Finance & Housing Committee 2/15/23

We are recording.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Sorry, my video is slightly dark here.

I will try to adjust that as we get started.

Thank you very much for joining the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

Today is February 15, 2023. I'm Teresa Mosqueda and the time is 9.30am.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Herbold?

Councilmember Peterson?

Here.

Councilmember Nelson?

Present.

Councilmember Lewis?

Present.

Chair Mosqueda?

Present.

Or present.

Thank you very much, everyone.

And we will make sure to let folks know when the vice chair has joined us.

And that would be Council Member Herbold.

Thanks again for joining.

Today we have a presentation that will include an update on the Capital Improvement Project's quarterly monitoring watch list for discussion and possible vote.

We also have open public comment to make sure that we hear from anybody who's interested in calling in to present on this topic.

A relatively short agenda for today.

I want to make sure that if anybody has any concerns or objections, you let me know.

Otherwise, that is the item on our agenda, Resolution 32083. And there are two amendments listed in addition to the summary and fiscal note on our posted agenda.

There's no objection to today's agenda, our agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, our agenda is adopted.

Apologies to the folks who have come for public comment.

Usually I am present in the room to hear your public comment directly as the chair of the committee.

Today I am working remotely as we have a sick kiddo at the house.

So working here and I will absolutely still be taking notes on your public comment.

I see that we have two people registered to provide public comment.

So we are going to go ahead and turn it over to public comment right now to hear from folks in the room.

I understand that we do not have anybody signed it up for public comment remotely, but you can still sign up for a public comment if you'd like to by going by going to the link on the agenda as published and signing up for the public testimony.

We'll come back to that link before we conclude public comment to see if there's anybody signed up.

For public comment today, we will have two minutes for full public comment.

Please start by noting your name at the beginning, and then you will hear a chime when you have 10 seconds left.

That's your indication to wrap up your public comment, as we want to make sure to hear from you, your final concluding comments.

If you have additional remarks that you'd like to say, please go ahead and email the full council at councilatseattle.gov.

As you come to the microphone, please make sure to speak directly into the microphone so we can all hear you remotely.

Thank you so much.

Madam Clerk, do you mind reading the first speakers that are signed up to present to us in chambers?

First speaker is Marguerite Richard.

Hello, once again, this is Marguerite Rashard, and I guess my concern is, first of all, I did see myself in the audience sitting there, but I don't see myself now.

And I'm still concerned about that.

And if it sounds like I'm a broken record, I'm going to continue.

continuously repeat myself.

Now, the second thing is the seawall as it relates to financing it and anything that has to do with skipping over people that need help.

Meaning housing, I don't, I didn't read everything, but I did see something about building a seawall.

And I'm concerned about the repetition of us having to see a committee that's over finance.

And I think housing was, did it say housing on the front?

Well, anyway, you know, because you're over it.

What I'm saying is that there should always be space open to talk about anything concerning your committee, not what you have on the agenda is what pertains to your committee, because people are dying.

Whether we build a seawall, a wall, or knock it down, people are dying.

They're in distress mode.

They're in critical mode.

And so it's important for us to go with the flow so that it seems like we're connected to each other whenever you have something on the agenda.

And I'm still gonna keep talking about it because you go other places, you get three minutes uninterrupted speech, uninterrupted, because that's their constitutional right to address government without fear of retaliation.

And it's a scourge and a disgrace to me to see it happening in this city where I was born and raised.

Thank you.

Mr. Shaw.

Madam Clerk, can you please read the second name?

Our second speaker is Ajanae Smith.

Welcome.

It's actually Ajanae Smith.

And I'm here to talk about I guess your guys's agenda, I'm going to keep it around that.

It's looking like finance and housing committee, but I'm not looking on.

I'm not seeing on this watch list that you guys are actually.

watching the, I guess, SHA and HUD facilities, which I feel like are in jeopardy because of how you guys, I guess, go about protocols or you don't, I guess, monitor them.

Like you're saying, you want a watch list, but I feel like you guys should be watching the complexes that you guys already have.

You guys have people partaking in drugs outside of your SHA facilities and your HUD facilities.

you have them overdosing, smoking dope, smoking in the non-smoking facilities.

And I don't see any of that on your watch list.

And I feel like that should be something that you should be watching because it also, you're housing people of the homeless, which is your next, I think, agenda at two o'clock.

So that might be something that you guys need to be thinking about is actually, putting your time into these facilities that you guys are opening up to the public that are homeless and that are low income, because it doesn't look like you're putting them in a priority standpoint or you're not really looking at them or you're not really giving them what they need because they're still turning to the drugs and they're still homeless and they don't want the housing that you need.

