additional flexibility for the emergency assistance program.

And because these bills impact both City Light and SPU, I'm co-sponsoring them with Council Member Nelson.

Also on the introduction referral calendar will be Council 120325. I very much appreciate the expert assistance of our city council central staff and our city attorney's office as we seek more data on rental rates and vacancy information.

by potentially amending the Rental Housing Registration Inspection Ordinance, RRIO, for short.

The bill to accomplish this was originally Council Bill 120284. That was heard for the first time in the Renter's Rights Committee on March 18. Since that first discussion, we made a few rounds of technical and implementation changes.

Based on those changes, we were advised to update the title of the bill, which then required us to reintroduce it.

So the current version of the bill is Council Bill 120325, Again, that's the version that will be on the IRC, that'll be distributed today and voted on tomorrow.

You can also find that bill on the city's Legistar website.

Council 120325 will be heard this Friday, May 20th at the Renter's Rights Committee.

If you have any questions about the bill, you can contact my office or ASHA on central staff.

I wanna thank Chair Sawant for accommodating that legislation.

separate from our committee agenda, my office is working with the mayor's office on a proclamation for June to be proclaimed ride transit month.

June is traditionally ride transit month, but was not widely celebrated during the pandemic.

I'll circulate that draft proclamation later this week.

Our current plan is to collect signatures at the council briefing on Monday, May 23rd, because we will not have a council briefing on Monday, May 30th, which is Memorial Day.

holiday.

We're not presenting that presentation to anybody, but we do want to sign that on May 23rd.

Finally, in District 4, last week I attended the monthly meeting of the Magnuson Park Advisory Committee.

We discussed how the animal shelter interacts with the park to ensure people and wildlife can enjoy our city parks free from risks that may be associated with dogs that are unleashed, especially near children's play areas.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we turn it back to the Council President?

Thank you.

Did you say it was my turn?

Oh, okay.

Did not catch that.

Sorry about that.

Thank you, everybody.

Let me like, I will be brief.

Well, actually, I will be brief for once.

Since I was gone, I got a few items that I wanna catch up on.

And thank you, a lot of you repeated what I was already gonna say, but I'll come back to that in a minute.

Okay, there is one item from the Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

It is resolution 32051, I'm sorry, which was recommended unanimously.

The resolution amends the council rules to do the following, number one, make some technical clarifications.

Number two, add guidance to the use of the consent calendar.

This amendment would allow the consent calendar to include administrative items where there is no debate.

It also allows for any item on the consent calendar to be removed and added to the full agenda by request of a council member.

So we're also clarifying the rules on abstentions.

This would relieve the council president from making the determination on which resolutions allow for abstentions.

Basically, we will not putting actually me and the next council president in the position of making a unilateral decision subjectively about what is material or directly affecting city council business.

Indeed, this will be up to the individual council member to make that decision whether or not they believe something is material or directly related to city council business, and then they can abstain or vote accordingly.

So Ellie, thank you.

Big shout out to Ellie Panucci for helping us go through this and providing the analysis.

And this is, I think she has a memo and a letter out already that we discussed a couple of weeks ago.

I believe that's still available if you want more information on that, but we did vote on that.

Okay, so next, the next meeting of the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee will be this Thursday at 9.30 a.m.

At that meeting, Seattle Police Department will provide an update on data collection for missing murdered Indigenous persons.

the cases from the legislation and the budget and the person that we hired, Francesca in Department of Neighborhoods and working with SPD on Missing Murder Indigenous People, Indigenous Persons, I'm sorry.

Committee members will also consider two appointments to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission and an appointment to the Ethics and Elections Commission.

Last week's summary, D5 staff met with representatives from the Regional Housing, Regional Homeless Authority regarding progress towards housing and encampments in District 5. And District 5 staff also met separately with the Human Services Department regarding encampments in District 5. My staff participated in a meeting of regional leaders regarding the Thunderbird Behavioral Health Center hosted by King County Council Member Zahale.

The Thunderbird House operated by the Seattle Indian Health Board has been around, I think, for over 40 years.

And so I'm really happy.

And I don't know all the numbers yet, because I've been often on the phone with the CEO, Esther Lacerro.

But I think we have some good news coming on some of the funding that they're going to get from the federal government and the state government.

And it's been a long time coming to update the Thunderbird House, which has been just a a well of health for addiction and all these issues that we've experienced in Indian country for those indigenous brothers and sisters that live in the Northwest.

So I'm looking forward to have more information for you guys on that one.

D5 staff participated in a sound transit meeting regarding the West Seattle Ballard Link light rail extension.

That is Murphy Bush in my office and my chief of staff Brenda Swift, they are the ones that not only brief me but attend these meetings when I can't but also attend the one I am there because he as you know we have a lot of work to get through and the decision on those on the valid link light rail extension West Seattle has been kicked over to July 28 I believe to, to, to, for the vote.

DFI staff also interviewed candidates for the Indigenous Advisory Council, and that is Sarah Mays, who's our lead policy person on that, and she's been working with OIR and the executive on the appointees, and we are still going through the resumes and the information that's been provided to us to staff the IOC, the I-A-C.

I would like to highlight that last week our own city archivist, is that how I'm saying that correctly?

Archivist.

