Seattle City Council Briefing 11/29/21

Everyone the November 29th, 2021 council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 933 am.

Before the clerk calls the roll, I want to let folks know that Council Member Sawant's office did let me know earlier this morning that she would not be in attendance during this morning's council briefing, but she will be with us this afternoon at our full council meeting.

So Council Member Sawant is excused from this morning's council briefing.

We look forward to having her with us this afternoon.

That being said, will the clerk please call the roll?

Herbold?

Here.

Juarez?

Here.

Lewis?

Thank you so much.

I will make sure that the record reflects as people join us.

If there's no objection the minutes of November 22, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's report, I have nothing to report this morning, so we will move straight into our first briefing of the morning.

This morning, we are joined by members of the Legislative Department's RSGI Change Team for an important presentation on our department's efforts to advance racial equity through our policy and budget work.

Joining us this morning are Asha Venkatraman with our Council Central staff and Jacob Thorpe from Councilmember Lewis's office.

I'm going to hand it over to them for their own introductions and hand over the reins for the presentation.

But I'm really excited about having an opportunity to hear the presentation.

And for the record, Councilmember Mosqueda has now joined us.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you City Council Members for the opportunity to present and especially to Council President Gonzalez for all of your support for the Legislative Department Change Team and to Council Members Herbold, Strauss, and Morales for signing on to the consultant funding report.

Today, we're going to provide an update on the work of the Legislative Department's Race and Social Justice Initiative Change Team, more specifically on our work to hire a consultant who will plan, design, and administer a racial equity needs assessment, and to facilitate focus group discussions with legislative department employees, which will provide the foundation for an inaugural racial equity work plan for the department.

Good morning, Councilmembers.

I'm going to provide just a little bit of background before Jacob jumps into the meat of our future work here.

Asha Venkatraman, Council Central Staff.

So, the City's Race and Social Justice Initiative was initiated back in 2004 with the goal of eliminating institutional racism in the city.

Because it was adopted by executive order, which, as it might imply, applies to the executive departments, the council adopted Resolution 31164 back in 2009, adopting the initiative as part of the legislative department's operations.

As part of RSGI, city departments form internal change teams to promote racial equity and try and eliminate racial disparities through programs, policies, and procedures.

And change teams are comprised of employees from throughout the department.

And each change team works to figure out how they can advance racial equity within their own department.

The Legislative's, excuse me, the Legislative's Department's RSJI Change Team, our vision is to support the implementation of internal departmental changes to undo institutional racism.

And though you'll just see me and Jacob here on screen at the moment, we have a really amazing team of 11 people that we just recruited this year that we're super excited to have on board.

I'll just focus a little bit on the change team's progress since I've been here since about 2015. But I do want to acknowledge it was active before that in some periods.

I believe at the time Council Member Herbold was part of the change team.

We went back to look at some of the history when we were going through and figuring out how to understand the legislative department's change team history in order to figure out what its future might look like.

So since 2015, it was, I believe at that time it was inactive, but was reanimated by several members.

At that point, I believe they were legislative assistants.

And through the past couple of years has shown up in a variety of iterations.

It's been a book club, it's been a discussion space for racial equity, it's been support for members of the change team experiencing racism.

We've put on department-wide trainings.

We've tried to initiate a racial equity toolkit.

And so throughout all of the years, several years worth of conversation and reflection, engagement, identified a couple of continuing challenges that we have continued to experience and are going to try and address in the next few years, as Jake will speak to in a little bit.

But some of those challenges include recruitment and retention of employees, of BIPOC employees specifically, and especially of Black leadership, as well as management and staff commitment to RSJI principles and operationalizing that throughout the department, as well as issues addressing healthy workplace practices.

So as part of the effort to face these challenges, in 2021, the change team is starting the work of developing an inaugural two-year work plan for department-wide strategies to improve racial equity outcomes.

I'll turn it back over to Jacob to talk more about that.

Thank you, Asha, for that background.

Our immediate goal is to initiate this process to understand the policies, practices and procedures that are contributing to racial inequities within the department.

And so in the next few weeks, we're going to start the work of creating this needs assessment and work plan.

We anticipate the assessments going to reveal how the department currently supports its BIPOC staff, and what more could be done to advance racial equity, such as identifying strategies to incorporate racial equity principles in employee recruitment and retention, what workplace expectations are, and maybe even policy analysis.

