Seattle City Council Briefing 9/11/23

Great.

Thank you, Madam Clerk and IT.

Eric.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Today is Monday, September 11th.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2 o'clock.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Councilmember Lewis.

Present.

Councilmember Morales.

Here.

Councilmember Mosqueda.

Present.

Councilmember Nelson.

Present.

Council President Juarez.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you.

Before I move to approval of the minutes, I want to thank Councilmember Peters, I'm sorry, Councilmember Lewis for acting as Council President Pro Tem in my absence.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

For that, I really appreciate you stepping up.

Oh, I see Councilmember Herbold has joined us.

So Councilmember Herbold is here.

All right, let's move on to approval of the minutes.

If there's no objection, the minutes of August 7th will be adopted.

Not hearing or seeing objection, the minutes are adopted.

Um, as far as the president's reports, we have no letters or proclamations to sign.

And as we, as you all know, today, when we have our individual reports, we will start with council member Peterson today.

At the end of today's meeting, we'll have 1 executive session, which we anticipate will take 45 minutes.

If it indeed takes more, we'll go back on the record and extend the duration of the executive session.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes and payment of the bills.

And tomorrow, there is only 1 item under the committee reports on the agenda and that item is resolution 32100 request the United States Congress.

and the president to pass and sign legislation creating a national infrastructure bank.

Councilor Mosqueda's office prepared this resolution and sent a copy of it as well and a summary and a fiscal note and a flow chart to each of the council members on August 23rd.

I believe that they indicated that this resolution is similar to the one passed by the Washington State Legislature, which was sponsored by Senator Bob Hasegawa.

Councilmember's office could answer any questions you may have.

And I believe Councilmember Mosqueda's office also has a list of organizations from around the country that have endorsed a national infrastructure bank.

And we will learn more about that from Councilmember Mosqueda tomorrow, I am sure.

Or actually from today too.

Information on tomorrow's agenda is also available online as usual.

Also, I would like to remind everyone that after today's meeting again, our next council meeting will be Monday, September 18th.

At that meeting, we will meet this year's get engaged appointees to boards and commissions to get engaged program as a partnership with the YMCA to encourage young people to get involved in civic issues in their community.

And we will meet in here from the get engaged nominees next week.

We do this.

I think we do this every year.

We get actually a lot of folks that sign up.

Again, there are no letters or proclamations assigned today.

And as we go around the dais, the Zoom room and the dais, Council briefing, we will start with, this is the roll call for today.

It will be Council Member Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Turbult, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, Nelson, and then me.

So with that, we will hand it off to Council Member Peterson.

Thank you Council President.

Good afternoon colleagues.

There are no items from our Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee on the full council agenda tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you colleagues for your support in voting for all of our committee items at the full council meeting last week.

I also want to thank the committee members who were able to participate in the Transportation Committee meeting on September 5. While our committee was reiterating the type of transportation projects that can be funded by transportation impact fees, committee members, Council Member Morales and a written statement from Council Member Sawant joined me and Council Member Herbold in signaling support for an amendment to the comprehensive plan that is necessary.

It's a necessary step before City Hall can authorize impact fees here in Seattle.

This support is in addition to a recent survey showing 75% support in Seattle, as well as support for this comp plan amendment update from the Transit Riders Union and the Disability Mobility Initiative.

As we already know, impact fees are utilized in 70 other Washington cities, which makes Seattle an outlier that puts the cost burden on the property taxes instead.

I appreciate we'll have a briefing and discussion on that, Council Bill 120635, in the Land Use Committee this coming Wednesday at 2 p.m.

We'll also need to have a public hearing for that council bill, if not this Wednesday, then before the council adopts the budget near the end of November.

So, our next committee meeting for transportation and Seattle public utilities is currently scheduled for.

Next Tuesday, September 19 at 930. am.

We're still putting together our agenda for next week, but expect to have at least 7 items on our committee agenda.

So I'd ask committee members to schedule themselves to stay at committee until 12 noon on September 19. allow me to summarize that legislation here.

We'll potentially vote on it as well.

SPU and central staff will join us for a second discussion and hopefully a vote on the periodic update of our water rates with Council Bill 120657. As a reminder, Seattle Public Utilities operates within a six-year projected rate pass set by resolution for its three main lines of business, water, solid waste, and wastewater.

We typically see an increase in those rates every year to keep up with rising costs.

The rate increase that Seattle Public Utilities is proposing with this council however, is significantly less than expected when compared to the current approved rate path and is well below the rate of inflation.

I'm really proud of SPU for heeding our calls to prioritize low rates and manage their costs.

I'd also like to commend the diligent oversight from the volunteer customer review panel for their steadfast efforts to monitor costs and rates at SPU, which benefit all 750,000 of our constituents.

This is a good opportunity for me to put in a plug for council 120602, which would repeal the city city halls regressive tax on drinking water.

Hopefully, we can hear that tax reform legislation later this year as part of the budget.

Our committee will also have a second discussion and ideally vote in favor of Council 120642, a proposal from our Seattle Department of Transportation to temporarily eliminate fees for food trucks, vending carts, and smaller sidewalk activities.

While this measure might have been reported as part of the proposed downtown activation plan, it would actually be a citywide policy.

According to the fiscal note, however, the city would.

Forgo revenue of only about 140,000 dollars or so for each 12 month period, and the fees would resume on January 1. 2026, our committee meeting will also include council 120658 sponsored by council member Morales, which is a proposal to.

As I understand it requires sidewalks to be fixed or installed in conjunction with major street improvement projects led by our Seattle Department of Transportation.

Thank you, Council Member Morales, for putting that proposal forward so we can make sure Seattle benefits from better sidewalks as quickly and As efficiently as possible, I've also asked to come to our committee to provide a presentation on its spending for the voter approved Seattle transit measure, which generates about 50Million dollars each year as transportation chair.

I sponsor that measure council approved in July 2020 and voters.

overwhelmingly approved in November 2020, the transit measure, which is unfortunately paid for mainly by a regressive Seattle-only sales tax, is meant to boost transit service hours and related transportation projects.

Specifically, we've been waiting to see the granular line item details for 2023 spending and any known details for 2024 spending since we had previously endorsed the 2024 budget.

Thus far, we've received only high level bar charts showing approximate allocations to the various buckets categories, but for transparency and accountability to the public, we need to see more details on that spending, especially for the vague emerging needs category, which was originally meant to deal with the West Seattle bridge closure and the COVID pandemic.

The public will want to see how their sales tax revenue is being spent.

And we also want to know how much is just sitting unused in the reserves because we know King County Metro has shrunk or altered some bus service to our constituents.

Our committee will also discuss and possibly vote on Council 120661, which is a proposal by Seattle Public Utilities to update the city's litter code.

Their proposal clarifies the fees and adds an administrative enforcement tool to discourage illegal dumping.

At our committee, the Seattle Department of Transportation might also provide an update to their Vision Zero action plan efforts.

As you may recall, Director Greg Spatz has made safety a priority at SDOT and completed a top-to-bottom review of Seattle's Vision Zero program, which is committed to a vision of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries by the year 2030. We hope to receive an update on SDOT's early action initiatives as well as any other updates they can provide as they finalize their full action plan for later this year.

