Seattle City Council Briefing 11/25/2024

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

Today is November 25th, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order and the time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Here.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

And Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you very much.

All right, if there's no objection, the minutes of September 23rd, 2024 and October 23rd, 2024 will be adopted.

Seeing none, the minutes are adopted.

Okay, today we've got a briefing from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations State Legislative Team on the city's 2025 legislative agenda.

Followed by a letter to sign from Council Member Kettle and finally our round robin when we'll have the opportunity to make some remarks to Council Member Wu on her last day with us.

But first, guess what, we passed a budget, we adopted a budget.

And I want to commend Mayor Harrell for sending down a balanced budget that makes historic investments in affordable housing.

And extend a huge thank you and my deepest gratitude to all of you and our Chair Strauss for all of your work during the past three months.

Well, two months.

It was a huge effort, and I can't thank you enough for your diligence, your curiosity, your attention to detail, and your caring as you made some amendments to the mayor's budget, to the chair's balancing package, and we came out with a budget that is responsive to our constituents' needs.

So thank you very much for that.

And then, of course, central staff who...

Hung with us every step of the way.

Ben, Yolanda, your whole team, you were amazing.

And I just have to say thank you very much for all your work up to the very last minute.

It takes a village to adopt a budget.

And I also extend my gratitude to the rest of our support staff in the department and the security here in chambers.

during the public hearings and all of our meetings and just say that we functioned as a good team and I really appreciate everybody's work on this.

So I'm sorry if I am overlooking anyone to thank also the mayor's staff as well.

The budget office staff was hard at work as well in responding to our questions.

So I hope that everyone has a restful holiday week and that you treat yourself in ways that you haven't been able to in the past few weeks.

So thank you very much.

Okay, with that, just a second here.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank You council president I think the agenda was about to be adopted and I was hoping to amend the agenda to have the Belltown letter go first before the presentation okay the the adoption of the agenda is not in my script we don't usually do that I believe on council briefings but what did you want to do could we sign the letter regarding the BOP or whatever the Belltown Park can we sign that first before we get into the presentation

Council Member Kettle, can you explain what's going on, or is there a time crunch?

Yes, thank you, Council President and Council Member Strauss.

Yes, the letter is particularly for fellow Parks Committee members, but all are welcome to sign as well.

And we've had multiple meetings with the stakeholders on Parks, City Light, SDOT, the Parks Foundation, the Mayor's Office.

Obviously the Belltown residence because there's really no green space park there.

And so we're looking to get it signed.

Got it.

Is there any objection to doing this first before our presentation from OIR?

Seeing none, please continue.

Thank you, Council President.

And so what we're looking to do with this letter to build on that short introduction is to assist in gaining additional funds for the portal park.

And this will help Seattle Parks Foundation, for example, because it shows government intent as it relates to portal park.

And this goes to all the stakeholder and we've been doing with the various departments And so I ask for all those reasons that particularly for the parks committee members to sign this letter basically here in terms of the meeting just acknowledge and to To say yay If you're looking to support the staff should have gotten all the background on this as well And obviously I've been talking about Portal Park for a long time.

Again, this is where the old viaduct went into the Battery Street Tunnel on there and just south or just to the west of the Portal Bench off of First Avenue.

Thank you very much.

I happened to drive by that with my family who is in town for the weekend and I was explaining what that big area is.

So before we take a vote on which council members would like their signatures affixed to the letter, Is there any feedback that colleagues would like to provide?

Go ahead, Council Member Rivera.

Yes, I just wanted to say I did speak with Council Member Kettle about this because I had questions about where, you know, what this letter would do.

And, you know, we have other priorities at the parks as well.

And so what is the purpose of this?

But I understand, Council Member Kettle, that...

We want to make sure that we're giving parks the information and our desire to really have them look at it and hopefully add it to what is already under consideration.

So that is to say at the end of the day, we're not prioritizing this over the list of priorities, but it is really an ability to have them look at it.

And so I want to address that just because I don't want folks to feel like somehow that's having an impact.

And I really appreciated our conversation.

And you can share more, Council Member Kettle.

But just to say, it's not going to reprioritize something else that we're doing, but it is important for us to look at it.

No, no reprioritization.

In addition to all those other stakeholders I spoke to, I also spoke to Deputy Mayor Emery about this and her support and essentially the mayor's support for this.

And it's gone into the queue, my understanding, likely 2028. So this is going into the system and there's no prioritization bump or anything like that.

It's in those out years.

But what's key to is getting at the starting line, as you know, from the budget process in terms of doing that initial study.

And then as part of this work and working with the Seattle Parks Foundation, we can get grants.

It's about showing the intent.

So then we can pull in other money, grants and the like from public private to bring in to make a better program overall, better project overall.

So that is the intent of this letter is that nothing related to what Parks is doing in terms of the sequencing of their scheduling or anything like that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I think it's important for folks to hear that.

So thank you, Council Member Kettle, for your work on this and for working with the mayor's office and parks.

Thank you, Chair.

I mean, Council President.

I also extend my thanks for your focus on this and your responsiveness to your constituents in the neighborhood, because I know that this is a high priority for them.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER COMMENTS?

OKAY.

I'M SEEING NONE, SO WILL THE CLERK PLEASE CALL THE ROLL ON THE MEMBERS WHO INTEND TO SIGN THIS LETTER?

COUNCIL MEMBER WU?

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER HALLINGSWORTH?

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER KETTLE?

AYE.

COUNCIL MEMBER MOORE?

AYE.

COUNCIL MEMBER MORALES?

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER RIVERA?

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much.

And thank you very much, Council Member Kettle.

Thank you.

All right, there's no more discussion on the letters, so let's begin our briefing.

So can our guests please approach the table?

As I said, this is a presentation from our Office of Intergovernmental Relations team that advocates for city interests in Olympia every year.

And they're going to be briefing us on the legislative agenda that we have all participated in working on and adding to or whatever.

So I welcome you very much.

And please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

Is this on?

Yes?

OK.

Thank you.

I'm Meena Hashemi, director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

I'm Samir Janejo, State Relations Director at OIR.

And I'm Anna.

I'm our State Legislative Affairs Director.

I should add first, I'm sorry, that we will be voting on this by resolution December 3rd.

So that is why we're having this presentation now, so that there is opportunity to take it all in.

And we've heard from Karina our analyst on central staff who's staffing this that if there are any amendments then they need to be in by tomorrow.

You received that email.

Sorry to interrupt, go ahead please.

Thank you, Council, President Nelson, and council members.

We appreciate the opportunity to be here.