After these issues are identified, we're going to work with department leaders and staff to address these challenges over short and long term through that racial equity work plan.

So in these next few weeks, our consultant is going to facilitate a project kickoff meeting with the change team and with interested Ledge Department employees and directors to identify our partnership values and the goals of the assessment.

Through February and March, the consultant's going to conduct facilitated discussions and do interviews with small and medium-sized groups, take that information, what they learn, and prepare a needs assessment report for the department by the end of May.

Using that needs assessment and with feedback provided by the consultant, the change team and department are going to develop a racial equity work plan to give us some department-wide strategies for racial equity goals in the next two years.

We hope the council and alleged department directors will support this effort to take real action to further our shared racial equity goals.

Thank you for all of your support this far.

And are there any questions?

Okay, well thank you Asha and Jacob for being with us this morning and for giving us a little bit more detail about what we can expect over the next few weeks.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on the presentation so far?

I am not seeing any hands raised.

So thank you all again for being with us this morning.

Really appreciate it.

I know this was just sort of an initial presentation to make sure we all understood what was coming down the pike.

So appreciate an opportunity to give you all a chance to make the presentation here at council briefing.

I'm sure that there will be lots more questions once the consultant digs into their work and begins sort of substantive presentations.

So thank you all.

Okay, we're going to go ahead and move to our next agenda item here, which is the, excuse me, presentation of our 2022 state legislative agenda.

Colleagues, we are joined this morning by members of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations who are with us to present the City of Seattle's proposed legislative agenda for 2022. This is the first public presentation on this subject by the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, but I know that they have reached out to you and in most instances, I believe, have met individually with each of you to hear about your priorities and how to incorporate those priorities into this draft legislative agenda.

After today's presentation, you'll have an opportunity to review the draft and to offer additional edits to the OIR team before the legislation adopting the legislative agenda is introduced and referred to the full city council for final action.

We want to ensure that this process is thoughtful and that each of you have an opportunity to engage and that members of the public also have an opportunity to provide us with feedback on additional changes for areas of emphasis for next year's legislative work.

So I'm going to hand it over to Director Wilson-Codega for introductions and presentation.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, Council President, Council members.

As Council President Gonzalez noted, we are before you today to present the first draft of the Council's state legislative agenda for 2022. And we are so grateful for you all taking the time with us to outline your individual priorities.

I think we finally, finally, this year, finally got to everyone before our first draft presentation.

So we're thrilled to have all of that feedback that has been incorporated.

and to this document, along with the most pressing issues our departments asked us to pursue this session in Olympia.

That is also in today's draft.

We understand how what a busy time you all have been dealing with through budget season and very much appreciate the extensive feedback and strong partnership with council, particularly as it related to remote testimony last year.

I feel like whenever we asked, which was often you all came through and helped us with so many hearings.

I would say the silver lining of the.

of the virtual format is just accessibility in terms of, you know, I know it's hard for you all to take a whole day off to come to Olympia, but your voices are very powerful in the state legislature and please know how grateful our team is for that partnership.

As I'm sure there will be additional language proposed today or throughout the process, never fear, this is not the final document.

There is still additional time for council priorities to be incorporated into this document.

We would just ask that you all be mindful.

We do hope to have a final product that we can then use to give our team policy direction before session begins on January 12th.

We are now in the second half of the legislature's biennial budget process and are therefore moving into a short 60-day session this year, scheduled to begin January 12th and end March 10th.

While we're looking at a continued virtual format this session for committees, it looks like members will be in person on the floor and members of the public will be allowed into galleries with some limitations.

Housing, progressive revenue, criminal justice reform, gun responsibility, and transportation funding have been outlined broadly as your priority areas for council this year.

And Elsa Brown and Hana Smith will be covering specific issue areas and high-profile bills that you have raised for our team throughout the interim in more detail in their reports today.

But before we dive into the specific briefings that Elsa and Hana will offer, I'd first like to thank Quinn Majeski, our state relations director, for initiating a draft of the legislative agenda and working diligently for months with your offices and our city department leaders to ensure every broad topic area and every specific bill that was articulated to our team was incorporated.

He did a great job starting us off.

I'd also like to thank Robin Koski, formerly OIR's deputy director and also previously our state relations director for her hard work and advocacy with our state team over the past few years.

She is a force, as many of you know, and while we are going to miss her in OIR so very much this session, she didn't go far as we are now fortunate to have Robin serving as the interim director over at the Office of Housing.

