SPEAKER_01

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is September 23rd, 2024, and the council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.03.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_01

Here.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_05

Present.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Saca?

SPEAKER_05

Here.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Council Member Wu?

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_99

Here.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_09

Here.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_09

Present.

SPEAKER_08

And Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_01

Present.

Nine council members present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of September 16th, 2024 will be adopted.

Seeing none, the minutes are adopted.

All right, we have one proclamation for signature today and one executive session.

At tomorrow's city council meeting, we'll begin with a presentation by Mayor Harrell on his proposed 2025 to 2026 budget.

The introduction and referral calendar for tomorrow's City Council meeting will include the weekly bill payment ordinance and resolution 32147, a resolution relating to the City Light Department recording review of and adopting the City Light Department's wildfire mitigation plan.

And the consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment and 18 appointments and reappointments, respectively to the Civil Service Commission, the Transit Advisory Board, and the Bicycle Advisory Board.

And then there are 13 pieces of legislation under committee reports, including a clerk file in Council Bill 120859 granting final approval to the Mount Bakersville subdivision in Mount Baker.

Appointment 02930, appointing Mina Hashemi as Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Council Bill 120827, establishing the music venue parking zone program.

Council Bill 120831, modifying boundaries of the West Seattle Junction BIA.

Council Bill 120816, excuse me, 815 on the city's priority hire program.

Council Bill 120858, allowing the mayor to enter into a new interlocal agreement with King County modifying governance of the regional homelessness authority.

Council Bill 120822, removing restrictions on congregate residences.

Council Bill 120823, making corrections to the city code on land use and zoning.

And Council Bill 120824, relating to design review exemption in certain areas.

Council Bill 120857, to change a street name to Sue Bird Court.

Clerk File 314497, related to an alley vacation.

And finally, Resolution 32145, establishing a transportation funding task force.

So it's going to be a full meeting, folks.

So buckle up for that.

And now we'll move on to the signing of letters and proclamations.

Council Member Hollingsworth has a proclamation for signature today proclaiming October 10th, 2024 to be Black Brewers Day.

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

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

Colleagues, this is a really important day, October 10th, Black Brewery.

I cannot say it, but Black Brewers Day.

We have two in our district.

We have Medier.

It's not Meteor.

I know some people get that mixed up.

It's Medier Brewery.

and also 23rd brewery that are black owned in our district.

We are the number one producer in hops in the state of Washington.

I don't think a lot of people knew that.

And craft breweries and IPAs and those have been on the rise.

And I think it's great that we have black businesses that are partaking in industry, especially in our central district.

I can't begin to tell you how important 23rd a brewery has been to transform Jackson Street to activating that space, all the businesses that have popped up along that corridor, and also Metier Brewery on Cherry, which is incredibly important as well.

That is flourishing and will continue to flourish as we get more businesses along there with Rodney and his people.

So I look forward to hopefully people signing on and your support.

And we will figure out a day when we'll have them in chambers to present that to them as well.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you very much for this.

Of course, this holds a special place in my heart.

Any recognition of craft beer is important, and also the important contribution of black brewers to what has heretofore been a fairly...

An industry sector that is lacking of some diversity is very, very appreciated, and we have to support our brewers in town here not just as small businesses, but as the conveners of community, as placemakers, very, very important placemakers, job creators, and generators of revenue that we need for our programs.

And so thank you very, very much for this recognition.

Are there any other comments?

Go ahead, Councilmember Saka.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Madam Council President.

I just want to thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth, and your leadership for bringing this important proclamation forward.

It's important that we honor the rich contributions that black brewers make to our city and our region.

So thank you.

I had the pleasure of going to Médier.

Is that the proper?

I know the beer tastes delicious.

I got to remember the proper pronunciation.

But they have a, so in addition to in your district, you know, they have a great brewery location in Woodinville that I had the pleasure of going to in the past.

And so in any event, just want to thank you again and your leadership for bringing this forward.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

I'm not seeing any other hands up.

So seeing that there's no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing October 10th, 2024 to be Black Brewers Day.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Morales?

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Saca?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Kettle?

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_08

Council Member Moore?

SPEAKER_01

Aye.

SPEAKER_08

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_01

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much for that.

Okay, on to Blue Sky, to Council Review of Past and Future Actions.

