Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee October 11, 2023 - Session 1

Well, good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much for joining the Select Budget Committee.

Today is Wednesday, October 11th, 2023, and the time is 10.03 a.m.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Select Budget Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Juarez.

Present.

Council Member Lewis.

Councilmember Morales.

Here.

Councilmember Nelson.

Present.

Councilmember Peterson.

Present.

Councilmember Sawant.

Present.

Councilmember Strauss.

And Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Six present.

Okay, thanks.

Well, when our other colleagues join us, I'll make sure to announce them.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

We do have a handful of people that looks like they want to provide public comments, so we will definitely accommodate that.

Please come on in.

And for anybody who's dialing in, we will definitely make sure to get to you as well, Madam Clerk.

Today, colleagues, we have two sections on our agenda.

Session one is regarding the introduction and process overview.

This will be a presentation from Central Staff's Director, Esther Handy, and Deputy Director, Ali Panucci.

We also have the 2024 proposed adjustment overview that will be a presentation from central staff including Ed and Cessick and Deputy Director Ali Panucci.

Our session two will begin at 2 p.m.

and we will go into the following items.

General fund balancing analysis which will be presented by central staff's Tom Meisel and Ali Panucci and We will conclude today with a summary of the jumpstart fund balance analysis, teeing up the discussion that we had partially in full council yesterday about some of the proposed changes that we see in the proposed budget from the mayor's office.

And that will include Deputy Director Ali Panucci.

Colleagues, as per usual, we will start every meeting with public comment at the beginning of the discussion, and we will have the ability to have a full hour break for all of our incredible team members who make these budget committee meetings possible.

Those meetings will at least begin at 1 p.m.

If we can give you additional time for our lunch break, we will, of course, do that throughout the next three days.

This is day one of three.

Councilmember Herbold is in the weight room, if someone could make sure to admit her.

Vice Chair Herbold is present.

I want to make sure that she gets noted.

And again, we will make sure to adjourn for an hour recess between sessions one and two.

If we can get as much done before 1 o'clock as possible, of course, we will try to get your afternoon freed up.

But that is our standard practice, day one, two, and three of issue identification.

Is there any additional council members that have joined us?

Okay, hearing none, we will just note that Vice Chair Herbold is present.

I'm sorry if I missed it and I don't have the agenda before me, but will there be public comment tomorrow?

Yes, there will.

Thank you.

Right away.

Thank you.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We're going to go ahead and move on into public comment.

Thanks again to the folks who signed up to provide public comment.

We'll make sure to hear people in person as well as online.

Madam Clerk, how many folks do we have signed up online?

Excuse me.

We have 28 online.

Okay.

And how many people do we have in the room?

Wonderful.

We'll do the first three people online, and then we will do the next three people in the room.

And if we could go ahead and tee up the video, that would be fantastic, and then we'll get going.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson, for asking about public comment.

And again, for folks who are watching, we will make sure to have public comment every meeting at the beginning for at least a half an hour.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Hello, Seattle.

We are the Emerald City, the city of flowers and the city of goodwill built on indigenous land, the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples.

The Seattle City Council welcomes remote public comment and is eager to hear from residents of our city.

If you would like to be a speaker and provide a verbal public comment, you may register two hours prior to the meeting via the Seattle City Council website.

Here's some information about the public comment proceedings.

Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number provided when they registered online and used the meeting ID and passcode that was emailed upon confirmation.

If you did not receive an email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.

A reminder, the speaker meeting ID is different from the general listen line meeting ID provided on the agenda.

Once a speaker's name is called, the speaker's microphone will be unmuted and an automatic prompt will say, the host would like you to unmute your microphone.

That is your cue that it's your turn to speak.

At that time, you must press star six.

You will then hear a prompt of, you are unmuted.

Be sure your phone is unmuted on your end so that you will be heard.

As a speaker, you should begin by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

A chime will sound when 10 seconds are left in your allotted time as a gentle reminder to wrap up your public comments.

At the end of the allotted time, your microphone will be muted and the next speaker registered will be called.

Once speakers have completed providing public comment, please disconnect from the public comment line and join us by following the meeting via Seattle Channel broadcast or through the listening line option listed on the agenda.

The council reserves the right to eliminate public comment if the system is being abused or if the process impedes the council's ability to conduct its business on behalf of residents of the city.

Any offensive language that is disruptive to these proceedings or that is not focused on an appropriate topic as specified in Council rules may lead to the speaker being muted by the presiding officer.

Our hope is to provide an opportunity for productive discussions that will assist our orderly consideration of issues before the Council.

The public comment period is now open.

and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt of, you have been unmuted.

Thank you, Seattle.

Thank you so much.

And today we will do two minute public comment as we're getting these discussions kicked off for the full presenters here today.

So let's start with folks online.

The first speaker, remote speaker is Peter Condit.

Good morning, counsel.

This is Peter contact calling from district 6, asking that you take action to reduce violence in Seattle by defunding the Seattle Police Department.

S. P. D.

can legally and illegally inflict violence on Seattle residents without repercussion.

I have felt that violence personally.

Many have, and some are no longer with us.

Charlie and John T. Williams among others.

would all be alive if not for the Seattle Police Department.

A full 1 in 10 homicides in Seattle is committed by police officers.

Some of you on the council are under the mistaken impression that SPD can reduce their violence if they were only given more money.

You've done this for enough years that it should be obvious that such a strategy does not work.

Violence is caused by inequality.

By raiding Jump Start and making cuts to housing while simultaneously jacking up SPD's budget in the face of a fiscal cliff, you are creating a more inequitable city and violence will go up.

So today I'm asking that you reduce SPD's budget.

There are 213 ghost positions in the SPD that they have no intention nor ability to fill.

That's $31 million of unused salaries that for the sake of accountability in a peaceful city can and should be defunded.

Council should also cut funding for shot spotter, which is widely known to be harmful, inequitable, and ineffective in accomplishing its stated goals.

There's also $38 million in the budget for forced encampment removals.

Sweeps kill.

Stability and well-being comes from housing.

Defund sweeps and refund housing.

I support the Seattle solidarity budget which provides more details regarding how to defund SPD and instead see our city thrive with things like sidewalks, transportation, affordable child care, and guaranteed basic income.

Thank you for listening.

Our next speaker is Lauren Fay.

Hi, good morning, Council Members.

My name is Lauren Fay and I'm here today representing DESC, the Downtown Emergency Service Center.

DESC is glad to see a proposed supplemental budget with inflation adjustments that reflect the level of financial impact we've been experiencing in the past year.

Our request is that you ensure the 7.5% inflation adjustment applies to all continuum of care contracts as it has in years past.

If our community had not created KCRHA, these contracts would still be handled with the city.

While KCRHA now administers these funds and inflation adjustments, our community relies on local government supplementing inflation for these vital federal contracts that provide housing support to so many of our neighbors who have formerly experienced homelessness.

If these contracts remain stagnant, we are at risk of losing ground in wages for our workers and seeing service cuts to our tenants that need support.

Please help us in alleviating this concern by ensuring all COC contracts have an inflation adjustment attached.

Additionally, we ask that you please ensure the inflation adjustment applies to this year's contracts for cost of living adjustments so we don't go backwards in wages.

We are grateful that our messages on inflation adjustments as well as significant wage progress these past few years has resonated with so many of our city's leaders.

Workers in social services are essential to the success of our community.

With that, seeing a proposed 2% increase for workers and human services in the mayor's budget is a great first step.

We would love to see support for a larger increase of 3.5% in line with recommendations made by the recent wage study with the University of Washington.

Thank you so much for everything you do, and we appreciate all the work.

Thank you.

Our next remote speaker is BJ Last.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is BJ Last.

I'm a Ballard resident.

I support the Seattle Solidarity Budget.

Seattle Police Department's budget is so bloated that it corrupts the entire city budget.

Defunding SPD is a matter of basic fiscal responsibility and restoring basic budget practices in addition to actually creating real community safety.

SPD has over 210 ghost cops.

These are positions SPD has no plan or intention to fill that still receives funding for every budget cycle.

That is a massive slush fund that allows SPD to claim new expenditures are budget neutral.

Council needs to treat SPD like every other department and abrogate all positions in excess of its hiring plan.

Ghost cops are a big driver of the large general fund deficit coming in 2025. I know a lot of council members have said they want to look into cutting expenditures.

Deficit next year, there's a massive place to start.

If you generally care about inefficiencies as you've claimed, council members Nelson, Peterson, Lewis, and Strauss, there you go.

If you're not cutting them, you're clearly not actually caring about that.

These ghost cops are also why the city is currently defunding affordable housing by transferring over $80 million per year from jumpstart to general fund items.

The proposed budget cuts funding for ADA accessibility, which would actually make Seattle open and more accessible to all people, Vision Zero and Safe Routes to School, which would actually create safety and keep people alive as we see increasing pedestrian deaths, but it lets SPD keep its ghost cop slush fund.

It only gives human service workers a 2% rate pay raise despite the pay equity study.

I mean, they're underpaid by 37%, but it lets SPD keep its ghost cop slush fund.

The Trulio pilot showed how SPD's budget bloat has eliminated council's fiscal oversight.

SPD swore it couldn't afford We will now move into our in-person speakers.

Our first in-person speaker is Amy Summers.

I'm Amy Summers.

I'm here on behalf of the Citizens Group P4, Proactive Persistent People for Progress.

We are testifying with respect to the ShotSpotter technology and our opposition to that.

It is a horse out of the barn technology.

It does not prevent crime.

We know from cities that have used it, there are severe problems with it, including excessive numbers of false alerts, which lead to heightened intense transactions between the police and citizens and we know that there has been litigation brought against cities for abuse resulting from use of shot spotter, which is exactly the kind of problem Seattle's had and we don't want to see the city subjected to more litigation.

We feel strongly that rather than going again to the well to try and get this money, as the mayor did last year, the city ought to reject this request by the mayor.

Citizens have already spoken out about it.

And instead, we ought to focus on preventative measures that will help improve equity in our city and true accountability and safe policing.

And for that reason, we really support efforts towards a third path that emphasizes providing mental health support an unarmed response for incidents that are not suited to armed officers responding.

For those reasons, we really urge the council not to heed the mayor's request this year and we hope other citizens are going to be speaking out about the improper proposal to use this technology that is deeply problematic and we know that from other cities' experiences.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ty Bernard.

Hello.

I see so many hopeless complacency from my peers.

They keep telling me one person can't change the world.

And they're starting to convince me.

But you guys have the power to change a city, which is where it all starts.

We desperately need leadership.

In a community where we determine the limits of our morality based off of a cost-benefit analysis, the budget is how we change that city.

I understand all the economic justifications, but you are some of the few people that have the power to accomplish something grand.

Challenge the risk while you still have the power that we've invested in you.

Thank you.

Our next in-person speaker will be Tree Willard.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council.

Good morning, Seattle.

I'm Tree Willard.

I'm the Executive Director of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

And I'm here just to remind everybody about that UW report that was already mentioned.

We still have a dearth of providers, and a lot of our members, the members of the coalition who represent human service providers in all of the many sectors that are taking care of the Seattleites who need care, and especially those who've been furthest from justice due to historic oppression for hundreds of years.

And like our last commenter said, y'all have the power to start changing that more dramatically.

I'm a little impatient with incremental change myself.

We are very, very grateful to see the 2% wage increase in the mayor's proposed budget.

We're very, very grateful for your support around that, Council Member Mosqueda.

We're also noticing, again, grateful for no cuts to that ongoing funding for human services.

Our members have noticed that a lot of the expiring one-time Funds from last year and actually cuts that have been made over the last few years are going to create some pretty deep impacts in service.

So even though there were no cuts, I'm making air quotes for people who can't see me, to funding, there are cuts to services.

So we are hoping that there can be some additional funding to make up for those losses.

I just want to reiterate that human services have been historically underpaid because of who does this work.