So she is no longer with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Quinn is out on paternity leave until early February.

He and his family are doing well, and we can't wait to see him later on in session.

And in light of all of that, many of you have worked with Hannah Smith, who's here with us today, our wonderful Government Affairs Program Director, who will be covering the social safety net, civil rights, immigration, early education, and healthcare portfolios today.

And lastly, I'm thrilled to announce Elsa Brown has joined the OIR team as a state lobbyist, recently working for Representative Vandana Slatter.

And the transportation, general government, utilities, energy, and environmental portfolios are in her capable hands.

until Quinn returns for paternity leave in February, and we can foist some of that work back on him again.

Given the many changes on our team, as always, you can reach out to me directly or anyone at OIR.

We'll make sure to route you to the right person managing your issue, and we'll make sure to be in touch as that progresses.

I'd also like to give a huge thank you to Hannah and Elsa for their very hard work incorporating your feedback into this document as it has continued to reach us.

And I will now turn it over to Elsa Brown to cover any general updates on the 2022 session.

I may have missed anything earth shattering from committee days.

And then she will review her general government revenue, utilities and transportation portfolios.

Thank you.

Thanks, Lily.

And thank you, council, for the chance to brief you on the upcoming legislative session.

As Lily mentioned, I'm covering transportation, climate and the environment, utilities, and some other general topics for you today.

So I'll start off with transportation.

In 2021, the legislature considered, but in the end did not adopt, a state transportation revenue package.

We expected that perhaps there might be a special session this interim to put together a package.

In the end, that special session did not come together.

So in 2022, legislators will still be considering a potential transportation revenue package.

One of the big changes that we've seen in the legislature this interim is Senate Transportation Chair Steve Hobbs has been appointed by the governor to be the new Secretary of State.

So the Senate Democrats will be working on deciding a new Senate Transportation Chair, which might impact revenue discussions and negotiations this upcoming session.

So we'll keep you updated as that becomes more apparent who our new chair will be and as that update comes to pass.

So in 2021, there was significant work in the legislature on climate change.

The Climate Commitment Act and Clean Fuels both passed the legislature.

These were significant bills that have been worked on for many years.

So they have in part sort of cleaned the slate on some of the climate and environment issues that we're anticipating.

However, work remains on this issue.

Building decarbonization remains an important sort of subfield of climate change that we are engaged in supporting.

We expect there will be several different bills covering building decarbonization this year.

In a change from last year, there is sort of one omnibus topic.

This year we expect it to be broken down into several different bills.

Some of the specific areas that we will be maintaining our engagement in are beneficial electrification, so enabling our utilities to help customers transition to cleaner technologies.

as well as a residential reach code, which would allow the city to adopt a higher standard for residential buildings.

So we'll continue to keep an eye on that.

Other areas of environmental issues that we expect will continue to be on the docket in 2022 are adopting a climate goal into our state's comprehensive planning, we expect that to come up again, as well as work on our state's solid waste.

So this is impacting SPU and our utilities.

There will be efforts from legislators to improve our state's recycling system and work on extended producer responsibility legislation.

Another area that you all have indicated a lot of interest in over the years is progressive revenue.

In this case, significant action was taken again on this area in 2021 with the passage of the capital gains bill.

We do expect that Changes associated with progressive revenue will be more limited in 2022 because a lot of action was taken in 2021. We don't anticipate as significant bills moving in this short session.

However, the chair of the House Finance Committee, Representative Noelle Frame, has been conducting statewide workshops and town halls on our tax structure as a part of her tax structure work group.

Um, so they are looking at, uh, reaching out to the public about some additional ideas they might have on progressive revenue.

And we expect that, um.

As bills are introduced, they may be the start of conversation in 2023 and a budget year.

As opposed to.

maybe being adopted in 2022. So we will continue to engage on progressive revenue issues and support policies that you all have outlined, but our expectation that they will actually move forward in 22 may be limited.

Finally, in the housing area, We are supporting a wide and broad ask from housing advocates, Challenge Seattle, and others for 400 million in American Rescue Plan funds for rapid acquisition of housing and shelter.

We expect to see a significant expenditure in the governor's budget and will be continuing to support significant investments in housing this year as a high priority for our department and for the city.

Thank you so much, Elsa.

If there are no questions for Elsa, or if you'd rather hold them to the end, I think we can turn it over to Hannah Smith.