Our roll call today begins with Council Member Morales, so go ahead and take it away.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

As Council President mentioned, there are five items from the Land Use Committee on the full Council agenda tomorrow.

Well, there's four and one that would have gone through, but there's a clerk file and Council Bill 120859, which is a subdivision...

lot of a parcel in the Mount Baker area for five three-story townhomes.

I think that's coming straight to council.

So it did not pass out of the Land Use Committee, but it will be on the agenda tomorrow.

Council Bill 120822, Congregate Residences.

This legislation implements House Bill 1998, which allows for co-living housing, also known as congregate housing, in all zones that allow multifamily housing.

Council Bill 120823 is our omnibus land use code changes, technical changes.

It clarifies development regulations, corrects errors and omissions, and ensures that the city's policy intent is clear.

Council Bill 120824 is part of the Downtown Activation Plan.

This is design review exemptions.

This legislation amends land use code for a three-year period to exempt new development proposals from design review if they contain housing, hotels, or research and development uses.

And as I mentioned, this affects urban centers in downtown, South Lake Union, Uptown, and First Hill.

I will be cosponsoring an amendment with Councilmember Rivera that will clarify that when STCI reports on departures that have been granted or when they allow exemptions, that the reporting be incorporated into the broader design review process.

So we will talk a little bit more about that tomorrow.

And then, finally, I do want to mention we did have another bill in the Land Use Committee, Council Bill 120832, which is pretty dense legislation around different construction code amendments.

It did pass out of committee, but there are some concerns that, because it's dense and because my colleagues may need some time to understand it better before voting on it, We have, Council President has moved that not to tomorrow's meeting, but to October 8th, I believe.

So it does need to come into effect no later than November 15th in order to be in compliance with state policy.

law.

So all that to say, I'm flagging this because I'm really going to encourage my colleagues to reach out to SDCI and make sure that you're briefed on this legislation so that you understand it when we vote on it, which will be in just a couple weeks.

And given that we're also starting budget, I know that there'll be a lot coming at us.

I do want to remind colleagues that as soon as budget is over, we will pivot to the select committee on the comprehensive plan.

So we will have several initial briefings at the 1st of December, and then starting in January, we'll have central staff and the departments come and provide an overview of what the renewal process itself looks like.

And then there'll be an opportunity to understand what is in the process.

final plan that we get from the mayor's office next in December.

And then we'll start the conversation about what we want to see and what our vision is for how the city will look over the next 20 years.

Moving on, we're working on creating a website landing page for everything related to the comprehensive plan, similar to what we have for the budget process.

We are working with our communications team and with the mayor's office to make sure that we have clarity on what the calendar looks like, and we'll have that available.

on a website.

We hope to have that up and running by mid-October.

I think that's all the comp plan related things.

Last week, I did attend the Association of Washington City's board meeting and retreat.

We helped set the strategic planning goals for the 281 cities across the state of Washington.

I will say we met out in Richland.

It's a beautiful drive out across the Palouse.

And it was really great to be in a room full of folks for a couple of days who really come from across the state, which means across the political spectrum, who can sit down and work together, agree to disagree on some things, and then go have a glass of wine together and have a good time.

So that was fun.

Last week, I attended the groundbreaking for the largest Habitat for Humanity development event to date.

It will be right in the heart of Columbia City in my district.

I also met with the Green New Deal Oversight Board members and we took a walking tour of the stadium area down in the overlay district.

Additionally, my staff attended the Yesler Terrace Community Council and Historic Seattle's 16th Annual Preservation Celebration Awards benefit.

So far this week, I've met with SEIU 6, and we'll be meeting with Friends of Little Saigon regarding some other ongoing issues in our district later this week.

There's other stuff happening, but I'll leave it at that.

If there are no questions.

SPEAKER_07

Council Member Schatz.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I thought there were 282 cities and towns.

SPEAKER_03

Wrong.

SPEAKER_07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Ballard does not count.

As its own city.

SPEAKER_07

As its own city.

As its own city.

It has been annexed, much like Leschi, Wesley, Al Bryant, and Columbia City, if I recall correctly.

My question here to you, Council Member, if we could vote on the...

Energy code at a later date.

I can tell you, looking at my calendar right now, the 8th is the next time I can have a briefing.