It is misogyny and anti-blackness that creates this inequity.

And like our last speaker eloquently said, you have the power to fix that.

Thank you.

We will now go back to remote speakers.

Our next remote speaker is Emily Benna.

Emily Penna.

Hello.

Hi there.

Good morning council members.

My name is Emily Penna and I am here representing Seattle Human Service Coalition City Budget Task Force as one of the co-chairs.

And I am the Senior Manager of Food Security Initiatives at Fair Start as well as a member of the Meals Partnership Coalition.

I currently live in Seattle City Council District 2 and I work in Council District 7. And Fair Start Meals and Meals Partnership Coalition Meals are delivered and served across the city to human service provider partners.

I'd like to start by thanking Mayor Harrell for including no cuts to ongoing services.

as well as a wage equity increase for human service providers in his budget package, and to thank City Budget Chair, Council Member Mosqueda, and an overwhelming majority of the Council for their ongoing commitment to supporting our wage equity work.

As Tree mentioned, I also urge the Council to invest in a full wage equity increase in addition to the inflation adjustment for all human service contracts and to fully fund ongoing investments in human services and to restore the one-time funding.

Critical services will be cut and add strain to an already strained system that will have a negative impact on thousands of residents of the city if these goals are not met.

I have personally worked in human services in Seattle since 2015. And I've seen the devastating impact on lack of ongoing investment in sector wages through high staff turnover across multiple agencies that I've worked at.

And that's really including the lack of important building with service populations and the less effective services that it results in.

Meal providers in particular have lost millions of dollars.

Our next speaker is Daniel Alvarado.

Good morning.

My name is Danielle Virado.

I'm the Executive Director of Fair Work Center and Working Washington.

Our organizations have dedicated ourselves for the past decade to ensuring that Seattle's workers have the best protections in the country and the support they need to enforce their rights.

We're proud of the leadership of the council over the past several years to continue that national leadership on labor standards.

The labor standards work we've done is one of the core economic development strategies we have in the city and we've seen it work.

I'm here to acknowledge the work of OLS and community partners through the Community Outreach and Education Program, who have made sure that workers have the essential information that they need about the rights that the council has helped make sure that they have.

And we've centered that work on the workers who need it most, immigrant workers, black workers, immigrants, people who are excluded from the workforce because of caregiving or disability.

And that work is so important.

We've seen the impact, particularly in industries with many violations that historically have been cut out from labor standards.

And as we get into the budget process this year, we're eager to work with the council to find ways to make sure those investments and labor standards enforcement meet the need in the moment.

As we pass more laws, the funding dedicated to enforcing them needs to grow as well.

And that funding must include equitably resourcing the community-based organizations that do essential work in partnership with OLS.

Grantee organizations like ours have been asked to do more year after year with less funding, tracking the concerns raised by the Human Services Workers Coalition, And we've seen the impact of that work really help ensure that OLS can successfully do its work strategically and with the most impact across the economy.

A really important example of the need for more labor standards enforcement are the new gig worker protections that the council has passed in the last year.

2024 is a critical time to lay the foundation for robust enforcement in an industry that has paid more than $14 million in settlements for violating labor standards in just the past three years.

Unless we enforce the law, this will continue to drive down conditions for workers.

We look forward to working with you to continue to invest in this program and to protect progressive revenue to make sure that workers have what they need.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ryan McFerrin.

Good morning.

My name is Ryan McFerrin.

I'm here on behalf of the United Way of King County to ask the council to restore human services funding for our free tax preparation campaign.

The mission of our campaign is simple.

Seattle's lowest-income residents can claim thousands of dollars in tax credits each year solely by filing a federal tax return.

This is money that goes directly into their pockets to spend on food, rent, and other necessities.

However, the paywall between the city's most-in-need residents and these important credits grows larger each year as for-profit tax credit companies charge higher and more ridiculous fees.

When people cannot afford to file their taxes, they simply do not do so, missing out on these vital credits.

If they wait to file for too long, The money they are owed will be gone forever.

Our campaign exists to stop this from happening.

United Way serves thousands of residents and brings millions of dollars into the local economy each year.

Leveraging $500,000 in grant funding from the city, we've helped people receive more than $42 million over the last five years.

Our impact equates to an 8,300% return on the city's investment.

Not included in this ROI are the services we provide along with free tax prep.

Community members can also visit a United Way tax site to connect with community resources like food and housing assistance Additionally, all that we do is almost entirely conducted by volunteers.

Our organization mobilizes hundreds of compassionate community members each year to support their neighbors.

I urge the council to please restore the $100,000 in HSE funding that allows United Way to put millions of dollars directly into the pockets of Seattleites.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Our next speaker is Jesse Friedman.

Good morning.

My name is Jesse Friedman, and I'm the policy and external affairs director at youth care.

I'm deeply grateful that the mayor's budget includes a wage increase for human service workers, along with the 7.5% inflation adjustment.

I'm also grateful that the one-time funding for homeless services has been funded through the KCRHA underspend, which provides stability for our young people and staff and save you all for having to hear me complain about it for another year.

I'm here broadly in support of the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness and Seattle Human Service Coalition's budget priorities, specifically joining my colleagues in advocating for inclusion of KCRHA continuum of care contracts along with all other homeless services and the 7.5% inflation adjustment, which would include youth care's home of hope and rapid rehousing programs, which provide essential services to young people in our city.

When youth care increases wages, we do it for all of our staff, not just those who receive a funded inflation adjustment and the contracts by which they're paid.

When various funding sources don't keep up, we either jeopardize our ability to keep our talented, dedicated workforce in the field, or are forced to pay for these needed increases from our reserves, requiring us to make painful cuts elsewhere in the budget.

I urge your inclusion of this additional funding in your final budget, and I appreciate your time.

Thanks.

The next two speakers is going to be Amarantha Torres followed by Alice Lockhart.

Amarantha.

Hi there can you hear me.

Yes we can.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Hi there.

My name is Amarantha Torres and I live in District 2. I'm speaking on behalf of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence.

We work with over 35 community-based organizations towards gender equity.

I'm speaking today in favor of increases in the budget for human service workers, which includes the 7.5% inflationary increase and the 2% increase for wage equity.

I'm also here to support ongoing funding for survivor-driven mobile advocacy for survivors of gender-based violence, so that when survivors courageously disclose abuse, they have supportive advocacy designed to support their needs.

I just want to reiterate so much of what my colleagues have already shared, You know, our field, gender-based violence in particular, was created by women, women of color and lesbians and queer people, and many more who found themselves drawn to the larger project of ending violence that is rooted in rigid gender roles.

And it's really no surprise that the UW study showed some of those same systemic barriers that contribute to gender-based violence are at play in all these other inequities we see, namely racism and sexism.

So it's amazing to see support for wage equity among so many of our elected leaders and that there's a greater understanding about how these low wages in our field means we have such a hard time hiring qualified staff and a hard time retaining the staff that we have.

I really want to see community advocates in our field not have to have a second job to make ends meet, to see a future in our field where they can stay and raise a family and buy a house and retire.

Additionally, I really want survivors to be able to count on a robust network of experienced advocates, advocates who've been able to stay in the work and really hone their craft of advocacy and be able to have consistent care throughout their process of healing from abuse.

So those are just a few of the thoughts I wanted to share today, but thank you so much for supporting wage equity thus far, and we urge you to just continue to do so to help us get closer to closing the gap.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today.

Our next speaker is Alice Lockhart followed by Shanna McCann.

Good morning committee.

I'm Alice Lockhart with Solidarity Budget and 350 Seattle.

Today you'll be discussing the jumpstart balancing plan.

The mayor's proposed new jumpstart spending is not balanced.

The so-called special exceptions are a jumpstart raid.

Human service worker pay should not be funded as a special exception.

It should be an of course, and it should remain as previously in the general fund, but as ongoing, not temporary.

Whether or not you support the mayor's downtown plan, downtown activation investments should not come out of Jump Start.

Jump Start economic investments should inject demand into the economy through direct assistance to the smallest businesses and to impacted communities.

That's what we fought for when we passed Jump Start.

Fending jumpstart on core government functions like call center staffing for Office of Economic Development is not that.

Downtown activation that primarily benefits big businesses who own the biggest buildings and Seattle Restore that pays rents to the same building owners are not that.

We'd like to see generational wealth invest initiative community investment trust child care worker retention bonuses and business technical assistance funded in 2024 at the same levels as in 2023. and guaranteed basic income is an extremely effective and equitable way to inject demand into the economy.

And eliminating ghost cops is a way to fund it.

We look forward to your amendments.

Thank you.

Shannon McCann is next and then we will go back to in-person public comment.

Hi, council members.

My name is Shana McCann, and I live and work in District 4. I work at Solid Ground with our food security program, working to support families experiencing food insecurity to provide nutrition and cooking and garden education.

And I'm calling today to ask the city to invest in our essential human service workers.

The wage increase included in the mayor's budget is an important first step in correcting decades of systemic underfunding of human services and its workers.

So thank you so much.

However, we wanted to highlight that greater investments are needed to fully close the wage gap that were identified in the UW wage study and to meet the recommendation of a 7% increase by 2025. Low pay for human service workers has personally impacted me.

I really love that I get to have a full-time job, but sometimes it's just not enough to meet up with the demands of rent and other costs in the city.

I feel lucky to work in a building that has a food bank in it.

I have been to the food bank personally a couple times so far this year, and I know a lot of my colleagues have as well, and it's hard to be working in a program towards food security when I'm not always experiencing food security myself.

And also, just because our wages are so low, it can be really hard to find hiring for those positions, so we've been understaffed as a program for the past year and a half.

And I ask the council to ensure a robust wage increase and inflation adjustment, and have those included for all human service contracts, and I really Thank you so much for your partnership on this issue.

Our next in-person speaker is Stephan.

Hi, my name is Stephan Edwin Lundgren.

I live in Ballard District 6. I work at the Regional Trauma Center, so I spend a lot of time on First Hill.

I used to also chair the Budget Committee of the City Neighborhood Council, so this is old times week here.

I just want to make a really brief comment on the public safety budget, particularly the recent revived provision for a gunshot acoustic analysis and response system that's being considered again.

I would hope such a system and investment would also accommodate the ability to detect glass being shattered in the CID by an axe and ensure a response time in less than 30 minutes.

I'd also like to see it detect and dispatch North Precinct people to breaking store windows in Ballard so that there is some response in less than 90 minutes or more.

I'd also like to see funding for outreach to the people that are still living in the war zones of First Hill and Ballard and Larry in person, and I'm a little bit concerned that we're going to just put more money in a contractor's pocket for an outdated CCM system that allegedly might direct what police?

To the scene of a gunshot.

Nonetheless, I am hopeful that we can reduce gun violence in the city because we don't need any more people killed.

on the streets.

So if you can work out something that will spend this money wisely, I wish you the luck in that one.

That's all I have to say today.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you.

We will go back to remote public comment.

Our next remote speaker is Allison Isinger, followed by Funika Zeng.

Good morning members.

Are you able to hear me.

We got you Alison.

Good morning.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

My name is Alison Isengar.

I'm the Executive Director of the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness and the coalition is a member of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this morning.

You will hear later on in public comment from our community policy manager, Howie Willis, about the inflation adjustment and workforce wages.

I want to start on a more somber tone and then bring some hope to this public comment conversation.

At noon today, the Wheel Women and Black will stand vigil across the street from Seattle City Hall, as they do for people who die by violence or outside while experiencing homelessness.

They will be standing for Sean Smith, who was a frequent participant in public comment, someone whom I have known for many years, who died on Friday, September 29th.

He died while homeless.

And he died prematurely.

We know from local public health data that are replicated across the nation that homeless people die decades before their time.

That means that the underlying causes of racism, chronic disease, and exposure to the elements and to violence contributes to people's lives being shortened by 28 years in King County when they experience homelessness.