We also plan to have appointments to the various transportation advisory boards, including the bike advisory board, the freight.

Or pedestrian board, transit board and school traffic safety committee.

Colleagues, as you may recall, in August, 24 released, it's eagerly awaited Seattle transportation plan.

At 720 page document is likely to serve as a guide for transportation decision making in Seattle for the next 20 years.

And from a more immediate standpoint, S.

T. P. will serve as the transportation element of next year's comprehensive plan overhaul.

S.

T. P. synthesizes the various transportation modal plans.

And next year could be an opportunity to combine some of the modal advisory boards too, since we currently have 7 disparate advisory boards.

To see powerpoint presentation, you can go to our online committee agenda from September 5. The deadline for comments on the related environmental impact statement is October 18. the deadline for comments on the draft STP itself is October 26. I believe as transportation chair, I posted my initial comments on the STP on my council member blog.

In District 4 this past weekend, I attended three community events.

A 50th anniversary celebration for the Pea Patch Community Gardens program was held at Magnuson Park.

The View Ridge Elementary School PTA and the Community Council held their annual View Ridge Party in the park.

And the community of Inverness held their annual barbecue.

All three events were packed with constituents enjoying the weekend together.

Um, let's see a couple more items, um, hearing the calls for action among those who rally to successfully defend the magnificent cedar tree luma from chainsaws in northeast Seattle.

I took time during the council's recess to draft legislation in hopes of preventing more, uh, threats to such important trees.

The brief bill which I presented to the Urban Forestry Commission last week would ensure that SDCI consults with the state's Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation for culturally modified trees under RCW Chapter 27.53.

Learning more from that luma tree incident would prioritize large trees over new driveways instead of new driveways, and it would encourage whichever tree protection area methodology the radius or the drip line would be the most effective in protecting the tree.

I want to thank central staff and the city attorney's office for their review of the legislation to confirm no issues.

That new legislation uploaded to Legistar.

It's TMP file 9902. Folks want to take a look at that.

All right.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before I turn it over to Councilmember Sawant?

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson and good afternoon, everybody.

There are no items on tomorrow's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee.

The committee meeting scheduled for this Friday, September 15th, will be canceled because Mayor Harrell has outrageously refused to release the climate change legislation we had intended for this Friday's agenda.

Council members will know that the Office of Sustainability and Environment has spent over a year preparing legislation to reduce the legislation that, if passed, would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by large commercial buildings in Seattle.

It would require these buildings, which are owned by some of the largest multinational real estate corporations in the world, to transition away from, I'm sorry about my dog, to transition away from using natural gas or other polluting fossil fuels for their climate control and water boilers.

This is substantive legislation because building emissions are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions produced in Seattle, second only to transportation.

So you can imagine the impact that if such a legislation were passed, especially with a very urgent timeline, would have a decisive impact on greenhouse emissions in Seattle.

It is totally unacceptable that Democratic Mayor Harrell has refused to allow the Office of Sustainability and Environment to release this legislation to the City Council for a discussion and a vote.

And after it has been written, discussed with environmental organizations and unions, fully reviewed by the city attorney's office, and completed its CEPA analysis, which has passed through its review board.

I can only assume that this legislation is being held back at the request of the wealthy owners of Seattle skyscrapers and other power players who yet again are prioritizing their real estate profits over the existential crisis of the climate emergency.

This is nothing new.

Year after year, the leaders of the capitalist world hold lavish summits to discuss the climate crisis, and set nice-sounding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

And year after year, those targets are a total fantasy, because given the profit machine of capitalism that makes them hundreds of billions of dollars in profit every year, fossil fuel companies, big banks, and Wall Street have no incentive whatsoever to address this.

In fact, it is clear that the climate crisis will not begin to be addressed, let alone solved, on the basis of capitalism, where a few individuals own and control the world's resources, land, technology, and infrastructure.

Seattle is a good example of how even minimal progress on climate change is thwarted by political establishments who have progressive-sounding rhetoric sometimes but ultimately serve the big guys.

Mayor Harrell's office issued a self-congratulatory press release about this building emissions performance standards legislation when it was released for CPAR review.

Where is the press release announcing that they are refusing to follow through?

I urge environmental activists and all working people in Seattle to hold the political establishment accountable and demand that the mayor's office release this small but substantive piece of climate legislation.

And if we can succeed in getting it released, then we can look at the details very closely.

The details of this legislation specify how much time big commercial building owners will have to switch away from polluting fossil fuels.

I am concerned that the Democratic Party intends to give years and years before this bill will actually have any effect, years of increased greenhouse gas emissions and years that the climate crisis simply does not, the planet simply does not have in the face of the climate crisis.

I mentioned before the council research that Socialist Alternative, my office, and activists were committed to fighting for amendments to assure, amendments to this legislation, to assure that building owners were required to complete their electric conversions on a timeline that reflects the urgency of addressing global warming.

Perhaps the political establishment believes that if they wait until after my term is done, this legislation could be placed in the control of a committee chair who will be friendly to corporate developers, commercial building owners, and the big banks, and voted on by a city council that very likely will have moved considerably rightward and much more openly pro-big business than it is today.

Ultimately, this legislation is yet another example that the Democratic and Republican parties will not solve the climate crisis.

Working people need our own political party that will be independent of big business, and we need mass movements so that we can win victories regardless of whether our representatives are in office or not.

and working people need to fight for socialism so that these big businesses no longer have total control over the infrastructure of the world and that it is in democratic control of working people globally so that we can decide to have sane policies and sane decisions in the interest of the planet and the interest of human and other life.

If there are no questions about this report, then I can turn the floor over to, actually, there are, Councilmember Herbold and Councilmember Mosqueda.

Thank you.

I'm just want to share my disappointment as well.

I had really hoped to have an opportunity to vote on this really important policy before leaving office.

I've been following it very, very carefully.

I've been sharing in my weekly newsletter updates and responding to constituents who have contacted us throughout the process.

informing folks when the process was stalled earlier this year because of requests from large building owners to do more process.

I've also been active in, there's a climate group in District 1 that's an offshoot of the 34th District Democrats, then working closely with them on some of their interests around amendments, coaching them to be sure to not propose amendments that would require another SEPA review because that doesn't meet any of our interests in passing something that will go into effect soon and having an opportunity to vote on it this year.

So, really, just, again, I share your disappointment, Council Member Sawant, and I don't know if there is anything that we can do to encourage the mayor to reconsider this decision or if there's any way we could consider council initiated legislation based on the bill that has made it through SEPA review.

But I would support efforts to get this bill referred to your committee as I think so many of us have planned for so many months now.

Thank you.

Councilmember Mosqueda, go ahead, and then I'll respond.

Thanks.

That's very similar comments to Councilmember Herbold.

And just on the latter point, are you considering legislation that we can introduce councilmatically as the chair of the committee?

Is that something you're planning to do?

First of all, thank you so much for your comments.

That really is extremely helpful to know that you also share the concerns I have.

I mean, you know, at the very least, I thought we should send a public letter to the mayor's office, best if from the full council, but at the very least, of the council members who agree with these concerns.