The city's state relations team has been hard at work planning for the 2025 session, and we're excited to talk about the lay of the land, the legislative timeline, and the city's new and improved legislative agenda draft.

I want to thank you all for your participation in the legislative priority setting process and for your commitment to revamping the agenda.

As you know, we solicited legislative policy and budget priorities from departments, council members, and the mayor's office.

We put a lot of thought and effort into combing through this list, looking for the highest agreed-upon priorities and themes so you'll see those highest agreed upon priorities reflected in the draft agenda which clearly lays out the city's pressing needs for the 105 day legislative session in just two pages i want to assure you that we took note of all priorities that were shared with us and oir will continue to track city priorities and take position stances in Olympia outside of what is found on the official agenda.

With budget challenges at multiple levels of government, legislators will be faced with a high number of competing needs in 2025, and a more concise agenda will signal to legislators just how serious we are as a city.

Our in-house lobbyists and contract lobbyists are engaging legislators and stakeholders now to float these priorities and find alignment.

And we're excited about our progress.

We look forward to keeping you all and the public updated through session at our regular legislative briefings.

And again, I wanted to thank you all for your partnership.

We hope you will use us as your resource and as your advocates in Olympia this session.

And now I will turn it over to my colleagues, Samir and Ana.

Good afternoon, council members.

Before we get to the agenda itself, I want to talk about kind of what has happened since the last time we talked and what we expect to happen in the next month or so.

So as Director Hashemi mentioned, we are engaging with legislators, we're prepping for the legislative session, talking with stakeholders, finding coalition partners for the number of priorities, and tracking emerging issues.

As you know, the November election also happened, and a number of changes transpired because of that.

The initiatives, four initiatives were on the ballot, three of which did not pass, and one related to natural gas did pass.

The three that would have had the biggest budget impacts did not pass.

We also have a number of new executive branch leadership, a new governor, a new insurance commissioner, a new attorney general, a new commissioner of public lands.

all of whom will bring us their new priorities, new budget priorities, and will engage with the legislature as well.

A number of new legislators, too many of whom to mention right now, but there will be a lot of new faces, including members of the House who went to the Senate.

From the Seattle delegation, there's one new representative.

Representative Sean Scott represents the 43rd Legislative District, replacing former Speaker Frank Chopp.

So the makeup of the House and Senate as it stands now, both the House and Senate, both House Democrats gained one seat, so they now hold a 59 to 39 seat majority.

And the Senate Democrats gained one seat as well, so they hold a 30 to 19 seat majority.

In the coming weeks, you'll also hear about committee assignments, committee, but one thing we do know right now is leadership elections took place, and the one major new change was the new Senate Majority Leader, former Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig retired this year from Spokane, and so Senator Jamie Peterson from Seattle's 43rd Legislative District is now the new Senate Majority Leader.

Also, next week, you'll start seeing legislation being filed.

Legislators can file legislation as early as beginning of December.

Also, the week of the 9th, you'll see legislative committee days, which is essentially when all current legislative committees meet and hold work sessions.

It kind of functions as a preview of the legislative session and gives a good idea as to what their agendas will look like.

Around that same time, you'll also see the release of the governor's budget.

Current Governor Inslee will propose his budget, but it will be presented to the legislature in January by the new governor.

As a reminder, this is a 105-day long session, meaning they'll be writing their biennial budgets.

So you'll see a two-year operating budget, a two-year transportation budget, and a two-year capital budget.

And I just wanted to next run you through the legislative process and timeline for 105 days session to get you familiar with the pacing and deadlines that we'll be tracking throughout the session.

So starting the first or the second Monday of January is the first day of session.

And then the next cutoff is policy cutoff and that will likely happen in mid February.

All legislation has to start in a policy committee, and if it has a fiscal note, it also has to go to a fiscal committee.

So the next stop would be the fiscal cutoff, which is late February, and then legislation has to make it out of rules and come to the floor by the next deadline, which is around early March, and that's called the House of Origin cutoff.

Then legislation switches chambers.

So if it started in the House, it has to go to the Senate.

If it started in the Senate, it goes to the House.

And it goes through a very similar process.

So starting in late March, there's the opposite chamber policy cutoff.

Early April is the opposite chamber fiscal cutoff.

And then mid-April is the opposite chamber floor cutoff.

And then end of session, which is known as sine die, is likely around the end of April.

This timeline does not apply to the budget bills And there's also different timelines for bills that are necessary to implement the budget.

But this gives you a sense of how fast things move and when bills have to make it through key cutoffs.

Next, we wanted to give you a preview of some of the hot topics that we know are going to come up in Olympia.

So these you may have been hearing about in the news and reporting lately, but similar to our situation here at the city, the state is also facing unprecedented revenue shortfalls and budget constraints due to declining revenues.

Namely, for the state, it's the capital gains tax revenue and the sales tax revenue that have been coming under control.

projections and so what we know is the legislators are going to be facing both a budget deficit or budget reductions in the next biennium and also future bienniums so for the next four years there's a shortfall somewhere between about 10 billion and 12 billion for the state in order to fill that gap to maintain programs and promised services, the state is definitely going to have to contemplate new revenue sources.

The budget shortfall is happening amidst increased costs for services, increased demand for services, and lower revenue collections.

So some of the new revenue options the state is contemplating include lifting the arbitrary cap on property tax, considering a statewide payroll expense tax.

In the transportation budget, they're considering a road usage charge, retail delivery fee.

There's conversations about possibly adjusting the capital gains tax and other progressive revenue options that other legislators might be thinking about.

There are a lot of options on the table, and we'll certainly keep you apprised as the legislative process pans out and what revenue strategies the legislature is prioritizing.

Another area you all probably have been hearing about because we're feeling a lot of strain here locally with Seattle Public Schools is K through 12 basic education and funding for our public schools.

The state projects that the current system, the current K through 12 system is requiring a lot of additional investments to maintain services, including special education, transportation, general operation costs, costs for student well-being.

And right now, the OSPI, or Office of the Superintendent in Public Instruction, is proposing about $4 billion per year proposed increase for K-12 spending.

Another hot topic is housing affordability.

We will probably see a lot of strategies come up to increase housing stock in our city and in our state.

There also will be efforts to stabilize the affordable housing sector and also a proposal around rent stabilization, which is a bill that was introduced last session that proposed capping rent increases to 7% annually along with other tenant protections.

And then finally, public safety.

There is likely going to be conversation about gun violence prevention, increasing recruitment and retention for law enforcement, and funding for local government.

This was a key policy platform for incoming Governor Ferguson.

Also, attention to police accountability and continuing to address the behavioral health crisis and those suffering from substance use disorder and getting people on pathway to treatment and recovery.