So, colleagues, for me, my schedule as your budget chair is totally wampus.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

We are trying to work through some schedule issues for sure.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

For me, that week of the 8th is my first opportunity to take that briefing again.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

AND WE HAVE BEEN WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES TO IDENTIFY THE BEST DATE, SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT INPUT, AND WE WILL FINALIZE IT, BUT RIGHT NOW THAT IS THE GOING DATE, BUT HURT.

SPEAKER_00

YEP.

SPEAKER_05

COUNCILMEMBER RIVERA.

THANK YOU.

COUNCILMEMBER MORALES.

All right.

Last week, I got to have a meet and greet with the president of the Library Board of Trustees, Tally Hairston.

Tally was appointed to the Library Board by former Mayor Jenny Durkan in March of 2020 and reappointed by Mayor Harrell in May of 2023. We had a great introduction, and it was great to hear Tally's perspective on Seattle Public Libraries and the work.

I look forward to continuing to work with Tally.

along with Chief Librarian Fay.

Then the inner scientist in me was thrilled when I got to tour the Ballard Locks with the WIRA 8 Recovery Council staff.

Some folks may not know, but I have a bachelor's degree in biology, so I was definitely nerding out on salmon recovery.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about our recovery efforts in the region and what we're doing to protect our salmon population.

There is a lot that we're doing in this space and I was happy to also hear about their work with the tribes in this space as well.

As you all know, the council members have a city or two that we partner with in terms of sister cities.

I met with my sister city representatives from Beersheba in Israel.

It was so nice to hear more about this city and their partnership efforts with Seattle.

Last week, I also received a briefing from SDCI about these proposed code changes I still have concerns.

We have not had enough time to really understand the impacts all of these code changes may have.

And also, I met with and saw representatives from the University of Washington who also have expressed some concerns about the ability to meet all these code changes, ability to comply within certain time frames.

So all that to say I'm looking forward to hearing more.

and getting more information about the proposed code changes overall.

And as Councilmember Morales detailed, we're co-sponsoring an amendment related to reporting and the reporting of the downtown activation plan and the proposal for the exemptions of design review there.

And as you all know, I really appreciate data and reporting when we take measures to really help things along in our city.

So it's really an effort to hear more about how this particular effort is moving along with, and the legislature will talk about making sure that we're also looking at The exemptions that we currently have to design review in those programs including there's an exemption for MHA and also low-income housing Work so want to make sure that we're getting reporting on all those things from SDC I and that's what that amendment is all about and Then separately last week, I also attended the exhibit Confronting Hate Together, which was hosted by Temple DeHirsch Sinai.

It was really inspiring to see what so many examples of Seattle's Black, Jewish, and Asian American communities facing prejudice in Seattle and how these communities have worked together in the face of this prejudice.

And then this week, I will be attending the FEPP Oversight Committee meeting on Thursday.

As you all know, the FEPP levy will be up for renewal next year, and it's critical to dig into the available information and data so we can create education proposals at the city that are in line with that meet the FEPP delineated items.

And then for now, I guess I'll, unless someone has any questions, I'll turn it over to my colleague, Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_06

All right.

SPEAKER_05

All right.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

All right, so on the Transportation Committee front, colleagues, last week we had our final Transportation Committee meeting before we began our budget deliberations this week in earnest.

Last week we voted on, voted out of committee a number of items, including those that are going to appear before us tomorrow at the full council.

Council President gave a heads up of a few of those items.

One is the appointment of transit and bicycle advisory boards.

Those will appear on the consent calendar.

A few other substantive items that we'll vote on tomorrow are the Sue Bird street naming ordinance to honor the GOAT, the greatest of all time.

Another item is the Transportation Funding Task Force resolution tied to the proposed levy.

that voters are going to weigh in on in November so we need to be prepared to implement if it is passed and we need to be prepared to govern in any scenario and then the other item is is that we'll talk more about tomorrow, but the t6 life sciences alley vacation that we voted out of committee last week.

At committee, we also heard an interesting presentation, a great presentation from our central staff on the Seattle streetcar lines of business and service in the city.

So that concluded pre-budget our transportation committee meetings will have our next transportation committee meeting on its scheduled for December 3rd we'll have a number of substantive agenda items to address really the nuts and bolts the nitty-gritty good governance types types of items and transportation policy and planning but but it will be fun stuff leading up there so on the external committee front.

Later this week, I will be joining the PSRC executive board on Thursday, to be exact.