Why don't we get through the presentation and then we can hold questions until the end just to make sure we get through the full presentation.

Go ahead, Hannah.

Sounds great.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council President.

So starting off in education, last year there were some really historic investments in childcare through the Fair Starts for Kids Act.

Those investments are starting to go out to providers this fall and eligibility for families is changing already.

That's great work, but this year we will continue to look at support for facilities and places to put kids as the child care crisis continues.

In healthcare, we're continuing to advocate for support, funding, and treatment for those with substance abuse disorders, including opiates and methamphetamines, along with support for a full continuum of behavioral health.

care.

And we will follow something I reported on a lot last year, the rollout of the 9-8-8 crisis response line to ensure that the mobile crisis units hit the ground running and are culturally responsive and meet our needs.

There's also interest this year in ensuring everyone in Washington has access to health care.

So we're looking at policies that ensure access around the entire state, local authority to address gaps in coverage, and affordability through balanced billing efforts.

There's also been concerns raised about the Long-Term Care Act as that tax rolls out this year.

So we will continue to work to ensure that the state's long-term care program works for aging folks in our state and their ability to afford nursing care and other support services.

Finally, some highlights in the safety net space.

Again, last year we saw incredible investments in our safety net programs as federal funding was used to meet the increased needs of the pandemic.

However, we all know that there's still significant need for folks around the state and especially in Seattle.

So we'll be continuing to support expansion of several safety net programs along with several issues for immigrants and undocumented workers, including naturalization efforts, including the New Americans program, access to health care and access to safety net programs.

Those are some of the highlights following off of last year's work and some new priorities that you all have raised for us this year, but that's what I wanted to highlight and happy to answer any questions.

Great, OK, Lily, I think that's the end of the presentation, right?

Correct, we are all finished great colleagues.

Any questions or comments comments for Elsa, Hana, or Lily on the draft legislative agenda.

Council President, I do have a question.

Go ahead, Council Member Musqueda, please.

Thank you.

Let me get my camera up here.

Okay.

Hello, everybody.

Hello, Council Member.

Good to see you.

Good luck this upcoming session in advance.

And I'm Glad to hear that it's going to be hybrid so that everybody's health and safety is protected.

I did have a question, Hannah, about the long-term insurance plan.

I know our friends at SEIU 775, for example, worked really hard on that legislation.

I personally don't think that it makes a lot of sense to have competing plans, especially among local jurisdictions like we have here in Seattle.

As a large insurance plan, I think it makes the most sense to have one large pool.

us the concept of insurance.

So can you tell me a little bit more about what some of the policy changes are that are being described or discussed?

Or if you don't have those details right now, I just want to flag for you my interest in helping to make sure that that statewide insurance plan and the pool at the state level remains strong, because I think that actually helps us and the population of Seattle have good coverage for especially a low-income and our most marginalized populations having the largest population base in the city, or excuse me, in the state, I do think it's important that we play as good partners in that new insurance plan.

So are there any proposed policy changes to that insurance pool or are we just tracking that there's possible concerns coming up?

Yeah, thank you for your support Councilmember Mosqueda and definitely I'm sure we'll call on you this session as it comes up.

At this point, I don't have anything super specific to share.

I think it's just been something that a lot of legislators have heard concerns about and are trying to figure out the best way to, as you said, meet the needs and create this pool that will help everyone, but also respond to some constituent concerns there.

just as it's new and everyone figures out how this will impact them every couple weeks on a paycheck.

So happy to follow up.

I think at this point, we're just hearing that there's thoughts floating around.

And as we get specifics, I'll definitely reach out to you.

Hanna is absolutely correct.

And one thing I would add, Council Member Mosqueda, is just in conversations with folks at 775, it sounds like there's been some real, you know, some really positive conversations around legitimate concerns folks have around portability.

and then around, you know, accessibility for folks who are, you know, potentially not able to access the program at this stage in their life.

And so I think, you know, there is a real goodwill investment in addressing, you know, making sure that appropriate access is made available to more folks.

And, you know, those are just challenging details with something that with you know, legislation that's that significant.

So they are working on a bill.

We'll make sure to keep you posted on that, given your concerns.

But it sounds like they are wanting to just continue to improve the policy for everyone as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, if you think about our existing social insurance programs, like unemployment insurance or workers' compensation, it wouldn't make any sense to have local jurisdictions try to mirror a statewide insurance plan when you want everybody to pay in so that rates remain low and people have access to the benefits when needed.

