Good morning, everybody.
Thank you for being here for a regularly scheduled council briefing on September 9th.
We are joined by Council Members Sawant, Juarez, Bagshaw, Mosqueda, and Gonzales.
There are no meetings for approval today.
And why don't we go around the room and talk about our full council action, today's full city council actions or any of our council or regional committees.
Nothing for vote from the Governance, Equity and Technology Committee.
We do have an executive session after this meeting and this Friday on 9-13.
We do have a select committee on Homelessness and Housing Affordability.
I believe Council Member Bagshaw will chair this meeting as we rotate the chairs for that important committee.
Council Member, Council Member Sawant, we will start with Council Member, okay Council Member, okay.
Yeah, Council Member, go ahead Council Member Sawant.
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you, President Harrell, and I might need to come in once again just for a brief thing if we're ready.
There are no items on today's city council agenda from the Human Services Equitable Development and Renter's Rights Committee.
The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for its regular time this Tuesday, tomorrow, September 10th at 2 p.m.
in chambers.
We will be discussing the ordinance that I described at last briefing to expand the opportunities to build tiny house villages in Seattle.
Tiny house villages have been a very successful harm reduction homeless service, and we need more of them until our movement can succeed in compelling the political establishment to really invest in building affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, and passing rent control.
As I mentioned last week, the SEPA review for this bill was appealed by Elizabeth Campbell, so it will be a few months before council may vote on it, unfortunately.
However, there are several other things that must be done to pass land use code change, like the one that we are, like the one that's under consideration, while we wait for the hearing examiner to hear the SEPA appeal.
We can discuss what the bill does.
We can hold the legally required public hearing.
And most importantly, during the budget, we can put aside money to expand tiny house villages once the legislation passes.
So, we're going to go ahead with some public discussion.
And tomorrow's committee meeting, we will have an initial discussion on the bill.
Thank you.
Very good.
Thank you, Council Member Schwartz.
Council Member Juarez.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
So this week we have, or today, we have three items on the calendar.
Number one is the Victor Steinberg Park.
This resolution will improve design improvements funded through the 2008 Parks and Green Space Levy.
The second item is Seattle Parks and Recreation acquisition.
of 1902 Northeast 98th Street in the south portion or the South Creek of Thornton Creek for open space and recreation purposes.
We've been trying to buy this property for well over a decade.
And third is the resolution, our omnibus resolution, the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that highlights the issue and dives into priority areas for City of Seattle reform It's a long time in the making.
I'd say a couple decades.
I think Seattle will be the very first city to pass such legislation at this time, and I'll save most of my comments for this afternoon, but I do want to thank Councilmember Bagshaw and Councilmember Gonzalez in committee for assisting me and working with me, and I appreciate all their efforts and support.
And very quickly, because I didn't say this last time, I want to thank Amy, Asha, and Allie, the A squad, and Dan from central staff who immediately got on top of this issue and have been working with us for about six months to get it right.
and our friends at the Seattle Indian Health Board, CEO Esa Lacero and Abigail Echo Hawk, who we work extensively and closely with to make sure that this legislation is teed up and it's done right.
And we hear from community as well as Nagin and Francesca and the folks up at Seattle Indian Health Board.
They have their own policy people and we work closely with them.
So all three pieces of legislation passed out of committee.
I look forward to speaking to each of these this afternoon.
The next Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee will be Wednesday, September 18th.
And here's the big news.
Live in D5 is back on.
Yes, officially rescheduled for September 28th, rain or shine.
Of course, we get electrocuted.
But other than that, Shana, our district director, has been working on this.
And everything that we had teed up before will be there.
Our food from Tulalip, our petting zoo, our musical guests, all of our community booths, just like we always do.
It's our fourth year in a row.
And so, we're excited.
Thank you very much.
And what day was that again?
September?
Twenty-eighth.
Twenty-eighth.
It's supposed to be there, remember?
Nine-twenty-eight.
The 28th.
It's set in stone.
Yes.
And you are going to be in the dunk tank, remember?
Okay.
Hey, I want to just come back, Council Member Juarez, and thank you for the work that you've done on this Indigenous women effort.