And a number of relevant items on the agenda include, we're going to receive an update from staff on the process for adopting legislative priorities and providing feedback on the draft 2020-25 legislative policy items.

Again, this is for the Puget Sound Regional Council, the executive board at that level.

and then also We're going to review the transportation policy boards work program Which I also sit on TPB transportation policy board for PSRC.

So we're going to review the work program and upcoming regional transportation plan discussion item for the remainder of 2024 so a number of important topics will consider on Thursday at that committee and other than that really excited colleagues to dig into the budget alongside you all I guess starting in earnest tomorrow but and also councilmember Rivera really appreciate your update on your efforts in your sister city with respect to your sister city engagement we all have assigned sister cities as we know I will likely have some updates of my own to share some timely updates of my own to share my own sister cities work next week but I appreciate that colleagues I welcome any questions comments from any of you all if any and Hearing and seeing none.

I will pass the baton on to councilmember Strauss.

SPEAKER_07

Thanks not much going on over here Colleagues, as I was just mentioning, my schedule is compressed enough that my next meeting, even if I wanted to have it with myself, is October 8th.

Thank you all for being responsive to my meeting requests.

I have meetings with every single person scheduled to talk simply process because I want to make sure that we as a team are clearly and well informed about the schedule and the calendar of this budget process.

So thank you all.

That's part of what's taken up a large majority of my time is that I want to be present in one-on-one situations with you.

Also, apologies to Councilmember Wu, Hollingsworth, and Kettle.

I asked them to open the shades, but I didn't think that the sun would come out today.

So that's my apologies.

I'll do better next time, Amelia.

back on script for full council tomorrow the finance native communities and tribal governments committee has one piece of legislation coming to full council for consideration tomorrow this is council bill 120815 which will update the city of seattle's priority higher program the legislation passed out of committee unanimously we had it originally briefed in july came back here it's a pretty simple update to priority higher adding additional zip codes in the fremont aurora industrial and U District areas.

There are some other zip codes outside of the city boundaries, but this is a piece of legislation that helps us hire people locally for projects that are being built with public funding.

If you have other questions, please ask me.

It's pretty simple and straightforward.

I would urge support here.

Coming into Select Budget Committee, welcome to budget.

It hasn't started yet, but we're on the precipice.

My staff and I have been working really hard to schedule these budget check-ins.

Thank you for making yourself available.

I know that there were a couple that we were ironing out the last wrinkles in our calendars, and I'm excited to meet with each of you.

For the select, I'm going to give us an overview of the next 10 business days so that we don't spend time talking about the same thing in each of our meetings.

Tomorrow, the mayor transmits the proposal for the city's 25-26 budget, and that will happen at full council.

On Wednesday, the city budget office will join us at the select budget committee to present the mayor's proposal formally in depth.

At the beginning of each section of the Select Budget Committee, so from CBO to department presentations to central staff to the chair's package to your amendments, each of those sections will have public comment at the beginning of the section, which means that we won't have public comment every day.

This has been a practice that has been done in the past, and it's helped us a lot, be able to both give the public an opportunity to comment on the section of the budget that we're working on, and to make sure that we're just continuing to get the work done every single day.

So this Friday, so on Wednesday, there will be a public comment.

On Friday, we'll move directly into department presentations.

And so this will also start with public comment.

So we'll have public comment twice this week in Select Budget Committee.

We'll move directly into presentations this Friday of the Office of Arts and Culture, the Office of Economic Development, and the Office of Planning and Community Development, as well as Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

Next week, we're going to hit Monday running, Monday, September 30th, my father's birthday.

We'll hear from the Office of Sustainability and Environment, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning.

On Tuesday, October 1st, we'll start with the Community Assisted Response and Engagement Department, the CARE Department, and then we'll move into the Seattle Police Department and Human Services Department.

We'll wrap up with department presentations on Wednesday, October 2nd.

We'll be hosting the Office of Housing and our Internal Services Department, including Finance and Administrative Services, and Seattle Department of Human Resources, as well as Seattle IT.

Just a few notes, we'll go into more details when we meet, but we expect these meetings to last the entire day, so from 9.30 until we're done.

I will...

The goal is to have an hour lunch from one to two.

If we are able to get through our presentations earlier and have a longer lunch, I'm all for it because it gives us more time to work between ourselves, get lunch, take the meetings that we're not able to take because we're in committee all day.