So just from that high-level perspective, I'll look forward to engaging more with all of you.

If we see specific changes, I'd be very interested in making sure that we are thinking about the sustainability and the long-term trajectory of that insurance program for especially our most vulnerable that still live in the city but could benefit from lower rates potentially at the state level.

So I'll keep my eyes open.

Thank you for that information.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any other questions or comments?

And again, colleagues, you will have the next few days to engage with OIR after you have time to read the actual document.

This certainly isn't your last chance, but I do want to encourage you to flag any issues publicly now in the spirit of wanting to keep our process as transparent as possible to members of the viewing public.

I see Council Member Herbold has her hand up.

Please.

Thank you.

I'm just interested in flagging one of the items that OIR added to the draft legislative agenda on my request is pretty, from my understanding, is in its sort of infancy in developing the concept.

It's something that I know SPD is interested in.

It's a and it would be a a new issue to be discussed at the state legislature i think there's some uh...

uh...

some uh...

precedent for a similar issue uh...

and that is uh...

this is the issue related to the theft of catalytic converters uh...

and the uh...

difficulty of uh...

doing any of that anything around that locally and sort of that The precedent setting element here relates specifically to how the state deals with copper wire theft.

And a lot of this is preempted by this, a lot of this type of regulation of metal recyclers is preempted in state law.

And so similarly, because the market for catalytic converters are typically metal recyclers.

It has been determined that the ability of the city to do anything around this area is also preempted by the state.

There's also, as I think people probably know from reading about this in the media, there's also the issue that I think there's an interstate commerce issue in that the catalytic converters are relatively small, and they're not only being resold in local metal recyclers, but they're also being shipped.

And so there's that issue there as well.

So that obviously might need to be addressed.

Another way, but our own ability here locally to regulate scrap metal recyclers in a way to try to address this issue is very hampered right now by state law.

So just want to flag that the solution isn't very well developed, unlike many times when we ask you to put something on the state legislative agenda.

There's already groups of folks who are working on it.

This is one of those things I think that if we want to make some progress on it, we're going to need to put our heads together around some solutions.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for the context, Council Member Herbold.

I did see Elsa was able to incorporate that language.

We look forward to working with you and your staff and learning more about that issue.

And I would just say generally, whether it's you know, state preemption on our ability to regulate firearms or things like this, you know, we are generally seeking more authority to do the important regulatory work that the city would like to engage in.

So thank you so much for that flag.

Thank you for that.

Any other comments or questions?

All right.

Going once, going twice.

Okay, I don't see any other hands raised.

Lily, Elsa or Hannah, anything else you'd like to add before we move on to our next item?

Just another note of kind of appreciation slash warning.

It was so helpful to have you all engaged at the leadership level to the extent that you were last session.

would really appreciate with our new team.

I think we have some new faces.

It is always very powerful for legislators to hear from you directly.

So we try to be judicious about what we're asking you to testify on, but it really means a lot to policymakers in Olympia.

So expect to hear from us.

We understand you're not always available, but we do appreciate the partnership.

Just remember to pass the legislative agenda before session starts.

That would be my final word.

Yes, we know that this is important for us to pass in December.

We intend to do that before recess.

So we have given you and my office our word to do that because That's your blueprint when legislative session starts in the state.

So we will endeavor to get that across the finish line.

Thanks so much for being with us and good luck.

I will not be here with you for your state legislative session next year, but much luck to you all as you continue to do the hard and important work on behalf of the people of the city.

Thank you so much, Council President.

We'll see you soon.

Bye bye.

Okay, folks, we are going to move now to our next item of business, which is a preview of today's city council actions council and regional committees.

I'm going to call on council members as established by the rotated roll call for today's city council meeting.

So, today, as a reminder, we will start with council member herbal.

Then we will hear from council member wires.

Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Peterson, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

As a reminder, Council Member Strauss and Sumlant are not with us this morning.

Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you so much.

There are no items on the full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

Today at two o'clock, there are no committee meetings of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

This week, we do have a special Public Safety and Human Services Committee scheduled for let's see here it is December 9th which is a Thursday it's a different day for us usually at 930 and We'll have more information on the contents of that agenda coming up soon.

For items, just a quick update from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on HSD items.

First, the Seattle Youth Employment Program, otherwise known as SYEP, is currently accepting applications for its 2022 job readiness boot camp.