Okay, so now we're gonna transition to talk about our city's legislative agenda.

As Director Hashemi mentioned, we're really appreciative that you all provided your feedback to us and we were able to come to a two-page legislative agenda as illustrated here on the slides.

So starting with public safety, we're going to talk through what is on our two pager.

And then if there's any updates or status reports we can provide for our priorities, we'll do that as well.

So starting with public safety, we have a priority related to championing legislation that fosters a safe environment for everyone, giving local jurisdictions tools and funding to uphold justice, protect communities, and hold those who violate the law accountable to their actions.

We also have a gun violence prevention, a priority here that requires restrictions of firearms in city buildings, parks, and community centers, and ending the preemption on local gun violence prevention laws.

Additionally, we want to support the expansion and use of Seattle's CARE team and increase alternative 911 responses.

And we also want to update police accountability arbitration rules and procedures to ensure discipline for misconduct is fair and consistent.

Next, we have a priority related to hiring and retaining law enforcement and funding to help us get there.

Additionally, we want to see the continuance of the state covering 100% of the basic law enforcement academy costs.

Previously, there's been a requirement for local governments to pay 25% of those costs.

Additionally, we want to see improved public safety infrastructure, including our ability to be able to hire pro tem judges that reside outside of the city.

This is something that's afforded to all other municipal courts, and we'd like to see us have the same ability.

Next is allowing for federally accredited labs to conduct testing of our blood samples in presumed drug and liquor intoxication cases.

There is a backlog at the Washington State Patrol toxicology lab, and they prioritize evidence testing for felonies.

And we'd like to be able to, if we want to, use private or federally accredited labs to send our evidence to.

And then finally in the public safety sector is helping advance our Vision Zero goals.

And this includes pedestrian safety through safe systems approach, sidewalks, funding for Aurora move ahead package, and policy changes that allow us to have shared streets where pedestrians can roam.

Moving on to behavioral health priorities.

The first one here is funding intensive case management and comprehensive substance use disorder treatment.

This also includes asking legislators to support more facilities in Seattle like a secure detox facility where individuals can stabilize and get treatment.

We also asked the legislature to help us with the involuntary treatment system by improving the system's capacity and making it more effective and useful for our first responders.

And then lastly, we asked the legislature to increase funding for mental health supports for students and invest in programs and capital projects like the Red Barn Ranch, which supports mental and physical health of youth.

Moving on to economic development and small business.

We asked the legislature to support small businesses by addressing cost pressures, capital improvements, insurance, organized retail theft, and public safety issues.

We also would like to have support for special events like the World Cup by allowing flexible movement of food and drink like alcohol in our public spaces.

We also asked to create a fast and responsive graffiti abatement process along I-5 and Washed Out Rides aways to allow for a more safe and welcoming city for our locals and visitors.

Housing and homelessness priorities.

The first one here is to improve our state's encampment resolution program.

to provide more urgent responses and additional funds for activation of our washed out rights of lease.

Also to provide immediate support for individual and family asylum seekers by funding and prioritizing the state system.

We also ask for support for stabilization for a range of affordable housing options, which include permanent supportive housing and workforce housing, and providing capital operating maintenance and services funding.

We also ask to provide infrastructure investments for the Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan, and to increase home ownership options by addressing barriers to condominium development.

Next is our climate and environment priorities.

We asked the legislature to enact recycling reform to make curbside recycling easier and cheaper for our residents.

We also want to promote and incentivize energy efficiency and decarbonizations of buildings, including public buildings.

And we are asking the legislature to fund in their capital budget a decarbonization project at the Seattle Center called the Eco District in order to reduce natural gas emissions at the campus.

And then final section we have here is adequate funding for services in local governments.

This includes our priority of lifting the arbitrary property tax cap on local governments, as well as fully funding K through 12 and all the necessary services, including student mental health that we would like to see here in Seattle.

And then finally, supporting efforts to increase affordable childcare, including construction of new facilities, increasing workforce development and expanding access to state subsidized slots.

And so we also want to remind you of what you can expect during the legislative session.

It'll be very familiar to the first session you had earlier this year.

We brief council regularly on the progress in Olympia, and we give you a summarized report on what the legislative actions were from the previous week, what position we took on bills.

We also provide a weekly council bulletin of the universe of bills we're tracking on behalf of the city.

We'll provide you a hearing schedule, and we'll also give you opportunity, or you can work with us if you are interested in testifying, sending letters, engaging with the state at all.

We are here to help, and we are also available to meet with you or your staff outside the council briefings if you would wish.

Yeah, that concludes our presentation, and we'd love to take any questions if there are any.

I see that Councilmember Kettle has his hand up.

I first want to say thank you so much for shortening, streamlining, and making a much more user-friendly and memorable, from the perspective of legislative staff and members, legislative agenda.

It took a lot of work to pare down 16 pages, talk to all of us, and figure out what to put on two.

in addition to balancing if there was any difference between our priorities and the mayor's.

So thank you so much for putting this forward.

I really appreciate the work that went into that.

So that's what I'll say at first.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President, Director Hashimi, the team.

I really appreciate your work on this and the coordination that myself and my team did with you, but also the mayor's team, more broadly the public safety side of things.

because I do believe we have a good public safety, dedicated public safety slide here.

But I also appreciate some of the elements that play into public safety, the public safety, public health tie-ins in terms of behavioral health, you know, the involuntary treatment piece, you know, the case management, all those pieces were so important.

And then additionally from our plan, you know, Actually, did I see it?

Or I saw it in an earlier document, the graffiti piece.

And so all these are very important across the board as we're trying to move forward.

I noted, this is just so I don't really have anything, because we did all this coordination before.

One thing I noted, and it really kind of goes to adequate funding for services and local governments, and I do appreciate in the behavioral health piece, there is a reference for increased funding for mental health supports for students, but for consideration would be fully fund K through 12 education and support, and you have that list.

maybe a comma mental health comma, just so we double tap on that point so they get it, that it's really important.

As we've talked about in budget, this has come up many times, and I think it's that second bullet on this adequate funding and services and local government slide, having a comma mental health comma would be a nice touch, I think.

So thank you very much for your work.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, I'm still trying to find where that comma should go, but anyway.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, OIR, for this presentation.

I too very much appreciate this slimmed down piece, and I know that as the session gets going, we will get more information, because you'll actually share the numbers of the bills and what they do, and it'll give us an opportunity to weigh in and with Olympia and send letters of support, et cetera.

And so really appreciate your partnership in helping us do that.

I will say the education piece subsequent to this past week where it was announced that preschool, there may be a cut to the preschool investments at the state level.