But I just flag for you that be prepared to be up here for five to eight hours with an hour-long lunch.

That's Select Budget Committee.

Just real briefly on external committees, I do have Sound Transit and Seattle City Employee Retirement Systems meetings this week.

I have been excused.

I've requested to be excused to be present here with you.

I have been, I spent about a little over an hour with Sound Transit this morning going over materials, so I'm making sure to stay attentive to the external committees that I sit on.

As Council Member Morales mentioned, we were in Richland last week for the Association of Washington City's board meeting and retreat.

It was really great.

What I can tell you is cities of all sizes across our state all have the same issues.

We all have the same issues, and it's really comforting to be able to, and educational, frankly, to talk to people, big, medium, and small, about how they're attending to the issues in their city, and it's really a great opportunity to learn from each other.

district six as i mentioned i typically do office hours every single week during budget this is changing and just because of the requirements that i have on the dais and i do know that my october 9th office hours from 2 to 6 p.m.

are full i'm working to find additional times As well, next week, I'll be meeting with one of my sister city delegations from Reykjavik, Iceland, who will be here Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and we're very excited to have them.

Colleagues, that's my report.

Any questions at this time?

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

Thank you all.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you, and the sun feels great from the window.

So highlights from last week, was very thankful for Council Member Kettle for being present at the press conference in support of the soda ordinance.

We were directly at Ground Zero, at Third and Pike.

And we were standing with residences and fellow business owners in that area.

Last week I also attended TOPS K-8 school with Councilmember Hollingsworth to hear from parents about their feelings regarding the school closures and their concerns.

I also attended the historic Seattle Preservation Celebration, got to speak a couple of minutes there.

and learn about all the amazing historic preservation projects that have finished this year.

My project was an awardee back in 2020, and so it's very cool to see how many other historic places are being able to be renovated and used again, and the amazing finds.

One of the awardees found murals also in their basement.

I also attended the...

SIF reception, honoring King County Council Executive Dow Constantine.

And then I had staff attend the opening of the Confronting Hate Together exhibit at Temple D. Hirsch Sinai, and I plan to go see the food.

In committee, as you may know, we had to cancel committee due to quorum issues.

But we plan to hear the arts briefing when we come back after budget in December.

We are also going to see the City Lights Wildlife Mitigation Resolution in full council on October 8th.

And we will send out materials and resources in advance so council feels prepared to vote.

And also City Lights rate setting will be folded into the budget process as well.

And if there are no further questions, I will hand this over to Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The Parks Utilities Technology Committee, the next meeting will be December 11th.

And so obviously we're going to be working on budget and we will have that meeting held in December.

Quick rundown, Council Member Wu, Top Set Seward, Listen to Parents, obviously we've been getting a ton.

I'm sure my colleagues have a ton of concerns about school district and closures and what that looks like.

And so just been trying to work with the different liaisons, listening to the parents and also working with our school district as well to help elevate concerns.

I also wanted to highlight the Love Parks Gala that was this Friday, attended that.

This was a year of 25 years celebrating 300 community-led projects throughout the city of Seattle that the The Seattle Parks Foundation has helped steer and guide, and it was really great to celebrate folks.

One was Robert Stevens, who is one of the founders of the Garfield Superblock.

We were able to raise at that foundation $389,000, which was great.

Also had a chance to connect with Dr. Waco, who is the CEO of Swedish Hospital.

A lot of people don't know, Swedish is investing $1.2 million just seven blocks away from here.

Every month, 600 babies are born at Swedish Hospital.

There are a ton of babies, so that's 7,200 babies that are born every year here, eight blocks away.

And it's really great to see the investment that Swedish and Providence Hospital are making into our city and how we continue to be a partner with the medical centers that are just right here blocks away.

So that was great.

Also, definitely want to thank...

Council Member Saka, we had a chance to attend the Black Employees Network, and also Council Member Zahilai as well.

The Black Employees Network at Amazon, trying to get a lot of the people that are at Amazon that are the Black Employees Network engaged with what we're doing in the city and connected to civil rights.

education and voting and all that good stuff.

So that was great.

And last but not least, just sending a special shout out and thank you to Council Member Saka, heavy lift for transportation this year.

And then now you pass the ball to Council Member Strauss who's doing budget and you will pass that over to Council Member Morales for the comprehensive plan.