We should all be talking in this budget about adding housing and shelter.

And we, of course, are very glad that the housing levy is before the voters and we will be working hard to renew that levy.

But what we're talking about with you primarily is maintaining core services and not having to close them.

I just want to note for you that the effect of increasing wages is being seen.

Our next speaker is Fonika Zhang followed by Julia Buck.

Good morning, council members.

Thanks for the chance to comment today.

My name is Sina Kajang and I'm calling on behalf of Solid Ground.

And today I'm here along with other colleagues and partners from the Seattle Human Service Coalition and Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness to ask the committee to strengthen the investment in our city's essential human service workers.

The 2% increase in addition to inflation adjustments included in the mayor's budget was a great and important first step towards stabilizing the workers and organizations that deliver the services that Seattle relies on.

But currently, as I think a couple other commenters have pointed out, these increases don't apply to all workers and homelessness services in Seattle, including the continuum of care contracts that have moved over to the KCRHA and critical shelter beds and day beds that were funded with one-time funds.

Just to share a quick example of the kind of work that would be left behind from Solid Grounds Programming, I'll highlight our Journey Home Rapid Rehousing Program, which works with families experiencing homelessness and provides things like short-term rental assistance, move-in expenses, transportation to units, and other kinds of supports.

And last year in 2022, the program was able to help connect 350 people to permanent housing placements.

So while we're so grateful for the 2% increase in all the work that the council has done so far related to wage increases for human service workers, we hope the council can ensure that the 7.5% inflation adjustment and a robust wage increase applies to the entire continuum of care.

Thank you all so much again for your partnership on the issue so far and all your hard work through budget season.

Next speaker is Julia Buck followed by Zoe Frenzy.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Julia Buck.

I'm a resident of District 6. I live in Ballard and I'm a supporter of the solidarity budget, including their nine guarantees.

which also includes increasing the pay for our service providers.

But I'd like to speak specifically to a program that the Seattle Community Responses to Domestic Violence Work Group has recommended.

Currently, about 65% of domestic violence cases are declined by the city attorney's office, Many of these, the majority are declined because of the victim's wishes.

And it's clear, I have lived experience.

I grew up in a home with domestic violence.

And I can tell you that a 911 call and an officer coming was not a solution.

My mom would have been in one of those 65% who declined to pursue the case.

The recommendation for a publicly funded three-year pilot program that is independent from the criminal legal system, I think is something we should try.

Because this is a problem that needs to be addressed with a community response.

But the response where all we can do is put somebody in jail is not working.

I'd like to echo their demand that the pilot be fully funded.

with an initial three-year commitment of $1 million per year.

Thank you.

ZOE FRANCY, followed by Jen Amouzia.

Good morning.

My name is Zoe Francy.

I'm the Development Associate for Rainier Valley Food Bank.

Thank you so much for passing equitable wage increases for human services workers to address the city's staffing crisis.

Your support has already been a boost in educating our community and donors about...

I am here today to encourage you to keep the mayor's budget intact with his funding for these wages, including the 7.5 inflation adjustment and the 2% wage increase, and to ensure that they apply to the entire continuum of human services in Seattle, as mentioned earlier today.

My peers and I at RVFE and in the human services sector more broadly often find ourselves impacted by the effects of inflation, rising cost of living, and other forces that put pressure on our ability to make ends meet for ourselves and our families.

As you know, a budget represents what we value in our community, and I know that you share our values in this matter.

Please keep this funding in the budget and ensure that the entire continuum of services are included.

Thank you so much for your time.

Jen Muzia is our next speaker, followed by Darcy Wendia.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Jen Musee, executive director at the Ballard Food Bank and co-chair of the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

I am here today to speak in favor of wage increases for non-profit human service workers.

I want to thank the council for supporting wage equity and ask that you fully fund the inflation adjustment and wage increase included in the mayor's budget proposal.

We appreciate the mayor including this in their budget.

And thank you to Councilmember Herbold and Mosqueda for championing wage equity and for your ongoing efforts to close the wage equity gap.

In this biennium budget, we recommend prioritizing ongoing investment in human services, meaning no cuts to services and the 7.5% inflation adjustment across all contracts.

In addition, we recommend restoring one-time investments to meet the ongoing need for programs and services, including investments for food and increased costs at meal programs, food banks, and senior meals, as well as investments in services addressing survivor-driven mobile advocacy.

These programs are all seeing increased need, and we recommend this one-time funding of these programs be continued.

The work of human services is critical to ensuring our community thrives and has access to food, housing, behavioral health, and other life-saving services.

The challenges in our community will only be solved if we invest in human services, and that includes agency staffing by addressing inflation and wage equity.

The 2% investment wage equity will help us to start closing the wage equity gap across all contracts, including continuum of care contracts with KCRHA.

We recognize the importance of identifying sustainable funding that will help close the initial 7% gap that was recommended in UW's study.

Thank you so much for supporting the 7.5% inflation adjustment and the 2% wage increase included in the mayor's budget.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Darcy Buendia, followed by Latanya Sever.

Hello, and good morning.

My name is Darcy Buendia, and I am co-executive director at the Hunger Intervention Program, which is a nonprofit meal program based in District 5. I am also a resident of District 3. I want to use my time today to urge the Council to restore funding via a one-time request for $300,000 that was put forward by the Meals Partnership Coalition.

for food and operational costs for meal providers.

This one-time funding request is in light of specific cuts in the city budget that were made to meal providers over the past two years.

I also want to strongly support and echo the support of wage equity investments that have been put forward by the Seattle Human Services Coalition.

Under Intervention Program, or HIP as we call it, served 136,000 meals in our last fiscal year.

Despite increasing our fundraising efforts and decreasing our costs, we are in a deficit this year and we will be in a deficit next year.

Our greatest struggle is that we see a need for food and we do not always have the capacity to meet the need.

I'm proud to say that HIPAA has made significant improvements in the realm of wage equity, and we are getting our employees closer to a living wage.

When it comes to wage equity improvements, there is no going backwards.

Unless we lay off employees, our staff costs are fixed.

Our facilities costs are fixed.

Costs for equipment and supplies are increasing sharply.

When we made drastic cuts in our upcoming budget, It had to come out of our food budget.

It's one of the very few line items that has any flexibility.

Yet we are a meal program and food is what we do.

The $300,000 that the Meals Partnership Coalition has requested will ease deep cuts to hip and mid.

Our next speaker is Latanya followed by Holly, excuse me, Haley Willis.

My name is Lay Tanya, and I'm a black non-binary renter in D2.

I support the solidarity budget demands to fund the nine guarantees that will not only help Seattle's most vulnerable and violently targeted populations to survive, but also thrive.

It's time for city council to finish the job begun in 2020 and abrogate the remaining 213 plus ghost cop positions in SPD.

No other department gets the slush fund of caring position authority they don't plan to fill for year after year.

And SPD should be treated no differently.

Ghost cop positions account for over 10% of the projected deficit in the 2025 budget.

We need to be fiscally responsible, end budget corruptions, and remove all ghost cops.

End SPD budget corruption, no more ghost cops.

We do not want shot squatter, which is rebranded to sound thinking.

I don't know how many times the people have to tell you, but we do not want shot squatter.

Once again, this budget is raiding jumpstart funds for other priorities and pitting communities against one another.

This year's $84.5 million of Jump Start funds are being moved to the General Fund.

This rate of Jump Start was justified last year by promises of new progressive revenue being passed by the end of 2023. But there is no such proposal included in this budget.

Cities all over the country have been rolling out guaranteed basic income programs to address income disparities and meet residents' mounting needs.

Seattle deserves our own publicly funded GBI program, giving participants Unconditional monthly payments and prioritizing communities impacted by over-policing and criminalization.

Lastly, forced encampment removals increase the death rate of our unhoused neighbors.

As you heard earlier from Allison, we demand the removal of the $38 million for suites from the city budget.

Instead, the city should redirect funds to consistent and meaningful outreach to harm reduction services and overdose prevention site and safe.

and secure permanent supportive housing that meet the real needs of unhoused and unstably housed people.

Our next speaker is Haley, followed by Josh Ludish.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Haley Willis, and I'm the community policy manager at the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness, and I live in District 6. I'm here to urge you to apply inflation and wage adjustments to all human services contracts across the entire continuum of care, including COC contracts held by KCRHA and programs that were on fiscal cliff.

Adjusting some human services contracts, but not others, punishes homeless service providers depending on which government agency administers their contract.

Community agencies need those adjustments to continue doing the essential work of helping people experiencing homelessness to survive and get housing.

In addition to inflation adjustments, I urge the council to apply additional wage increases for human services providers without relying on jumpstart funds for those wage adjustments.

Human services workers are significantly underpaid and are leaving the sector for higher paying jobs.

The UW study recommended raising human services wages by 7% over the next two years as a first step towards stabilizing the sector.

The 2% in the mayor's budget is a start, but it's not enough to stabilize this essential workforce.

The people working in homelessness services are truly essential and deserve better wages for the crucial work they do every day.

I want to thank you for passing Resolution 32094 earlier this year, which showed the council's support for increasing human services wages.

I hope you take these important steps toward realizing that goal.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Josh followed by Clara cantor.

My name is Josh and I'm a case manager at new horizons in Seattle working to house and support young adults experiencing homelessness.

I'm here today to speak in favor of wage equity for human service workers and I'm grateful for the current wage increase work.

I live and work in city council district 7. Wage equity is important because the current low wages of human service workers harms both service workers and, importantly, clients in need of support.

Every organization I work with, from housing to mental health care, is understaffed, almost entirely because wages are not high enough to attract workers.

One example out of countless illustrates the harm this causes to clients.

Formerly homeless young adult living in a permanent supportive housing program needed to switch into an ADA unit.

For the past year, despite being required to have supportive services, No case managers have worked at this young adult's housing program.

The young adult was not able to speak to anyone in their housing program to get their needs met, so they came to New Horizons to ask for assistance.

I'm only contracted to work with folks experiencing homelessness, so although I offer this young adult assistance, it was on top of my current caseload, which is about 35 clients.

This client experience demonstrates the consistent lack of services folks in need receive due to staffing shortages, as well as the burden staffing shortages create for already overburdened service workers like myself.

By paying human service workers more, we ensure consistent staffing which benefits both workers and clients alike.

I urge the Mayor and City Council to work together to identify sustainable human service funding that achieves the recommended 7% wage increase by 2025. Thank you so much.

Our next speaker is Clara, followed by Penny O'Grady.

Hello can you hear me.

Yes.

Hi my name is Claire Kanter.

I'm a community organizer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and Seattle Solidarity Budget Coalition and I support the solidarity budget demands that all the other speakers before me have mentioned but I'm here to speak specifically about transportation and about the $3.25 million cut to safe routes to schools.

SDOT has promised that some of these projects will still be delivered by backfilling with Vision Zero and ADA accessibility funds but all three of those programs are already severely underfunded.

proportional to our pedestrian safety crisis right now.

21 people have already been killed by traffic violence so far this year, which is on trend to match or break last year's record high.

Among those in the last two years, seven people have been killed on 4th Avenue in Soto alone, where a pedestrian safety project funded by Vision Zero that people have been demanding for years has been watered down to a couple of lines of paint that won't slow drivers down and won't stop more of our neighbors from being killed there.

Please, please, please do not cut this funding.

I'd also like to encourage the council to prioritize passing new progressive revenue this year.

It's imperative in order to avoid the fiscal cliff projected for 2025 and make sure that we aren't cutting more of the things that our city needs to be able to stay alive.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Penny O'Grady followed by Paris Chapman.

Hello.

My name is Penny and I live in North Green Lake in District 6. I'm in full support of the solidarity budget and its nine guarantees.

I want to speak to the Revenue Stabilization Workgroup's ideas for increasing the revenue stream specifically a vacancy tax.