I would add that to this because it is something that is really critical.

in Seattle, across the state, obviously, and I was disheartened to hear that that is something that OSPI Well, and that's not even a K through 12. So the human services, I imagine department at the state level is considering having to do.

And I want to express my, I do not support cutting investments on the preschool side.

We know that preschool is really important to ready, you know, kindergarten readiness.

And also at the third grade level, it has huge impacts throughout.

a child's education path to have preschool, they are more successful on the back end when they have that on the front end.

And so I wanna make sure that we are supporting those investments and telling Olympia that we want to continue and not cut the preschool investments.

So wanted to add that to the list.

And again, I know it's a more recent development that we just found out last week probably after you've put this together, but wanted to flag that.

Thank you.

Council Member Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

And I just also wanted to express my gratitude and appreciation for you all and OIR for your wonderful work in helping to shape these and working so closely and collaboratively with me in my office and putting this great punch list together.

And now let's go bring them to life and advocate, including Most, but not all, of my priorities on this list, including hiring more police officers, some of these cool Vision Zero investments for transportation system, universal free school meals for all.

We've seen on that latter one, for example, we've seen other states lead in that area, including Governor Tim Walz.

You know, that was one of his...

signature programs.

And if it's good enough for the state of Minnesota, where I was born, by the way, then darn it, it's good enough for the state of Washington as well.

And so let's go bring that to life.

And even in the absence of that, well, I hope we're able to do that and all of these things.

But on that one, I am...

I do, as I understand it, that I do believe that the prior Trump administration had temporarily brought some relief on that, had at the federal level a universal free lunch for all program, I think, towards the end of his administration of some sort.

So that might be something that...

We could potentially expect to work with the new administration on a going forward basis, but even putting that aside, it doesn't relieve us of our state responsibility to do that.

So hopefully we'll be able to finally bring that to life.

Quick question on the...

The local government property tax component and potentially lifting that, would just love to better understand the history of that.

Obviously, some of these are reoccurring items, have been on the agenda multiple times.

Some of them stand greater chances of passing this year, some maybe next year, but you gotta keep raising them.

We would just love to better understand the history of that.

People often complain, and they're rightfully so, about our very, very large levies that we see over and over and over again.

And, you know, one thing we've learned during the transportation levy conversations, a huge reason, contributing factor for why we have increasingly large levies transportation or otherwise.

Not the only reason, but a huge reason is because it's really a design feature of the current system, not a flaw.

So we are capped at, we can only raise annual property taxes at 1% each year and no more than that.

And so that doesn't allow us to even you know, to, to raise, uh, to keep up with inflation.

So what we're seeing over and over is, is, um, is increasingly larger.

And again, that's, we have to go back to the voters and ask and seek approval.

Uh, but just would love to better understand, um, the history of this one.

How often has this one appeared on our Olympia lists?

Um, and yeah.

Yeah, on the property tax bill, that's been seriously considered the last two sessions.

And I would say the various local governments, including the Association of Washington Cities and counties, especially King County, have been at the forefront of asking the legislature for that.

And I would say it's gotten far, but has not passed the last couple of years.

And there's some renewed interest, especially with continued revenue shortfalls all cities, especially cities who don't necessarily have the capability of having as many levies as we do, who have been really leading that conversation.

So I certainly suspect it will be one of the, as Lana mentioned, one of the options that they're gonna be considering this year for sure.

Thank you.

And colleagues, I'll just, so thank you again for all your hard work and collaboration.

Colleagues, I'll just say I am considering proposing an amendment to modify this list to add one, potentially two of my other priorities that didn't end up on here.

And one of them I've been talking about all year, but it is a technical fix to the youth right to counsel legislation, HB 1140, to make sure that what happened with the family of Mubarak Adam, it wouldn't have, a technical fix wouldn't have prevented that, the underlying facts from a a 15-year-old getting gunned down across the street from his school, but how the legislation was impeded and thwarted in many material respects there.

And it happened, by the way, in other instances across the city.

Jurisdictions across the state are confused about when that law applies and when it doesn't apply.

Some are advocating for repeal of that.

I am not.

And if everyone agrees that it should be there, why not clarify when it applies and when it doesn't?

And so that might be one of them.

And if I do bring that forward, colleagues, I would ask for your support.

But I will 100% be working on that.

Whether it appears on this list or not, I will be working on that personally and helping to champion that one at the city level, working collaboratively alongside, led by the family of Mubarak Odom.

So in any event, thank you.

No further questions or comments, Madam Council President.

Council Member Hollingsworth, I see you have your hand up.

Can I just ask a quick question?

Absolutely, Council President.

Okay.

My question is, who was the sponsor of the property tax bill that Council Member Saka asked about last year?

Do you remember?

Sorry to put you on the spot.

I believe last year was Senator Jamie Peterson in the Senate.

and I don't recall in the House, but I can get you that information.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Part of our delegation.

That's a good thing.

Go ahead, Council Member Hollingsworth.

No worries.

Thank you, Council President.

Really quick question.

Thank you, Director Hashimi.

Really appreciate your time.

Samir and Anna.

One of the things I wanted to flag is there's a farm bill that hasn't been passed at the federal level.

There was a bill introduced.

It was $30 billion less in August through committee, and it hasn't been passed yet.

And I know a lot of farmers are waiting on that.

That also affects SNAP.

And there's a lot of people that are really concerned about that potentially not being funded to the levels that were previous and then how that trickles down to the state with Department of Agriculture here in Washington State and then with food banks and people.

So I wanted to flag that because I know that's at the top of people's minds and I just read an article that it still was, you know, had not been passed and just don't know how that would affect our food bank system in the city.

Thank you.

I'll just note, Councilmember, we plan to be very supportive of food security type strategies at the state level, including SNAP or food bank support.

And so we'll look out for any sort of gaps to fill that the state will take on.

It's typically through DSHS, I think, works on that program.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that you addressed public safety in its own section and also in the economic development section because that is what I continue to hear from our small businesses.

We want to keep them solvent and in Seattle.

So one question, and so thank you for the line where it says, let's see.

Insurance, we've talked a lot about that here.

Go for it, because it's not a city issue, but please keep us surprised of what can be done.

But then also, organized retail theft.

And we had an audit that we also went over a second time recently, this past year.

There are recommendations in there that have to be, that can only be performed at the state level.

And so, of course, I support those recommendations, but I also have heard that Representative Hackney, I believe, has some retail theft or had a retail theft provision or bill that didn't advance, but at some point offline, can you tell me about that and whether or not it's live this year?

Sure, yep, definitely.

Okay.

Are there any other questions, comments?

