missing title

Music playing

Thank you, sir.

Good morning.

The Happy St. Patrick's Day, the March 17th, 2026 Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee will come to order.

It's 9.32 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Our clerk is currently fixing a public comment sheet issue, so I will call the roll.

Council President Hollingsworth is excused.

Council Member Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Rivera?

Chair Strauss, I am present.

We have three present and two excused will announce their arrival when they come.

We have one item on the agenda today, which is a briefing from the Seattle Public Utilities about their tribal government and native community engagement.

We're very excited for the presentation to hear about the good work that you are doing.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We are now moving into the hybrid public comment period.

Double checking second time, no public comment today, not from you all, and I see none are present online.

Thank you, Anthony, for getting the public comment sheets, even though no one has signed up.

Seeing as we have no one signed up for hybrid public comment, we will move on to the first item of business.

Clerk, will you read the short title into the record, please?

Item 1, Seattle Public Utilities.

I think green light on the mic.

Seattle Public Utilities, Tribal Government Native Communities Engagement, Briefing and Discussion.

Presenters Andrew Lee, General Manager and CEO, Kyle Iron-Lightning, Seattle Public Utilities, and Francesca Mernon, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Fantastic, thank you.

And we have Council Member Rivera now present as well.

I'm just gonna turn it over to the table.

Colleagues, this is the only item on today's agenda.

We technically have two hours for it, but we don't have to fill it.

So rather than having the presentation all the way complete, we'll take questions and have discussion as we proceed.

So if you'd like to share screen as you're introducing presenters, I'll start with you, Andrew Lee, since Francesca is running tech right now.

Over to you, my friend.

Yeah, Andrew Lee, General Manager, CEO for Seattle Public Utilities.

Kyle Iron Lightning, Tribal Relations, Seattle Public Utilities.

Good morning.

Francesca Murnan, Tribal Relations Director at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and I have the pleasure of welcoming our Seattle Public Utilities team here today to provide you a little bit more detail about the tribal engagement and urban-native engagement that occurs through one of our Seattle municipal utilities.

It's a delight to work with this team, and this presentation is designed to give you a little bit of an overview of some of the many, many projects that they do with tribal governments and Native communities throughout their portfolio.

And I'll hand it over to GM Lee to open us.

Thank you.

Chair Strauss and members of the committee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to talk about SPU's tribal relations work.

SPU's work as caretakers and stewards of our water resources and our watersheds, and our environmental goals of protecting our waters cleaning historical sediment contamination and moving towards zero waste has so many intersections and commonalities with the values and goals of our local tribal nations.

In that respect, we are partners with the tribes to work towards a common mission of protecting and or restoring the environment.

At the same time, our infrastructure has impacts on the cultural and natural resources that the tribes care deeply about.

We operate two dams that are critical infrastructure to supplying water for 1.6 million people in King County that have impacts on the natural environment.

Similarly, we are responsible for managing stormwater runoff and sewage overflows through infrastructure such as roadway culverts and combined sewer overflow pipes that have impacts on water quality and fish passage.

With those impacts comes an obligation and a legal requirement to engage the tribes with the goal of mitigating or reducing our environmental impacts.

More than a year ago, our government relations team recognized the incredible depth and breadth of our work with the tribes, and with the goal of improving our tribal relations work, we created and then hired a dedicated tribal relations advisor position.

That advisor, Kyle Iron-Lightning, is sitting next to me today.

Today, and we can, yep, on the agenda slide, Kyle will provide additional background on his position and why it's important to both the utility and the city.

He'll provide a high-level overview of the various SPU and city projects, where we are currently engaging with the tribes, and then he will provide information on future projects where we have plans to engage with the tribes.

At this point, I will pass the presentation off to Kyle.

Good morning, Chair Strauss and Councilmembers.

My name's Kyle Ironlanding.

come to you from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation.

Our tribe shares its territory with the state of North Dakota.

I'm also a United States Navy veteran.

I served from 2000 to 2009 on board the USS Michigan and USS Emory S. Land.

Prior to this position, I served with the Federal Veterans Affairs Office of Tribal Health as a National Outreach Manager.

I also work for the Department of Revenue, a number of tribes throughout the country, and I also work for the State of North Dakota's Office of the Indian Affairs Commission.

I started this role in December 2024, and we've been building relations since.

It's been I've appreciated the experience and the support that the utilities provided but also throughout the city and seeing the number of projects that are going on where tribal engagement is a big part of it and being able to help those teams no matter the department is one of the things I look forward to and As Francesca shared, we work closely together on a lot of things and I do my best to make sure her office and that she is informed on what we're doing because we want to make sure that if her office gets a call from any of the tribes on something that we're doing that she's aware of it from us first instead of from the tribe, so we try and keep her aware of that.

As far as what the utility's been doing, we have numerous projects that we feel have potential tribal interest and We utilize the government-to-government relationships with tribal governments, excuse me, implementing agreements with tribal governments, conducting tribal consultation, whether it's required by a federal, state, or local law.

And we also conduct a broad range of engagement on other issues as well We also engage the urban Indian organizations on a number of projects and meet them where they feel their word is valued.