You've really been the star and leading it forward and you've gone so far in two years and I just really want to recognize that and say thank you because it matters and without your leadership this wouldn't be happening.
Thank you, Council Member Juarez.
Also, I'd just like to ask on the Steinbrook Park, on the resolution, do you happen to know, and don't answer if you don't now, but see if we can find out if they included the universal design for the benches?
That's something that we had talked about.
with age-friendly, the idea is that the benches are designed in such a way that there are arms so that people who have difficulty sitting or getting up have the arms by them and they're not just the flat benches.
And another element of it is that your knees are a little bit below or level with your seat which, again, for people who have difficulty standing or sitting down, it really helps.
I brought it up with parks a number of times.
I don't know if they've included that in the Steinbrook Park, but it would be our first, and I just want to make sure that they know that it's something we're really interested in.
We'll double check on that.
We didn't get that quite in the weeds, though.
They did have a PowerPoint.
It went through all the design.
Now that you've said it, I'll make sure Nagin follows up with that.
Did they, Counselor?
Yeah, I was going to say in the briefing that we received in committee, they did specifically call out the fact that they have accommodated the or modified the benches in order to address the issue that you concerned.
I don't know what the depth or the scope of those changes are in terms of how many benches, but my understanding based on the briefing is that they did take that feedback into account.
Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.
I know it's a small thing, it sounds like a small thing, but it is a huge opportunity for us to take a leap forward on all ages and abilities.
We also are looking at working with SDOT to have a walkabout, I believe later this month, with the notion of working with the age-friendly office in our human services department, but between Pike and Pioneer Square, using that as a pilot and just trying some of these benches along the way, just because it makes it a much more inviting, pedestrian-friendly area for people who have difficult walking.
Well, overall, they did, it is designed for age-friendly and disability-friendly, if you will.
As you know, they worked with Colleen Echo-Hawk's group for the cultural component.
But we understood from the PowerPoint that that was the lens in which they were looking at it.
It's all sloped and down, you know, easy to move and maneuver.
Yeah.
Good.
Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.
Yeah.
Thank you, Council Member Baker.
I don't think it's a small thing at all, so you have the floor.
Oh, thank you so much.
Well, we don't have anything today from the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee, but we've got a bunch happening on Wednesday.
And if I can just ask you to bear with me for a moment.
What's happening Wednesday is we're actually going to have 11 items on the agenda.
Summer appointments, we've got four appointments to the Youth Commission, which I think are incredibly important, and the second quarter employment ordinance.
But then we get into some things that I'm going to ask for your assistance on.
One is the K-site lease agreement.
Many of you have been working on that with us right next to Seattle Center.
This is something that Plymouth Housing is going to be building.
We've worked very closely with our uptown neighborhoods on this.
Plymouth is going to be developing 91 units of housing for low-income households and some formerly homeless households.
So we really want to move that forward through my committee this Wednesday.
We've got some work at Sandpoint, and I want to say kudos to former Speaker of our House, Frank Chopp.
This has been a vision that he's been working on for a long time, which will be 20 to 25 studio and one-bedroom cottages.
So if we think about the work that we've been doing on the tiny homes, and everybody knows those are just one step on the continuum.
This is one step moving forward so that there's bathrooms and sinks in each unit.
They cost about $100,000 to build.
He's working with apprentices so that we've got labor involved to help build these.
I think this is a wonderful model for us to be looking at because they're a third the cost.
of the units that we're building, brick and mortar.
But nonetheless, it takes more land and requires more of a focus.
But this is going to be the first one.
And again, I want to say thanks to Frank Chopp for his vision, and he's got money to do it right there at Magnuson Park.
So we'll vote on that this week.
We also have a resolution that will allow us To move this forward, we have to get certain approvals.
That will happen on Wednesday.
We'll also have a sweetened beverage tax public awareness campaign proviso lift.
And a couple of things that, again, I'm going to ask for your support on.
One is the tree resolution.
Many of you know urban forestry reports through my committee.
But making sure that we are protecting and preserving trees is something that the city has been working on for a while.