We bought our home and moved to this neighborhood in 1996. My block consists of 25 houses.

I know all my neighbors.

Throughout all that time, all of those 25 houses, no less than one of those houses and up to three houses at a time have been vacant.

By vacant, I mean standing empty for a year or more.

Two of these houses have stood vacant for more than a decade.

In the past four years, the two houses which are currently empty have given a series of unsheltered people shelter.

Not only would a vacancy tax raise revenue, but it would also make more housing available, which in turn would reduce the cost of housing.

I think it's immoral to leave empty houses, and the city has a moral obligation to make sure that the houses that exist are there for people to live in at a price that we can afford.

I'm also in favor of the progressive real estate excise tax, also proposed by the Revenue Stabilization Work Group.

And I do want to point out that this work group cost the city some kind of money.

I don't know what the budget for that was.

And to not even consider, I mean, it's important to consider what they are proposing, progressive income stream.

So thank you for considering and I want to also say that my block is just what I know but I'm sure.

Next speaker is Paris Chapman followed by Ella Sean.

Hello Council.

This is Paris Chapman.

I'm currently living in District 7 and work in District 3. I'm speaking today in gratitude.

for and in favor of increases in the budget for human service workers, which includes the 7.5 inflationary increase and the 2% increase for wage equity.

I'm in my 12th year, 12th or 13th year of work in social services.

And in that time, I've watched some of my colleagues become homeless while supporting houseless youth.

And I also currently work in the realm of gender-based violence.

And my colleagues are still concerned that we'll face another year or another period of divestment from preventative programs and policies and continual investment in post-harm solutions or post-harm systems, specifically criminal legal systems that continue to cause harm for survivors.

I am also a survivor of houselessness and domestic violence and sexual violence.

And so I'm asking that we pass policy in favor of guaranteed basic income that will create preventative solutions for systemic and interpersonal violence.

We know that it takes an enormous amount of courage for survivors to speak out.

And that having economic power is one of the most socioeconomically sound ways to create solutions for interpersonal and systemic violence.

And that investment in criminal legal solutions has only led to more violence and less resources, less preventative measures for survivors.

And I also wanted to name that in this past year, I've worked on campaigns for criminalized survivors who have been harmed by trafficking, by domestic and sexual violence, et cetera.

And one survivor in particular was denied medication and access to their family during that time while they were at King County Jail.

So vote in favor of that.

Our next speaker is Ella followed by Pantajali De La Rocha.

Hello my name is Ella and I live in District 6 right now.

I'm a child care worker and I'm calling today to with my support for the solidarity budget.

Specifically I'm calling for you all in Seattle City Council to take this opportunity to produce our already very large police budget and put it towards services that we know keep us safe as people here.

As someone who's worked in the education system for many years, it's wild to me that there are over 200 positions being funded in the police department that don't even exist.

I'm trying to imagine what this would be like if teaching positions were funded in this way, right, where we know we have a huge shortage of educators and social workers, and we don't even have funds to hire more people.

So, yes, I'm calling for those funds to be taken out of the police budget and put towards services that we know heal our community and make us safer and happier in the city.

And I also want to say, you know, that many of us have been calling toward these demands today, and this is just a tiny fraction of who in the city support these demands.

There's so few people that could call in today on a Wednesday at 10 a.m.

or 11 a.m.

because we're out there working, we're out there doing outreach, we're out there taking care of our families.

So I just wanted to be here to support these demands and say there's so, so many people with lived experience out there that aren't in this room today.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Pentan Jali followed by Andra Kranzler.

Hello, good morning.

My name is Tatangele Dela Rocha.

I'm in District 2, and I am a Program Director at Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services, and I oversee our Guaranteed Basic Income Program.

It's the first and only Guaranteed Income Program in the United States to support Indigenous families.

Um, and I would like to share my support for the solidarity budget and echo a lot of what's been said around, um, guaranteed income as a really powerful solution that addresses many of the issues that have been brought up today in terms of, um, you know, there's over a hundred guaranteed income pilots nationally that are happening.

We saw successes with the child tax credit during the pandemic.

Um, and it's been shown there's so much evidence around, um, increasing housing insecurity, decreasing rates of gender-based violence, decreasing rates of substance use, decreasing recidivism.

During pregnancy and early childhood, it's been shown to improve child brain development.

There's so many ways that by giving folks directly cash so that they're able to spend it in the ways that they need, that it just addresses so much of the needs that are out there for community.

And if we allocated the surplus budget from the Seattle Police Department, City of Seattle could have a publicly funded Guaranteed Income Pilot Program for 500 families for a year.

So we believe everyone deserves to have what they need to meet their basic needs.

Guaranteed income is a way to recognize everyone's dignity and humanity and to honor and value the labor of folks regardless of if we work for wages, which is like volunteering, taking care of families, giving back to community.

It gives folks not just the ability to meet their basic needs but to create a sense of community belonging and give people space to pursue their dreams and plans for the future.

Seattle is seen as a as a beacon for progressive.

Next speaker is Andra followed by Palmyra Figueroa.

Hi my name is Andra Cransler.

I am the Director of the Directing Attorney of the Tenant Law Center.

The tenant law center's mission is to reduce homelessness by preventing illegal and unnecessary evictions.

We assist vulnerable tenants in our community by focusing on negotiation resolutions that preserve tenant housing, preserve subsidies, or allow for relocation to suitable housing that is habitable.

And we're trying to reduce the stigma of eviction by working with our partners to give an opportunity to figure out how we can help our residents, our renters, and our neighbors get housed after an eviction.

So we support housing and essential needs, supported services for veterans and families, and various programs through rapid rehousing for families.

We work in partnership with Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection to enforce the City of Seattle's Renters right and we really need to make sure that the additional funding proposed in this budget to increase funding.

To expand funds for organizations that provide a victim legal defense.

It's crucial and necessary.

We are also supportive of the ad to support an economic displacement relocation assistance staff person or compliance analyst for EDRA.

It's really important that renters have the opportunity to resolve any issues with the landlord and stay housed.

Many landlords are not in compliance with the Residential Landlord Tenant Act and are taking flagrant action to violate renters' rights.

to meaning, not just meaningful due process, but making sure that people are getting just cost protection, people are living in habitable dwellings, and that they're not getting harassment from them.

Thank you.

Our last remote speaker will be Palmyra Figueroa.

Hello, can you hear me?

Good morning, yes we can.

Thank you so much.

Palmira Figueroa, I'm a resident of Seattle and I'm here as a community member and organizer that has been in the last few days supporting the church in Tukwila, the Methodist church that is actually receiving asylum seekers in the mass numbers now almost every day.

I'm here to appeal to you, not with a specific ask, but just to let you know that there is a group of 40 organizations already working, supporting each other to find solutions.

We see this as a big emergency.

I know that the city has emergency funds that they could allocate.

I think this is a regional problem, it's not specific to Tukwila.

We know for a fact that the Seattle police has dropped asylees and entire families there.

There's over 70 children living in the rain in tents right there, right now.

It's been in the news for the last week.

I just want to call to your attention, appeal to your humanity and get used to some emergency forms to be allocated to this.

There's already work happening with the Immigrant and Refugee Office in Seattle and the state, and I just want to urge you to talk to them, look into budget, and look into emergency funds to allocate for this very important issue.

I think that this is an emergency.

These are mostly black and Latinx families.

A lot of kids sleeping in tents.

And so appealing to you to take into account, talk about it, and add it to the budget.

Thank you.

Appreciate your job also.

Thanks.

Okay, hopefully folks can hear me because I'm using my computer and I can't hear you, but thanks so much for accepting my call today.

My name is Tiffany Lamoureux.

I work at Solid Ground in District 4, and I'm calling today to really emphasize what many of my other colleagues have emphasized around human service wages.

We, you know, big thanks to the Mayor's budget for including a 2% wage increase, but that is just the first step in correcting decades of systemic underfunding of human services and its workers.

So we really want to highlight that the greater investments are needed to fully close the wage gap that was identified in the ZDUV wage study and meet the recommendation of a 7 percent increase by 2025. The UW wage study confirmed what community and human service workers had been saying all along, that a care penalty is applied to this field in the form of lower wages to those who are working in that field.

Care work is invisible labor that has historically been performed by women and people of color, and that is the reason for the penalty, and we know that.

In order to provide the care services so desperately needed by people who are currently struggling, we must be able to adequately staff and retain quality employees, all of which means paying human service laborers a comparable wage to other fields.

Wages are a racial equity outcome.

So I want to urge city council members in coming up with the additional adjustment so that we can meet our goals of our wage equity laid out in the UW study and to ensure that the inflation adjustments are also included in all human service contracts.

Thank you for your partnership on this issue.

Our last speaker will be in person and that is W.

Maeda.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Last night I attended a debate hosted by KNKX about the issue of homelessness in the city of Seattle.

And I see one member here that was there last night as well.

But one of my concerns and questions is the transparency of the budgets for the tiny house villages.

I am concerned because I have information in regards to staff there that have been armed with guns.

And one of my concerns was that at last night's debate, a lot of the topics focused on, you know, the care first of the individuals that are seeking stable housing and seeking homes.

The topic that wasn't addressed at all was the organizations that are running these tiny house villages and what type of funds that they are receiving and who are the proper people I would talk to with such information of staff members there going every day to work armed with weapons and upper management actually knowing about that.

I appreciate your time this morning.

Thank you.

That concludes our public commenters.

OK, thank you so much.

Just confirming there's nobody left in the room or online that would still like to dial in.

Great.

I want to thank my colleagues, Council Member Strauss had joined us, Council Member Herbold had joined, and we couldn't hear her earlier, but she was online.

And Council Member Lewis, let me know that he's on his way.

Can you hear me OK?

Okay, thanks.

That's a little bit better.

Thank you for dialing in today for all the people who provided public comment.

Thanks for the folks who offered their thoughts.

And again, you can reach us anytime at council at Seattle.gov.

I also want to, let's see, remind folks, a little clarification.

I mentioned at the beginning of each of our meetings, we will have public comment.

Today, tomorrow, and Friday serve as the issue identification series.

So we're treating all three of these meetings plus a Monday briefing as one.

So that actually is the full public comment for this portion of our agenda.

And again, if you didn't get the chance to dial in, feel free to email us at councilatseattle.gov.

Our next public hearing will be on October 18th at 5 p.m.

And you will get the chance to provide in-person or remote public comment for the entire evening, October 18th at 5 p.m.

The next public meeting that we have for the Budget Committee is going to be October 27th, which we will have public comment at the beginning of that meeting as well.

And then if anybody's interested in providing public comment, again, on November 13th at 5 p.m., we will be able to have a full public hearing solely devoted to hearing from you then.

So, those are the next three opportunities coming up.

And again, our full revised agenda is on our social media, and we will be sending that out.

I know I sent it out yesterday in our newsletter.

You can find that on our website and get the full agenda for the upcoming committee meetings.

Thanks to everybody who participated today.

The remote participation is appreciated.

It helps us reduce any transmission of communicable diseases, including COVID and the flu.

So thank you for helping to keep our community safe with your remote public comment as well.

And that also helps to provide greater social distancing in the room here.

Colleagues, I want to just thank you for listening to the robust public comment that we had here today.

I want to also thank our clerk.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk, for managing the public comment here today.

And I want to thank the Council President who sent out an updated Select Budget Committee memo for the 2023 Select Budget Committee deliberations that outline our 2027 budget conversation 2024 budget conversations.

This memo outlined a number of process changes so that we can have a full and robust discussion in our committee as it relates to the proposed budget.

I noted yesterday that there's changes in the budget to the tune of nearly $20 million.

So having this additional time to hear from you, from members of the public, to give central staff the opportunity to dive into the details and align our process really I think will help streamline the discussion over the next few weeks.

Just to summarize, the memo establishes the committee meetings from October 10th to November 15th, 2023 to begin at 10 a.m.