I wanna point out in this, when it comes to our engagements that when we send letters to tribal leadership from the utility, on behalf of the utility, no matter the project, we wanna make sure that if it's going to the tribal leader of that particular tribe that it comes from our general manager and that's a recognition of the sovereignty of the tribal nations as their decision maker is getting a letter from us.

We wanna make sure to do our best that it comes from our decision maker as well.

These are some of the areas that we feel are shared interests with our tribal partners and tribal nations in the region.

Combined sewer overflow, Duwamish River cleanup, fisheries management, interpretive signage, long range planning, urban watershed management, and water quality.

These interpretive sign...

There's two projects currently we're working in regard to interpretive signage.

The Bitter Lake Reservoir is, we're replacing a 21 million gallon drinking water reservoir up north in the North Gate area.

And part of that project is to include interpretive signage in the park restoration side as we engage with tribes in this project.

in this project.

I'll take a step back and make you aware of the tribes that we do engage in these projects are the Stillaguamish tribe of Indians, the Tulalip tribes, the Snoqualmie Indian tribe, the Suquamish tribe, and the Munkoshoot Indian tribe.

um and Kyle yes can I just ask you there that you're working directly with federally recognized tribes is that right correct and those are tribes that have a formal relationship with either the land or the government of Seattle is that right correct and so that's why you're not necessarily working like in my district united indians of all tribes has a really big footprint in my district but that's they're an indigenous organization within our community, not a tribal government.

Am I understanding that distinction correctly?

Yes, Chair Strauss.

They are an urban Indian organization.

We do engage with them, but not at the same level as our government to government with our federally recognized tribes.

Thanks.

Keep going.

You're doing great.

So back to Bitter Lake we have engaged with tribes on this interpretive signage and Our hope is that this will set the standard for the utility and somewhat expectations for the utility going forward in projects like this where the tribes In engaging with them, we've set the groundwork and foundation for moving forward with our tribal partners in projects like this.

And the interpretive signage specifically is to provide an opportunity and in all honesty, I don't know if opportunity is the right word, but to provide a signage where they can share a story of that place or if that place is significant to the tribe, to share that with the public if they're open to sharing information like that with us.

We'll provide the place for them to do that.

Another interpretive signage project we're working on is the Salmon Bay Natural Area.

It's near the Ballard Locks.

This interpretive signage was rededicated this past July, and there's a sign there that we are updating with more of what the history of the tribes in the area feel or believe it should have when it talks about the fish returning there but also some of their current history like providing an opportunity for them to show what they are today and represent that instead of the Currently, there's photos of...

They're older photos, but we wanna provide an opportunity so that they can show that they're still very active in that area today.

This is an area where we see a lot of fishing during the salmon runs, both Muckleshoot and Suquamish.

Actually, I'm gonna let you keep going, because I think you're gonna start talking about this shortly.

Keep going.

One of the other projects that we have started early engagement on is the Thornton Creek Watershed Culbert Strategy.

This is a fish passage barriers project that we are working to engage tribe early on.

We have met with the Washington State Department of Transportation's fish passage team and specifically their tribal engagement staff to learn some lessons from what their experience was throughout the culverts case that came down and the decision that was made.

They've had to engage significantly with tribes, so we've engaged with that team to learn from them and feel that that has been beneficial thus far.

Those letters have been sent out to tribes and we've receive responses from three of them and we're working to set up a meeting with one of the tribes and our project management team to discuss partnering with them in that planning process.

Here's a South Park water quality facility that will be along the Duwamish River in the South Park neighborhood.

We are in the preliminary stages of officially engaging with tribes in this project.

We have put it on their radar through emails, but we're still working to how to best approach engagement in this area because it is a community.

We don't wanna, it's gonna be a balancing act with this one and I think we're gonna, we'll, We'll be respectful of the community there, but also do our best to ensure that the tribal engagement piece is part of it.

We're also working with arts in this project as the cultural placemaking piece of this project.

I'll admit I didn't know that we had a Sakai hatchery when I took this position, but so Much of the work we do at the Cedar River Sockeye Hatchery is with the Malkushoot Indian Tribe.

It's part of our commitment to account for the blocking of sockeye passage upstream.

We work with the tribe, but also Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

They're co-managers.

We continue to build our relationship with the Muckleshoot under the Muckleshoot Settlement Agreement.

Pictured here, you see General Manager Lee as well as staff from the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

But more importantly, three of those individuals are commissioners for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe's Fish Commission.

So we invited them out to meet us at the hatchery and discuss moving our working relationship under the Muckleshoot sentiment agreement, moving that relationship forward.

And then you can see some of the sockeye and the circular tanks there.

A lot of the day-to-day engagement with tribes, much of it happens at our watersheds, and when it comes to education, there's educational pieces that the tribes have assisted with in making sure that their stories are heard at the Watershed Educational Center, specifically the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

works in coordination and collaboration with Cedar River Municipal Watershed, wildlife management, firewood designation, and access to hunting and gathering.

The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe and SBU coordination and watershed for road access, fire management, and forest management, and also the Tulalip Tribes, similar access and issues of mutual concern those those relationships are active with the watershed management team and they include us just as another set of ears and to ensure that like to ensure that we're aware of what's going on and but yeah that okay South Fork River Watershed.