But this tree resolution, and again, thanks to Allie for her work.
and Yolanda.
This asks for a work plan and we've been working with the mayor's office.
So this will be the first tree resolution that we've seen in a number of years and hope I wanted to get it done before we left this year, but at least we'll have a work plan started.
And then also here's one other item that I'm going to ask for your support on.
And I don't think the city has done this very often, but I am bringing forward both a resolution and an ordinance to condemn a parcel of property in Pioneer Square, and it's the Cannery building.
I've reached out to the owner of the building, let him know.
Condemnation is not what we want to do as our first choice, but that building has been blighted for 30 years.
And there's so much good stuff happening down on 2nd Avenue.
that we are not going to allow that building to remain in just the squash corner anymore.
So we have asked him to get a work plan, to get a schedule for, he's had permits for affordable housing and market rate housing, and it's on the corner of Second and Main.
And again, this is a stick, we don't wanna use this stick, but we will if we have to.
So we're just not going to be ignored when we've been asking the property owner to do what he needs to do to get the permits to build and to commit to actually building it.
So in the meantime, we've been working on this for most of this last year.
We now have a letter from the fire department, from the police department and the mayor's office saying under state law, It meets the conditions of blighted property.
So we're going to move forward with this and that will happen this Wednesday.
Also, the RV legislation is going to be brought forward through our committee.
I've been working with the mayor's office to let them know.
that if we are asking to remove people, that we have a 24-7 place for them to go.
Because otherwise, we know that people find what they can find, the best solution that they can find.
And if an RV, for some folks, is their best solution, are taking that away without providing something else strikes me as just not being either moral or compassionate.
We'll have our first discussion in my committee this coming Wednesday, and I appreciate your help.
So also this coming Friday, we have our select committee on homelessness.
And then I think the next one is the following Friday on the 20th.
So I do want to ask you, please, I need to have at least four of us at 930 on the select committee.
I think four in addition to myself, so we've got five there.
It would be excellent.
I know that I think Mike's out of town.
And I've heard from some others that there's some conflicts.
So I really would appreciate having you there at 930 so we can move forward.
The regional governance work is coming along.
We are going to have a first look at the regional action plan as well as the interlocal agreement.
So thanks for coming.
I really appreciate your help on this.
And Council Member Mosqueda, thank you for being such a star and a leader in this area.
So, that's it for me.
We'll work with your staff to get confirmations for the Friday meeting.
Make sure we have a quorum there.
Thank you.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Good morning.
Good morning.
There are no items from the Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee on today's full council agenda.
Before we talk about the upcoming Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee on Thursday, I want to say thank you to Councilmember Bagshaw.
She just highlighted one of the bills that we've been super excited about generating from the advocacy of former Speaker Frank Chopp.
and following through on our commitment that we've been talking about in the housing committee to repurpose public land when it's being underutilized or when it's surplus and turning it into housing.
Thank you again.
This is one of the items that we've asked you to bring into your committee because we were overflowing with items and I'll be there on Wednesday this week.
I know a lot of people are going to be turning out for that.
Just a heads up that this is something that the housing advocacy community is really excited about.
So looking forward to that passage and discussion as well on the bill.
In our Committee on Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights, we will be meeting this Thursday, September 12th, from 9 a.m.
to noon.
Again, this is a 9 a.m.
start time, so appreciate all of our colleagues for continuing to show up a little bit early and staying a little bit late.
We had a really robust discussion last Thursday in the committee talking specifically about three of the four components on our hotel worker legislation.
As you all know, we have held each one of those policies in our committee for final passage potentially this Thursday.
What we will do first is begin the conversation with the healthcare legislation at 9 a.m.
This is the final component, knock on wood, on the hotel worker legislation.
and looking forward to sharing with you some of the updates we've received and based on some stakeholder feedback and all of your feedback as well with the goal of incorporating any final amendments.
Thanks again to Council Member Gonzalez for your co-sponsorship on all of these bills.
Once we include any final amendments on the hotel legislation, we will then have all four pieces of the amended legislation in front of us with the goal of passing it out on Thursday.