I do want to remind us that the evening public meetings that I just mentioned that are dedicated to public hearings, those do begin at 5 p.m.

As per usual, people can sign up to provide public comment two hours prior to the meeting online and also in the room.

There will be one meeting on October 20th.

That is a big change.

We had it on October 19th prior to the release of the new memo.

So that meeting on October 19th is being moved to October 20th instead.

And instead of having a 10 a.m.

start time, we will probably have a 11 a.m.

start time or after the Land Use Committee concludes.

So 11 a.m.

at the earliest or if Land Use Committee is still going.

then we will have a chance to begin our meeting after the Land Use Committee meeting.

But please do plan to attend at 11 a.m.

And our Chair of Land Use has raised her hand.

Good morning, Council Member Strauss.

Anything to add to that update?

Yeah, good morning.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

It seems that we will likely be able to end our Land Use Committee within a half an hour, maybe 45 minutes to the earliest.

So looking at maybe a 10 or even 10, 15 a.m.

start, if that helps you at all.

Okay, great.

Well, I will check in with central staff and with the council president.

Probably at this point, to avoid issuing another memo, we'll just keep it at 11 a.m.

and give folks a little bit of a break, but really appreciate you freeing up additional time for everybody to be able to transition from land use to the budget committee meeting.

So colleagues, with that in mind, please do plan to participate promptly at 11 a.m.

on October 20th.

The memo also removes the meeting previously scheduled for Wednesday, October 18th, but I would like to remind you that we kept October 16th, that is a Monday, so that we can have a discussion about outcomes.

There's been a lot of conversation from my colleagues, from members of the community, members of the press about seeing the outcomes of the investments that we've made.

And as we considered budget deliberations for the next 12 months as the second part of our biennial process, I thought it was really important for us to come back to that concept about measuring outcomes and tangible improvements in people's lives with the public investments that are being made.

So, Monday, October 16th, from 10 to around 1230 or 12, you will have an opportunity to hear from three panels who will be focusing on human service providers and the outcomes of the investments in their wages.

The second panel will include members of our affordable housing community who will be talking about the investments that we've been able to make.

into building more housing, especially for our community highest risk of displacement.

And the last panel will include representatives of the community working on Green New Deal investments and equitable development investments.

Again, that is Monday, October 16th, starting at 10 a.m.

The memo also summarizes that for council member amendments to the proposal that we will be releasing as the chair's proposed budget, you will have an extra day.

We have moved the amendment deadline from October 23rd to Tuesday, October 24th.

And it updates the rules for committee consistent with the 2023 general rules and procedures of the city of Seattle as adopted in resolution 32096. Thank you, again, to the council president and to central staff for working on those updated memos and timelines.

Again, thanks to members of the communications team who will be reconfiguring our social media images, and we have shared that calendar with you, thanks to central staff, but more infographics will be headed your way soon.

Okay.

With that, I would love for us to get into the heart of the agenda.

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

Agenda Item 1, Introduction and Process Overview for Briefing and Discussion.

Thank you so much.

And we're excited to have with us Director Esther Handy and Deputy Director Ali Panucci with us here today.

Just for opening framework, if we want to take the presentation down for a minute, I'm going to offer some opening comments, and then I'll hand it over to our central staff team.

Colleagues, as I mentioned in our first few meetings of the Select Budget Committee meeting, as your budget chair this year, again, I am very excited that we are continuing to move in the direction of trying to create true biannual budgeting.

We did not have that in 2020 as we prepared for calendar year 2021 and we did not have that in 2021 as we prepared for calendar year 2022. That's because we were at the height of the ongoing pandemic and the revenue picture was really unknown for future years.

Our goal is always to try to have a a passed council budget that includes the upcoming calendar year as codified via ordinance, and then an endorsed second year budget that is passed via resolution.

As we work towards trying to concretize our commitment to biennial budgeting, it will create greater sustainability and predictability for our budgeting.

I appreciate that Mayor Harreld has engaged really closely with our office and the city budget office engaging very closely with central staff on this commitment to try to move towards true biennial budgeting again as we continue to try to come out of the ongoing pandemic.

It is ongoing and the impact on our local economy and community is ongoing.

but our commitment to trying to move back to biennial budgeting and actually put in stronger sideboards to that biennial budgeting process is something that's very much shared, I believe, between the executive and the legislative branch.

As budget chair this year, as we receive the proposed budget for the second half of this biennial budget, which we are calling a mid-biennium adjustment, I wish we could just call it a supplemental because I think that that makes it easier for folks to understand.

But a mid-biennium adjustment for calendar year 2024, I have three priorities that we are going to continue to focus on.

The first is accountability.

The second is sustainability.

And the third is equity.

So those are the three pillars that I will be looking at as we undertake the process of finalizing this mid-biennium adjustment.

Last year, in the wake of dire economic forecasts, we did pass a 2023-2024 biennial budget that rejected austerity thanks to the short-term, one-time use of Jumpstart Progressive Payroll Tax, using higher-than-anticipated revenue that was coming in over the projected expenses, over the dollar amount that we had originally assumed when we passed the legislation in 2020. Using those higher than anticipated revenues, we were able to invest in core government services and prioritize keeping our community cared for and housed, connected and resilient, and healthy and safe, while also ensuring that we maintained our commitment to investing funding into the Jumpstart Progressive Payroll Tax categories as defined by the statute.

Investing those dollars made it possible for us to include a historic investment of half a billion dollars, that's half a billion with a B, into affordable housing across the biennium, made largely possible due to the use of Jumpstart Progressive Payroll Tax.

We invested in public safety and community health by investing in early intervention and upstream solutions that create greater self-determination, economic stability, and help address the rising trauma and income inequality that we have seen grow over the past few years, especially during the COVID crisis.

I'm looking forward to working with you colleagues to keep our word and maintain our commitments to public safety and community health by rejecting austerity, denying attempts to raid Jumpstart, or rebranding existing programs under new names.

It is imperative that we continue our commitment to core government services and show the evidence of those investments.

That is why Monday's briefing is so important.

On the first pillar of accountability, We have set up a process as I've been your budget chair over the last now three years going into my fourth year serving as your budget chair.

We've set up a process that creates greater transparency and continuity with an eye towards sustainability for the future.

We have transparently shown the budget forecast over the next six years by lifting up that six-year financial plan that was buried in fiscal notes when I first started this process to really show the projected revenue and expenses over the next half a dozen years.

By doing so, we can enable the community and our colleagues the city as a whole, to see the consequences of dwindling revenue streams, and the need to serve a growth in our population.

As the Seattle Times reported, a 21% increase in the Seattle population over the last decade, and just last year, we were the number one largest growing city in this country.

With increased population and increased need due to the ongoing pandemic, we have an opportunity and an obligation to continue to serve our community and to serve our most vulnerable and ensure that we're creating greater shared prosperity as we do so.

The second pillar on sustainability.

As we review the mayor's proposed mid-biennium adjustments for calendar year 2024, I'm going to be looking at the sustainability not just for the next 12 months, but for the next six years and at least the next two years after that.

It is really important, colleagues, that we respond to the increased need, but not take funding from existing programs and services for new proposals or new pilots that are not yet tested when we have ongoing needs.

You heard today from folks who are very concerned about human service contracts.

You heard from folks who are concerned about food security, people who are concerned about housing.

The core services that we must invest in as we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs for our community, that I think will help us identify where we can create sustainable investments and, of course, make sure that we prioritize ongoing investments for underfunded services.

Number three, in terms of equity, In these times of limited resources and with Jumpstart already temporarily backfilling revenue coffers, I believe, and as budget chair, I will be looking at prioritizing maintaining investments to promote greater equity across Seattle through critical investments in affordable housing and residential services, investments in climate resilience, investments in wage equity for frontline workers, and investments in small businesses and the arts and culture who make our local economy run and make us more equitable.

Thank you for beginning this process and your flexibility as we receive the proposed budget and our efforts to create a biennial process.

I'm thankful for your time, and I know many of us have compounding needs that we wish were addressed through our committees throughout the year, but I ask for your continued attention and your focus over the next three to four days, today, Thursday, and Friday, and half the day on Monday, as we really dive into the proposed budget in front of us so that we can hear from you what your priorities are for sustainability, equity, and accountability.

I think we will have an opportunity to hear right now from central staff about the budget process and the overlay of the proposed budget.

And we know that to accomplish some of the priorities in the budget, we will also have to have corresponding legislation.

Both the discussion that we will have in October, largely focused on budget nuances and changes that council members would like, that will be followed in November with final action on budget and action on corresponding legislation.

There's a lot going on.

appreciate your commitment and your attention to the discussions over the next three days so we can align our priorities and our commitments with the community conversations that we've heard over the last few years and especially the last few weeks as we've received the 2024 mid biennium adjustment and to hear from you about how we'd like to finalize this process as we conclude our efforts in just six weeks.

With that I'll turn it over to central staff.

Thank you very much Director Handy for being here with us and again Deputy Director Panucci.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and good morning, council members.

I am Esther Handy, your central staff director, and I will do a brief kickoff before handing it over to the team.

I will remind you that two weeks ago, Budget Director Julie Dingley was here to present the mayor's proposed budget adjustments, which had been freshly transmitted to the council.

Director Dingley, if you are listening, we appreciate the collaboration with your office as we have worked to fully understand those proposed adjustments.

Your central staff team then, along with council member legislative assistants have spent the past 2 weeks looking under the hood.

We take apart the budget.

We put it back together to understand sort of how those transit transactions that underlie the budget get to the outcomes that director Dingley presented.

And we do that exercise to help council members and the public better see and understand the tradeoffs that the executive made to develop their proposed adjustments.

So, we are here to help you understand the choices that you have as the council considers whether to adopt.

Amend or reject elements of the proposed adjustments.

How do you can go ahead and go to the next slide, which frames up our goals today?

I will note that today in particular is going to be the most technical day of our presentations.

We have our full team on the line, but you will largely be hearing from our fiscal team.

I want to thank Deputy Director Perducci, Tom Mikesell, and Ed and Sisich for their quick and clear work to help us all understand these adjustments.

Our goal is to help you understand the big picture to prepare you for the department specific conversations that will happen on Thursday and Friday, both with our team and the executive and city budget office at the table for those hearings.

As we get into the details today, there will be moments that feel like the information we're presenting is dense or perhaps confusing.

I welcome you to slow us down, ask your questions, make sure you're understanding the analysis we're presenting.

There may also be moments today where the analysis feels pointed.

Perhaps a choice about that the executive made or 1 that the council has made in the past.

I want to say our goal here is not to point any fingers, but rather explain those decision points that have led us to the proposed adjustments so that you, the council can decide whether you will make the same choice or new ones.

So, our goal is to set that big picture.

I'm going to hand it over to Deputy Director Panucci, who is going to frame up a couple of policy choices, sort of policy questions for you to think about in the presentation, walk through the process, and then we'll get into the bulk of the presentation.

Over to you, Ali.

Thank you, director handy.

Good morning, chairman and council members.

I'm your council central staff.

If we could move on to the next slide.

As director handy noted, we are about to dive into presentations from central staff fiscal policy policy team.

We'll cover a lot of ground today.

As we go from an overview of the entire budget to a focus on 2 of the city's major funds, the general fund that supports general government programs and services, and the jumpstart fund that support spending in specific equity areas to address issues in our community.

You will see throughout our memos and presentations today, a reoccurring theme budget sustainability.

As we have done for the last several years, we've analyzed and described for the council and the public issues related to budget sustainability and the issues remain the same again.

This year, the annual general fund budget could not be balanced without temporary support from 1 time strategies.

and we continue to see revenue sources that support other spending from other city funds that stagnate or are stagnating or in decline.

This work is not meant to suggest that the city should stop spending.

Much of the new spending proposed this year and ongoing spending approved in previous years are investments that are responding to critical community needs.

And in many areas, those needs far exceed the current spending levels.