We are currently under the relicensing for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

That is an extensive engagement.

Admittedly, this is my first FERC relicensing experience and I have learned a lot and appreciate the opportunity to assist the utility and the city in this engagement.

We also work with Seattle City Light in this project, also in the Toll Watershed.

We do have tribal neighbors that we work with for access and also preparing for any natural or wildfire casualties, or not casualties, but disasters that might happen, making sure that they're aware of that we're available to assist.

and Cedar Falls long-term plan.

This is a plan that is years out.

However, we wanted to make sure that we made tribes aware of our future hydropower and water supply operations at Cedar Falls.

We've sent them general information letters coming from General Manager Lee, making sure that they're aware that we plan on engaging with them in these efforts and making sure that they're aware of what those alternatives are and listen to any concerns that they might have as we move forward in that process.

And that's all that I had.

That was a really good presentation, Kyle.

You do a lot of work.

Yes, Chair Strauss, we're busy.

I was recently reflecting, it's great to have Seattle Public Utilities.

Francesca, anything that you'd like to add to this presentation?

You are the coordinator of all the departments.

Okay.

It's nice to have SPU in the committee through Francesca.

This committee actually has a lot of work in many different departments.

So over the course of the year, we're gonna see a number of different departments that usually report to different committees come through to share their work because tribal engagement is something that cuts through every department in our city.

Much like Council Member Kettle would say, public safety is in every committee as well.

and so it's really great to see you here today.

I've reflected on SPU's get it done attitude recently and I've come up with a catch phrase which is SPU making Seattle's dreams come true and Kyle, you represent that motto fully and this presentation really feels like just the tip of the iceberg of the amount of work that you do As you said, when you took the job, you didn't realize that we had a sockeye fishery.

I will admit I didn't either.

And so it just demonstrates the breadth of your work.

Colleagues, I have a number of questions.

I've already had the opportunity to sit with Kyle through this information, so I'll hold my questions to the end, but I will prompt you with one before turning it over to my colleagues.

which is in our conversation you'd mentioned the importance, and you said it in the presentation, but you mentioned the importance of having General Manager Lee sign the letters, sign the paperwork, be the one to engage with elected leaders of tribal nations.

Can you talk a little bit more about why that's important, how that has shown importance in your work, what problems of the past it solves, and why do we do it?

Thank you for that question, Chair Strauss.

Yes, we do our best, and admittedly, it doesn't happen every time.

Sometimes there's last-minute travel notification letters that we...

And we're getting better at it, but...

for the most part, we do our best to make sure General Manager Lee signs those letters that are sent to tribal leadership because it is a recognition of the sovereignty that the tribes have, but it's also coming from our decision maker at the utility going to their lead executive at the tribes' level, albeit General Manager Lee is not an elected official.

However, he is the decision maker and responsible for the utility.

and we want to make sure that we acknowledge that and respect that authority and the power that the tribes have.

And we do that just based on experience, having worked with tribes, working for tribes and getting letters at the staff level signed by staff and sent to our tribal chairs.

being on that side of the table and wondering why can't the governor or city leader or county leader sign that if they want to be and I'll just say because I was on that side to be taken seriously.

So that's one of the main reasons we do it, to make sure that we acknowledge the significance of that leadership role on the tribe side, but also our decision maker.

That's really well said.

We've talked a lot in this committee over the last couple of years about the difference between just outreach, generally, tribal outreach, tribal engagement, tribal notification, government to government consultation, and the differences that those different mediums or different types of outreach, what it means to the tribal governments, what it means to us, and I really appreciate how seriously the utility takes the government-to-government engagement because in a world, really, we should probably be having the mayor or the city council president engage in that government-to-government consultation with our sovereign nation neighbor but we're not quite there yet.

I think that's kind of the work that this committee is endeavoring towards.

Any additional thoughts on that?

Just one last thought, Chair Strauss and the committee.

It also shows that it is that important to the utility that it's coming from General Manager Lee, that tribal engagement and that relationship, building that relationship with the tribes and their leadership is significant for him and for the rest of the utility.

So that's another reason why we choose to do that.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I see Councilmember Kettle and Councilmember Rivera have their hands over Councilmember Kettle and then Councilmember Rivera.

Vice Chair Rivera.

Well, Vice Chair should go first.

I defer to Vice Chair.

Vice Chair Rivera, if you'd like to go.

You can go Councilmember Kettle.

I'm okay with that.

Okay, thank you, General Manager Lee and Francesca and Cal for being here today.

I very much appreciate hearing about SPU's work and their relationship with our tribal partners.

I sit on Waira 8, Salmon Recovery Regional Committee, and I so appreciate, I'm gonna call out Martha Newman, and actually we have a meeting this week, and because we have our Select Committee on Comp Plan, Martha's gonna sit as an alternate for me.

I really appreciate her work.

And I appreciate SPU's work on daylighting of creeks around the city toward salmon and salmon recovery efforts in general.

It's a long-term plan and commitment.

These daylighting efforts don't happen overnight.

