Council Briefing 04/08/24

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is April 8th, 2024, and the council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.01.

I note that Council Members Morales, Rivera, and Stroud.

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Six present.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, the minutes of April 1st, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

We don't have any presentations today, but we do have an executive session at the close of briefing, and we have one proclamation.

At tomorrow's council meeting, we'll have 23 items on the introduction and referral calendar, including the bill payment ordinance, the first quarter, employment ordinance and ordinance on converting non-residential buildings to residential use, a pair of ordinances relating to a skybridge over and a tunnel under East Lake Avenue East for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and 18 appointments.

The consent agenda will include the weekly bill payment ordinance, and the regular agenda has two items, a resolution providing an honorary designation of 8th Avenue between Seneca Street and Spring Street as We Are Harmon Way, and a clerk file on a petition to vacate an alley on a block bounded by Stewart Street, Eastlake Avenue East, and Denny Way in order to develop a 15-story research facility.

I expect we'll hear from our Transportation Committee Chair on both of those items.

All right, moving right along.

Council Member Wu has a proclamation recognizing February 12th to be Matt Chan Day in Seattle.

Council Member Wu, please lead the discussion on the proclamation before I turn to our colleagues and ask for any input and then ask for signatures to be affixed.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Council President.

So today, I would like to honor the legacy of a man whose impact you may have felt, whose work you've witnessed, though you may not have crossed paths with him directly.

So Matt Chan was more than just a family man.

He was a community activist, a trailblazer in journalism, but to many of us, myself included, he was a beacon of change, a man who's touched many lives in profound ways.

So a little bit of history about Matt.

He was one of a very few group of Asian American television executives who helped pave the way for Asian American journalists.

He discovered Lisa Ling as a reporter in an open audition at a mall.

He started his own production company, Screaming Flea Production, which produced the show Hoarders.

It's currently still on TV.

He's taught advanced classes at UW and also joined his longtime friend to create a podcast, Chino y Chicano, which talked about the experiences of people of color in Seattle.

He's also mentored and helped many candidates of color, including King County Councilmember Grimai Zahilai, Seattle Port Commissioners, Sam Cho and Toshiko Asagawa, as well as myself.

And so, many of us know Matt personally and through the community.

He was an advocate for underrepresented communities that didn't have a voice.

He was a community leader who taught us how to tell our own stories.

when high-impact development threatened to gentrify the Chinatown International District, he inspired community to unite and to speak out and to tell their stories.

And it was amazing to see our seniors with our young people fighting for their community.

And that is his legacy.

And so, I am thankful to know Matt personally.

We both served on the ISRD Commission.

I got to know him during the pandemic through Community Watch when walking through the streets of the CID.

I also got to know him through coming here to Chambers with bringing groups of seniors not only here, but also to the King County chambers.

And he was a life changer for me and many people.

And so people, a lot of people focus on the built environment as legacy.

But for Matt, it was always about lifting people.

Myself and numerous candidates of color and leaders of color stand in positions of leadership today because of his mentorship and support.

He dedicated himself to empowering organizations and individuals, and this proclamation is a tribute to his remarkable contributions.

And I ask you to join me in signing it.

Thank you very much.

Is there any input from my colleagues?

Personally, I will save any comments for tomorrow with the presentation.

But now is the time to ask questions.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

My comment was just to say thank you very much for bringing this forward.

I know how important he was in the broad community.

Anyway, thank you.

I'm looking forward to signing off on this.

Thank you.

All right.

Seeing there's no further discussion on the proclamation with the clerk, please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing February 12th to be Matt Chan Day in Seattle.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

Just one question.

Is it possible to sign on after today but before the presentation ever?

I'm just wondering.

As long as the signatures occur in open session.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right, now we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is the preview of council actions.

And we'll begin with in roll call order, Council Member Wu.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

So last week's highlights for me included doing a tour at Uplift Northwest.

I also went to Bird Bar Place and spoke with the Council General of India with Council President Nelson.

I attended the District 1's Comprehensive Plan Community Meeting.

And my office will continue to go to these meetings across Seattle.