So looking forward, just wanna thank you three for the heavy lift that you all are doing in preparation to help us colleagues getting ready for that and really excited about the comp plan to work with Council Member Morales on that as well.

So anyways, just wanted to give you three a special shout out.

And if there's no further ado, I will pass it off to Council Member Kettle in the sun.

SPEAKER_06

One quick – thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Appreciate that, the shout-out and praise and, you know, love the love.

And also want to extend that to Councilmember Rivera, who's doing some initial lake work right now in preparation for the renewal – potential renewal next year of the education levy.

There's probably a better name for it.

I'm sorry.

I'm forgetting right now.

But – But thank you.

And also, 600 babies, that's a great stat.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

600 babies born at Swedish just blocks away from here every month in this city.

Proud to say, to be honest, all three of mine were born there, too.

And I see some hands up, too.

of our colleagues who have had loved ones, their own kin born there as well.

So they do great work in our city in so many ways, including help create safe places for people to birth if they choose.

SPEAKER_02

And if I said one more thing, my apologies.

Didn't mean to take away from you, Councilmember Rivera.

I know you're doing a lot with the family education levy.

I know a lot of groundwork is going on there, so really appreciate your work.

And yes, my brother's baby, my nephew, was born at Swedish, so awesome.

And I think Councilmember Strauss was going to say something before I pass it off.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Councilmember Saka, I thought you were a Finnish baby.

SPEAKER_06

I am half equal parts, 50% Finnish, 50% Nigerian, and 100% American.

But Swedish is the hospital, bud.

I was a group health baby.

You know, best of luck to those.

SPEAKER_00

I was born in Swedish, too.

SPEAKER_99

Okay.

SPEAKER_09

Okay.

I feel obligated to say that our daughter was also born at Swedish, so there you go.

Fantastic services there.

And so moving on, I just wanted to note in terms of committee meetings and the like, we have our Public Safety Committee meeting tomorrow, second hearing of the Real-Time Crime Center and the CCTV legislation that we have.

So I look forward to that.

Also, I should note out of that, on the public safety side too, that we voted out of the last committee, the fire code update.

So that is up for the full council, but for the reasons already discussed, it is as well going to the 8th of October for council vote.

And that's important to do because it has to be in before the 15th of October.

So just a quick add on there regarding the public safety committee.

As mentioned, we have the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board meeting this Thursday.

ONLY OUTSHINED ON MY CALENDAR BY MY MEETING WITH COUNCILMEMBER STRAUSS TO GO OVER HER BUDGET ON THURSDAY.

AND THEN I DID HAVE A MEETING ON FRIDAY FOR THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION COUNCIL, BUT THAT WAS CANCELLED.

AS NOTED LAST WEEK, YOU KNOW, WE HAD A NUMBER OF MEETINGS, SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN TERMS OF COMMITTEES AND SO FORTH, KING COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH TAKING SOME ACTION ON FOOD SAFETY RATINGS AND NOTICES.

I REALLY APPRECIATED THE MEETING ON TUESDAY WITH HOUSING OUR NEIGHBORS.

CLEARLY, MY VOTE RELATED TO I-137 THE ALTERNATIVE WAS NOT WHAT THEY WERE LOOKING FOR, BUT I REALLY APPRECIATE THE DIALOGUE AND THE IDEA TO TALK ABOUT HOUSING IN GENERAL.

AND ON THAT FRONT, COUNCILMEMBER RIVERA, APPRECIATE ALL THE WORK THAT YOU DID ON THE ALTERNATIVE.

Also, as mentioned by Council Member Rivera, attended the Confronting Hate Together, which was a fantastic program, both the exhibit, but then the program that was after that.

I really enjoyed.

hearing and seeing that.

And finally, as my education in housing continues, a great meeting with Community Roots really got their insight, which plays into all these other housing discussions we've been having lately and gives me greater insight.

So I really appreciate the dialogue with Community Roots.

Speaking of housing, because I know it's on the calendar coming up, I'm really supportive of all the work that was done on the ILA regarding KCRHA, if I can use any more acronyms.

And I definitely support the ILA because otherwise there's no reason to have the KCRHA in its current format.

I say that as somebody who truly in general approach.

And Council Member Morales is keeping us busy with all the meetings coming out of, the items coming out of land use.