But I think better yet, as you suggested, council members, that is what I've been thinking also.

The best thing would be is if we can introduce our own legislation.

My only question would be, I mean, and if council members support it, I absolutely want to bring that legislation forward before the committee and then before the council.

But one question is about timing.

There are, I think, only two weeks left before the budget, so is that, I don't know if Council Member Mosqueda, you wanted to weigh in on that, and President Juarez.

Now, I was hoping we could wrap this subject up before it turns into a committee meeting, but did customer mosquito have some closing comments?

I just think that, I mean, it's always an option for us to introduce items and I don't know how many committee meetings you have before budget comes.

I know, for example, I have 2 that are still coming up.

Okay, so sorry.

Off the top of my head customer, I'm not sure how many, I think 13. Council meetings, but I don't have a running count on and we've been trying to keep the calendar open for budget, so.

Okay, this discussion was helpful.

I will circle back with my staff and then we'll have updates to the council to share very soon.

Thank you.

Councilor Stroud's up next.

Yes, sorry.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, there are no items from the Land Use Committee being heard at City Council tomorrow.

The next regularly scheduled Land Use Committee meeting is this Wednesday, September 13th, 2023 at 2 p.m.

We will then have a special Land Use Committee on Monday, September 18th at 9.30 a.m.

For this week's meeting, we have a number of items.

We will be hearing Council Bill 120631, the Belltown zoning amendment for lodging use flexibility, briefing discussion, and a public hearing.

This proposed legislation would increase the flexibility for lodging uses in the downtown mixed residential area within Belltown.

Residential uses are exempt from the chargeable floor area limits.

This legislation will treat lodging uses the same way as residential.

As the same way their residential is regulated in the zone by exempting lodging from chargeable floor area.

All other standard standards, including height, bulk scale of the development in that zone remain unchanged.

This is a text amendment and no changes to the zoning maps are required.

This zoning area is defined by Wall Street to the north, Lenora to the south, alleys between 3rd and 2nd to the east, and 1st and Western to the west.

The zonings that are to the north and east support higher intense mixed residential uses.

The zoning to the south and west supports mixed commercial uses.

This legislation is part of the Mayor's Downtown Activation Plan and will encourage economic development in the area.

Belltown comprises a mix of commercial, residential, ground retail, and by expanding hospitality use within the downtown mixed residential zone, this is consistent with the general intent of the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, which describes the zone as predominantly residential area with neighborhood-serving non-residential uses.

We will be expanding hotel uses in this zone and that will directly contribute to an enhanced.

Neighborhood vitality and increased economic development and recovery.

In Belltown, it's a small area.

It's a small change and it's going to have a big impact.

Up next we'll have Council Bill 120632, the Downtown Retail Rezone Briefing Discussion and Public Hearing.

This also is part of the Downtown Activation Plan.

This legislation would rezone about 11 parcels generally located along 3rd Avenue between Union and Stewart within the Downtown Retail Core, and it would change it to the Downtown Mixed Commercial Zone.

The purpose of this bill is to increase the livability and vitality of the blocks that are centrally located within downtown.

We'll increase the residential units within the center of downtown to draw more tenants and activate the street level retail and bring more live, work and play environments to our city.

This will also encourage new investment that can upgrade the physical environment.

I'm going to be bringing a technical amendment to the update to the zoning map and the SMC to reflect the changes to the DRC So I'm going to bring an amendment to update the zoning map in the Seattle Municipal Code to reflect the changes to the downtown retail core boundaries, just to spell out the acronyms included in this bill.

Legislation, as I said, is part of the downtown activation plan to encourage economic development and vitality downtown.

Up next we'll have Council Bill 120622, a vacant building monitoring program.

We'll have briefing discussion and public hearing.

This legislation was something that I started working on on my own.

When I reached out to SDCI about this legislation, they'd already been working on it.

I will be honest with you, they covered every single one of the points that I brought up.

I'm very excited for this legislation.

It will increase the This legislation responds to an increase in public nuisance and health and safety risks associated with vacant structures by raising standards and improving the effectiveness of vacant building monitoring.

The proposed legislation would strengthen the standards for securing vacant buildings by requiring solid core doors.

Stronger deadbolts and in some cases, polycarbonate sheets rather than plywood requires vacant buildings to be kept free of graffiti and would require any building that receives a notice of violation to enter the vacant building monitoring program rather than just those buildings that fail to correct the notice of violation by the compliance deadline.

This will simplify the process for police and fire to make referrals into the vacant building monitoring program and will authorize the department to file a property lien to collect unpaid vacant building monitoring fees and abatement costs rather than just asking nicely.

I think that this is a good bill.

I'm excited to have it in my committee.

We will also have a committee resolution 32097, Uh, which is the industrial maritime transportation resolution.

We had a short delay from receiving some final feedback.

From city partners, and so that.

So, the agenda was just updated today with a substitute.

A bill, if.

We don't have enough time for all stakeholders to become comfortable with this.

We will delay the final vote on this transportation resolution to the.

Following committee, and if everyone, this has been a long workshop.

Resolution and so if we are ready to go, we will vote on it this this meeting.

This resolution calls for analyzing transportation plans, projects, changes to the right away and industrial sub area plan in order to identify fund projects that support freight mobility.

Advocates for sound transits, West Seattle and Ballard link extensions in certain places reports on non industrial development and the manufacturing industrial centers.

Considers opportunities to address transportation safety issues during project review designates rate only lanes that provide essential connections between port facilities and highways.

Seeks increased funding for pavement maintenance and supports vision 0 projects with unique industrial area applications.

The long and short of this is that.

Our industrial areas.

are specifically zoned to be louder, the work to be noisier, dirtier, and is so critical to our city's economy because the economy that occurs within the industrial zones does not fluctuate with the wider economic swings that we have.

To get work done in the industrial zones is dependent upon the ability to get goods to and from those locations.

This transportation resolution looks to complement The zoning changes that we made just this last summer in a way that we can create the transportation network to ensure that our industrial and maritime areas thrive.

Finally, in committee this week, we will have council bill 120635 transportation impact fees for briefing and discussion.

Transportation impact fees will still be heard in the land use committee this Wednesday, September.

13th, the official public hearing will be canceled, but public comment will still be accepted.

30-day public notice is required when scheduling public hearings, and when this hearing was scheduled, I anticipated that the hearing examiner would have reached a final decision by this time.

As the hearing examiner is still deciding on the issue, I made the decision to postpone the official public hearing until after the hearing examiner's final determination.

The land use committee will still be briefed on transportation impact fees just as we would have been.

Otherwise.

This coming Wednesday, the public can still make comment on the issue during public comment at the start of the meeting and when the official public hearing is rescheduled, we will provide at least 30 days notice in the papers of record.

I look forward to seeing you at this briefing.

There are a lot of important questions, and it'll be also interesting to receive a report from KETL on how the deliberations with the hearing examiner went last week.

Lastly, the next meeting of the Land Use Committee before the budget process begins will be the Special Land Use Committee on Monday, September 18th at 9.30 a.m.