Again, thank you very much for taking our collective priorities and incorporating them.

Thank you very much.

And have fun this year to our new director.

Yes, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Remember, amendments tomorrow to Karina and then we will, this will be before us on December 3rd.

Okay, moving right along.

We've already done the letters, so thank you very much for that.

We will now proceed to our normal, usual round-robin discussion of things that have happened and will happen in our committees and otherwise.

I know that there is, we've been busy on the budget, so, you know, Operation Lowering Expectations, but it's also a chance to recognize Council Member Wu.

So moving on, unless anybody has anything else on the last agenda item, our roll call begins with Council Member Wu.

Thank you.

It's been a week of goodbyes.

So I wanted to make this my statement.

You know, as my time on the Seattle City Council comes to a close, I have immense gratitude and a profound sense of purpose.

You know, our journey has been really remarkable in this last 10, 11 months.

Like many of us, when I stepped into this role, it wasn't for the title or the office or for the fame or...

It was for the people, for the families striving to create a better future, for the dreamers who embody resilience, for the activists tirelessly pushing for justice, and for small business owners like my family who pour their hearts into keeping our city thriving.

It was for neighborhoods like Chinatown, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, where our roots are deeply planted, and for every community across Seattle that I've had the privilege to serve.

As an Asian American, I carry with me the stories of generations who came before me, stories of resilience, hard work, and hope.

My family's journey from running a laundromat in the first Chinatown in the 1870s to building a life in the city shaped my commitment to serve and uplift others.

That legacy woven with your voices has really driven everything I've done in the council.

I know that there is so much left to do to fight anti-Asian hate in the next few years.

But I believe the progress we made in the city this year didn't happen just in isolation.

It was a collective effort.

So there's a couple of people I want to thank to council staff who showed up every day with passion, dedication, and an unyielding belief in the power of public service.

Thank you.

You were the force that kept all of us moving forward.

To my colleagues in the council, Whether we stood in agreement or engaged in debate, I am grateful for your perspective and for your challenges.

This work was never easy, but it was always necessary.

Every conversation, every late night meeting, phone call, shared success, strengthened me as a leader and as a servant of the people.

I would go down the line and name every single thing, but we'd be here for hours.

To the city departments, I had the honor of collaborating with the Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle City Light, Office of Sustainability.

You brought vision and expertise that made a real difference in the lives of all of our residents.

To my team, I am forever grateful.

Sarah May is my chief of staff.

Thank you for your steady leadership and focus.

To Murphy Bush, our outreach director for keeping us connected to the communities we serve.

Nina Park, our policy director for your sharp thinking and tireless dedication.

You all were the backbone of our mission, and I could not have done this without you.

To my community, thank you for keeping me rooted in what matters most.

You reminded me every day why we fight so hard for affordable housing, safer streets, and an economy where everyone can thrive.

You were my guide when the path ahead felt unclear.

And to my family sitting here in the first row, my foundation, my heart, thank you for your endless patience, love, and support.

You shared me with this city, and your sacrifice made my work possible.

But looking forward, I am proud of what we have achieved together from advocating for small businesses, to reimagining public safety, to ensuring our communities had a seat at the table.

We have left a lasting impression, but this isn't the end of the work, it's just a transition for me.

My time on the council may be ending, but my commitment to Seattle is lifelong.

This city, with its diversity, its challenges, and its boundless potential, is a part of who I am.

And as I close this chapter, I do so with hope, hope that Seattle will continue to be a place where everyone, no matter where they come from or who they are, has the chance to succeed and to thrive.

So thank you for believing in me, for walking this path alongside me, and for trusting me to serve.

It has been an honor of a lifetime.

So thank you, and thank you, Seattle, and let's keep building our city together.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

Council Member Hollingsworth, I believe you're next.

How do I follow that, Council President?

No.

Thank you, Tanya, for your work.

And I'll follow that by saying your husband is the best ref west of the Mississippi.

Randy here, he misses a lot of travel calls.

I'm just playing.

Thank you, Tanya.

You know how I feel about you, and so grateful for your friendship and your leadership.

And I know that the best is yet to come.

It's yet to come.

So transitioning into parks, utilities, and technology meeting, we will be meeting on Wednesday, December 11th at 2 p.m.

The agenda is being formed right now.

We anticipate some legislation from Seattle Public Utilities and potentially other departments as well, some last-minute things that have come up on the calendar.

So I'm still working with those city departments to make sure that we have all that information and i will be posting it soon so thank you colleagues for bearing for bearing with us also want to thank you all for your patience and grace during the metropolitan parks district meeting last week and being flexible i know that was in the middle of budget and i really appreciate you all coming to that meeting live in a well.

Also had meetings with our regional transportation committee with council member Saka.

We talked about investments, updates with Metro, their improved service and transportation numbers as well.

We have a regional water quality committee with Councilmember Kettle December 4th.

Also, quickly in community, there were two things I wanted to highlight that happened.

The opening of Safeway on Queen Anne had a chance to go to Councilmember Kettle.

Kettles District, really excited about Safeway.

The cool thing about what is being done with food insecurity in Seattle, especially with some of our grocery stores, we partner with SPU, Seattle Public Utilities, and they organize to make sure that they can extend the life of food and be able to get it out to the community.

And so there is zero food waste at a lot of these grocery stores.

Really excited about that.

Attended the Urban League breakfast.

There were over 2,100 people there to see all the wonderful things that the Urban League is doing in the community.

And it was really, really great.

And last but not least, I want to give a special thoughts and prayers to the Jones family.

Quincy Jones passed away.

He was born in Chicago, but grew up in Seattle at Garfield High School.

Phenomenal musician and really gave.

really meant a lot to this city, and Seattle was a really special place for him, and we have one of the best jazz bands that perform in Quincy Jones Hall at Garfield.

And last but not least, also want to send our thoughts and prayers to Regina Rogers' family.

She was 34, she passed away, she was a basketball legend here in Seattle, played at University of Washington, and was very well known in our community, played at a lot of the high schools around here.

and sending thoughts and prayers to the Rogers family.

So anyways, they are now transitioned into the ancestral lands.

And with that, I will like to pass it off to Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

I just wanted to start by saying, well said, Council Member Wu.

Thank you for your service.

And as I said last week, fair winds and following seas as you start this next chapter.

Wishing you and your family all the best.

For me, I just wanted to start this week saying that there will be no Public Safety Committee meeting this week.

The next meeting will be on 10 December, and the main piece of this will be less lethal weapons legislation, and this relates to crowd management and also the consent decree.