I just wanted to note, thank you, and I will look for the amendments on the design review legislation, which is essentially 90 whatever percent a D7 piece of legislation.

So I will look at that, and colleagues, I will have an amendment myself related to loading, as you've heard me, during the transportation plan and the transportation levy.

I've talked often about logistics, the providing of goods and services and the efficiency of doing that and not clogging up our streets for a host of reasons.

And by the way, I had a great meeting recently with SDOT's freight team And I have a nice little slide, which I'll pass out to everybody, which highlights the ability to load and unload, basically do the logistics that our city needs, because what we can't have is it pushed onto our streets.

And that's the genesis and the background related to my amendment for the design review piece of legislation.

And just one other note, too, there.

I know reason why Belltown's not listed on that map, but Belltown is part of that.

And it's something that we need to address because as Uptown got its shout out, as Council Member Strauss and Morales and Council President know from past term, Belltown too is an important part of our downtown area.

And so that it.

Thank you very much.

And onto Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_09

Pending any questions.

SPEAKER_04

No questions?

Okay.

Yeah, I just wanted to echo the shout out to my colleagues on the transportation levy, the budget, and the comp plan, and families and education levy, and also I-137, just a tremendous amount of work.

While you may not necessarily agree with the direction the council's going in, I think you can say we are getting a lot done because we're being thoughtful and methodical in our approach.

So, on tomorrow's City Council agenda, there's one item from the Housing and Human Services Committee, that's Council Bill 120858, which amends the existing interlocal agreement between the City of Seattle and King County, establishing the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

This was passed unanimously out of committee.

It seems to be tracking as is in the King County process, so that's encouraging.

Knock on wood.

We're not going to have to revisit this once they've been through their process.

Additionally, the Housing and Human Services Committee, like all other standing committees, will be on pause during budget deliberations, and our first meeting after budget will be December 11th.

I just wanted to Make a note, based on the passage of the loitering and soap bill last week, that I am in the process right now of setting up a meeting with the direct service providers, survivors, SPD, and representatives from the executive about next steps for addressing commercial sexual exploitation and the implementation of the ordinance, as I said earlier.

At the time, this is the first step, not the last step.

So we're moving those discussions forward.

And we'll also be getting a briefing later today on the contract with Axion relating to the the city being notified if they receive a request for information from an outside jurisdiction around reproductive care.

So I'm looking forward to making sure that we are on track in terms of our contract.

language with Axion, and we'll be bringing an amendment to reflect those conditions for CCTV and the Real Time Crime Center as well.

If there are no other questions, I'll turn it over to Council President.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you very much, everybody.

So first, I do want to extend my condolences to the family of former Washington Governor Dan Evans, who died over the weekend at 98. He served three terms as governor and one term as US senator, as a Republican, and was revered on both sides of the political aisle for being a moderate pragmatist, and also for championing issues that transcends party divisions.

And speaking for myself, his voice will be missed.

remain very active in local issues up until the end.

So I just wanted to offer my condolences.

All right, on tomorrow's agenda at full council, there are four items from the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee.

One of them is on the consent calendar.

That is the appointment of Denise Wells as a member of the Civil Services Commission for a term to December 31st, 2024. And then the other items, I've already touched on them, but it's the appointment of Mina Hashemi as Director of OIR, and Council Bill 120827, the Music Venue Parking Permit Program.

This is about making it just safer and more convenient for musicians to park in front of music venues when they're playing, and this will not only support the musicians themselves, but also our nightlife.

community as a whole, so I'm really looking forward to that bill.

And then finally, Council Bill 120831, which modifies the boundaries of the West Seattle Junction BIA.

And all of these pieces of legislation passed out of committee unanimously and I hope for your support tomorrow.

Let's see, the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee had another meeting, another special meeting this morning, and we had our second discussion and unanimous vote on Council Bill 120862, extending SPD's higher program.

And that's sent to expire at the end of this year.

And also increasing the bonus amount for lateral hires from 35,000 to 50,000 to maintain our competitiveness in recruiting officers who've already gone through the academy training and have some experience and can be deployed more quickly.

to the streets of Seattle right now.

And we are always competing against neighboring jurisdictions for the same limited pool of recruits.

So that will be coming back to full council on October 8th.

All right, just looking back, last week I attended the National League of Cities 2024 Large City Council President Conference.