Finally, I know it's not in the purview of my committee, today being the 22nd anniversary of the September 11th attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., take this time to again recognize the important work of our first responders on September 11, 2001, and the important work that they do in our city every day.

They're constantly faced with sometimes the same call time and time again, and we depend on our first responders so much.

So taking this moment to thank all of our first responders from 22 years ago and today.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, are there any questions on my report?

Council President.

So I just want to go back to the bill ending in 635 that Councilmember Peterson spoke to that I believe Councilmember Peterson and Councilmember Herbold are co-sponsors on.

So thank you for clarifying the public here.

I did not know that you were waiting for the administrator or the law, the judge, our hearing examiner, I'm sorry, on the ruling.

So my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, either of you, all three of you, is that on the 30-day notice, October 19th is the drop dead date that you have to get this done.

for 30 day notice.

Say that again.

You can say it better than I can.

So October 19th being dropped, drop, stop date before the budget has passed.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Copy.

Taking into account 30, the legal 30 day notice that has to happen with the public hearing, not public comment on, on the, um, on the, um, keeping the transportation impact fees.

Is that correct Councilor Peterson?

Did I say that correctly?

That's my understanding as well.

I see him nodding his head yes and there's even a week and a half of internal work that has to occur before that date so that we can get it published in the in the papers of record here in the city.

So can I so is it fair to say is there confirmation then that we will have a public hearing on the bill ending in 635 To meet the requirements of the 30 day notice that there will be a public hearing and we can then get that done before we vote on the on the day of the budget.

That there is going to be, I am happy to work with you as well as councilmember mosquito because we will be moving into the budget season where.

We might have to either have a special land use committee or.

Yeah, and I'm inclined to to accommodate the schedule, obviously, until we see more, but I'm just trying to make sure that we are accountable to the procedural legal requirements of a public hearing.

I obviously did not know that the hearing examiner that you were waiting on that and that's why you weren't having a public hearing on Wednesday.

So now I understand why.

So, thank you for that.

I saw customer Pearson has hand up.

Is it still up customer Peterson?

No.

Yes.

Well, the main requirement is that we, Council cannot take final action on a comp plan amendment.

But we could have public hearings.

It's just a judgment call on that.

So thank you, Council President, for indicating your willingness to keep to that timeline so we don't miss the opportunity to amend the comp plan, which is just that procedural step that we need.

But backing up, you're right, we need a 30-day notice.

So October 19 would be about 30 days before November 19, which would be right before we're trying to adopt the final budget.

So appreciate you keeping us on task here.

Well, I want to give a big thanks to Ketel because he's the 1 that informed me this morning because I saw the some of the email exchanges and we had talked about this customer stress offline and customer Peterson.

We've talked offline.

I knew that customer Herbert was a co sponsor.

I just want to make sure that we hit those timelines and that we're informed.

So, at the last minute, it's like, oh, we're not having a public hearing because we missed.

We blew the 30 day deadline.

I just don't want that to happen.

So, if I can, can I call a customer?

So want.

Sure, I'll just say that the reason that we set this public hearing up in this way was so that because I wanted to make sure that we had that 30 days notice from last last month.

And I thought we'd be a little bit further along with the hearing examiner.

Okay, thank you.

Councilor Sawant.

Thank you, President Juarez.

First of all, I want to say I appreciate Council Member Peterson reading aloud for the record my statement.

at last week's transportation committee.

And as I said in that statement, and as I've said many times before, the democratic establishment has year after year used backroom maneuvers to prevent developer impact fees, and keep in mind this is on big corporate developers, impact fees from getting a vote.

For years they have refused to conduct the CPAR review.

Now the CPAR review is complete.

and Council Member Strauss has cancelled the legally required public hearing.

And he has said now repeatedly that it was cancelled because the CPAR review is currently being appealed to the hearing examiner, which is true, but as Council Member Peterson indicated, there is nothing about that that requires the public hearing be cancelled.

That's a judgment call, and that judgment is based on really which interests you're serving.

When my office prepared the legislation legalizing more tiny house villages in Seattle, it faced a SEPA appeal, but we completed the public hearing before that appeal was resolved anyway so that we would not have to delay the vote after the hearing examiner issued that ruling, which is what we did.

In this case, the public hearing must legally be given a month's prior notice, and the hearing must be completed before the council can vote.

Again, I'm repeating points that Council Member Peterson has already made.

And the council can only vote when the budget is voted on at the end of November, so these delays do have the power to yet again prevent a vote, which is no doubt, in my mind, no doubt the intention.

I also urge Council Member Strauss to immediately send the send out the notice for a new public hearing so it can be completed before the budget vote.

I noticed that in this discussion, he avoided the question about whether he would commit to having the public hearing in time.

If not, I urge Council President Warris to re-refer the legislation to another committee, which is willing to give the public their public hearing.

Thank you.

All right.

And I'll keep working with Council President, Council Member Mosqueda, Council Member Peterson, and Council Member Herbold on this.

Thank you, Councilor Strauss.

I want to thank you, too, because I don't want to impugn any ill will or intent on your behalf, Councilor Strauss, from our discussion.

So we'll leave it at that.

Great.

Thank you.

You know, one of the intervening aspects is that we regularly hold public hearings ahead of final, you know, ahead of final decisions being made.

We did that recently and it was not to the best interest of our Seattle residents.

And so I'm just reexamining that practice for me personally.

Right.

And I'd like to defer to the chair.

I like to defer to the judgment of a chair of a committee, because I assume they know what they're doing and they've done their homework.

So I'm going to leave it at that.

All right, let's, let's move on.

I see council member mosquito raise her hand or no.

No, I don't customers get it.

You have your hand up.

Well, I'm happy to comment on this as well.

When I do my comments about what to expect in the upcoming budget session, which starts here in just 2 weeks, but I do want to note that the central staff and the.

clerks office had a briefing today and they reiterated again the importance of having council members have full capacity to focus on the budget.

I just want to flag that this is two pieces of substantive legislation that is required to look at the impact of impact fees.

So I have a number of questions about the capacity of the council and the corresponding timeline for budget and I'll save those for future conversations with council president and the chair but would flag that this is a significant policy conversation and discussion debate on two pieces of legislation in the timeframe coming up that we have focused on budget.

That's exactly right, Councilmember Mosqueda, and I think to that point, that's why I did not cancel the briefing on this item, because it's important that we spend time in committee briefing on this topic.

If I was to be playing games as some of our colleagues have just said that I was, I would have just canceled the entire briefing.

Right, let's let's move on.

Let's not turn this into what I think where we're going.

Can I have you comment?

And then the floor is yours.

Thank you.

That seems like a nice graceful way to move into my comments.

I did want to just clarify.

This is not a substantive piece of legislation.

This is an amendment to the comp plan that simply it's a procedural amendment that adds a list.

of projects that could be in the future eligible for impact fees if there was an impact fee program.

That's all the legislation does.

It adds the list and it also has an attachment, which is a fee study, which shows the scope high-end, low-end of what type of fee could be.

It doesn't commit us to charging a fee.

It doesn't commit us to any particular size of fee.