But in the absence of long-term strategies, we offer these guiding questions for you.

to really think about how decision for the city's 2024 budget will impact the city's ability to maintain and expand the many services that are needed.

This includes investments in small businesses, workforce development, strategies to address the city's homeless state of emergency, community safety, public health, affordable housing, public safety, and the list goes on.

As we go into this balancing exercise and you all make decisions about if you agree, or disagree with the mayor's policy choices, we ask that you keep these framing questions in mind.

As noted at the bottom of the slide, there are tradeoffs in any balancing strategy.

You all have the final call on how to prioritize the resource among competing needs and think about how we sustain those in the future.

Move to the next slide.

This slide highlights the updates to the process that were described in detail by Chair Mosqueda.

So I won't spend too much time going over them again, but perhaps if we could jump to the next slide, you can see how this shows up on the calendar.

So, on the 18th and 19th, you'll see there are no longer budget hearings, but there is still a budget, excuse me, a public hearing on October 18th.

On October 20th, there is a new meeting.

where you will hear an update, the revenue forecast update that will be released on the 17th and will be presented again in committee on the 20th alongside the chair's balancing package and the change on the deadline for council member budget amendment proposals on the 24th instead of the 23rd.

The remainder of the calendar, the dates and times remain the same other than adjusting to a 10 a.m.

start time for most meetings.

We move to the next slide.

This slide outlines the departments and topics that will be covered for the rest of the week on Thursday and Friday.

Central staff will be joined by the city budget office.

Deputy mayors and executive staff will be on the line to answer questions during those discussions.

As you can see this year in the 2nd, year of a biennium, there are only 7 departments where central staff.

Has identified issues for your considerations.

and to inform your decisions ahead.

These discussions are an opportunity for council members to ask questions and provide direction to staff about the issues and options identified by staff that you may want to pursue.

The discussions you have over the next three days will help us to better understand your priorities and interests as we quickly turn to preparing the chair's balancing package.

Next slide.

Following those budget discussion, these budget hearings, there'll be a 4 case update as I mentioned on the 17th.

That will also be discussed on the 20th that same week will be the 1st of 2 public hearings and the presentation of the balancing package.

We will then move into the amendment process.

As we move on to the main show today, I too want to offer my appreciation for the entire central staff team for their thoughtful analysis that just demonstrates to me every day their deep commitment to public service and gratitude to the city budget office who have answered our endless questions over the last two weeks.

I wanted to say an extra shout out to add to what Director Handy commented on about the fiscal policy team.

Tom and Evan, Tom and Edan have worked endless hours since we received the budget just 2 weeks ago to do their own analytical work to try to transparently unravel the story of the tradeoffs embedded in the mayor's proposal while also supporting our entire team through creating and supporting our analytical tools and sharing their subject matter expertise to support all of our analysis.

Thank you.

And thank you to the entire team.

You are all part of what helps me want to show up for this work every day.

And to the council members, the discussions and decisions ahead are not easy ones, but our team is ready to work with all of you over the next several weeks to understand your priorities and turn them into budget amendments and ultimately a balanced city budget for 2024. And with that, I'll turn it back to the chair unless there are questions.

Thank you so much.

As I ask my colleagues to tee up any questions, I just want to offer a few additional comments here.

I want to thank you, central staff, and that includes the entire team.

for all the work that you are going to engage in with us as we create the 2024 endorsed budget, excuse me, finalized budget.

Thank you for the overview that you provided and the shift in the committee process here to ensure that we have an expanded approach that includes the chair's package, given the large changes that we see from the previous 2024 endorsed budget and the proposed budget in front of us, it's important that we have time to analyze the impacts and greatly appreciate, as you noted, the central staff analysts who are looking at how revenue streams proposed by the mayor impact our balancing package and impact programs that we want to continue to deliver in 2024. We will learn much more about that throughout the process of today's discussion.

Thank you for your due diligence to provide incredible, thoughtful memos.

I hope everyone has had the chance to read our central staff memos.

and the helpful PowerPoint presentations that provide a illustrative summary of how some of these changes have been proposed in the proposed budget.

Thank you again for working with us as we created this process change in front of us as I think a chair's package will enable us to do our due diligence to ensure that we're making good on our promises to the community, providing greater transparency about these critical funds, and ensuring that we are applying an equity lens to the proposal to set up our city as best as we can for greater sustainability and shared prosperity in the future.

Thank you colleagues for engaging with us in this process so that we have the opportunity to streamline your amendments as well by including as many self-balancing amendments into the chair's proposed package.

It leaves us much more time to discuss individual amendments that have Other policy implications for us and as you heard yesterday additional legislative discussions to have to be had as well We are working on scheduling a round of meetings with each of your offices to better understand any initial proposed amendments that you were looking at and Thank you for the first round of discussions that we've had with colleagues, and I believe we are scheduled with everyone next Monday afternoon as well.

So as we walk through this presentation, please make sure to note any additional changes that you have to your priority list, because I'd be very interested in hearing from you directly about that as we engage in our process to create the chair's proposed package, and look forward to those discussions on Monday.

Vice-chair Herbold we have you in the queue next and then we'll go to Councilmember Nelson But I just wanted to welcome our viewers who are outside.

Hello everybody.

You are welcome to come in We are in the middle of our budget deliberation discussion.

So come on in and feel free to join us Vice-chair Herbold.

We are being joined by a cohort.

It looks like perhaps a Class so why don't you go ahead and keep your question and then we'll see who's in the audience and I will welcome them

Thank you so much.

Just a real quick question.

Looking at the calendar with revenue forecast on the 17th and balancing package becoming public on the 20th, does that mean that, Madam Chair, your budget balancing package as proposed will include the consideration of the new information coming from the revenue forecast?

That's correct and I'll ask central staff if they wanted to add anything but allowing for us to include any feedback from the revenue forecast on the 17th helps us to identify any additional revenue possible for council member priorities and that would be included then in the rollout on the 20th.

Central staff do you have anything else you'd like to add?

Um, the only thing I would add to that is I, um, I hope for your optimism that it identifies resources to help aid in developing your package and supporting council member priorities.

But we'll also just flag.

It may also mean the chair having to make hard decisions to address any changes that.

Reduce the revenues assumed in the mayor's proposed budget.

Thank you very much, Vice Chair, for that question.

And before Council Member Nelson, I turn it to you.

I just want to welcome officially the ninth graders from the Bush School who are here with us in the chamber.

Good to see you.

And lots happening from the national to the local level as it relates to your government.

So thanks for joining this legislative branch at Seattle City Council as we consider the executive branch being the mayor's proposed budget that was just transmitted to us three weeks ago.

And we're starting our process of Analyzing that proposed budget so we can finalize the budget for next year in the next six weeks here So thanks for joining us on day one of our issue identification overview from central staff much of which is still hybrid That's why you see my colleagues on the screen.

Okay, Councilmember Nelson, please go ahead

Thank you very much.

Mostly a clarification because I don't know what the definition of true biennium budget really is, but it was my understanding that the process involved us publicly presenting and then voting on our self balancing amendments and passing them on a simple majority vote of.

5 or so, and then and then those are.

Assembled into the council budget and pass with 6, but so is the, when, when the calendar is from November 13th to the 15th, it says budget deliberations.

discussion and voting on council member amendments is is the is that what you're talking about the we present our amendments but they're to the balancing package instead of the mayor's proposed budget and then we pass those on five and then we and then we go forward on the 21st with the whole thing.

Thanks so much.

I'm going to turn to Deputy Director Panucci who's going to be much more eloquent than I was in my shorthand version of the summary.

Please go ahead Director Deputy Director Panucci.

Thank you.

Chair Mosqueda, Council Member Nelson.

The process is not dissimilar from previous years.

So there will be a package released on the 20th.

Your amendments that you've proposed, self-balance amendments by the 24th, will be amendments to that package.

So that becomes the base.

On the November 13th, 14th, and 15th, that is when the committee takes votes.

So you will vote like, you can think of the balancing package as one big amendment.

And you all will propose potentially changes to that, or you may propose self balance amendments that are adjusting other portions of the base budget that were not impacted by the chairs balancing package.

We will have many more conversations about process.

Those meetings are where we get into the fun parliamentary procedures and a bit of gymnastics on how you pull something out of the package.

and substitute your your alternative proposal if it if it is a competing proposal to the package.

And so there won't be any votes as originally intended until the 14th and 15th of November.

Does that answer your question Council Member Nelson.

And I think I would just add to that the commitment still remains from our office that we are trying to do you know minimal changes to new programming, right?

I think when we initially spoke, we were talking about, you know, this is not a year for big new changes to be proposed because they all need to be self-balancing.

So if council members have proposed budget amendments that they would like to see, the hope is to try to get as many of those included as possible in the deliberations throughout the next two weeks so that the balancing package includes those on the 20th.

Follow-up?

Getting a better grasp of it and I do appreciate that you're meeting with all of us on Monday to hear our priorities.

But we won't be able to hear everybody else's priorities because we won't be publicly presenting them.

Right?

Because they might fall off the table and not get into the balancing package or something like that.

Go ahead.

Deputy director.

Uh, so what will be presented on the 20th are those priorities that the chair accommodates in her package?

I would expect unless there are a change of heart that anything that isn't in the package that you will propose as a self balance amendment on the 24th and those will all be publicly presented and discussed as at a high level on October 27th.

And then we will spend the next couple of weeks working with all of you to fully develop those amendments to refine them for discussion and vote in mid November.

Okay, that last part was helpful.

That's where so the 27th is when those things can.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Great.

Great clarification.

Thank you.

Council member Nelson council member Morales.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I just want to say I am.

Maybe not looking forward to this process, but really want to appreciate that you're forward your values and your approach to this budget.

It is going to be, we are going to have some tough discussions and I just want to echo your sentiments about really making sure that we are centering sustainability in this budget.

We know we have a structural problem here that we're going to try to address.

And I think, you know, as Ali pointed out in her memo, Regarding jumpstart, what we're trying to do is help the city make the necessary changes to shift Seattle's economy to be more equitable and more ecologically sustainable.

So I'm with you as I look at the budget over the next several weeks.

I'll be really looking at how we are centering our most vulnerable community members.

and how we really are making sustainable commitments to the vital services and programs that everybody in the city knows we need and is talking about with regularity.

So, you know, we've got some priorities and it's going to be interesting conversations.

And I just appreciate you putting your sort of principles, guiding principles out as we're having this going.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Councilmember Morales and I really appreciate all of your contributions in last year's budget deliberations as well as our full colleagues who helped provide additional feedback to what we would like to see in 2024. Again that endorsed 2024 budget will serve as the foundation for us To analyze and review the proposed budget that we've received and many of your thoughtful amendments were included in last year's round of amendments and the final budget so That we endorse so thanks again for that past work.

Thank you for your ongoing participation this year and and again, you know, especially as we look out to the class who is observing civic engagement here and in the chambers here today.

I think this is a really tough moment for our country, from the national to the local level as we try to respond to compounding needs.

So appreciate everybody's engagement as we create the 2024 proposed budget.

Council President, thanks again for your team and your personal work with us as we got out the clarification memo.

And I'm going to turn it over to the clerk for introduction of the second item on our agenda.

Agenda Item 2, 2024 Proposed Adjustments Overview for Briefing and Discussion.

Great.

And with us today, we continue to have Deputy Director Panucci, Director Handy, and we are being joined by Ed Ncicic of Central Staff, whose name was mentioned earlier.

Thanks for being here with us today.

And if you'd like to introduce yourself, your slides are ready to go.

Thank you.

Before I turn this over to add in to walk you through the overview, I just wanted to note that there is a supplemental memo attached to the agenda for your reference that we won't be presenting today.

But this summarizes the 31 pieces of budget legislation that may be considered during council's budget deliberations.

This includes legislation transmitted with the mayors.