And first of all, before saying anything about that, thank you very much to Council Member Hollingsworth for stepping up and chairing, well, and leading the special meeting last Wednesday, last Thursday.

So I knew that was, did a great job, calm, cool, collected.

Thank you very much for that.

Anyway, I want to thank the NLC CEO and Executive Director Clarence Anthony and his team for putting together such a rich and informative agenda.

We covered topics.

It was three full days.

We covered topics that are most critical to large cities, such as housing and transit funding, economic development tools, Public safety, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.

But issues that are central to most of our cities, although it was interesting to see the variation in the form of the legislative and executive branches between the powerful mayor and the city manager type.

forms of government.

But I want to also send out a special thanks to D.C.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and he invented this gathering eight years ago on the recognition that the leaders of municipal legislative branches face their own challenges and opportunities.

And so it was a time for us to talk and get together and just go over how we deal with certain things.

There are many takeaways that I have, and I'm not really sure what will be the best ways for me to communicate some of the things that I learned.

I will say that so of all the vast majority of cities, and there wasn't a formal poll, but from what I gathered from asking people, We're talking about Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Milwaukee, San Diego, Houston, Lexington.

The vast majority of these cities have their workers back full-time and have had for a long time.

So that was interesting to learn.

And I will also say, Council Member Kettle, you mentioned the real-time crime center legislation.

We had an opportunity to tour the city.

the center in DC and kudos to the leadership of Mayor Bowser because that is a very robust center and they've got about 40,000 private feeds and really they've got a lot on their plate to keep people safe.

And so I just have to say that was really interesting to see that we're not necessarily neck and neck but we're right up there when it comes to some of the great ideas and behind some of the other cities on some things that we could adopt ourselves.

Happy to answer any questions about other things that I learned.

And so, finally, I will say that this coming, you know, my book is, I'm clear in the decks for budget discussion, et cetera.

For the viewing public, you will notice that there aren't committee meetings, and that is because we're going to be heads down on budget for the next three months, at least.

We will not be having Monday briefings.

However, we will be having, there are city council meetings that are scheduled because at the very minimum, we have to pay the bills.

And second, there's still some legislation that will be coming before us for a full council vote on the first Tuesday of, well, October 8th, I believe, yes.

So more on that later.

But I really appreciate your upcoming leadership on this, Chair Strauss.

And I just want to thank everybody for a great nine months so far.

So that's my report.

Is there any question or comment?

Go ahead, Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you, Madam Council President.

I just want to thank you for highlighting and drawing attention to the passing of Governor Evans.

That is my condolences to his family as well.

That is a...

really unfortunate loss for our state and our city.

And he was obviously a pioneer in many respects.

He was an elder statesman.

He was a maverick and a champion for many, many, many causes over many, many decades.

But, you know, I think we can all look to him as a model for, you know, kind of how we show up in our own work here at the city.

I was particularly struck by a really—what I thought found to be an insightful quote from Governor Evans that I read in the write-up of—in The Seattle Times this weekend.

He said, I quote, "'I would rather cross the aisle than cross the people.'" He said that in a 1973 inaugural address, apparently.

And, look, he was obviously, I think, a Republican by party.

And as we know, our offices here are 100 percent nonpartisan.

It just so happens, effectively, all of us really are one political party, just different kind of— ideological—you know, fall at different spaces along the ideological perspective, and that's fine.

That said, I think that quote in particular is really, really insightful.

I am personally learning a lot from it, and I'm going to be finding ways to live up to it.

And, you know, we—it's our job to keep a pulse on the people, and we do that, you know, through organized testimony here.

We do that through office hours.

with our constituents.

We do that through various community engagement efforts that we do individually and personally.

We do that through checking in with people on the bus, which I do, or at the grocery store.

And we are directly accountable for it.

Checking in on the pulse of the people and our constituents, colleagues, you know, I challenge you all and myself to find ways to creatively live up to that, that calling from the governor, because it's really, really important in how we show up.

So, but thank you, Madam Council President, for mentioning his passing.

SPEAKER_01

That's very eloquent note.

And thank you for bringing up that quote.

I had not read that, but that would be a very fitting legacy to his leadership if we all lived up to that.

So anything else?

I'm seeing nothing.

So if there's no further business, we'll move into the executive session.

Hearing none, we'll now move into the executive session.

And as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the city council will now convene into an executive session, the purpose of which is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

SPEAKER_99

Thank you.