It attaches a study that this council has supported an outside consultant.

puts it as an attachment to a very, very short ordinance that basically, which is an amendment to the ComPlan, which basically has two things attached.

One, a list of projects, the other, the council-funded study.

So it is, again, purely a procedural act.

There is no deliberation around that procedural act, but it allows us, it paves the way to have what, should the amendment pass, to have a future policy discussion around the establishment of impact fees.

That is not what we are asking for the public hearing to address.

We are asking only for a public hearing, as required by law, to allow us to consider only the comp plan amendment, not the impact fee program.

Great.

Thank you.

We need to clarify.

More this Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Thank you so much.

Go ahead, Councilor.

Let's hear what your week is all about this week and next week and last week and whatever.

As we do.

Yes.

So the Public Safety and Human Services Committee meets tomorrow, September 12th.

There's only one item on the agenda.

Council Bill 120645 regarding possession and public use of controlled substances, a bill that is sponsored by myself and Council Member Lewis.

and the bill is listed for discussion and possible vote.

As far as my committee area updates, flagging that I met with the Inspector General last week, I want to also note that I appreciate that each OPA, OIG, and the CPC have all separately submitted their written comments to Council and Mayor in advance of Seattle Police Management Association negotiations in accordance with the law, and following up from the public hearing at the special joint meeting of the Labor Committee and the Select Labor Committee, I guess it's called, and the Public Safety Human Services Committee public hearing that we held last month.

I will be having my regular meeting with Chief Diaz this week as well, where I hope to learn more about Seattle Police Department responses to address really upsetting reports of home invasions targeting AAPI elders largely in Beacon Hill.

I know many of us are feeling a strong sense of urgency for the safety of our elders.

And then lastly, on the public safety front, I'm going to uplift, as was announced last week, Judge Robart ruled on the next steps for the city and SPD for the consent decree.

One of those elements that I want to again highlight is that there are policies that the City has to submit, according to the order from Judge Robart, and those policies must also include implementation of Ordinance 12-6422, passed in 2021. Folks will remember that those policies are the less lethal weapons regulations policies that have still no police policies implementing them yet.

This is legislation that the council passed over two years ago and the timeline for those policies to be submitted to the court is 90 days from last week.

What this very likely means, despite the fact that the policies, I believe, are ready to be submitted, the fact that there's a 90-day timeline means that these policies may not be submitted until December.

As mentioned, SPD was prepared to submit sooner.

In the proposed agreement, the city informed the court that SPD would be prepared to submit the policies within 60 days of approval of the March submittal.

So, just want to flag that after the court considers the policies associated with the less lethal weapons regulation, there may be some feedback from the court on those policies as informed by the council's ordinance.

And so, that will mean that future elected leaders We'll need to consider those areas of feedback and concern that the court may have about the ordinance, and we'll need to consider whether to amend the ordinance to address those issues that we expect to be highlighted late this year or next year.

On the human services front, I just want to flag our great Seattle Youth Employment Program.

This is for young people 16 to 24 to apply to learn and earn while developing skills for life and work.

Applications to participate are due September 20th, and you can find out more at seattle.gov forward slash SYEP.

On the public health front, August 31st was Overdose Awareness Day.

We know that we are losing more precious human lives than ever to the fentanyl crisis this year.

We would be losing even more if it weren't for the heroic efforts to distribute and administer naloxone by public employees at the fire department, Police Department, Public Health, and agencies like Education Project, Evergreen Treatment Services, and People's Harm Reduction Alliance, which Council has provided funding for.

We have data from the Seattle Fire Department showing that there's an average 11 overdose reversals in public spaces each day this year through July.

11 overdose reversals in public spaces every day.

Forty percent of these reversals, the fire department reports, were administered not by first responders, but by members of the public.

Really appreciate that so many of our caring members of the public are working to help prevent and reverse overdose by carrying naloxone and learning how to use it.

I carry naloxone every day.

You can too.

It's free, without a prescription, to everyone in Washington State.

You can find out more at stopoverdose.org.

On the regional committee front, I'll be participating in the LEAD Policy Coordinating Group on Thursday to provide guidance and oversight for LEAD.

And then other events coming up last week, I had the pleasure and honor of welcoming the West Seattle Elementary School Young Scholars back to school on Wednesday.

We were joined by Superintendent Jones, school board member Leslie Harris, and of course, West Seattle Elementary Principal Pam McGowan Conyers.

We had an opportunity not just to welcome everyone back to school, but also to do a ribbon cutting on their new building rehab.

I also have the second of two listening sessions with advocates representing the LGBTQIA spirit folks with lived experiences of homelessness.

gathering feedback on a welcoming resolution that I'm sponsoring for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and its providers.

Between the two sessions that we've had, we've had 20 people sharing their insights.

We're incorporating their ideas into the resolution now and expect that the governing committee will be hearing the resolution in October.

And then coming up this week, I'll be having my regular monthly meeting with Human Services Director Tony Kim.

I met with the new director of the Hepatitis Education Project today.

He shared during their weekly visits to homelessness camps a handout on naloxone for overdose reversal and the folks who accepted it, is it about a 90 percent acceptance rate?

Sorry, of the folks that accepted it, about 90 percent said that they've used it to save lives in the last three months.

That is all I've got today.

Anybody have any questions?

Not seeing any.

Let's put it on to Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold.

Appreciate hearing those updates.

Jumping right into it, I apologize to colleagues that last week's committee meeting was canceled.

The committee was unable to secure a quorum of committee members.

So those measures that were going to be in front of the council for consideration, are going to be moved to our next regularly scheduled committee, which will be on the 20th of September.

And specifically at that committee meeting, we will be discussing several pieces of legislation promulgated from the Parks Department.

including an ordinance for the acquisition of property at 6109 South Fountain Street that we want to get out of the way before budget and are expecting to fully consider and vote on that legislation at that time.

As well as an ordinance, another ordinance authorizing acquisition of property at 9200 18th Avenue Southwest.

as well as an ordinance offering or entering into an agreed consent decree with the Washington State Department of Ecology for the Duwamish Waterway Park site, which is an exciting piece of work that we have been monitoring with our partners at Parks.

In addition to carrying over those measures from the previous council meeting, We are going to be considering the appointment of Marshall Foster as director of the Seattle Center.

Thank you so much to colleagues who have provided feedback on questions for the nomination of Marshall Foster.

really looking forward to that being a productive hearing and would like to be in a position to fully consider the nomination so that the full body of the council can consider interim director Foster's nomination for the permanent position before we enter into budget.

A couple of additional updates from the Seattle Public Library.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 12th, all locations of the Seattle Public Library will open at 3 p.m.

to allow for all staff to participate in a system-wide meeting about the library's future strategic plan.

So patrons of the library take note, library will not be open until 3 p.m.

tomorrow due to a system-wide meeting.

The library released its 2022 impact report.

You can find the full report on their website at www.spl.org.

A couple of interesting insights from the report are as follows.

The library has created an in-house social services team.

including a social services librarian, a senior community resource specialist, and a library levy-funded community resource specialist, who will be expert on-site service providers for youth up to age 26. The library has also restarted the free in-person homework help program at six locations, given that we are back in school, in September 2022, focusing on branches in neighborhoods with students furthest from education other educational programming.