I went on a Seattle Police West Precinct ride along.

Friday night and learned a lot about what our officers are faced with and the resources they have overnight.

I stayed till 3 AM, and it was quite eye-opening for me.

I have another ride-along scheduled this week in North Precinct and excited to learn about that as well.

In committee last week, we are referring nine OSC Green New Deal oversight advisory board appointments to the full council and that final vote will take place next week.

We also approve Seattle City Lights Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission budget framework.

And this was really timely because Councilmember Dan Strauss, as well as Mayor Harold and I, we went to meet with our tribal partners at the Skagit Hydropower Project tour.

Also got a tour of Upper Skagit.

and really got to sit down and talk with our tribal partners.

This week, I look forward to meeting with and learning more about Working Washington, my budget briefing with central staff.

I have a tour of a tiny house village on Yesterway, and also, as I mentioned earlier, an SB right along in North Precinct.

And so that's all for me, and I'm gonna pass this to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Hello, colleagues.

The first thing, Committee Parks Utilities Technology Committee, our next meeting is going to be April 10th at 2 p.m.

We are going to get a briefing on the Ship Canal Water Quality Project.

I had a chance to do a tour about over a month ago.

ON THE PROJECT, WE'RE GOING TO GET AN UPDATE REGARDING THE BUDGET, WHERE THEY ARE, TIMELINE, A WHOLE BUNCH OF UPDATES FROM OUR UTILITIES.

AND THEN WE'RE ALSO POSSIBLY GOING TO TAKE A VOTE, BUT WE WILL HAVE A DISCUSSION ABOUT CALL YOU AND THE HOSTAGE THROW PHONE, WHICH IS THE SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY AS WELL.

WE HAD AN OVERVIEW OF THAT LAST A COMMITTEE MEETING REGARDING THOSE TWO PIECES FROM OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT AND OUR TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT AS WELL.

THE NEXT THING LAST WEEK, I INTENDED THE REGIONAL WATER QUALITY COMMITTEE.

FINALIZED OUR UPDATE FOR OUR AGENDA FOR 2024 AND OUR WORK PLAN AS WELL AND HAD DISCUSSION REGARDING SOME OF THE LANGUAGE WITHIN THAT AS WELL.

SO THAT WAS REALLY GOOD.

AND THEN LAST BUT NOT LEAST, DISTRICT 3 UPDATES.

LAST WEEK I HAD A tour of First Place, which is a daycare in our district that also has affordable housing attached to it.

Our former representative, Don Mason, runs that program and it was really phenomenal to see that.

Chief Self Seattle had a tour of their place downtown and also hearing about all the amazing affordable housing options that they have.

Last week also that was in the news and I know a lot of people had questions about, we had asylum seekers and migrants who were at Garfield tennis courts last week, and I definitely wanna thank our city workers who were there on the ground from our Parks Department to our Rangers to SDOT to a bunch of just different city departments and workers who were on the ground during very difficult situations.

Our mayor's office, phenomenal for their leadership as well.

and really looking forward to our state and our county, you know, presenting a plan and having resources available for that, for the migrants and asylum seekers, specifically from our state.

And this Friday, I will be joining the mayor in the announcement of the...

One Seattle, the day of service, which is in May, and that will be at Bird Bar here in our community as well.

So looking forward to that and participating in that.

And with that, I will pass it off to Council Member Kettle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

On the day of service the last two years, I've led an event in our community, and so I look forward to that, and that's definitely something that needs to be promoted.

Regarding for my office, yes, we attended the South Lake Union Queen Anne Community Council meetings.

In terms of regional meetings last week, I was unable to attend the regional water quality meetings, ABLY REPRESENTED BY MY COLLEAGUE, COUNCILMEMBER HOLLINGSWORTH.

INSTEAD, I WAS AT THE POLITICAL RECRUITMENT ROUND TABLE SPONSORED BY THE MAYOR.

THAT INCLUDED MANY REPRESENTATIVES FROM BUSINESSES AS THEY LOOK AT HR AND RECRUITMENT.