If that happens, then we will ask the Council President to bring it forward the following Monday.
And I think we will have wrapped up this pretty lengthy discussion over the last six months or so on the hotel worker legislation.
The last thing, assuming we get to it on Thursday, will be a briefing and discussion on MFTE, the multifamily tax exemption legislation that we are bringing forward for renewal.
We don't plan to have a vote this Thursday, given everything on the agenda.
We will plan to bring that back on the following Thursday for MFTE potential vote.
So want to remind folks that we have three more meetings left of the Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee.
Again, this Thursday, September 12th from 9 to 12 will be focused on hotel worker legislation and the MFT renewal.
The next one will be September 19th.
We're going to go ahead and start at 9 a.m.
again.
This is going to be everything housing.
Office of Housing focused and we want to congratulate Emily Alvarado on her nomination to be the new director for Office of Housing.
We're seeing some snaps around the table.
People are pretty excited about that, but what we want to make sure is that you all have the chance to fully vet her.
You should have the Office of Housing application or I should say confirmation packet in your inbox already.
We've asked you for feedback on questions that you'd like to see her answer.
I believe we're collecting those this week so that she can respond to that on the 19th in our committee and welcome all of you to come to that.
There will be about six other Office of Housing related items there.
And then our final committee for the year will be on September 24th, that's a Tuesday, from 2 to 4 p.m.
I want to thank Council Member Sawant.
I understand you're having a meeting usually at that time, but you've moved it to the evening, so we're going to take over that slot.
And this one will be focused on everything Seattle City Light related.
We have a number of kind of cleanup items that we need to do.
And frankly, just to put a heads up, the folks who attended our committee last time, there was an audit on Seattle City Light.
Everything was pretty status quo.
However, I did ask the question about how the auditor's report would potentially change in future years if we were to stop these notices that are going out to people telling them that their electricity is going to be shut off.
And so I do plan to follow up on that concept, given that we continue to get emails from people around high or unanticipated bills.
And until we get the feedback from the auditor's report, which will be presented in our committee early next year, and until we have assurances that these potentially erroneous bills or unanticipated bills aren't going out, I do think that it's imperative for us to follow up on those shutoff notices.
and change that practice because it's causing a lot of heartburn for folks.
To the tune of $4,700 is the most recent one that I've heard about from a constituent.
So we will work with Seattle City Light to give them a heads up on some of the concepts that we're thinking of.
But that last meeting will be focused on Seattle City Light issues again September 24th from 2 to 4 p.m.
And other than that, Mr. President, I think I'm done.
Thank you, Council Member Esqueda.
Council Member Pacheco.
Good morning.
There is one plus related item on introduction referral today, it's a resolution to make recommendations for the future configuration of a second Montlake bascule bridge.
There are no other, there's no plus related items on the full council agenda today.
The next plus committee meeting will be held tonight for the public hearing here in Council Chambers for public comment on Council Bill 119600 which updates our City's SEPA policies.
The next plus committee meeting will be Wednesday, September 11th at noon and we will have three items in the agenda.
Council Bill 119600 related to the SEPA.
Council bill one one nine five and nine seven which updates our South Lake Union open space policies and a briefing and discussion on resolution three one nine zero four which is related to the second bascule bridge we will also be having a Special plus meeting next Tuesday September 24th at noon and councilmember Bagshaw.
You can count on my attendance this Friday Thank you, Catherine Pacheco customer Gonzalez.
I
Thank you.
Good morning.
There is nothing on this afternoon's full council agenda from the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans in Education Committee.
We will have our regularly scheduled committee hearing this Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.
We have several exciting items on the agenda.
First, we will consider an appointment to the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee.
Second, we will receive a briefing from representatives of the Serious and Deadly Use of Force Investigations Task Force.
which is delivering their final recommendations to my committee and the full city council.
SDFIT was convened in early 2018 as a follow-up to the passage of the 2017 police accountability ordinance.
This is in compliance with a companion resolution that Council, again, passed alongside that 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance that created a task force specifically to identify and evaluate policy recommendations that would be community-driven and community-informed that could provide guidance to the Seattle Police Department and the City Council as policymakers in terms of how We believe that the police department should address investigations of deadly use of force investigations within the city.