So if you have young people in your life, It'd be great to let them know about this coming up.

This is a really important program that supports young people, 16 to 24, from qualifying income households and communities that experience racial, social, and economic disparities.

The goal of the program is to increase youth and young adults' ability to pursue careers that pay well and are meaningful to them.

You can get more information at seattle.gov forward slash s y e p.

Um, let's see, coming up this week as far as regional committees, I'll be attending, uh, and representing the city, uh, the regional water quality committee and also that's on Wednesday and on thursday, the regional law, safety and justice committee.

And, um, No other major events to announce other than we've got an exciting announcement coming up in about an hour now with Mayor Durkin and Transportation Director Sam Zimbabwe on the next steps on the West Seattle Bridge repair, which I'm very, very excited about.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

Any comments or questions?

Okay, hearing none, I do also wanna note that we have been joined by Council Member Morales as well.

Okay, next up, we're gonna keep going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Juarez, followed by Council Member Lewis.

Good morning, Council Member Juarez.

You are on mute, Council Member.

Of course I am.

Thank you.

Would be a Monday if you weren't.

Good morning, Council President and colleagues.

Very brief this morning.

There are no items from the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's council agenda.

Due to the holiday weekend, there are no updates to share from the Parks Department today.

Seattle Public Library, the Seattle Public Library, in their third-quarter levy report, highlights their work to increase the number of Internet hotspots available to clients or residents in the City of Seattle.

The library is partnering with community organizations such as API Chaya, Casa Latina, Chief Seattle Club, and Lehigh, the Low-Income Housing Institute, to provide long-term outreach hotspots for families and individuals who do not have reliable internet access.

As you know, we've been dealing with this issue for a while, so I'm glad we're getting more hotspots out there.

Library has loaned hotspots over 1,900 times through the general circulation.

More than 100 hotspots were loaned for long-term access through the outreach efforts with community members and partners.

The library loaned 35 additional hotspots to Seattle Parks and Recreation for youth programs at community centers.

Finally, some exciting news.

On November 19th, Governor Inslee appointed Chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, Leonard Forsman, our good friend Leonard, to the University of Washington Board of Regents, making him the first Native American to be appointed to the University of Washington Board of Regents in their history.

Leonard Forsman is Chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and President of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, commonly known as AT&I, and Vice President of the National Congress of American Indians, in which well over almost 500 tribes are members of.

In the past, President Barack Obama appointed him to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in 2013 and 16, where he served as Vice Chairman until 2019. Chairman Leonard Forsman is also a descendant of Chief Sealth, making this appointment a momentous occasion for our great city and the University of Washington.

So long time coming.

That's all I have for you, Council President.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, we'll keep on going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Lewis and then Council Member Morales.

Good morning, Council Member Lewis.

Good morning, Madam President.

There are no items on this afternoon's agenda from the Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments, nor is there anything on introduction referral from my office.

I do have some information to share with the council regarding developments in the standing up of homelessness emergency shelter assets.

I am really pleased to report back that Friendship Heights and Council Member Juarez's district, Tiny House Village, is expected to open officially on November 30th, tomorrow, and to, in short order, start accepting villagers.

It's really good to see that project coming along here.

As folks might recall, this is one of the villages the Council funded in our 2021 budget, and it's good to see it finally coming online.

I did have the opportunity early last week to go and tour the work at the expansion of the Interbay Tiny House Village in District 7, and I'm pleased to report that that work has been completed and villagers will soon be moving into the new tiny homes that have been created on that site.

And finally, there is a Notice of Funding Availability that has been released by the Regional Homelessness Authority in order to create new capacity for enhanced sheltering assets to serve people experiencing homelessness in order to rapidly rehouse folks and get them out of encampments and back on their feet.

That Notice of Funding Availability has been released and certainly encourage all of our friends in the nonprofit sector who set up and develop sheltering assets to respond and bid to put their stamp and vision on that notice of funding availability to continue our work in confronting our crisis of homelessness in Seattle and King County.

Finally, I will be attending the Puget Sound Regional Council's growth management committee this Thursday morning.

And otherwise, I don't have any other regional commitments this week.

And that is my report.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Lewis.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, we'll keep on going here.

Next up is Councilmember Morales, followed by Councilmember Mosqueda.

Good morning, Councilmember Morales.

Good morning, colleagues.

I'm going to be very brief.

Not feeling great, unfortunately.