In terms of official meetings last week, I did on Thursday meet with the King County Board of Health ahead of our our budget meeting, and some others earlier in the month, an additional one in terms of assisting quorum and to get various members appointed to the King County Board of Health, and plus earlier received briefings regarding vendors, some of the public health pieces of the businesses, the food service world.

It was important work.

Also on Friday, we had a Domestic Violence Prevention Council kind of coordination meeting ahead of the December meeting that's coming up.

And one thing that came out of that was a proclamation related to today.

And I just wanted to note that 2024 marks 25 years since the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25th today as International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women.

And the UN defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in or likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of acts, coercion, arbitrary...

deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

And a number of pieces here, and a proclamation from the city from the mayor also notes that the city of Seattle invests over $14 million in community-based services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, and partners with 35 organizations to provide services to more than 7,500 survivors and their families each year.

And lastly, the City of Seattle supports a comprehensive whole government approach through the Domestic Violence Prevention Council established in 1995 to address domestic violence-related homelessness, increase risk factors for children witnessing or exposed to violence, increase accountability for people that cause harm, address the effects of family violence, address the increased risk for survivors of the sex industry, address dating violence, and implement early prevention and intervention.

address violence in the workplace, and support the need for a coordinated system response.

There's a lot of work that's been done, but obviously a lot more work that needs to be done.

And so I just wanted to note that today is Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls Day here in Seattle.

With that said, I just wanted to add nothing for this week, but next week, Southlake Union Community Council will be meeting on Tuesday, and the Queen Anne Community Council will have a meeting community center and it's going to be focused on the comprehensive plan.

And as noted by my esteemed colleague, Council Member Hollingsworth, we also have a regional water quality committee meeting next week, Wednesday as well.

Thank you very much and Council Member Moore.

Thank you very much.

So the next meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, December 11th.

The agenda is still being crafted and depending on what we come up with for that agenda, we may cancel the meeting, but I will keep everybody on the committee posted about that.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone at City Light for the phenomenal work that they did in restoring power.

North Seattle, particularly District 5, was a very hard hit from the bomb cyclone last week.

We had a lot of trees down, a lot of people without power, City Light working, you know, around the clock in very dangerous circumstances.

So I wanted to thank them for doing a phenomenal job.

And also I want to thank my staff for fielding all the calls that we were getting and doing a great job helping people stay on track as to when their power was going to be restored and accessing other resources.

So thank you for that.

And then, last but not least, I wanted to express to Councilmember Wu my great gratitude and pleasure in working with you in this position.

I remember first getting to know you when we were on the campaign trail, and it was great to be able to have somebody, an ally, to share the experiences of going through all those candidate forums.

and interviews and I knew then that you were going to be a great council member and that was the case and I was pleased to encourage you to seek the vacancy and to support you in that.

And I've really enjoyed working with you on the Housing Human Services Committee, the compassion and the commitment that you've brought to addressing those very difficult issues.

And I was very pleased to serve with you on the City Light Committee.

I thought your leadership of that committee was stellar and you accomplished great things in keeping rates affordable for all of us and ensuring that we continue to pursue affordable options for people who are struggling.

And then also just your general commitment to the city.

I know that that will continue and I genuinely believe that the city is a better place because of having you here and all the work that you

HAVE DONE AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT AND I HAVE NOTHING FURTHER THANK YOU LET'S SEE COUNCIL MEMBER MORALES GO AHEAD PLEASE THANK YOU COUNCIL PRESIDENT UM I DON'T HAVE A LOT

For today, I do have, next week I have a growth management policy board meeting with PSRC.

And then we do have a land use committee meeting on Wednesday, December 4th.

There's only two items on the agenda at this point.

One is council bill 120833, the living building amendment bill.

This is legislation that clarifies that projects in the pilot program.

can use height bonuses to exceed 145 feet, regardless of the lot size in our downtown mixed residential zone.

We did have a briefing on this bill already and discussion.

And we also had a public hearing on this bill before the budget started.

So I will have OPCD staff available next Wednesday for a refresher, but I do intend to have a vote on that bill next week.

um the other thing we have is a resolution 32156 which is a sales tax exemption resolution for briefing discussion and possible vote this resolution declares our intention to establish a new sales and use tax deferral for the conversion of underutilized commercial property to housing this is a required step in the process to adopt legislation that would enact our authority granted by the state this year with Senate Bill 6175 that became effective last June.

And so in order for us to activate the tax deferral, we have to pass a resolution with our intention and provide draft program documents for public review.

So all of that will be happening and we will be setting a date for a public hearing for early next year.

But in order for us to do that, we have to get this resolution passed first.

So that's what we'll be doing next Wednesday at 2 p.m.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's quite a lot.

So, Council Member, are there any questions?

Nope.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Well, last week I, too, attended the Urban League breakfast in support of the great work that they do in community.

It was great to be together with so many wonderful folks, and it really brought a silver lining to a very cloudy day.

So that was really great.

And I really want to thank the Urban League for inviting me and including me in that wonderful celebration.

Also, you know, I too want to lend my gratitude to Council Member Wu for all her service and all her hard work and partnership on the council this past year.

We were able to accomplish a lot of great work in support of our residents this year, and this was in no small part due to Council Member Wu's hard work.

You know, I look forward to continuing to work with you because I know that you're going to continue to do all the amazing work that you do in community.

So thank you, Tanya.

for the opportunity to have worked with you this year and for all the things that you do in community.

Also want to say, want to acknowledge that we've had several small businesses burglarized in the D4 recently, especially in the Wedgwood area.

SPD has been responding and investigating, but we're continuing to see difficulties from the shortage of Officers, in addition, we've had crime in around Magnuson Park.

I did speak today with North Precinct Captain Agard about some events that took place over the weekend.

I want to say that her team has been gathering information about this increase in crime, and she does continue to have the emphasis patrols at the park at night.

She is looking into whether there is an ability to have patrols during the day, but as you know, again, the staffing shortages continue to have a negative impact.

I really want to thank Captain Agard and her team for all the work that they're doing on behalf of the district and just know for anyone that might be looking and for you all watching, not looking, watching this right now from the district and to you all that I will continue to work with Captain Agard on these events in the D4.

to see, you know, we're going to continue to work on this and, you know, I'm really grateful for all the work that she's doing because her team really is doing all they can and they continue to do more, even more.

So really grateful for her partnership.

And I will report out more as I get more information.

Then lastly, I wanna say that the next meeting of the Libraries Education and Neighborhood Committee will take place at 9.30 a.m.

on Thursday, December 12th, where we're going to be hearing about the Seattle Public Library's 2024 through 2033 strategic plan.

And I too will be attending the meeting of the Growth Management Committee of the PSRC with Council Member Morales.