Proposed budget adjustments and council initiated budget legislation that we have identified to date.

This list might change as you shape the budget, but wanted to make sure that.

For the public in advance of introducing this budget legislation and for all of you there was a summary of what we expect to see that you'll be voting on later in the process.

Thank you so much.

With that I'll turn it over to Eddyn.

Great thank you.

And I wanted to ask IT to let in our colleague Council Member Lewis is in the waiting room and needs to be admitted please.

Thanks.

Please go ahead Eddyn.

Thank you.

Good morning Council Members.

My name is Eddyn Sisich with Council Central staff.

Um, as director Andy mentioned in her opening remarks, the goal of this presentation and the memo that was distributed yesterday is to provide a.

High level overview of notable changes between the 2024 endorsed and the proposed adjustments.

So, this is an opportunity for us to see the.

The big picture from the start of this budget process and assess the potential impacts of the choices to come in a broader sense.

And also this sets the foundation and the context for all of the individual more nuanced presentations that will follow today and for the remainder of the week.

So, can we please move to the agenda?

So, I'll start with a high level budget snapshot of the 2024 proposed adjustments.

and identify key drivers of expenditure and revenue changes, including operating and capital improvement program, budget adjustments, position changes, central service costs, and where identified, I'll highlight policy issues for the committee's consideration.

So going into the first slide, the budget snapshot, What these charts show at a very high level is that the 2024 proposed budget adjustments total $7.8 billion across all departments and funds.

So, this represents an increase of just over $400M, which is about 5.5% above the 2024 endorsed levels.

Level almost 90% of that 400Million dollar increases and 3, 3, main funds, low income housing, transportation and the proposed 51Million dollar general fund increase.

So, those make up the bulk of the net change from the 2024 endorsed levels.

Moving to the next slide.

I just wanted to note for my colleagues, if you do have questions throughout the presentation, I think we are taking questions.

Is that right, central staff?

OK, we're going to take questions throughout the presentation.

So of course, if you have any questions in the middle of the presentation, just raise your hand and we'll try to catch you before we move to the next slide.

OK, and please continue.

Thank you.

So.

Getting into some of the more nuanced details and separating the operating budget from the CIP, which will be covered later in the presentation.

Of the total 407M dollar increase, O&M budget represents about 255M, which is about 4, just over 4% increase from the 2024 endorsed budget.

Attachments A and B, And the memo provide more detail and itemize all of the changes at the fund level and at the department level.

But from the perspective of city departments, there are 4 city departments with significant operating budget increases between the endorsed and the proposed adjustments.

With the office of housing leading the way, the proposed adjustments and office of housing assumed the passage of the 2023 Seattle housing levy.

that is projected to generate approximately $138 million annually.

The adjustments reflect the net increase of $88 million, which represents the difference between the annual amount of revenue generated from the 2016 levy and the anticipated 2023 levy.

Let's pause there.

If we can just pause there.

Council Member Herbold, did you have a question on that first part?

On the slide, I'm happy to wait until the slides.

Sounds good.

Finished, yeah.

Please go ahead and.

So that we're so for SPU, the $76 million is attributed to two changes primarily.

Uh, from the 24 endorsed 1st proposing to access exercise the use of 60Million dollars of the available solid waste fund balance to pay off outstanding debt.

And secondly, the department is anticipating 15Million dollars and increases related to the city's contract with the King County for the treatment of wastewater, which is the largest operating expense for the drainage and wastewater fund.

Uh, fleet capital replacement and liabilities related to judgment and claims and litigation expenses are the primary cost increases and proposed adjustments.

And, uh, lastly, uh, increase in HSD.

Includes human services providers, wage equity and contract inflation.

Opioid settlement proceeds fund appropriations for programs and services.

Addressing drug use and drug user health needs.

and extending the Third Avenue project in partnership with We Deliver Care program.

I'm ready for the question now.

Okay, great.

Vice Chair Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

Madam Budget Chair, in the opening remarks, you described a change to the process and a change in rules to accommodate the change of process from what we had previously discussed as the second year biennium streamline process.

And as I understand it, the changes are driven by an understanding of more changes than we anticipated in spending in the 2024 proposed budget from what the council endorsed last year for 2024. Does this do these changes here reflected on this slide, does that incorporate the types of changes that is driving this decision to change the process.

Just wanting to get a handle on that a little bit.

Right.

Director Handy, do you want to tee up an answer?

Yeah, Council Chair Mosqueda, I'm happy to frame up just a couple of pieces here that may be helpful and then have you respond.

Council Member Herbold, I think the place that you are going to see the sort of longer discussion about the assessment of what really could information that impacts balancing of the budget is later this afternoon in the jumpstart presentation.

That at the high level in these big funds, none of these are of sort of significant surprise.

It was really when we dug in there that there are choices that could swing jumpstart the general fund on the order of 20 to 30Million dollars.

And those are the funds that are particularly.

Tight and and has sustainability issues right now.

So happy to discuss that.

Further those very helpful.

I was, I mean, I was looking at these again, these broad categories and sort of scratching my head.

There's not a lot of discussion to be done about these particular changes once.

housing levy driven SPU has been taken off the calendar for discussion.

The human services department changes reflect, I think, shared priorities.

So that's really, really helpful to understand that I just need to wait and delve more into the jump start discussion.

Thank you for reminding me of that.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And yeah, thank you, Director Handy, for teeing that up.

I had noted yesterday that there was about $20 million.

And you just heard Director Handy note $20 to $30 million.

So we appreciate that the rule that had been codified in the fall process here through the government committee is being called upon here.

The procedures in the city of Seattle adopted resolution 32096 included the ability for us to create a balance package when we saw reduced appropriations or changed in the appropriation that we could use for our balancing budget.

And the, I think it is subsection I or one, It says that we can ensure that there is the possibility of having a chair's revised balancing package if there is a difference or a significant change in the forecast or, quote, other information that impacts assumptions about available resources to balance year two's budget.

So given the latter half of that sentence and the impact of potentially $20 to $30 million that have changed the availability for assumptions for balancing the year two budget.

We are thus moving forward with using that portion of the rule.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

And thanks again to the Council President for their analysis on that as well.

Okay, I don't see any additional hands.

I think we can move to slide four.

So, the proposed adjustments include an addition of 110 full-time equivalent FTE positions for a total of 13,241 FTEs across all departments and funds.

I should preface this by noting that this number includes all of the FTE increases that were approved through the 2023 supplemental legislation, and that number is coincidentally an additional 110 FTEs.

So, up to 110 proposed ads in 2024. 40 are funded by the general fund.

And of those 4031 are ongoing and 9 are sun setting positions.

Um, and in addition, 16.5 of the proposed new are funded by the jumpstart fund of which 14 and a half are ongoing permanent proposals.

So, moving to the next slide, the next slide provides all of the proposed changes by department, which shows that the bulk of the 40 general fund positions are in the fire department.

And 24 of those are to support operations in West Seattle at the fire station, 26 and 37. The proposed adjustments also include 14 FTEs in parts and another 12.5 in SDOT, primarily for CIP-related work.

And I won't go through the full list as part of this presentation, but a lot of the departmental FTE proposals are explained in the memo starting on page 2, accompanied by attachments C, D, and E.

And these will also be covered in a lot of the department-specific budget papers.

So, I'm looking to the next slide, uh, city employee salaries and benefits represents approximately 1 3rd of the 7.7Billion dollar proposed budget in 2024 and over half of the general fund budget.

So approximately 90% of the 110 additional are regular ongoing positions with ongoing budget impacts.

So, while some of these positions may be critical to deliver services in 2024, due to the projected annual operating deficit beginning in 2025, any proposals that add positions this year should be considered carefully until the longer term budget sustainability issues are addressed as decisions to address projected budget.

Deficit may require reductions to city staffing and so.

As part of the budget deliberations, the council has the option to reject some or all of the proposed new positions and reduce proposed funding in those departments accordingly or proviso the funding for these positions until council is engaged and has made decisions about how the city will address the projected deficit in the 25, 26 biannual budget.

Before you move on.

Oh, so sorry, Ed, did I interrupt?

Otherwise, that wraps up the FTE part of the conversation.

The next, we'll get into some central service cost allocation adjustments.

Great.

Colleagues, I just wanted to offer some analysis that I will be using as we look through this and would encourage you to share your thoughts as well, either with me or with your colleagues in the committee here.

Given the sustainability issues that we're facing starting in 2025, when we will not have the programmed amount of jumpstart that we had offered as a temporary basis, I think it is really critical that we apply additional scrutiny to new positions.

Now, new positions specifically, for example, in economic resilience, as Council Member Nelson and I talked about, that We're largely funded with one-time investments last year because we wanted to support ongoing investments in the future year.

There may be some new positions that do have sustainable funding year over year in an area like that.

But when we look at new positions that are especially funded either with underfund or using general fund for ongoing nature, I think it's going to be really critical for us to scrutinize the need for any new positions given the budget sustainability questions.

And I want to point you to central staff's memo.

Central staff notes in their memo that 98 of the full-time employee permanent positions are going to have ongoing budget impacts.

So for me, I'm not questioning the need or the merit of those positions yet, but the question for me will be, really think about the sustainability.

What is the outcome of those expected investments?

Do we have sustainable funding year over year?

How will we ensure that there is sustainability in the future?

Obviously, we will be having future conversations about revenue that we have teed up for November as well.

But those are some questions that we really must answer before the end of the November timeframe.

Vice Chair Herbold, please go ahead.

Madam Chair, I'm sure you are anticipating what I'm going to say, but I sure hope we can the fire department and the fire department and the fire department to consider favorably the sustainability of the positions for the fire department that if not funded will mean the loss of an aid car in South Park serving not only South Park but the surrounding areas, services that we provide to the community and to the community and to the community.

That was I really appreciated your assistance in leading the charge for funding in the last budget cycle, and this year is the year I think we need to really look at the staffing for maintaining those services.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you council member herbal for the, the comment and question.

I just want to reiterate something said that and want to be clear because sometimes we move quickly through some of our presentations, but we do recognize that some of these positions are critical to provide core city functions, like fire protection for all of us.

And so we are not suggesting that.

Never ever should we add positions in this year's budget.

It's just doing that with eyes wide open as that might mean other trade offs next year for existing existing city position.

So I appreciate that specific example, because that is an area where.

It is harder to argue with the necessity.

Yeah, excellent.

Okay.

Council member Morales, please go ahead.

Thank you chair.

This is really more of a comment than a question, but I do want to thank for pointing out some terms of art in your memo, particularly we mean by indirect cost.

During my office's review of the budget, we identified several areas that were labeled as indirect costs, but that are actually funding new policy efforts or new shifts.

And so, if you think it's important for us to be very clear what that means and what it means for the budget process.

So, I just want to thank Eden for a really great framework in your memo to distinguish between indirect costs and direct costs that are for policy changes.

I think, you know, another example of why we do need to be looking carefully and just really want to appreciate the hard work that central staff is doing to help us understand what all these documents mean.

So, yeah.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Well, deserved appreciation.

Okay, let's go on to the next slide.

Thank you.

Speaking of indirect costs, the proposed adjustments increase the central service cost allocations that apply to all city departments by approximately $34M, or about 3%.

And as a very general definition, cost allocation refers to a process to account for the full cost of a city-provided service by including indirect costs in addition to the direct costs.

So, indirect costs commonly referred to as overhead or central service costs are.

Um, those that account for support services that are provided by multiple departments, including F.

A. S. I. T. H. R.

and also essentially managed benefit related costs, like healthcare and retirement.

Um.

And so.

Through a cost allocation plan, the city identifies and distributes the central service costs across all departments to ensure that they're fair, to ensure that they're fairly and accurately paying for the services that they are projected to receive.

So, as an example that I have here, based on their usage of the fleet, all departments contribute to maintaining the city's fleet, which is centrally managed by FAS.

And this next slide provides a list of central cost charging departments and a short summary of what drives the changes for each.