And as far as, and then I just wanted to call out also and really highlight, we have an effort coming in my district with now the Talaris property and daylighting of Yesler Creek in that part of the city.

and I hope and I believe and you can confirm that you'll be engaging with our tribal partners as that work is happening in the same way you've done these other efforts.

I know you are.

I just want to confirm that and sort of elevate and highlight that for the public because as SPU engages in these projects, it's really important that the public understands and hears how we make our commitment to our relationships with our tribal and native partners.

It's important work, salmon recovery is really important work I've learned in my time here now to our tribal partners and I very much appreciate, I'm humbled and I'm honored that we get to work on that together with our partners.

wanted to highlight that, wanted to thank you, thank you for the work.

I really appreciate how much focus the city has given, especially as of late and of course under the leadership of my sister, Councilmember Juarez, Deborah Juarez, who is very engaged and I know this work is really important to her and she's really been such a great partner in highlighting the relationship with our tribal partners and that we need to do more and we should be doing more.

So I wanna, she's not here, but I, she doesn't sit on our committee, but I wanted to highlight that as we're having this conversation.

So all that to say, thank you.

I recognize the importance and I really appreciate it.

And as you're doing the work in the district, I know it's not going to be soon, but as that's moving along, anything I can do, please let me know.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Anything you'd like to share about Talaris or any of the other projects that she mentioned?

We're still very much in the beginning process on Talaris.

I think we're about probably two months and a half into our ownership of the facility.

And so we haven't really started our long-range planning on Talaris.

But absolutely, when we do begin that process, we will undoubtedly be engaging with the tribal nations.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know the parade is not today.

It was on Saturday, but here we are.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Yes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Everybody's Irish today.

We're on that later this afternoon.

General Manager Lee, thank you for being here.

Mr. Iron Lightning and also Ms. Murman, thank you for being here.

Important topics.

I feel like this is normal because I was on the old committee, SPU committee, and I'm still on the SPU committee as it's attached to governance now.

So for me, this is just standard.

I got the team in the audience, and so we're all good here.

First thing, since Councilmember Rivera mentioned Councilmember Juarez, I'm gonna channel Councilmember Juarez, and thank you for numbering your slides.

Facts.

We had a briefing yesterday that did not have slides numbers on it, and so it created a headache.

So anyway, so channeling our colleague I really appreciate, like on slide four, the shared areas of interest.

See that segue there?

And you know, some of the ones that, and I'm channeling my old work, like with the Regional Water Quality Committee as well, is, you know, the combined sewer overflows, the Duwamers River cleanup, you know the water management you know long-range planning goes into this water quality this whole piece goes into it and so I noted for the Slide 8, the South Park Water Quality Facility.

I understand the points that you were making on that, but I was wondering, can you speak to the more broadly, like, the engagement on the overall effort, not just the South Park piece, but, you know, the idea that we're going to have a SOTO wet weather treatment facility at some point.

There's a number of CSOs that combine sewer outflows on basically both sides, but in terms of Seattle.

and some of those pieces that are there.

I think of the seawall.

I think of all the various things that we're doing with the East Lane, the Elliott Bay, the broader sound, and the Sailor Sea.

Can you speak to that in terms of engagement with tribal governments or Native communities?

Thank you for the question, Councilmember Kettle.

Yeah, when it comes to the broader tribal engagement in those areas, those efforts have been discussed, and like I've shared, we've sent just some preliminary emails to the tribal staff level, but we have not sent the high-level leadership letter yet.

but we plan to so that, like I've shared, the tribes are aware that we understand that the significance of this project and getting their input on how we can better manage some of this, some of the facilities and especially when it comes to the salmon habitat and the restoration of that making sure that they are at the table early, at least give them the opportunity to come to the table early should they choose to do so.

But we will be active in the engagement with the tribes because we're aware of how those impact their fisheries and what has happened in the past.

So that is our plan right now, council member.

Thank you.

The reason why I ask, it's good to have individual pieces, but if you look at all the various projects as a whole, and granted we're in a consent decree, which is part of it, but it kind of shows a commitment to what we're doing, and that in itself is a message that we're sending to the tribal governments and the Native communities.

It's that overall piece, which I think is very important.

for them to see that commitment, because that's a big commitment.

You know, like the Soto wet weather treatment, these are big dollar amounts.

These are big commitments on behalf of the city, state, federal government to do right as a respect to the habitat, the environmental side of things.

So, that's the reason why I raised that.

Councilmember Kettle, if I may, there are and there have been more comprehensive water quality-related plans done in the past, and so there was a combined sewer overflow long-term control plan that was done back in 2015, and there was engagement with the tribes back then.

We will be doing an update to that in the upcoming year, and I expect that there will be engagement with that too.

Similarly, the county.

The county has done engagement both at a project level, but also on a comprehensive water quality level.

and with their current regional wastewater services plan update, I expect that they are also going to be engaging the tribes as well.

Okay, great.

Yeah, the county piece, I should have highlighted that a little bit more.

I noted the Salmon Bay slide.

Since I made the point about numbers, I probably should reference the number.

Slide six.

And I know this area, but not like Chair Strauss, but I'm curious in terms of, you know, Salmon Bay itself, we're coming further inland because this is an area where, you know, in the maritime piece, we're looking to do a lot of work, and I was just curious about maybe the broader area.