Let me see.

The next committee, Community Economic Development Committee, is this Friday, December 10th.

Sorry, a week from Friday, December 10th at 9.30.

We have several items on the IRC this afternoon, including Council Bill 120184, which establishes Juneteenth as a legal holiday for certain city employees.

At the committee meeting, we will have six appointments to the Human Rights Commission and three to the Women's Commission.

Last Monday, I do want to follow up on the conversation that we had at briefing last week.

After briefing, I did join several neighbors at the Mount Baker loft apartments and met with several residents there.

We had a productive meeting.

and agreed to be in more regular communication about the incidences that are happening in the neighborhood.

My office committed to meeting with them every two weeks so we can keep advocating for our city departments and agencies to implement the kind of changes that residents have been asking for.

Additionally, we did brainstorm ways for those residents to start organizing with other housing and transit advocates to push Sound Transit to be more responsive to the security needs at their station.

There has been a little bit of an uptick in security presence there, but given that that is an elevated platform with nothing happening underneath, especially at night, it is really important.

And the neighbors are, frankly, very frustrated that they're getting no response from Sound Transit.

We will continue to work there to see what changes they will implement.

And we're now working with Lehigh to see if we can find some tiny houses for the residents of the Chistie encampment so that we can try to alleviate some of the pressure that they're experiencing there as well.

That is really all I have this morning, colleagues.

Thank you so much.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, we hope you feel better, Council Member Morales, and look forward to seeing you this afternoon if you are well enough to be with us.

Next up is Council Member Mosqueda, and then after Council Member Mosqueda will be Council Member Peterson.

Good morning, Council Member Mosqueda.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Thank you for all the work that you did over the last eight weeks.

We are one week out from having passed our budget.

Thank you all for your work on that.

Now that budget is over, we can move on to our Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

This will be our last meeting of the year, December 7th at 9.30 a.m.

The tentative agenda includes a public hearing on next year's annual action plan for the Office of Housing.

The 2021 annual action plan, the street vacation legislation that Council Member Swan has been talking about this last month or so, two appointments to the Domestic Workers Standards Board, and a presentation from FAS on their race and social justice initiative.

That is all I have for the committee overview.

I do want to say congratulations to Uncle Frank Yurgon, who received the University of Washington's 2022 Odegaard Award U-Dub's Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity and the Friends of Educational Opportunities Program Board are going to announce, are going to provide him with the award in May 2022. That will be a joint presentation from the Friends of Educational Opportunity Program Board and the Office of Minority Affairs.

He is going to be the recipient in 2022 and is a graduate of U-Dub from the years of 76 and 79. And as you all know, strong advocate for social justice, and has his fingerprints on many of the important food access programs that we continue to fund in this year's budget.

Thank you all.

Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Hearing none, we will hear next from Council Member Peterson, and then I will conclude with my report.

Council Member Peterson, good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Our Transportation and Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 a.m., so our next committee meeting will be this Wednesday, December 1st.

The agenda is being published this morning.

We will also meet on Wednesday, December 15th.

This week's meeting on December 1st is relatively full because we have legislation that we'd like to pass before the end of the year.

and the final council meeting of the year is December 13. So we need to pass stuff out of our December 1st committee.

On this afternoon's full city council agenda, there are two items related to our city-owned utilities.

due in part to the persistence of the COVID pandemic, these two bills will extend to the end of 2022, the expanded version of the emergency assistance program for both utilities.

Those programs provide credits on overdue utility bills for struggling low-income households.

Council Bill 120225 is for Seattle City Light and Council Bill 1-20-226 is for Seattle Public Utilities.

If you have any questions about these existing emergency assistance programs and this legislation extending them, please contact City Council Central staff before our 2 p.m.

Council meeting, specifically Eric McConaughey for City Light and Brian Goodnight for SPU.

As Councilmember Herbold mentioned, and I share her excitement, today there is an announcement.

A notice to proceed is happening for the final phase of repairs on the West Seattle Bridge.

This is a milestone in keeping the city on schedule to reopen the bridge at full strength next summer.

It's an 11 a.m.

press conference.

And in District 4 last week, I visited the new tiny home village, Rosie's.

It's located in our University District at the corner of Northeast 45th Street and Roosevelt Way.

I had the opportunity to deliver and serve dessert pies just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

For anyone interested in volunteering to support a tiny home village near you, especially during the winter holiday season, you can write to the nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute at volunteer.program at lehi.org, that's L-I-H-I.org, or visit their website and click on Get Involved.