Over 290 students attended homework help sessions in the fall of 2022, and the library has expanded to eight branches starting in January of 2023. Next up, students participated in over 3,200 virtual tutoring sessions in 2022, and more than 2,000 new accounts were created.

96% of students reported tutor.com made them more confident in their schoolwork.

Finally, an initial evaluation is included in this impact report, and I do encourage council colleagues to read the report if you have not already, particularly for this finding, this initial evaluation of the fine-free policy that was incorporated into the last renewal of the library's voter-approved levy.

After two years of eliminating overdue fines, return rates have not changed, and 18,000 patron accounts were restored when fines were eliminated, and that barrier to access to the collection was removed.

So definitely encourage you to get into the details of that in the report.

Really great success stories out of our partners at the Seattle Public Library.

And with that, I have no other updates this week and will hand it over to Councilmember Morales.

Before we move on, Council Member Lewis, I don't know if you were here in the beginning, but I want to thank you for being pro tem while I was gone.

Thank you very much for that.

Yes, thank you so much.

It was swimmingly with the assistance of Brindell and the clerks and appreciate your words recognizing the session as pro tem.

So thank you, Council President.

And also thank you for giving us an update about when we eliminated library fines two years ago.

Western civilization, as we know, did not collapse as was predicted, so thank you for that update.

Thank you.

How's everyone else?

Okay, good afternoon colleagues.

Happy Monday.

Let's see.

We will start with the Neighborhood Education, Arts, and Civil and Immigrant Rights Committee.

The next meeting is Friday, September 23rd at 9.30, so not this week, but next.

The agenda will include presentations on generational wealth building, an introduction to our connected communities legislation, and A couple other things that we are trying to finalize, so we will make sure to get all of that posted at the appropriate time.

As Councilmember Peterson mentioned, next week I'll be introducing legislation to require that when SDOT undertakes a major paving project, the project must include installation of a sidewalk on at least one side of the street if there are no sidewalks.

I know Council President Juarez and I share a lack of sidewalks in our communities, so I'm excited about the opportunity to have that conversation.

It would also require an evaluation of sidewalk conditions and correct any deficiencies that are identified, all in the effort to make our neighborhoods safer and achieve our goal of Vision Zero.

This past weekend, I spoke at a housing rights forum at Southside Commons.

It was hosted by the LGBTQ allyship.

It was really great to see so many partner organizations who were out tabling, including B-Seattle, Lavender Rights Project, Entre Hermanos.

DSE, GenPride, Tenant Law Center, Q Law Foundation, and many more.

It was a really robust conversation, hearing from folks about some of the challenges they have with their landlords, frankly, with keeping their units safe.

keeping their units clean, and really just reminding us that the LGBTQ community, particularly young people and particularly seniors, have a hard time finding the housing that they need.

So I'm looking forward to continuing conversation with them.

to make sure that we're addressing some of these gaps.

Tomorrow I'll be having my monthly meeting with South Precinct Captain Brown.

We'll be asking for an update on the investigations of the recent string of attacks on elders in our community.

I just had lunch with some community leaders in Little Saigon and Folks really want to understand why it's taken two weeks for detectives to reach out to some of the victims.

So we'll be having that conversation to try to understand what's happening and how we can really address the responsiveness there.

This week, I'm also co-hosting a community meeting, a community safety gathering with elders, particularly in Beacon Hill and in the New Holly community, alongside Precinct Captain Brown.

So we will be talking about, again, the recent invasions that have occurred as well as trying to provide resources for folks.

Our elders are scared and they really want to make sure that they understand what the process is, how to address the language barriers that may be coming up for them to get the service that they need.

So I plan to continue attending and really connecting with these families so that we get updates for them.

and they can understand how to respond in the future.

I will be attending our Columbia City Farmers Market this week for some in-district office hours.

And we'll be attending the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition's new office grand opening along with API Chaya Community Mixer this weekend.

And I do wanna note with deep apologies, Council Member Lewis, next Wednesday and Thursday, I'll be attending meetings for the Association of Washington Cities in Chelan.

But I will do my best to stay updated on the legislation that you're bringing and we can follow up afterward.

That is all I have.

And so I will, unless there are questions, I don't see any.

I will pass it to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much.

Can you hear me okay, colleagues?

We have a sick kiddo at home, so there might be some mirror the detective in the background here.

Thanks to the Council President for flagging that there is an item from our office on the full Council agenda for tomorrow.

This is a resolution, as the Council President noted, to support the call for a National Infrastructure Bank.

My office, as the Council President noted, did email around the resolution and the summary and fiscal note that we created, along with a flowchart attachment for your review.

We circulated that prior to break and again earlier this morning.

We wanted to especially thank Senator Hasegawa who has sent a letter of support for this resolution as well.

Senator Hasegawa was the prime sponsor of the almost identical resolution on this topic that passed the state legislature earlier this year and he did that in partnership with the coalition that is working across the nation To call for an infrastructure bank, thanks to the national infrastructure bank coalition and the Washingtonians for public banking who advocated for this resolution in the city of Seattle to support the state call and other jurisdictional calls for a federal level infrastructure bank.

If you do have any questions before tomorrow, please feel free to let me know, but I will save my talking points and all the detail and stats for tomorrow's discussion.

On today's introduction and referral calendar, you will find some items from the Finance and Housing Committee.

Many of these are up for consideration on Thursday's committee meeting.

The Seattle Housing Authority Yesler Terrace process legislation is legislation from SHA that authorizes SHA's use of excess revenues from the sale, lease, or other disposition of property at the Yesler Terrace redevelopment area that are in excess of what is needed to fund redevelopment activities to support services that benefit residents of the community.

This legislation will be heard this week.

Again, we will have a briefing discussion and plan to have a vote on this legislation on the 14th in the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

We also have 3 items that are related.

This is the TNC for higher legislation.

This suite of legislation is 3 pieces of legislation that are intended to update and modernize the city of Seattle's regulation for for higher transportation services.

This legislation covers for higher vehicles, taxi cabs, vehicles associated with TNC companies.

Thank you very much to the mayor's office and the extensive work that they've done with community partners, including the Teamsters and dispatch entities for their partnership on drafting the legislation.

My understanding is that this legislation is a few years in process and excited that we will be able to hopefully have this up for briefing and discussion.

Excuse me, hold on one second.

We will have this legislation up for briefing and discussion this week.

And then we will plan to have a vote on these three pieces of legislation on the 20th.

If you do have amendments to the TNC legislation, please make sure to note this for central staff by this Friday.

And of course, you're willing or you are encouraged to bring forward those amendments for our discussion on the 14th as well.

The final topic on our agenda this week for the 14th is a briefing and discussion on what I'm calling the staggered elections bill.

This legislation did not make it on the introduction and referral calendar this week, but we do plan to have a briefing and discussion in committee anticipating introduction prior to the wrap-up of our policy conversations this year.

For background, we've been working on this legislation since the beginning of this year.

You may have heard me comment about this with members of the press or with our colleagues here.

Sorry, Council President, can I just switch rooms real quick?