And that is it for me for now, unless someone has questions.

Council President, it looks like you have a question.

I do have a question.

My first, it always, it is troubling and disturbing to hear about the, what's going on still on 35th up there and also in and around Magnuson Park.

Yes, more officers would help.

I want to let folks know that this year, I think it's this quarter for the first time there will be a net positive in the number of officers hired instead of separated from our department, so that is good news.

My question is, First of all, it's clear that your district is really focused on what's going on around Magnuson Park.

I attended the public safety meeting and it was jam-packed, so thank you.

And I learned a lot.

Is there any coordination that we can encourage between, I'm sure that people have already thought about this, between parks and SPD, go on, lighting or fencing or I don't know what.

There's coordination between SPD and the parks rangers.

And also I know Captain Agard wants to coordinate with the park rangers next spring when we see all that activity again at the park with the partying.

It is crime both in and around Magnuson and on 35th and just around the district has increased.

which is why Captain Agard is gathering the information so we know what level of increase.

We really need to give more emphasis to that district because it has increased so much since just the partying at the park that the SPD was managing for.

So please know all of this is something that Captain Agard is tracking, monitoring, giving response to, I will say there have been a couple of arrests on some of the incidents that have happened.

So they are really working hard and around the clock to respond to that increased level of crime.

in and around the park and in other areas of the district, including Wedgwood.

And so more to come on that.

I will be reaching out to the mayor's office to have a conversation.

Natalie Walton Anderson, who's the point person for Deputy Mayor Burgess, and I have talked about this in general, and I will be reaching back out again about this increased number of incidents in the district.

So I'm not surprised we're hearing, I'm hearing more from constituents because it has increased since just we were originally managing for the activity with the partying at the park and now it's just Increased level of crime, car break-ins and home break-ins and things of that nature.

And also more, which is more frightening, it's been more gun violence that we've been managing for on the D4.

And of course, North Precinct also services Council Member Moore's District D5 that has also had an increased level of, as we know from the last few months, increase in gun violence around Aurora.

This is in addition to that.

But I do want to say, because I very much want to acknowledge that the crime in the D4 has increased, And I am learning more about what that increase looks like in terms of percentages.

But regardless, Captain Agard is doing everything she can from the North Precinct.

They are being responsive.

So I do want constituents to know that it is frustrating.

It's frustrating for me as well.

And we will continue to work on this, all of us together, including with the mayor's office.

And I know they've been responsive as well.

And they They want to do something about this as well.

Thank you very much for everything that you do.

It's clear that there's a lot going on that we don't know about, but you're working on all angles.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Council Member Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

And I guess first and foremost.

I want to take this opportunity to also express my sincere gratitude for all you've done for our great city in this year as a representative of our city on this esteemed body.

And I mentioned a few other remarks last week, whenever that was.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I do want to take this opportunity to reemphasize and restate my personal appreciation for you and all you do.

Not a goodbye.

It is until the next time.

And there will be many more next times with us together.

And look forward to, again, partnering with you and supporting your work and our shared work and making progress on these issues.

We all...

We all can contribute and help in any number of ways.

One way is sitting here at this dais, but it's not limited to just that as well.

So thank you again for your leadership, your collaboration, your courage, your staunch support and investment for all communities in Seattle, especially and included the Chinatown International District.

And we'll continue to carry forward your great legacy of service in so many different ways.

But, again, continue to partner together.

So thank you again.

I'm inspired by your resilience, and you faced a lot.

And I will be honest, I don't always have the magnanimity and ability to turn the other cheek like you've demonstrated.

But I do appreciate you and your bold leadership on any number of things.

So thank you, Council Member Wu.

On the budget, on a lighter note, on the budget, budget, budget.

Colleagues, I am wearing a shirt to honor, let me stand up, visual references so our folks in the Seattle channel can see.

As you may recall, I mentioned last week during my speech about the budget, We need to take lessons from everyone.

And this is weird seeing myself on the screen.

All right.

This is from the great 21st century philosopher and future Pro Football Hall of Famer, quote, from Beast Mode, Marshawn Lynch, when he...

commanded us, guided us to take care of y'all's mentals, y'all's bodies, and y'all's chickens, so it's only appropriate that I wear the T-shirt today, because we were on a path, and again, he wasn't just talking to those young sahabs, those youngsters coming up, cutting their teeth in the NFL.

Local governments, including ourselves here in Seattle, can and should take lessons, and yes, we are.

Marshawn, we love you, beast mode, because we put ourselves on a path for sustainable championing more sustainable budgets and budget reform here in our city by taking care of our chicken.

more to come.

So thank you, council colleagues.

Thank you, central staff.

Thank you to my own staff, Elaine, Ian.

Thank you again to our distinguished chair, budget chair, Strauss, for all you've done to champion and lead and shepherd such a collaborative process.

Thank you to Mayor Harrell for proposing such an outstanding initial budget to begin with and a balanced budget to begin with that we made even better.

And good to hear, Council President, that this is the first time in your recollection that we've actually strengthened investments on public safety for what was in the mayor's original.

I think that's really cool.

by the way.

So in any event, such a great process.

So many people to thank and be grateful for, including the janitorial staff, our own security specialists and personnel here.

I'm looking at one of our security specialists here who does a great job, who also went to my alma mater, Kent Meridian, go Royals.

We're out here.

You're represented too, my friend.

and so just want to thank everyone again for that such a such a great process and on the budget Also want to mention the camp long Facility arson that happened in my district a few a few weeks ago That happened towards the very tail end of the budget as we know and it was it was a bit too late unfortunately by then to To introduce anything to budget wise to address the situation but I have spoken personally with On the public safety, to advance and address the public safety dimensions of this, I have spoken personally to Deputy Mayor Burgess.

On the parks component of the Camp Long situation, I have spoken directly to Deputy Mayor Emery, and we're in touch and in line.

Right now, they're still very much in a fact-gathering stage.

I think I shared some of this in one of my earlier newsletters, including not just the underlying arson, but, like, insurance reporting and and getting a better sense of that but So it's too premature for us to do anything or propose anything rather during this budget, but um that's what Supplemental budgets are for so if there's a so we'll be Looking and examining the need because we want to build back and we want to build back better In any event, just to note that me and my office, this is a priority for me and my office, and I don't have the pleasure of sitting on the Parks Committee, on Councilmember Hollingsworth's great Park Committee, but this is a priority for my office, and we'll be closely monitoring and tracking that, and I know Parks Chair Hollingsworth, her and I have had an initial conversation about this, and I know this is important to her as well.

So moving on to my own committee, my own stuff, the Transportation Committee.