So I'm saying there is a problem because you guys are not watching your facilities that you guys have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Smith.

Are there any additional folks signed up for public comment right now?

No, there are not.

Okay, well thank you very much everybody for providing public comment and happy to circle back to some of those remarks in our presentation.

I really appreciate the feedback and I don't see anybody signed up for remote public testimony either, so we are going to go ahead and conclude public comment for today.

Again, if you have any additional comments, please email council at seattle.gov.

I want to thank Vice Chair Herbold of our committee who is present and joined us before public comment, but just for the record, Vice Chair Herbold has joined us.

early in the presentation.

Thank you so much.

We're going to move on to the first item on our agenda.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item one into the record?

Agenda Item 1, Resolution 32083-2023, Capital Improvement Projects Quarterly Monitoring Watchlist.

For discussion and a vote.

Okay, thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Colleagues, we do have a few items to talk about here.

This is agenda item number one, resolution 32083. And thank you for the early conversation that we had with members of the committee.

We also extended an invitation to everybody on Seattle City Council to join us if they would like for this Finance and Housing Committee meeting as we are continuing our conversation about the watch list.

This is a watch list of large, complex, discrete capital projects that will require enhanced quarterly monitoring reports.

And importantly, that are inclusive of city funding.

So some of the projects that we just heard about in public testimony, very important remarks, and we'll follow up on those related to federal dollars.

But this is specific to city funding.

So today we do have the opportunity to come back to that capital projects watch list and consider any amendments from Collins.

We've heard from the mayor's office that they find this to be a manageable list, which we appreciate, but also wanted to encourage council colleagues to review one more time to see if there's anything else that they would like to add to this capital projects watch list.

Special thanks to at Eden, who is here with us today from central staff for all of the work that he has done to put together amendments and work with each of our council colleagues as they raise questions or ideas for possible consideration for amendments.

And as I mentioned, given that we have one amendment from a non-committee member, I have offered to sponsor that amendment and any of our council colleagues were welcome to join us.

I don't believe we have any additional council colleagues joining us, but I will be reading into the record I'm going to support as well, and wanted to make sure that councilmember Strauss had the opportunity to bring this forward without having to be here with us.

I want to note that the capital projects watch list does not preclude committees from having deeper conversations about the totality of those projects.

So while we consider this in the finance committee, it is actually our practice to encourage other committees to go deeper if there's specific projects that fall within their purview of their committees, to ensure that there's greater oversight, especially for projects on that watch list that you, colleagues, and our full city council members are very interested in.

So we anticipate that there may be additional conversations about some of these items in additional committees as well.

With that, just pausing to see if there's any questions.

Okay, great.

I'm going to turn it over to Council Central staff to walk us through the amendments.

There are two of them on the agenda, as I noted at the beginning.

And Eden, welcome back.

If you want to remind us where we are in the review of this process.

And I'm happy to tee up an amendment from Council Member Strauss as amendment number one, and Council Member Herbold has amendment number two.

So we'll get to those in just a second.

Thanks, Eden, for being here.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Thanks for that introduction.

Good morning, everybody.

Edith Cicic again for the record with Council Central staff.

So as a brief reminder, Council established expectations for enhanced quarterly reporting for a watch list of capital improvement projects in 2018. The process calls for the executive to propose a list of projects for inclusion on the annual watch list by January 15, of every year, and the council typically adopts the watch list via resolution.

Some elements that make a good candidate project for the watch list include projects with a significantly large and complex scope and financial impact, projects that are at risk of overspending their budget or scheduled milestones, or projects whose delivery is particularly important to the council.

As Chairman Skeda mentioned at the committee's February 1st meeting, I walked through the list of projects that the executive has proposed for inclusion on the 2023 list, which is the same as the 2022 list, except for three SDOT projects were removed because those were all completed.

So now the resolution 32083, which wasn't introduced in time for the committee discussion, but is before you today, does include the 18 projects executive proposed at this time.

And there are two proposed amendments to the executive proposed list.

And Chairman Skate, if we're ready, I can go over both of those amendments now.

And I can put them up on the screen if that makes it easier.

Sure, that sounds good.

Before we do, I just want to ask the clerk, if we could welcome the crew that's in Chambers.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining Seattle City Council Chambers.

Do we know who the crew is that is getting a tour of our council chambers right now?

We have the Spruce Street School visitors with us in chambers today.

Well, welcome Spruce Street School!

Good to see you.

We can see you all at the back of the room.

Hello, hello.