Is that okay to cut down on the background noise for one second?

Yeah, it's fine.

We can hear you though.

It's okay.

Okay, you're very kind.

Let me just find a different one here.

I don't hear any background noise at all.

You're fine.

Oh, really?

You don't hear my daughter screaming my name?

Okay, I'm going to keep going.

I'll keep going then.

Fantastic.

And for council members to want to, we could not hear your dogs earlier in case you were wondering.

So I'll keep going.

This is legislation that we've been working on since earlier this year.

As folks know, in the Honest Elections legislation that was passed by the vote of the public in 2015, the legislation or the initiative created seven district seats and two at-large seats with seven district seats again up for election.

This year, as members of the media and community have noted, there is a large number of seats that are potentially going to be up for election and create turnover on the council, especially as council members decide not to run.

This resolution would offer the voters of Seattle a measure for their consideration next November to align city council seats to be staggered so that we evenly split uh the council seats um placing council seats one three five seven and nine on one ballot and then the next ballot would include council seats two four six eight and the mayor's office because of the large number of seats seven district seats that are up for election this year and the vote needing to take place with the members of the public next november there's obviously a long on ramp for these changes to occur.

And so, none of these terms, none of these staggered election seats would take place immediately, but this gives us the chance to have the conversation with the voters about how to create greater institutional retention and knowledge and less turnover amongst the council members as we move forward.

Like any piece of legislation, we always look forward to opportunities to enhance policy as policy is implemented.

And this is just one opportunity for a lesson learned that we've been talking to members of the community, especially the coalition that worked on the Honest Elections Initiative in 2015, to see how we can continue to evolve and adapt the intent of the initiative at the time.

We have mentioned to many community members and to our colleagues over the last few months the opportunity for us to have this staggered elections process which would again retain four-year terms once those seats were staggered and in line.

In conversation with the council president who has governance in her committee, we started to identify whether or not this bill was prime to go to the governance committee, or if we should plan to hold in our committee working with stakeholders.

We finalized drafting of the legislation in late spring and early summer.

We sent this to law for their review in July.

We, after final conversations about what the committee structures would look like over the course of the late summer and fall headed into budget, we identified that the Finance and Housing Committee would be prepared to receive this legislation in our committee in September if needed.

On August 7th, central staff sent the legislation to law for their review and said it was good to go.

And we also fielded some questions from the office as well to ensure that we were responsive to some of those items that were raised.

On August 9th, we heard from central staff that the bill could be on the introduction and referral calendar as late as September 12th.

So we did not need to rush it before recess to try to ensure that it got on the introduction and referral calendar.

But a hiccup has occurred.

Apparently law had requested that the legislation be held, an additional review of the ballot title be conducted by the city attorney's office herself or city attorney herself.

So instead of having it go through the normal process and have two weeks, at least two weeks, the normal two weeks process to get on the introduction referral calendar, We found out just last Tuesday that it had received its final review from law, even though no substantial, no changes at all had occurred from the beginning of August to the beginning of September here.

So I appreciate that there is a strong interest from the law department in looking at not only the legislation, which has been carefully crafted with central staff, but also the potential ballot title that has now been reviewed.

No changes as indicated from central staff.

There was no changes from August to September in that review from The law department and we have not heard any concerns from law about the process, including the review of and of the ballot title.

We do still plan to have this up for discussion on the committee agenda for Thursday this week and do hope that we have the opportunity to give this a chance to be considered by members of the public for our vote on September 20th.

I am hopeful that we will still be able to get this out of our committee before the upcoming budget session.

And again, that then gives a full year of education and conversation for members of the public to decide what they would like to do with it.

But again, this has been deeply stakeholder with members of the original crafting coalition who put forward honest elections in 2015 with the intent to reduce the likelihood of institutional knowledge turnover.

Finance and Housing Committee does also have a meeting next week, as I noted, on September 20th at 9.30 a.m.

We will have a briefing discussion and possible vote on the for-hire legislation.

We will have a briefing discussion and possible vote on the staggered elections legislation, if in our committee.

And we will also have a briefing discussion and possible vote on two pieces of legislation from the Office of Housing related to property transfer.

Those two pieces of legislation are also on today's introduction and referral calendar.

That includes the Sound Transit Properties Transfer and the Finney Ridge Property Transfer.

These Office of Housing pieces of legislation follow up on previous actions the council has taken to make this land available for housing, and we are very excited about the affordable home ownership projects that will be built here.

Excited to have that conversation on September 20th in our committee.

Council President, before I continue, can you still hear me okay with not too much background noise?

Okay.

And I have just one more follow-up item, and that is a heads-up on the upcoming budget session.

Again, I want to thank folks who have been participating in our Finance and Housing Committee meetings for all of the work that you've done this year.

We only have two more meetings, and then we will transition to budget.

I was excited to be able to participate in the Local Progress Board meeting last week.

And for those who are not yet familiar with local progress and want to join, it's West Coast next year.

So we will be in Oakland and look forward to more council members participating similar to National League of Cities or Association of Washington Cities.

This is a non electoral work and it is really a great way to compare legislative agendas and to strategize with colleagues around the country.

So again, thank you for the flexibility of having our committees this week and next week.

But after this week and next week, we move on to budget and I wanted to flag for folks that are fearless leader on central staff, along with our director of central staff, and Tom and Eden have sent out a memo summarizing the upcoming.

Agenda for the budget committee in partnership with the city budgets office.

Our expectation is that we are establishing a new direction for the odd year.

Mid biennium review that aligns with the practice and current policy so that departments really treat 2024 like a biennial budget year.

Departments were asked to balance new requests and needs with the already endorsed totals, and the council is similarly being asked to review the proposal against the 2024 endorsed budget through a modified budget deliberation process that requires self-balanced amendments, again, treating 2024 as if it's a biennial process.

uh thanks to comms uh the communications department joseph and jesse for all of the work they've done to create infographics for you all for members of the public we will be sending that out in our regular newsletter next week theresa tuesday includes the infographics so that you can see the following dates.

September 26th, the City Council receives the Mayor's proposed budget.

September 27th, Central Staff will provide an overview of the Council's fall 2023 midyear biannual budget adjustments, and this will be the first meeting of our Select Budget Committee.

We will then meet again October 11th, 12th, and 13th, and October 19th.

We will have an opportunity to hear the proposed adjustments by department, and we will have a chance to weigh that against the October economic revenue forecast update.

We also have placed a hold on your calendars for October 16th and 18th.

If the proposed adjustments are more significant than we anticipate from the mayor's proposed budget, then we may need to keep these additional committee meetings, but we'll let you know as soon as we can if we're going to cancel those dates.

I do want to flag October 19th is the economic and revenue forecast update which will be very informative for our final budget deliberations in the upcoming months.

Council self-balance amendments are due October 23rd, 27th, and November 8th, and we will have an opportunity to discuss your mid-biennial budget amendments concepts on October 27th.

We will be wrapping up this upcoming fall budget process with budget amendment votes, November 13th, 14th and 15th with the expected final budget committee vote on November 20th.

We do hope that that gives us sufficient time to consider any changes to the 2024 endorsed budget and want to flag for members of the community as per usual.