Ann Fratilla, I just know her as Ann, who does a phenomenal job when we ask her to do stuff for us, was honored with the Racism, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion, the READ Award from the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators.

So congratulations, and please join me in congratulating her.

It is a very big deal, as Monica shared with us.

Upcoming this week, I'm scheduled to meet with the Sound Transit Board CEO Search Committee.

And Sound Transit will be holding a board of directors workshop on the West Seattle Ballard, I can never say that, West Seattle Ballard Link Light Rail Extension on Friday.

OK, so this is some more news close to home.

About a year ago, this council, it was like a year ago, passed a resolution in support of the investigations that were going on in the boarding schools in the United States and the residential schools in Canada.

So I want to call to everyone's attention, if you don't have it, I'll forward it to you.

The release of the Federal Indian Boarding Schools Initiative investigative report that was released by the US Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland last week.

The report provides a critical look at part of our nation's history and has great significance that had not been previously acknowledged.

I want to read something to you all because normally I don't do this kind of stuff, but I want to do this because I think it's really important and I will forward all this information to you as well.

It's a report that I read over the weekend.

It's over 100 pages and there are eight recommendations.

The first and foremost being that we will continue the full investigation into the boarding schools, at least in the United States.

But this part, and I would have probably paraphrased it better, but I think it's better to just read strictly from the letter from the Department of Interior.

that is dated April 1st, 2022 from Assistant Secretary Newlin, who is the BIA Director basically under the Honorable Deb Haaland, Assistant Secretary of Interior.

This report shows for the first time that between 1819 and 1969, the United States operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states, including 21 schools in Alaska, seven schools in Hawaii.

This report identifies each of those schools by name and location, some of which operated against multiple sites.

This report confirms that the United States directly directly targeted American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children in the pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation that coincided with Indian territorial disposition.

In other words, they took our children so they could take our land.

It identifies the federal Indian boarding schools that were used as a means for these ends, along with 53 burial sites for children across the system.

with more site discoveries and data expected as we continue our research.

This report highlights some of the conditions these children endured at these schools and raises important questions about the short-term and long-term consequences of federal Indian boarding school system in the United States and the Native Hawaiian community, and that the Assistant Secretary Newland is recommending further investigation to examine those consequences.

one of them being the historical trauma that our people experience now.

This report places the federal Indian boarding school system in its historical context, which has never been done in over 200 years, explaining that the United States established this system as part of a broader objective to dispossess Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiians communities of their territories to support the expansion of the United States.

In short, it was genocide, so this country could be the United States of America, my country.

The federal Indian boarding school policy was intentionally targeted at American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children to assimilate them and consequently take their territories and their land.

I believe that this historical context is important to understanding the intent and the scale of the federal Indian boarding school system and why it persisted for over 150 years.

So there's a lot more there.

And I just want to share with you that this is not the past.

We have boarding schools that are still here, operated not only by the federal government, by churches, and the atrocities that at least I know that my mother, my grandmother, my aunties, my uncles, and every native person that can probably step up and speak have endured.

It is not the past.

It is still here.

And so I'm so honored that Secretary Deb Haaland required or demanded this report.

And we plan on working with OIR and the Interior to hopefully do some of these testimonials in the Pacific Northwest that we can host them here in Seattle that we used to do when Senator Nighthorse Campbell was in the Senate.

we would have these satellite Senate hearings that they would set in Indian country, because not everyone can go to Washington, D.C., where we can have those folks not only that were in boarding schools, but had their parents in boarding schools, but also had to deal with the historic trauma of their parents being in boarding schools.

I don't think the public really knows what the Catholic Church, what the church, and what the government had done to our people when they took their children.

I don't think any of you can imagine in 2022, the federal government coming to your home or your school and taking your three children between the ages of two and nine and just saying, we're taking them.

And that's exactly what happened.

And so I don't want to go on and on about that.

I do have the report.

I would love to share it with my colleagues.

And I hope that you join me in the eight recommendations.

And hopefully we can work together and host these satellite hearings that I think need to happen in the Northwest And we certainly have the support of the local people.

We have Deb Parker, who works at Tulalip, who's Tulalip, who is a national, now become an expert and is working on this and a dear friend, obviously, of our city in this region, and working with other people of the Native American Caucus so we can move forward on these recommendations.

I have a feeling it's going to be another emotional long road like it was for the Indian Child Welfare Act.

like it was for missing, murdered, indigenous women and girls.

And now we are finally uncovering what we've always known is what happened at boarding schools and uncovering all these burial sites, but more importantly, not more importantly, but just as sad, the effects and the trauma that is intergenerational, that doesn't go away and still affects our people to this day.

So I hate to leave on a negative note or a sad note, And I want to thank Council Member Herboldt for bringing up, as well as my other colleagues, about the shooting in New York and Buffalo, New York, that people were targeted and that words and rhetoric and slogans and hate have consequences that turn into physical acts of violence.

And we've seen some of that in our region, in our city.

And my only hope and prayer is that that is not who we are.

At the end of the day, we all have to learn to live and love each other, and without getting too sappy.

Is there anything else from my colleagues before I close this out?

All right, not seeing any other matters for the good of the order.

Colleagues, this concludes today's agenda, and our next council briefing is scheduled for May 23rd at 2 o'clock, and we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Recording stopped.