Maybe you're already doing it, but in terms of that whole broader watershed area, you know, that water space area.

Is there any additional work?

Is it all tied to the locks and that front part, that water part?

That specific interpretive signage is tied to that place.

It's not the broader area Councilmember Kettle.

However, we have engaged with the tribes and they have shared that some of the history of that place and the significance of it and shared even some of the stories of villages there.

So we're hoping to include that in the updated interpretive signage so that the public can see that the first peoples of this region were there and that that place was significant even before the Ballard Locks were there.

So that's one of the key and important pieces of this whole thing is, especially when it comes to any interpretive signage, is making sure the public sees that there were people here before the City of Seattle was even a thought.

So that's our goal and also representing the stories and the voices of the first peoples of the region and not coming from something that we create.

They are at the table and providing that and sharing that with us.

but that particular Salmon Bay Natural Area is co-managed with Groundswell, one of the non-profits there so we work with them in that for the area.

I appreciate that, and I appreciate it's important for those that live here, but it's also for those that visit.

We kind of make a statement with these pieces.

For those that come across the country or the world, it's a chance for Seattle to show that it's leadership in this area.

Finally, appreciate the updates on Tolt River and Cedar River, sides 11 and 12. Obviously, been following that either through here or City Light as mentioned.

And then finally, I just wanted to note from slide nine that sockeye is my favorite.

I'd say leave the Chinook To the orcas, this hot guy's good enough for me, and it's my favorite.

And as a transplant from the East Coast, I will admit here that I do not eat Atlantic salmon.

I become, you know, aware of the better salmon, so there you go.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle, and that location.

I'd like to dig into that just a little bit more, and then I'll pass it over to Councilmember Saka.

The reason that you have interpretive signage there is because you have a facility at that street end, is that correct?

Or what is the ownership of your land there?

The city, we purchased that land to preserve it and make it more of a natural to preserve the natural area that was there before.

I guess one of the railway there was about to utilize it for storing their equipment and such, but 20 plus years ago we were able to purchase it and preserve some of the natural plants there, but also share some of the history of that place.

And thank you.

And Councilmember Kettle is correct.

The parking lot that is attached to this facility is where I went to high school prom.

I will come back to the importance of the Ballard Locks and the folks that have lived there since time of memorial after Councilmember Saka though.

Councilmember Saka, over to you.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, CEO Lee, Mr. Iron Lightning, and Ms. Mernon, as always, really appreciate this presentation.

Great job.

Mr. Iron Lightning, appreciate your service to our country as well as a Navy veteran, as a fellow veteran, more broadly, Air Force.

I feel like I'm a little outnumbered today with two Navy veterans, but It's okay, my late uncle was a retired senior chief in the Navy, so tons of respect, but we all know Air Force is better, buddy.

In any event, thank you.

With respect to slide eight, the South Park Water Quality Facility.

Appreciate the initial kind of update and overview.

And it sounds like this work is kind of the earlier stages, which is totally fine.

Would love a slightly more fulsome briefing from the SPU team to my office in the near term.

And I see all the right people from the SPU side are here to help initiate and set that up.

So greatly appreciated just to be good to have a little more clarity for my office on this important project in my district.

In any event, thank you again.

Really appreciate this vitally important work, mission critical work, and also kudos on putting slide numbers again.

overestimate the importance of that.

I understand it's challenging sometimes to come up here before Council and give briefings and updates, and I totally, yeah, I understand that.

And we're all sort of looking for various things, The easiest area to earn an A plus is organization and clarity and by putting slide numbers.

So is this thing on?

Everyone put slide numbers on.

Slide numbers.

Thank you.

And then finally, finally, I'll note that, yes, want to acknowledge the leadership of Council Member Juarez from a council and from a city of Seattle perspective, frankly.

and carrying this work, the important work forward.

And because of her, we're in part having this conversation today, just to be frank.

And also, there can be multiple leaders in a particular space.

And so, you know, acknowledge the chair as well for carrying on this work when in Council Member Juarez's absence and then working alongside her, you know, now that she's back for a few more months to carry this work forward.

So thank you all again.

Appreciate your service.

Thank you.

Anything the committee table would like to share?

We're happy to do the briefing on South Park Water Quality Facility.

That facility is scheduled to be constructed by 2030. So thank you.

Lastly, I just want to say that these positions, Francesca's position, my tribal advisor position are important, not only in making sure that the tribal engagement and consultation piece is always at the table, but it also shows the tribes that the utility and the city are taking their tribal relations elevating those relations by having these positions in place.

So I just wanted to point that out.

Fantastic.

Francesca?

Yes, and I'll just add that in the four years that I've been at the City, we've seen a great growth and expansion around this body of work, and it's really unique to have this committee as a place to give you that lens within departments about what this work really looks like.

Many of these issues come before you in different forums, so to give you the tribal and urban Native specific lens of the projects is a great honor, and we look forward to continuing to do this with you.

Wonderful.

I'm going to bring us back to the Cedar River and I'll tell a story to preface the question, which is there was one time that I emailed Bob Hennessy asking for a tour of the Cedar River and the Chester Morse watershed.

I said, I want to get as far up into the watershed as possible.