So we have canceled, as you may have saw, the first regularly scheduled meeting post-budget on December 3rd.

And we did that for a number of reasons.

And in full transparency, we did it in part to try and be better colleagues and help facilitate the onboarding of Councilmember-elect Rink.

and so it's not super crazy welcome to council here's this brand like a technical highly technical committee stuff welcome uh but so we are going to have a a meeting on december 17th that will be the next one still finalizing the agenda there um And regional transit committee, as Councilmember Hollingsworth aptly pointed out earlier, her and I had the pleasure of joining that great regional committee last week.

We talked about a number of things, including improving transit reliability and service.

We discussed key performance metrics and dashboards, including something that is, as you all know, colleagues, really important to me, benchmarking our performance across similarly sized transit agencies across the country.

And it was good to see and learn more about kind of where we stack as a region on some of these key performance metrics.

There's never ever, if we take the understanding, there's never ever a direct one-for-one apples-to-apples comparison.

But we can, at the same time, derive key insights and measure ourselves against others.

So we took initial steps to do exactly that at that regional transit committee last week.

Proudly, I also attended, colleagues, the...

Urban League breakfast last week, and it's great to be in that room because I've been honored to be a part of that journey of that organization.

Before I was elected 10 years ago, I served on that board, and it was a scrappy board, and it was like 12 employees at the time, and now there's over 100 employees, and So shout out to CEO and President of the Urban League, Michelle Merriweather, for doing such great work for the league and our broader communities here across the Seattle region.

And people have been Asking about my prior involvement in other things.

So let me just be transparent.

Yes, I served on the board of the Urban League.

I'm proud of it.

But it was great to witness their journey and be a part of their early success.

And then now they're at a new level in terms of the impact.

So great to be there personally and witness some of that.

And then finally, I'll note, colleagues, next week we have an upcoming proclamation that me and my office are going to be putting forward with Mayor Harrell.

And we'll be asking for all your support there.

And really exciting proclamation, really important work.

In any event, you all seen the email there.

In any event, that is all from my perspective.

I welcome any questions or comments.

Again, shout out to Beast Mode.

Thank you.

We love you, Beast Mode in Seattle.

And then welcome any questions or comments.

If not, pass it on to Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Saka, I appreciate your comments on the budget.

They were heartfelt and shared.

They reminded me that I did forget to thank one very important constituency.

So if you don't mind, I'll add it because I might forget it again.

I want to extend gratitude to our constituents who came forward and expressed their priorities and what they wanted from us in the budget.

And they did so at two quite long public hearings as well as various sessions of public comment and through emails and meetings, et cetera.

So we're lucky to live in a city with people who are so focused on local government.

It's not the case everywhere, and our constituency is quite engaged, and so I just wanted to say thank you very much to you all.

Okay, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues, the committee report from the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments, the committee report here.

As you may know, we passed our 2025-2026 budget last year with an eight to one vote.

Thank you all for all of your work over the past number of months.

Looking forward to this coming month.

Colleagues, you may know that I do weekly office hours.

And for the first time since the pandemic, we took a break.

with office hours so that I could focus on the budget process and passing the budget.

We will return not only to weekly office hours, but we're going to work through a backlog in December.

So I've currently got over 20 hours of office hours set up and we're looking to see if we can't schedule some more.

And finally, just Councilmember Wu, you've heard me say it before, you'll hear me say it again today.

You came to us as the daughter of Seattle and you leave us as the auntie of Seattle.

I cannot thank you enough for all of your hard work this year.

The impact that you will have on our city will continue to ripple for years to come.

Council President, that is my report.

Unless there are any questions, I'll pass it over to you.

All right, thank you.

Seeing no questions or comments, I will say that tomorrow's city council meeting is canceled in case nobody got the...

That's just a reminder we sent out a cancellation a while ago.

It's been canceled because a couple council members will be absent and for lack of legislation to act on.

So that is the next city council meeting will be on December 3rd.

Also, the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee has been canceled this Thursday, Thanksgiving.

So the next meeting will be on December 12th, and the agenda is still being worked out, and more news to come on that.

Councilmember-elect Rink will be officially sworn in tomorrow, but the ceremonial swearing in will occur on December 3rd.

And that's pretty much the news that I have to share on committee meetings, et cetera.

I have already reached out to Councilmember Elect Rink, welcomed her, offered our offices support as a resource because I remember being the only Councilmember, the new Councilmember myself when I was just elected and took office in 2022. All right, so, Tanya.

I remember, I used to sit in your seat, and I remember one day in, I think it was October 2022, I can't remember exactly which week or month, but I believe that's what it was, I came in the chambers from that door, that was my shortcut when I was running a bit late, and the chambers was packed, absolutely packed with people, elderly people, it seemed like, disproportionately so, and...

from the CID.

And as they made public comment, they were here to share their thoughts about the planned new project that the county was planning and the CID partnering with the Salvation Army to offer homelessness services.

And there was a translator there made available for people to share their comments.

And I was thinking this whole time, wait, they walked here from the CID, two chambers.

And it wasn't until afterwards that I learned that you were a major instigator of that, that you organized and helped people show up to share their thoughts.

And I was thinking, darn, that's...

a powerful organizer.

And then you did the same thing just in September or August when you filled the Benoit Benevolent Association's building, I believe, in the CID for a public safety meeting.

Again, packed and lots of seniors, but also multi-ages, multi-generations of people from the neighborhood.

And so why am I mentioning this?

I'm mentioning this because...

You don't, because you get things done for your constituency and also citywide.

I also must say that whether it be a memorial service in Soto, a press conference in the University District, something going on in Ballard, you were all over the place right before and after you took office.

And so you're a true public servant.

And it's not just the people in the CID, but you are clearly seen as a leader there.

And I've learned a lot from you about leadership.

and being everywhere all the time, it seems like, and really listening to your constituents.

So I'll miss you being also next door to me and seeing you pretty much every day.

I also want to say that you went a step beyond on shepherding not just City Light, but also arts and culture with your series of roundtable discussions and engaging beyond the sort of the usual work plan of somebody that's chairing that committee.

So it's clear that you gave your heart and soul to your job, to your work, to your constituents citywide, and also to your colleagues, and I'll miss you.

very much, so thank you very much for your service.

Okay, at Changhua Benevolent Association, I'm sorry for mispronouncing.

for saying the wrong thing.

So anyway, colleagues, thank you very much for your attention today.

Again, thank you for your work on the budget.

And if there's no further business, looking once, twice, checking the screen, not seeing any, we are adjourned.

It is 3.23.

Have a warm and family, friend, fun-filled holiday week.

Thank you.

We're adjourned.