We will start every meeting with a short public comment opportunity, but we have two full council public hearing times dedicated to just hearing from members of the public in the evening.

So for those who want to provide an opportunity to weigh in after, quote unquote, traditional hours, October 18th and November 13th, our public hearings start at 5 p.m.

those evenings.

Thanks again for your active participation in this upcoming budget deliberations.

Just two weeks away is when we get started.

And we will be having all presenters remote.

and be encouraging remote participation and hybrid option for public comment if you are is so inclined.

We want to do that but COVID cases and the flu continue to go up.

Get your vaccines, get your boosters and we'll see you either by virtual participation or in person.

And I'll turn to Council Member Nelson.

There's no comments.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

Hello everyone.

This morning, the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee held a special meeting where we had a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120641, relating to the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area, or STIA.

The committee will be addressing the bill again on Wednesday, and I'll talk about that in a moment.

The committee on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, will be our last committee meeting scheduled before December, so there is a fairly full agenda.

First, we'll begin with our Wednesday meeting by considering two appointments to the Seattle Music Commission.

The committee will also have a briefing discussion and possible vote on resolution 32108, documenting City Light's compliance with the Federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, or PURPA, as amended in 2021 last year by the Federal Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act.

We will also, on Wednesday, the committee will hold a public hearing and possible vote on Council Bill 120634, renewing the Ballard Business Improvement Area.

As we heard when the committee had a briefing and discussion on the bill, I think that was August...

9th?

I could be wrong.

Nearly 65% of the rate payers have approved this renewal, which essentially keeps the assessment formula the same, albeit updated for inflation.

It does make some changes to the BIA boundaries, including adding additional parcels that are part of Ballard's primary mixed use core.

adding a secondary service area comprised of the five Ballard blocks, parcels located southeast of primary BIA service area with limited services and assessed at a reduced rate.

The committee will have a public hearing on our attempt to establish the new BIA and disestablish the current BIA before proceeding hopefully to a vote.

And then finally, on Wednesday, the committee will again address the bill.

So, for those who don't know, the is a business improvement area formed in 2011 under under state law to establish a new leisure tourism marketing fund for Seattle that enables our cities hoteliers to to compete and grow their market share.

Uh, this proposed ordinance has been met with great support from rate payers very broadly.

It makes changes to the way that steers calculates its assessments on rate payers by switching from a 4 dollar per night per room fee.

That might sound familiar because we did that last year.

to a percentage of the total per night rate for a particular room.

And the ordinance also allows STEA to use those funds to attract travelers for meetings and conventions instead of just for leisure tourism, which is all that's currently allowed.

the ordinance doesn't make any changes to the current area.

As my colleagues may recall, council approved three resolutions relating to this ordinance on August 15th, which called for a public hearing again, just like the Ballard BIA legislation to establish a new BIA and disestablish the current one.

So there will be a joint public hearing this coming Wednesday on that as well.

Before proceeding, hopefully to a vote so that is the that's the meeting coming up on Wednesday at 930 again.

It's the last 1 until December.

And if you make public comment, your image will be broadcast on the Seattle channel.

All right.

Meetings I took last week.

I represented the city at the Puget Sound Regional Council's Economic Development District Board, where we made recommendations to the 2024 Washington State Legislature.

My staff and I met with Microsoft representatives to discuss the role Microsoft is playing in the world of generative AI.

And my staff met with representatives from the Seattle Human Services Coalition to hear about their priorities as we head into budget season.

And then my chief of staff, Jeremy Moen, attended the 2023 Seattle Film Summit's Mixer and Summit celebrating the Seattle Film Commission.

So they had a good time meeting the wider film community and were applauded for the existence of a film commission.

Over the weekend, I joined the Parks Foundation and Amazon for their Amazon Parks Cleanup event over at Genesee Park in District 2. I was joined by Park Superintendent AP Diaz, Andrew DeVore, who is Amazon's Vice President and Associate General Counsel, and also many, many volunteers who gave up time on their Saturday morning to contribute to the cleanup of the park and take part in this community event.

Then finally, meetings that I have coming up this week on Tuesday, I will attend the Rundstedt Center annual dinner.

On Thursday, I'll be participating in the Seattle City Light.

Sarah, I'm sorry, Sarah.

I apologize.

That's okay.

I was going to say something, but I realized I was still on my go ahead.

I apologize.

No problem.

On Thursday, I'll be participating in the Seattle City Light.

While Debra Smith leaves very large shoes to fill, I'm looking forward to engaging in robust discussion with the candidates that are on the short list and ensuring that we have another all-star CEO and general manager to lead the department moving forward.

And then later that evening on Thursday also, I'll attend the Puget Sound Business Journal's Uh, director of the year event, which honors local directors of of nonprofits and on Friday, I will go on a learning session bike ride with cascade bike club to ride and discuss the East Lake.

J route proposal and then finally this coming Sunday I will be attending the Lexi Harris Memorial Endowment kickoff where we will celebrate Lexi's birthday and announce the details of the Lexi Harris Memorial Scholarship Endowment at the Seattle Colleges.

That's all I've got to say.

Thank you very much.

Thank you and I apologize for that.

going to keep a question and then you answered it and I did not realize I had a hot mic, so I apologize.

Okay, so let me get through this and then we'll go into executive session.

There are no items from the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee on tomorrow's council agenda.

The next Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee will be Thursday, September 21st at 930. Let's see, last week, we attended the Sound Transit Rider Experience and Operations Committee.

We received a report by the University of Washington, which found airborne fentanyl residues in a quarter of Seattle light rail transit vehicles.

However, as the study stated, the amounts were too low to pose a risk to riders.

That's where we're actually at right now.

In response, Sound Transit suggested and said they will be improving filtration on light rail vehicles and enhancing They're cleaning protocols sure there's a lot more to come on that this week.

We will be meeting with the unified care team as we always do every Wednesday regarding the impacts of encampments.

Not only city wide, but of course, in district five, we will also be meeting with the sound transit North King sub area.

The leadership team for briefing by the sound transit CEO, that's Julie, Tim, and that's pretty much where she brings us up to speed on some of the issues, not just affecting North sub area.

But what will be, we will be looking at in our next sound transit meeting regarding light rail.

And with that, that concludes my report.

So let's move into executive session.

Let me go ahead and read what I need to read into the record, and then we will move in and I'll have the clerk give us the time amount.

If there's no further business, I don't see any, we will move into an executive session.

My script says pause.

Hearing no further business, we will now move into an executive session.

As providing officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorney's office as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure that the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

So our job is to just ask our lawyers questions.

I expect the time of the executive session to end by, and Madam Clerk, I believe that the city attorney responded that, and I believe the requesters, which is Council Member Herbold and Council Member Peterson, 45 minutes.

If it's 45 minutes and we'll find out what time that actually comes to when I get done with this.

The executive session is to be extended beyond that time.

I will announce the extension and expected duration.

At the conclusion of the executive session, this council meeting will be automatically be adjourned.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing is on September 18th at 2 o'clock.

Madam Clerk, we will be in executive session 45 minutes.

So now, council will now move to executive session.