And he's like, are you asking me to let you into where you're not supposed to go?

I said, absolutely not.

I would not do that, Bob.

and it was my first real interaction with understanding that we have an unfiltered water source.

So number one, that's really interesting and important.

So I'll ask General Manager Lee to just explain to the committee, I know that we all know, but just for the general public, what does an unfiltered water source mean?

And then the next part of this question is that there is reserved rights for the Muckleshoot tribe within our watershed.

Can you talk a little bit about what that means, what it is, and just to put, you know, not to bury the headline, which is that the Muckleshoot tribe and tribal members are allowed into parts of the watershed that no one else is.

And so if general manager, you could talk about why access is limited due to unfilter, the filtration process that we use, and then Kyle, if you could speak to what our relationship with the tribe is in that watershed.

Yeah, absolutely.

We are one of a handful of cities and regions in the country that actually have an unfiltered water supply.

What makes our unfiltered water supply so unique is the fact that we own, at least in the south end, almost 100 percent of our watershed.

It's 99.9-something percent.

So it's not quite 100, but it's very, very close.

And that enables us to protect the watershed so that it's free from any potential man-made chemicals, compounds that might be in other watersheds.

There's no oil leaks going in, et cetera.

You're not supposed to be camping in that area.

And because of that unique protection, we're able to offer that water, obviously, to our customers, very unfiltered and very, very high quality.

It is amazing.

It rains potentially around 100-plus inches a year in that watershed, so it's incredibly productive.

and we were so fortunate to have it.

It's a legacy, honestly, of some of our predecessors that they took the vision and had the vision to own that watershed.

With the land ownership, obviously, we restrict the public in terms of access to it, but you're correct, we do have a unique relationship with the tribes, and I'll let Kyle and Lightning describe that.

Thank you, General Manager Lee.

Thank you for the question, Chair Strauss.

When it comes to the Cedar River watershed, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe does reserve hunting and gathering.

rights to the watershed and we have access agreements with the tribe for those purposes because that region is part of their historical and ancestral lands and the city recognized that through the Muckleshoot settlement agreement that was signed, I think, maybe a while back.

But that is the reason why the Muckleshoot Indian tribe is allowed access to the watershed.

And just to add as well, through cultural and natural resource regulatory processes, there are a number of other tribes that do engage in certain pieces of the watershed management.

Wonderful.

Kyle, can you dig into it just a little bit more deeply?

How does that relationship work?

And for those of us that don't get up to the watershed often, is there a big fence or gate across the road that the rest of us can't pass?

Do they just show up at the front door, scan their badge and roll on in?

What does the process look like for that access?

Okay, thanks Chairman Strauss.

So the process is the Muckleshoot or even if one of the other tribes is accessing for some of their cultural resources purposes, they will contact the watershed management and be allowed escorted access to the watershed for the purposes of whichever reason that they're coming to the watershed, but they do make us aware of when they'll be entering.

So just so that we know who's in there and why they're in there.

And that in part is because we have a lot of regulatory oversight because of our unfiltered water source that we have to be able to document who has and who has not been up there.

And I think the real magic of this is which is that tribal members are allowed into areas that the rest of us are not and that is the right way to go about business up there.

What strikes me is that SPU owns a lot of different land.

We're talking about an entire watershed up in the Cedar River, the Tolt watershed which supplies north of the Ship Canal.

That's why I like the City Hall water better than the Ballard water but there's a whole horse involved with Ballard.

and then we took up the Glacier Well property sale just last week.

You are purchasing properties like Toleris, like that property at the locks, like the property up by Thornton, not Thornton Creek, but up by Carkeek Park.

You're doing a lot of, and then you've got pipelines reservoirs and all the rest, you've got land that is dispersed geographically outside of the city boundaries and within many different tribes, usual and accustomed areas.

Can you help us understand, for the city of Seattle, it's maybe even a little bit more clear because there were treaties signed about the land here and the federally recognized tribes of Muckleshoot, Suquamish and Tulalip.

have clear legal rights.

But in these other areas where it might not be so crystal clear, number one, how do you navigate this?

I mean, we've got 29 tribes here in our state, but not all 29 have standing here.

How do you navigate this?

I mean, and I just say that because, again, we've got clarity here in the city of Seattle, but then there's maybe lack of clarity in other places.

Tell us about this.

Thank you again, Chair Strauss, for that question.

Navigating that has taken some work, but also for the most part, the tribes know best their own history, so we ensure that we, I would say, cast the broad net so that we do our best to include tribes that we feel might have a history in such a place and let them decide and tell us, yes, that place is of historical significance to us, and then we take the engagement from there and listen to them.

But for the most part, we leave that up to the tribes to decide.

for us not to tell them what their history is because that is not a good way to start any relationship.

We're trying to step back from anything that gives that sense to the tribes, but more importantly, make sure that they're aware that we're here to listen, and if you're open to sharing some of that history with us of that place, please, we welcome that.

But also understand that some of that history is theirs to keep, and they don't want to share it, and we will be very respectful of that as well.

Yeah, it's a really important point where a lot of the culturally significant locations are not shown on GIS maps for the broader community and it is absolutely held within sovereign tribal governments.