AN IMPORTANT PIECE AS IT IS PILLAR ONE OF OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK COMING OUT OF THE COMMITTEE.

MOVING FORWARD, Speaking of our Public Safety Committee, we're having our meeting tomorrow morning, which will include OEM, the Office of Emergency Management, very important.

It's the last of the nine departments, offices, and commission that fall under the Public Safety Committee.

And I'm also having Inspector General Judge join us to go over her recent use of force report.

It's very important from the accountability partners side of things.

Tomorrow, also, I'll be meeting the Council General of India, Council General Gupta.

And lastly, in District 7, just south of the Ballard Bridge, the Salmon Bay Village, I'll be touring that with Lehigh and look to gain some insight and see what lessons learned are being implemented there and how's it going so far.

Separately, Council President, I do not believe, in terms of the agenda, we have, like, other business or any items like that.

So if it's okay, you know, kind of as a chair of the Public Safety Committee, I just wanted to make some remarks for the official record related to the passing of James Reagan.

who is one of the security team here, is represented here always in our chambers.

And I just wanted to note his service to public safety, his public service to our city and specifically to the Seattle City Council.

He passed on Saturday, 30 March, while on duty, while here at City Hall.

And he should be remembered.

He's been serving our community, our city, our council since 2015 for nine years.

And over that time, He was a great servant of the city and a partner with his teammates, his colleagues on the security team here at Seattle City Hall.

But more than that, he was a son and a brother.

He's from Louisiana, new to the council.

I did not meet him in this way, did not know this, but learning about him is very important.

to note that, yes, he was a son and a brother and from Louisiana, but also a friend to all.

As noted, James' demeanor was always inclusive, treating everyone he encountered as a friend.

His ability to listen, to offer support was a gift to those around him.

His smile was infectious, and he had a unique talent for making people laugh, even in their lowest moments.

That's the kind of public servant that we need here in Seattle and that we see often, but we don't necessarily recognize.

And it's sad to do so on the passing of his life, but I think for a moment, I think for the official record, it's important to remember James Reagan.

And I just want to close by saying to his colleagues here in the chamber, outside his leadership team, that I think of you too, because it's very difficult to lose somebody from your unit.

whether from a military perspective or my brother, who was a former sheriff's deputy.

He lost members of his unit, his sheriff's office.

And it's difficult for those that are around, particularly serving with him for nine years.

So to those of the entire team, my condolences to you in addition to his family, because I recognize that it's difficult for those who served with him over the past nine years.

So my thoughts and prayers to his family, but also to the team here at Seattle City Hall.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for that solemn acknowledgement and I appreciate your office leading on explaining to us what happened and leading on the recognition of its impact.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore.

Yeah, thank you, Council President, and thank you very much, Council Member Kettle.

Appreciate those comments and bringing us back to really the foundation of what we're doing here.

So thank you so much, and certainly my condolences go out to the friends and family and coworkers of Mr. Reagan.

So, in terms of update for my schedule, this Wednesday we will be having the Housing and Human Services Committee.

Because it's spring break, we do have quorum issues, so we are going to be starting our committee at 10.30 instead of 9.30, and we will have five appointments to the Burke-Gilman Place Public Development Authority and one appointment to the LGBTQ Commission.

In terms of events last week, I had the pleasure of attending, doing a tour of Friendship Heights Tiny Village on Aurora Avenue and was very impressed with all the staff there and just the layout.

It seemed to be a very safe, stable, and welcoming place for the people who are living there, as well as for being a very good neighbor in the community itself.

So, it was a reassuring and enlightening visit, and I appreciated the opportunity to do so.

I also had the opportunity to attend the Howler Lake Community Club Forum and asked lots of questions about what we've been doing here and really received a lot of positive feedback from the the members of the club who felt very, really felt a sense of hope about the current city council and the direction that the city is moving in.

And we're very thankful for all the work that we've accomplished, even just in the short period of time we've been here.

So I wanted to pass on that information to my colleagues.

I also wanted to note, just as a community announcement, that this Wednesday there will be a ceremony, a prayer to break fast from Ramadan, and that will be being held at the Seattle Convention Center, and I believe it begins at 9, and I know that they are welcoming to any on the council who would like to attend.