And happy to take a screen grab here.

Let me see if I can figure out how to do that.

And maybe, maybe our second clerk Freddy de Cuevas can help us with that.

Okay, everybody say Spruce Street.

Bruce Tree, awesome.

Okay, good to see you all.

Thanks for joining and hopefully we will see you sitting in these chambers one day soon also.

Wow, so many of you, hello.

Thanks for coming to visit Seattle City Council and to see your local government in action.

Great to see you.

Okay, excellent.

Eden, thanks for providing that overview and presentation, especially for our special guests here from Spruce Street.

We did have a question, I believe, from Council Member Nelson before we move on.

Council Member Nelson, would you like to add anything?

No, I simply wanted to ask who is in Chambers and welcome them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Okay, wonderful.

Well, thanks again, Spruce Street.

All right, well, we have all of our committee members here with us who have heard the overview.

Our council colleagues have received the email that Eden sent two weeks ago when we did the initial overview of the capital projects watch list.

We do have two amendments in front of us.

So, Eden, why don't you go ahead?

We'll have you do the presentation.

Then the sponsor will move the motion.

We'll have a chance for a conversation.

Then we can vote on those.

So amendment number one, please.

All right, let me put that up on the screen.

Hopefully you guys can see that.

Control S as I was just thought.

Can you guys see that?

Well, okay.

The amendment that's on the screen.

We can see it.

You might want to zoom in about halfway.

Yeah, that's definitely better.

Awesome.

Okay.

So.

Amendment number one is added by Council Member Strauss and courtesy sponsored by Chair Mosqueda to add the Green Lake Community Center and Evans Pool substantial alteration project to the watch list.

This is a $60 million project that will extend the life of the Green Lake Community Center and Evans Pool facility and update it to meet the current programmatic needs, building code compliance and standards.

Okay, great.

Thanks so much.

And I will go.

I said the wrong name again.

I'm sorry, Aiden.

I will.

I will go ahead and move this to get this in front of us.

I move the committee recommends passage of resolution 32083. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

It has been moved and seconded that the committee recommend passage of the resolution.

The resolution is now in front of us.

I also move to amend resolution 32083 as presented on amendment number one, as described by Eden.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded that amendment number one be considered.

Colleagues, again, this is an amendment that was drafted by our colleague, Council Member Strauss.

He was not able to join us today, but I'm very excited that he was following close attention to our Finance and Housing Committee and wanted to engage in this work.

His amendment includes the following remarks.

Earlier this year, we funded a long-awaited project to rebuild or expand the Green Lake Community Center and Evans Pool.

By way of background, the Green Lake Park is the most heavily used park in Seattle, and the community center is nearly 100 years old.

This project was originally planned as part of round one in the Metropolitan Park District funding.

Green Lake residents prioritize other community center rebuilds during the Metropolitan Park District round one funding, putting off the rebuilding of this community center until round two of the Metropolitan Parks District MPD.

Green Lake Community Center did receive funding for renovations during round one of MPD funding.

These renovations have been made and are already failing or not meeting the needs of the community center.

There has been much public discussion about the expansion or rebuild of the Green Lake Community Center.

And in the Seattle Times earlier this week, a parks employee was quoted saying these funds will be used to renovate existing buildings.

Renovations have been made and are already failing.

This is why Council Member Strauss passed an amendment clearly stating that these NPD funds are to be used to expand or rebuild the Green Lake Community Center, not just renovate existing buildings.

Rebuilding the 100-year-old community center in the most heavily used park in our city has been long awaited, and it is important to stay updated on the progress, especially in light of the statements made in the Seattle Times article this week.

those are Councilmember Strauss' comments.

Again, he's the sponsor of this amendment, and I will be supporting it.

Are there any additional comments or questions on this?

Okay, well, we will pass along that he was persuasive in his explanation about why to add it.

Let's go ahead and act on Amendment Number 1 before moving to Amendment Number 2. Amendment number one, Madam Clerk, I don't see any additional comments on this.

Will you please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Five yeses, no, no, no.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

It is unanimous.

The motion carries and the amendment is adopted.

The resolution is, including amendment number one, is now before us.

There is an additional amendment, and I will turn it over to Eden to walk us through it, and then I'll turn it to the sponsor, Councilmember Herbold, for an explanation.

Councilmember, excuse me, central staff, please go ahead.

Putting this one on the screen as well.

Okay, so amendment number two is sponsored by Council Member Herbold to add the application development public safety program to the watch list.

This project will develop and implement a scheduling and timekeeping system used by the Seattle Fire Department to improve personnel oversight and deployment and enhance the accessibility and quality of the Fire Department's data.