How do you navigate that?

You've got a project coming up reach out to the tribe.

How do you make sure that you're honoring the cultural resources of our area?

There are processes, Chair Strauss, that protect that for the tribe, but for the most part, we just need to be made aware of what the area is.

We don't necessarily ask what it means to them, but if they share and make us aware that something is important to them, then we will do our best and make sure that it's protected.

That's really important, and I'm going to pull that out a little bit more, which is that all they have to say is that there is, within their maps, that there is culturally significant space within the project area, and they don't have to tell you what that cultural meaning is, just that it exists and where it is, and we have to protect it.

Is it really just that simple?

If there's a history of it, then we...

We would appreciate knowing what it is, not necessarily what it means to them, but more importantly where it is so that we know what to make sure that we can protect or assist in.

And just to add a little bit of process to that, the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation plays a key role in this in implementing state laws around cultural resources and archaeological resources, and that's where we see some of those codified levels of protection, where certain things are in databases that even many of our staff don't have access to, that only tribal partners have access to.

and then there's other layers of information that's maybe not protected under the state law that we just carefully navigate confidentiality with partners.

Thank you for that additional aspect and that's what I was teasing out too, which is, sorry, which is just to say that there is important protections around the mapping and the histories of cultural resources in our areas number one most important, privacy, but then we have to start worrying about theft and people going out there.

And so having protected databases and from PDR, public disclosure requests, et cetera, having those resources protected by the government is critical so that unintended consequences don't occur.

And at the same time with that documentation, the tribes don't necessarily have to say much more than, there's history of it because from there it's not our job to pry into their lives, right?

Anything you'd like to share there and then I'll start kind of wrapping this up unless there's other questions.

No, I don't have anything further to share.

And I thank Francesca for picking up what you were trying to lay down there and where you wanted to go with that one.

But yeah, it's not just the city's responsibility to protect that.

There are other federal protections and state protections in place that we will follow.

Yeah, and thank you for being our leader through that, right?

It really, without somebody having it as their sole job, it is a job that will get lost.

and having you with our city family is incredibly important.

I'll just come back to the question that Councilmember Kettle brought up about the locks area, which is that this has been a village.

The Ballard Locks area was a village since time immemorial.

Welchit, I think I said it wrong.

I'm not gonna say the Americanized version of that.

Lived there until the locks were built.

There was urban lore that there was property, offered, said to be exchanged to be able to build the locks there.

But again, there was no treaty written.

There was no formal piece of paper signed.

And so he was moved to Port Madison Reservation from what I understand.

And then this comes back to where we were just earlier this week talking about the Fort Lawton takeover March 8th of 1970, American Indian Movement coming back to say, we're making good on that promise.

Just a few blocks, you can hear the powwow drums at the locks.

And this interpretive signage is important to make that a living history so that, and it's interesting because the area of Salmon Bay is now freshwater, used to be saltwater, it used to be tidal.

You used to be able to walk over to Magnolia from Ballard.

I guess you still can on the locks, but that's a different story.

I just bring this up because this is a living aspect of our community that people have lived in the city.

Shill Shoal Avenue is named after the Shill Shoal people of Salmon Bay, that people have been here since time immemorial.

And I am grateful that not only are you helping to preserve the ecology and the environment you are also helping the passerby on the Burke-Gelman trail who's taking a break understand a little bit more of the canal's not always looked like that.

So just gratitude to you there.

Anything else that you'd like to share from this entire presentation?

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss and members of the committee just for showing a deep interest and a commitment to this work that we do with the tribes.

And I want to thank our tribal partners.

I mean, we learn so much from them and we're incredibly indebted to them and the work that they do.

is work that we all benefit from, and I wish more people knew about the work that they are incredibly committed to.

And then just lastly, a huge thank you to Francesca and to Kyle.

They are incredible partners in this work, and we're very fortunate to have them.

Thank you.

I just want to thank you, Chair Strauss and the committee, for providing the opportunity for us to share the significant amount of work that we're doing in our tribal engagement efforts.

When I first started this position, tribal engagement was probably 60% of my job.

It is now 100 and plus percent.

But I think this work is important and it does show that the city does value its tribal relations.

But thanks again for the opportunity.

Absolutely.

Francesca, anything to close out?

for going down the line.

I'll just reiterate the thank you and the gratitude to the city team and especially the tribal partners.

They make significant investments in fisheries across the state and in our region.

And the city of Seattle is a relatively young political entity compared to our tribal partners.

And so it's just really humbling.

And I come to this work with a lot of gratitude for their guidance and leadership and how we can do better as a local government in engaging with tribal nations.

Wonderful.

And Francesca, I'm going to give you a heads up that I'm about to ask you about our April 7th presentation with the Centennial Accord.

I'm going to give a couple more announcements about our committee schedule.

Colleagues, we heard yesterday in council briefing about the mayor's shelter legislation.

We are gonna be having a special meeting on Monday, March 30th at 9.30 a.m.

Yes, this is a Monday 9.30 meeting where we will receive a briefing on the budget bills.

We had an overview yesterday, so I'm hoping that it should take only 30 to 60 minutes.

as you today, we've had a 60 minute presentation.