So just wanted to make that announcement.

And with that said, I'll pass it on to my colleague, Council Member Sotka.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Moore.

And also thank you, Council Member Kettle, for your leadership and your very thoughtful words and remarks to honor the passing of our colleague, James Reagan.

And thank you.

I'm looking at one of his closest colleagues now.

very profound, very important that we honor all those around us and not just those city FTEs, but public safety inclusively defined.

There's a lot of stakeholders involved, including Mr. Reagan, which I appreciate.

So on the Transportation Committee front, last week we had a very exciting Transportation Committee meeting.

On Tuesday morning, I want to thank a few of our colleagues who are not regular members of the committee, but who lent their voices and their their perspectives and their leadership on key issues impacting all of us, including Council Member Moore, Council Member Rivera was there, as well as Council Member Morales.

And so it was a great committee meeting.

We discussed, amongst other things, the Seattle Transportation Plan.

And next week, at next Tuesday's committee meeting, colleagues, We, you know, my hope is that we will discuss again and hopefully vote on an amended piece of legislation for full council consideration.

So thank you again for all your work in helping us make better progress on that.

We'll also hear presentations next week on SDOT's state of the roads, as well as their asset management approach, all up.

You know, colleagues, bridges are of critical importance to me and many of the people that I represent in District 1, and I know many of you as well.

Bridges all across the city, over 100 of them, and we need to make better investments and progress on those.

So keen to better understand asset management plan and approach, not just with bridges, focusing on bridges, of course, but asset all up.

And, of course, next week we'll also hear a presentation on Vision Zero.

Plenty of room for growth, I think, as a city there.

So we're gonna tee that up for discussion as well.

Colleagues, I'll note that my office is still analyzing the mayor's draft levy proposal.

It is currently out for public comment.

I wanna encourage everyone to provide public comments.

There's a number of channels that the mayor has to do that.

And also don't hesitate to reach out directly and share your feedback and thoughts with me, my office, and we, last week, on Friday, during our regular newsletter, we launched a D1-specific community newsletter focusing on, or survey, rather, focusing on transportation priorities, so keen to understand.

We have many ways to engage and stay connected on that really important issue, so I encourage everyone to share their feedback.

Then finally, I'll note that the Levy to Move Seattle Oversight Committee meeting is tomorrow evening, so I look forward to joining that.

And we'll of course share any feedback from following that conversation as well.

And then on a slightly different note, I also wanna echo the sentiment of our public safety chair, Bob Kettle, who astutely mentioned that both him and I actually both attended a really important, urgent conversation around police hiring and recruitment.

And so I wanna thank the mayor and his leadership for Organizing that really important thoughtful discussion with a lot of experts in industry, not necessarily government, but a lot of people from various, from the tech industry and retail and other sectors that were private sector.

HR leaders that were represented there to allow us to kind of kick the tires of our current process, provide feedback.

So very, really, really important.

So thank you to the mayor for leading and organizing that and allowing me as, or excuse me, in this case, Public Safety Vice Chair to join with our esteemed colleague Chair Kittle.

So that is all that I have from my perspective.

Colleagues, I welcome any comments or questions that you may have.

And if not, Council President, Madam Council President, I turn it over to you.

Thank you very much.

So I did have one question about that, the street vacation or the alley vacation.

Who is the central staff person that I can ask a quick question to?

Yeah, I believe that is Lish.

Okay.

Or if not, it's Kelvin.

All right.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

All right.

And we approve that, Madam President.

Go ahead.

Yeah, we approve that out of committee.

Well, we recommended that the full council more specifically adopt the amended plan that includes the staff recommendations that's in Council Member Kettle's district.

And so, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Okay, the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee will meet this week at 2 p.m.

on Thursday, April 11th, and there are seven items on the agenda.

Five are mayoral appointments to the Domestic Workers Standards Board, and the committee will consider the other two appointments to my committee that are on tomorrow's IRC at a later time.

Then we'll discuss and possibly vote on the Seattle Department of Human Resources first quarter 2024 employment ordinance.