And the applications will support ongoing efforts to achieve improved transparency and compliance.

And that concludes my summary of amendments.

And I'll leave these up on the screen.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Vice Chair Hurble, would you like to move your amendment number two?

Sure.

I move amendment number two.

Second.

Excellent.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded.

Thank you.

Councilmember Herbold, amendment number two is in front of us.

Would you like to speak to it?

project that was being done both by the fire department and the police department.

The fire department started having some difficulties with its contractor.

and is needing to sort of revamp the project.

And I just want to state for the public record, I am concerned that the police department element of this project appears to have been dropped.

It's the work scheduling timekeeping project is what it was referred to over at the police side of the house.

and we have been told for several years now that the WST project was instrumental to implementing some long-standing, unimplemented recommendations of the city auditor related both to overtime tracking and also the management of off-duty work, of off-duty police officers.

So just noting for the public record that I'm concerned that it does not appear that there is any planned proposal to move forward on the objectives of this project over at the SPD side of the house, but I am I'm pleased to add this amendment to the watch list and the agreement of the executive that this is a good project for our enhanced oversight.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Questions?

Councilmember Nelson?

Is there a dollar amount of this project or program?

And then I also have a follow-up.

Answer that so the total project cost was listed at 10.3Million dollars in the 2023, 2028 adopted.

And there's about 4.3Million dollars remaining for this project in the.

2328 adopted budget.

Got it.

Okay.

I think that when I saw this, I was getting caught up in the difference between what is a project and a program.

And just for the record, if we had been including programs, I want to flag IDT's unified communications and collaboration project.

Again, it was called project or program, but I had considered a submitting an amendment to include that, but didn't because Lisa Kay has been watching it, but I just, maybe I'll follow up later on what qualifies as inclusion on the watch list.

But since I'm talking, is it okay if I just mention, flag this for the record and we'll spend more time in committee paying attention to this?

That's great.

Thank you so much.

I think that that's a great way to note it for the record, and we can keep track through you and also through central staff with Lisa Kay.

Okay, it's a $20.8 million ad that was added in, well, the 2023-28 CIP added $20.8 million in funding to meet the original completion date.

And it basically replaces the 30-year-old phone system, including over 40 department-specific call centers.

So I'm happy to provide more information, but I think we'll be watching this as well.

councilmember Herbold and vice chair Herbold.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Nielsen.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Chair Mosqueda.

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Excellent, thank you very much.

The motion carries and amendment number two is adopted.

The resolution as amended is now before the committee.

Are there any further comments on the amended resolution?

And anything else from you in terms of next steps, what we might be able to anticipate?

Next steps are the is going to be the resolution as amended, adding these two projects.

And This should wrap it up, yeah.

Pretty straightforward process from here.

Excellent, thank you so much.

I'm not seeing any additional comments or questions.

Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution as amended?

Council Member Herbold?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Councilmember Nelson?

Aye.

Councilmember Lewis?

Yes.

Councilmember Herbold?

Yes.

Thank you.

Sure.

Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much.

The motion carries and the committee has adopted the resolution as amended.

The committee recommendation that the resolution passed as amended will be sent to the February 21st Seattle City Council meeting.

for a final vote.

Thank you, colleagues.

And thank you very much, Committee Member Peterson, for helping to provide entertainment for our additional guests today.

Are there any additional comments for the good of the order?

I am not seeing any.

I want to thank the clerks.

Thank you to Melanie Cray and to Farideh Cuevas, who are joining us as the in-person and virtual clerks.

I also, again, want to thank the students.

So amazing to see so many students come and join us from the Spruce Street School.

The Spruce Street is located on Capitol Hill.

And thanks, colleagues, for giving them a shout out and an opportunity for us to take a photo with them.

I'm glad that they were able to join us today.

Thanks as well to Central staff for your presentation today.

The next Finance and Housing Committee meeting is scheduled for March 1st at 930 in the morning.

We are still finalizing the agenda and it will include the We will have that as a discussion on March 1st at 930 in the morning.

We also may have an landlords to be able to have greater certainty on the type of identification that is acceptable for renting units.

So more work on the housing realm when we meet next.

Thanks to Sejal Parikh, our chief of staff in our office, for coordinating to get the Spruce Street students up to the dais and for the opportunity for them to see us all in action in this hybrid meeting today.

If there's nothing else, Colleagues, thanks for your patience and your participation today.

We'll get you out of here a little bit early.

Today's meeting is adjourned.

See you on March 1st at 9.30 in the morning.

Take care.