So we'll start with.

If you can move to the next slide, thank you.

FAS changes mentioned before are primarily, primarily technical to account for inflation and market adjustments and fuel.

And also FAS is proposing to fund mechanic positions by removing the vacancy rate.

for billable maintenance positions and I see Council Member Peterson has a question.

Oh, I can wait till this slide is done.

It's about this overall issue.

I will quickly run through this then.

So, IT changes for central costs includes increased enterprise wide security and infrastructure costs, additional anticipated utility projects, that they're assuming and adjustments for increased application and maintenance costs and upgrades.

And HR, the largest cost increase driver for HR is that proposed increase to fund the classification and compensation study.

And the remainder of the costs include adjustments to their retirement rates, accounts for the judgment and claims related increases, health care cost adjustments, industrial insurance, and so on.

So details on each of these is provided on pages 4 and 5 of the memo.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and this is the first time I'm speaking during today's meeting, so I want to add my thanks and appreciation for central staff's work in quickly Delving into this budget and highlighting this issue in particular is important because.

The higher costs for internal administrative overhead expenses is another example of what I mean when I say City Hall has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

I'm trying to figure out how is it possible that these internal central service costs are now projected to cost $34 million more than what the City Council had endorsed less than a year ago.

So, which which of these costs were not anticipated just just 9 months ago.

I think this is a trade off between the government feeding itself rather than deploying those dollars into the community.

I think it would be better if we instead invest some of this 34Million dollars.

to address priorities in the communities, like reducing homelessness or fixing our bridge infrastructure or improving public safety.

So I just wanted to signal that I'll be taking a hard look at some of these costs to see where we might want to deploy them into the community instead of just having them stay internal to City Hall.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any initial comment on that from central staff at all about maybe the why?

I think that Council Member Peterson, your question's well received, and I'll similarly be looking at that across departments.

But happy to hear any initial thoughts from central staff, and obviously not in defense of it, but if you do have any additional context, that could be helpful for all of us.

I'll, I'll step in here and then, I don't know if you have anything you want to add.

I welcome that.

I just want to name that the context in which the city, like other businesses in the community are doing business is over the past year, very high inflation environment.

And so naturally, the basic cost, just like for a family's budget, the cost of groceries, the cost of gas, of the other things have gone up significantly.

We often think through some of these central costs through that lens of how has inflation impacted these core services or the sort of basic costs of doing business for the city.

And council members, there are policy choices, of course, that you can make within that of how do we find efficiencies in this?

in the face of a high inflation environment.

But I would say, as sort of analysts, we are not terribly surprised to find central cost rates going up at a high rate in the current economic context.

It presents a problem, policy choices of how to solve that, but these are some of what is in front of you in this part of the budget.

Eden, is there anything else you want to add to that?

Actually, the next slide will cover a lot of what I would like to add and some of the options that we have going into the future.

So, Patty, if you could please go to the next slide.

So, while certain central service cost changes in the budget are easy to track, like retirement rate, healthcare related costs and so on, A comprehensive analysis of all of our central rates has been difficult to navigate in order to understand the budget impacts and cost implications of the internal service costs.

So that makes it difficult for the council to determine if this is the appropriate funding level necessary to support the delivery of city services, or if these rates could be reduced without significant impact to free up resources for other investments.

So, if the, if the council is interested in increasing oversight of these costs, you can exercise the rights to, you have the option to request enhanced reporting for all central services costs via statement of legislative intent.

And I will know that a lot of that 34Million dollars is our technical adjustments and inflationary increases.

that were provided in the table before, as well as the retirement cost increase, which I believe Tom will provide a lot of overview and more details on as part of his presentation.

Thank you.

Just a quick note to say thanks.

Thanks for identifying.

This is an area where greater transparency is still the goal here.

We talked a lot over the last few years about how We'd love to get additional transparency over existing FTEs that have been funded, existing programming that has or hasn't been funded so that we can have a better assessment in real time of any positions or programs that are having reduced funding needs earlier, so that we don't just see large amounts rolling over year over year in underspend.

So thanks for identifying this as an area for us to have more accurate budgeting as we move towards more real-time budgeting in the future.

Clearly, there's a lot of systemic changes that are needed, or I should say IT systems that are needed to be able to get that real-time analysis, and we appreciate the city budget's office interest in moving in that direction as well.

But given the revenue challenges that we face and the need for us to have real-time information to help navigate where there are pockets that are not being spent, that could help us reprogram those dollars into other high-need categories so that money doesn't sit on a shelf in the middle of ongoing pandemic and increased community and small business needs.

Okay.

Let's go on.

So now we're getting into the CIP discussion.

Approximately, so the city's 2429 proposed capital improvement program, I'll be calling it the CIP, totals $1.4 billion in 2024, which represents an increase of about $153 million, or 12% over the 24 endorsed CIPs.

However, in comparing the 2023 adopted budget.

To the proposed adjustments over that same time period, the budget increases from 7.4Billion to 7.7Billion, which is about a 275Million dollar or 3% increase.

Our total change over the 6 years.

So, the remained relatively unchanged overall, and much of the proposed adjustments are result of shifting 2023 resources through supplemental legislation into the out years.

So, if we move on to the next slide, approximately.

5 point, as you can see in this chart, um.

Approximately 5.1Billion dollars, which is 2 thirds of the 7.7Billion dollar budget in the 2024 29 proposed.

The IP is for utility funded projects managed by city light and and mostly funded by rates charge to utility customers.

And then we have SDOT CIP portfolio of about one hundred one point four billion which is almost 20 percent of the total six-year CIP while general government departments including parks FAS Seattle Center Seattle Public Library and IT account for the remaining 15 percent over the six years.

And in the interest of time I won't get into the individual departmental changes in the CIP Although a high level overview of adjustments is provided in the memo starting on page 6. And an attachment G to the memo.

So, I will wrap it up with the last slide on REIT.

So the last slide, which is relevant to the CIP conversation is regarding refunding, which is an exercise tax, sorry, excise tax imposed on the sale of real property and a significant source of the city's CIP used for a variety of asset preservation projects across the city's capital portfolio.

And so you may recall at the August, forecast council meeting, the forecast office further reduced the REIT revenue projections assumed in the 2023-2024 adopted budget by a total of almost $50 million, which is $17.423 and $32 million in 2024. As shown in this table, the proposed REIT revenue forecast is projected to nearly double from 24 to 28 And in addition to 24 through 29 proposed, the assumes a recovery starting in 2025 and departments have added back the 2023, 2024 reach reductions in the out years.

The table also shows that the projected debt service through 2027 was at exactly 30% of the revenue, which is the maximum level set in the REIT fiscal policy.

And we received 28 and 29 numbers from CVO after these slides and the memo were published.

And we can confirm that we're just below the 30% threshold.

And so, given the economic uncertainties, we've learned that it's very difficult to accurately predict what will happen to REIT revenues in the future.

So, given those uncertainties, it's important to consider and analyze the potential for actual collections to underperform projections.

Part of the alternative REIT revenue scenario analysis should include delivery, impact, and mitigation options, just as well Alternative that issuance scenario so avoid exceeding the city's that policy governing.

And on that note, that concludes my slides.

Thank you Patty for driving questions.

Okay, thank you so much.

I do want us to go back to slide 12 real quick and then I'll go to Council Member Nelson and if anybody else wants to tee up, that's great.

I wanted to underscore what is in the central staff memo and the central staff comments about the relative unreliability or unsustainability of the real estate excise tax.

We need to caution ourselves about using REIT as a funding source for debt servicing.

And last year, following the dire revenue forecast midway through the budget process, we absorbed about a $64 million decrease in the real estate excise tax revenues, along with a net decrease of 9.4 million in general fund revenues and a decrease in the sugary sweetened beverage tax of 4.5 million.

So we were able to absorb this large hit to our revenues while minimizing the impacts of those reductions by prioritizing projects and spending categories that already had projects in development that were initiated or fully planned, but we tried to not go down the route of putting funding towards brand new projects or pilot ideas to ensure that we were keeping an eye at the city running and maintaining the momentum that was already underway.

So those are really tough decisions, and we tried to, as I look at my council colleagues, you'll probably remember this, we tried to ensure that the projects that were really going to serve under-invested areas across our city with some of the highest needs were prioritized first.

But overall, there is a huge need for us to have sustainable revenue to make sure that we're not sort of whipsawing as we see REIT street funds, ebb and flow year over year or even quarter to quarter.

So I just wanted to underscore that note in the central staff comments as well.

Councilmember Nelson, you are up next.

Please go ahead.

Thanks.

Could you go back to slide 11, please?

Thanks.

Eden, I really appreciated that with the utilities, you noted that the increase The proposed increase is paid for by by rate.

So that is not money that we have to come up with, or that is not being taken from.

Another pot or projects just being wiped off the books so.

Is any of the other are it, but it doesn't look like there are any other increases really in in the proposed.

So, is it safe to say that most of the, the bulk of the increase in is number 1. In the utilities and also accounted for by rate rates and then potentially increases.

Largely, that is correct.

Um, there is some decreases, if anything, mostly in the re, uh, funds because of the.

Uh, reproduction and the forecast the revenue forecast and.

There are some inflationary costs and some, a lot of movements of projects.

There's a lot of movement.

Um.

Uh, moving buckets of projects into a more of a programmatic level.

So you'll see a lot of that between projects, but yes, overall, uh, department stayed within their.

Endorse levels, um, and within the 2023, 2028 parameters.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Any additional comments on these slides?

And, Edwin, we will probably adjourn after this presentation, so if there is any additional information that you would like to provide on this slide, slide 11, that gets into some of the details that you provided in the memo.

If there's, you know, two or three categories that you wanted to point our attention to, of course, feel free to.

And then colleagues, we would adjourn and come back at 2 p.m.

for the remainder of our meeting.

Anything else, Ed, you'd like to focus on here?

Let me see what I covered in the memo, see if there's any particular departments per CIP that I could cover.

So one second please.

So yeah, a lot of this.

So I could talk a little bit about the SDOT supplemental, so re-appropriation of those.

The changes reflect the Uh, mostly project delivery schedule, but don't, um, impact project or scope.

Um, there is 1 project.

That was the, the Alaskan way, the Alaskan way main corridor project has some increased funding there.

Um, and then for for the parks related projects, um.

The result, the changes are related, um, and they reduce revenues, uh, uh, By about 20Million dollars and add back 25Million dollars.

So, however, to address the decrease in revenues, some of the smaller ongoing parks programs, such as the pavement restoration and irrigation replacement programs are reduced in the proposed adjustments and those are not expected to be restored.

And then the remaining of the projects are SPU and city light related in terms of the overall increase.

And so mostly SPU actually because the solid waste utility projects are the ship canal water quality project has some inflationary costs that were added to the Seattle Public Utilities portfolio.

Okay, and I'll just say that potential issues identified by central staff regarding the 2429 CIP adjustments.

A lot of that will be provided in the department specific budget papers, which will come tomorrow and on Friday.

Okay.

Excellent.

Thank you.

I'm not seeing any additional hands from my colleagues who have committee jurisdiction over those areas right now, so we probably will have additional discussion as we get into each of those departments forthcoming.

Thank you for lifting up this information in this illustrative way that you've done on this chart.

I think it is helpful to see projected funds over a six-year forecast.

Is there any additional questions that our colleagues have?

Okay.

Hearing no objection, colleagues, I'm going to go ahead and call us into recess to return at 2 p.m.

for the remainder of our discussion.

That gives you an hour and a half for lunch.

And to our staff, thank you for getting us through the first part of the day.

We will reconvene at 2 p.m.

If there's no objection, the Select Budget Committee is in recess.

Hearing no objection, We are in recess.

See you at 2 p.m.

colleagues.

Thanks again to Seattle Channel for broadcasting this.

See you in a little bit.

Recording stopped.