Thank you.

That concludes my report.

Thank you so much, Council Member Peterson.

Any comments or questions?

Well, I am happy to report that we will be done in time for folks who are interested in watching that press conference on YouTube to do so at 11 a.m.

So really quickly, colleagues, I have one item on today's introduction referral calendar.

That's Council Bill 120237. This is the fourth quarter 2021 employment ordinance.

This is routine employment related legislation that will designate certain positions as exempt from the civil service system and return some positions to the civil service system.

I also have one item on today's city council agenda.

It's council bill 120232, which would ratify a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Seattle and the Protech 17 office of emergency management unit.

The agreement would cover approximately 13 positions in strategic advisor classifications and would be effective only through December 31st, 2021. The agreement is for a short duration because the PROTECT 17 OEM unit is part of the Coalition of City Unions, which we refer to as the coalition, whose contracts will collectively expire at the end of this year pending future agreements.

There is a central staff memo attached to this afternoon's meeting agenda for additional reference.

I encourage all of you colleagues who are interested in Digging into the details of that collective bargaining agreement to read that memo and to reach out to Karina Bull from Council Central staff if you have any questions.

This Wednesday, there will be a special meeting of the Governance and Education Committee.

It is scheduled to occur at 2 o'clock p.m.

Again, all council members are invited to join us at the Governance and Education Committee today, excuse me, this Wednesday at 2 o'clock p.m.

The only item on the agenda is the discussion of Resolution 32029, which will adopt changes to the general rules and procedures of the Seattle City Council, commonly referred to as the Council Rules.

There will be no action at this week's meeting, but we will be discussing proposed amendments to the council rules prior to committee action, which is scheduled next week at another special governance and education committee, which is scheduled on December 8th at 2 o'clock p.m.

Again, as I've mentioned previously, I'm inviting all council members to attend both the December what is it, second?

No, sorry, December 1st Governance and Education Committee meeting at 2 p.m.

and the December 8th Governance and Education Committee at 2 o'clock p.m.

And again, members who join us can participate as non-voting attendees of the discussion in order to weigh in on proposed changes.

Amendments can be proposed at the December 8th Committee meeting And non voting attendees of that meeting are able to author and speak to proposed amendments at that meeting.

I've already had conversations with some colleagues about sponsoring some of the amendments being discussed and Again, colleagues, for any of you who are not members of the Governance and Education Committee who are interested in bringing forward an amendment as an author, please do reach out to my office.

We are happy to extend the courtesy to you of advancing those for public discussion.

I know that many of you have accepted meetings with the office of the city clerk and my office to discuss the various proposed amendments to the rules.

And I want to thank you all for taking these meetings in order to streamline our committee review process of any potential changes to the council rule that we might be voting out of committee on December 8th.

Again, this Wednesday, we'll simply be discussing amendments and considering amendments and having a robust conversation and debate about those, but we will not be taking any final action on amendment or the rules as amended until December 8th.

I do think it's important for you all to have an opportunity, especially post-budget and post-holiday, to be able to take the time you need before I call things to a vote.

So feel free to reach out to my office with any questions or ongoing concerns.

Lastly, on Thursday, December 2nd, I will be heading to an in-person local progress board meeting in Arizona.

I'll return in the late afternoon on Monday, December 6th and do plan to issue an absence notification consistent with protocols for the department.

As a result of my absence on Monday, December 6th, I will, this afternoon, be moving to be excused from the Monday, December 6th City Council meeting.

My office has contacted Council Member Solan's office, who is the designated Council President Pro Tem, to cover the Monday, December 6th meeting.

If for some reason she is unavailable to cover the, to Pro Tem on December 6th, then my office intends to reach out to Council Member Herbold's office, who would be next in line.

I'm excited about the opportunity to head down to Arizona to join a couple dozen board members, all local elected officials from across the country working through a network to support and amplify the needs of local elected officials as we work together in co-governance with members of the community to advance progress and good policy on behalf of those that we represent.

This will be my last board meeting.

with local progress and looking forward to joining them as I close up my business with local progress.

Any comments or questions for the good of the order or on my report?

All right.

Well, hearing none, colleagues, that does conclude our items of business on this morning's council briefing agenda.

So we are adjourned and I will see you all this afternoon.

Bye-bye.

Thank you.