So I have received an advanced copy of that report, looking forward to digging into it more and hearing directly from the stakeholders who were involved in that.
That task force included leaders from the city, the county, and it also included external community leaders in the space of police accountability and reform, including folks who worked on the de-escalation initiative 940. So looking forward to receiving that report in my committee this Wednesday.
The third and final item on the agenda is a presentation from the Seattle Human Services Department regarding the safety RFP.
This safety RFP aims to prevent and reduce harm done to youth.
between the ages of 18 and 24 years old that have been impacted by the criminal legal system.
So this particular body of work encompasses about $4.4 million in total awards to local community-based organizations who work in the space of harm reduction for youth 18 to 24 specifically as a result of the criminal justice system.
So looking forward to receiving a report and presentation our human services department on the work that they've been doing in that space and really excited to hear what we can anticipate seeing in terms of areas and community organizations who will receive investments.
Next thing I've just really quickly wanted to preview an upcoming important committee hearing that will be a joint committee hearing of My committee and the Labor Relations Policy Committee and the Community Police Commission will also be collaborating with us on this committee But you may have seen over the recess that there is a special committee scheduled on the evening of Wednesday, September 18th, starting at 6 p.m.
We are toying with the idea of starting a little earlier, perhaps at 5.30 p.m., with some presentations.
But that committee hearing will be fully dedicated to hearing from the public.
about concerns that they may continue to have with regard to the collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Management Association.
So that's the SPMA, not the Seattle Police Officers Guild, but in accordance with code, the City Council, my committee, and the Labor Relations Policy Committee is required to hold a public hearing to hear and receive public input.
about changes, modifications, ongoing concerns that members of the public might have with regard to those collective bargainings before we as a management team begin labor negotiations with the Seattle Police Management Association, which will begin, my understanding is, later this year with the Seattle Police Management Association.
So this is in compliance with that code and it's our opportunity as council members to hear directly from community what concerns may continue to exist as it relates to different provisions in the Seattle Police Management Association contracts.
So we're working closely with Council President Harrell's office who's the president, if you will, the chair of the Labor Relations Policy Committee and we're also working with our partners over at the Community Police Commission.
to coordinate this particular effort.
If you have any questions, please do let me know.
But again, this is a fairly routine hearing, but an important one to make sure that we get a clear understanding from the public early on about what they would like to see the City Council prioritize in those labor negotiations.
Awesome.
And then lastly, I'll just say that today I'm really excited to welcome and have a meeting with Los Angeles City Council Member Bob Blumenfield, who represents the third district in Los Angeles, which includes the San Fernando Valley.
He works a lot on climate change, environment, sustainability, transportation, and addressing homelessness in the city of Los Angeles.
He'll be visiting us here at the city today, and I'll have an opportunity to meet with him around midday and really looking forward to continuing that sort of cross-pollination of information and work that we all do up and down the west coast in progressive cities looking forward to that.
On Tuesday, September the 10th, I will have an opportunity to be at the Northwest African-American Museum speaking with a broad array of gun safety advocates and activists about what we here at the City of Seattle are doing to address gun safety at the local level and really excited about joining that group for that conversation.
On the 13th of September, I will be doing a tour of the West Seattle Food Bank and really excited about learning a little bit more about their work in advance of kicking off our budget season here and looking forward to being in my own district, where I live, to see the workings and the services that the West Seattle Food Bank provides to our local community.
That is it.
Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.
Council Member O'Brien.
Thank you, Council President.
The Sustainability and Transportation Committee has nothing on this afternoon's agenda.
We had a committee meeting on Friday and a number of items came out of that committee, but those will be going to full council a week from today.
We do have a committee meeting tomorrow at an unusual time.
Whoops, sorry.
Got a little oil spill down here.
It's easier to clean up than oil.
I'm so sorry.
That's good.
We do have a committee meeting tomorrow, Tuesday.
It's going to be at 1145, so we're sneaking a committee meeting in between the morning committee and the afternoon committee.