So I think that it'll go a little bit shorter than that, but I want to make you aware that Monday, March 30th at 9 30 AM we'll have the first of two meetings on the shelter legislation.

I do ask that if you've got questions, especially after yesterday on the budget legislation that we get them in on that Monday, March 30th committee meeting, because the next regularly scheduled committee meeting is April 7th and it's becoming packed unexpectedly.

We have the vote on the shelter legislation likely and we need to also pass the grants ordinance.

So I will be asking committee members to the side if they want to do that in one meeting or two with the grants.

So we'll make sure to pass that information around because Francesca has set us up to receive a presentation about the Centennial Accord at the Washington state level.

So I believe Tim Raynon is coming down from the governor's office, or somebody else.

So I'll turn it over to Francesca.

And one of the hopes that we had had was to have a presentation from Francesca for us about what the Centennial Accord is before we had the experts come down so that we were a little bit more prepared I'm not gonna require that.

If we've got their time, we're gonna bring them in.

So 30 seconds for a 100 year project, and you can take more than 30 seconds.

You've got another hour if you want it, but can you help us understand at a high level what the Centennial Accord is and how we can be prepared for April 7th to receive that information?

Yes, and I'm happy to share a few contextual documents in advance of that meeting.

We'll be hosting Gordon James, who's a training specialist with the Governor's Office of Indian Affairs and former tribal leader who helps develop the statewide curriculum that trains all state agency staff on government-to-government relationships.

and the Centennial Accord is that guiding document and framework that the state of Washington uses to recognize its government to government relationship with federally recognized tribes that are co-located in the state of Washington as well as tribes from a few other states like Oregon and Idaho who have interest in Washington state because of their ancestral territories.

So the Centennial Accord followed by the New Millennium Agreement and the implementation guidelines are all guiding documents about this living body of work within the state of Washington about how they actualize that relationship.

And so we'll be pleased to share that model with you all and discuss a little bit about how this looks at the city of Seattle level.

Yeah, so we're talking that through.

This is a meeting where tribal leaders come to Olympia every year to continue the work of the process that has been outlined by the Centennial and Millennium Accords.

Is that a good understanding?

Yeah.

In short form, the accord itself is a reference to the meeting.

You can think equivalent to our Tribal Nations Summit.

very similar to that.

And it's also the accord as a framework, as a document sets up state code that codifies the levels of that relationship.

State agencies have consultation and collaboration policies.

They have liaisons within their agencies and access to staff training.

So all of these things together kind of make up the work.

So at a high level, this is ongoing work where leaders come to meet once a year to ensure that the follow-up actions in between those two meetings have been accomplished and continuing to make areas of agreement and bodies of work.

Is there any formalized process in between the annual meetings?

Under the current leadership of Tim Reynon at Governor's Office of Indian Affairs, I believe they are moving to quarterly mini-accords where they are engaging more routinely with tribal leaders in the interim periods, and that's a relatively new initiative.

I think the state is looking to refresh and revamp because it is a living process, and so Governor Ferguson this last fall at the last accord issued a new executive order calling for some changes to the statewide consultation and engagement expectations.

And there are many things that we model to, but helping direct state agencies to do those things is the goal of that work.

And that is ongoing, so Gordon will be telling us a little bit about where this work is at now.

That's fantastic.

So colleagues, just as we are taking two paths with our government-to-government relationships and consultation, Kyle and I were able to speak today about the difference between outreach, engagement, consultation, and what those different levels mean, as well as we've had the tribal summit here every other year.

I think that there is a hope and a desire to make it an annual conference eventually.

and both of these two topics are contained within our state's accords, right?

And so as we received this presentation on April 7th, I think that's where I'm hoping our questions and our mindset go to is what can we model well?

What do we not need to do because it's already being accomplished and how do we bring Seattle into a place that has a similar process of ongoing conversation, ongoing work, because other than King County, I believe that we're the largest government in the state.

Maybe there's Pierce and Snohomish, It's important that we do this work.

So I bring all of that up because on April 7th we will have the shelter vote likely, grants vote likely, and this presentation on the Centennial Accord, which is why I ask if you've got hard-hitting questions that you need the answers to, please bring them to Monday, March 30th so that we can reserve time on April 7th for the Centennial Accord discussion.

As well tomorrow in the City Light Committee is the Skagit re-licensing, the FERC agreement coming to committee.

I unfortunately will be representing the city at, I will unfortunately not be there because I will fortunately be representing the city at Sound Transit Board Retreat.

I do just wanna bring up that it's with great gratitude that we're at this place in this agreement because having three tribes that since time immemorial have sometimes agreed and sometimes not agreed.

It is really big piece of work for us to find this agreement between three sovereign nations beyond just the United States government.

And so it's really wonderful that we'll have them in committee tomorrow.

The tribal leaders will be in committee tomorrow.

And then again, I don't know that they will be there, but on April 1st, we will have the item in Council Member Juarez's committee again just with gratitude.

Anything else?

If there's nothing else, this concludes the Tuesday, March 17th, Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee meeting.

This committee meeting will meet next for a special meeting on Monday, March 30th at 9.30 a.m.

Seeing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

Thank you.