Here it comes.
I'm just going to act like there's nothing going on here.
Tomorrow's committee, we're going to start by having a discussion on legislation we're calling Healthy Homes, Healthy Buildings.
This is legislation that would prohibit new gas hiccups to new construction.
As currently drafted, that would go into effect July 1st of next year.
We had a discussion on draft legislation on Friday with community members.
Actual legislation is on the referral calendar today, I believe.
So we'll have central staff brief the committee on that.
No vote tomorrow on that, just a discussion again.
Can I ask you a quick question?
Sure.
Have you brought Puget Sound Clean Air Agency in to talk about this and their position?
I have not talked to them specifically about that, but that's a great idea and I will, you know, I've been talking to, staying in touch with the city's representative on the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency board, which is the director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment.
but haven't reached out directly to...
Dennis McLaren still head of PSA?
No, it's...
Dennis has been gone for a while, but it's drawn a blank.
Cut me a card.
But I just think it'd be great for us to check in with him.
Yeah, excellent.
Excellent idea.
The next piece of legislation we hear tomorrow is the ordinance related to oil heat in homes.
This is legislation that the mayor has been leading on, and I support.
This would create a phase-out for, well, technically what it does is it would phase out current oil tanks in the ground, but the idea is that there is cleaner, cheaper energy, and if you're going to go through the trouble to swap out an oil tank, it's probably going to make sense to swap to clean electric energy.
We believe it will effectively or largely phase out oil heat in homes essentially over the next decade before 2028 at the moment as legislation says.
Estimates are that there's about 18,000 homes that still get heat from oil.
This would create a tax on oil of about 24 cents a gallon.
I was talking to some of the oil providers who said that, you know, average customer will use about 400 gallons a year, so it's about $100 a year for an average customer and additional taxes.
Folks on the utility discount program have some relief on that.
In fact, the tax will fund complete retrofits for those folks to convert from oil to electric heat pumps.
So there is money that's going to be available to help?
There is money to help for that.
Now, the concerns that folks have raised is that, you know, the money goes to the lowest income folks, as I believe makes sense, but there's a lot of folks in middle incomes that will you know, have to need some help too.
And so, you know, the reality is that's been discussed with the Green New Deal, as we convert off fossil fuels, we're going to need additional revenue sources to help with the transition that could be helping for renters or homeowners.
that need to convert to a new source of heat or water heating.
It could be resources for workers that are currently employed in different aspects of the fossil fuel industry, whether they're delivering oil or hooking up new gas lines.
And, you know, this is, there's the urgency that says that, the science says that we need to phase off fossil fuels, you know, roughly in the next decade.
And there's also the requirement that if we're going to do this adjust transition, we have to be very thoughtful.
And so there's a tension there, you know.
We need to move extremely fast and at the same time take our time to get it right.
And I'll tell you that I want to do both those at the same time, and I'm butting up against those tensions.
But you're seeing us try to work through these as best we can.
So that oil heat resolution is, or oil heat ordinance is slated for a vote tomorrow.
So we'll see how that discussion goes.
The final thing we have is a resolution that I'm hoping to vote on tomorrow, and it's a resolution relating to procurement and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
And this is talking about that we want to avoid purchasing oil that's coming out of Alaska's Arctic.
And so I'm hoping to vote on that tomorrow.
Folks have any thoughts or concerns?
That'll be on the referral calendar this afternoon.
Thank you, Council Member O'Brien.
And look, the spill is all cleaned up.
Spill is all cleaned up.
It was just a water spill.
Thank goodness.
Thank you for everyone going around the table and sharing what you're working on and what we're trying to do this week and today.
So with that, as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will convene in executive session.
And the purpose of this executive session is to discuss pending potential actual litigation.
And this gives us an opportunity to discuss confidential legal matters with our city attorneys as authorized by law.
And a legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to make sure we reserve questions of public policy for public open sessions.
And I expect this session to last 30 minutes.
That'll be until 10.35 a.m.
And if it goes beyond that time, I'll announce its extension and expected duration.
With that, let's secure the room.