So for the past few years, this has gone directly to full council.

And the main component of this ordinance is to return positions to civil service or to remove them from civil service.

And it's gone to full council sort of as a pro forma exercise, but because there can sometimes be budget impacts associated with some of these classification changes that the quarterly bill makes, I decided to revert to the pre-COVID practice of having them go through the governance committee, which is where they've always gone, just in fulfillment of our oversight role.

And then finally, we'll have our first discussion of a draft Seattle Police Department recruitment and retention ordinance co-sponsored by Council Member Kettle.

The latter was, this was prompted for me by the fact that SPD continues to lose more officers than it can hire.

So we have to do everything we possibly can to hire more officers faster.

And there are many reasons why we continue to have net negatives in our police staffing.

What I've been hearing sort of for the past year is people just pointing to the fact that other cities are struggling with the same problem, and it's a tight labor pool.

That may be the case, but we have to do absolutely everything we possibly can, and so this is focusing on a component that we can fix, and that's the hiring processes.

So this is being heard in my committee instead of the Public Safety Committee because one of the substantive changes the legislation would make is to add an FTE to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission so that contact with applicants can be made within ideally 48 hours of that application landing at the city.

And this is consistent with best practices in neighboring jurisdictions.

Currently, applicants don't receive a personalized communication sometimes until after they take the written exam, which can take three to six weeks.

And so we want to speed that up so people feel like they've got a personal connection and also that their application is appreciated.

And another substantive change the bill aims to make is to potentially allow for the use of the same exam used by every other jurisdiction in the region because people often apply to more than one law enforcement agency at the same time.

And if we were to use an additional test that would potentially shorten the application period time significantly, and also attract more applicants knowing that they can just direct their scores to be sent to SPD as well as other law enforcement agencies.

So those are the two pieces of low hanging fruit that there's wide consensus would help our staffing processes and enable us to better compete with our neighbors.

In addition, the legislation also creates in the Seattle Police Department a recruitment and retention program to be staffed by city personnel who are responsible for increasing the number of sworn officers in SPD.

The program shall be led by the manager to general government position.

transferred in Section 3 of this ordinance.

The manager to position shall have the responsibility for developing and implementing recruitment strategies in consultation with contracted marketing or media consultants and ensuring that a personal contact is made available to all police officer applicants for the public safety test.

And the manager to position shall be committed to continuous improvement and ensure that the recruitment strategies reflect best practices both nationwide and regionally.

That is taken directly from the legislation, which will be on the referral calendar next week because we're still working with the mayor's office on some technical details.

All right.

What did I say is not on the agenda?

Please note, everybody out there, the app-based worker pay standard compromise proposal will not be on this Thursday's Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee agenda.

And that's because central staff is working with our office and stakeholders and the law department to make sure that all the components that were presented of the agenda the compromise proposal are translated correctly in the actual legislation.

So that'll take some time because there are several changes and it's complex.

And so that will be ideally, the plan is to have a bill before us for the last committee of this month, which is on April 25th.

So I'm saying this also hoping that anyone out there who is listening who would be inclined to make public comment on this topic, please note because it's not on the agenda, I will not be taking public comment on this.

So I'm just asking that you please not sign up.

It's the practice of my committee that I allow comment only on items on the agenda.

So don't want people to be disappointed and find out they can't speak to this if they show up.

All right, and then finally, on Thursday, as was mentioned, I joined Council Member Wu for a meeting with the Consul General of India, Prakash Gupta, where we discussed a range of issues from economic development, the Seattle film economy, and many other ways in which we can make the fact that we've now got a Consulate General here in Seattle, bear fruit for both nations in both regions.

And so they've got a lot of great ideas that we can partner on.

So that was a great conversation.

And then last week, I also met with Uplift Northwest CEO Gina Hall, and we discussed a range of topics, notably their work to provide job readiness skills to their clients so they can live self-sufficiently and with dignity, as has been the the mission for over 100 years in their original inception as the Millionaires Club.

So just remember, when you hear Uplift Northwest, it's a strengthened millionaires club that we're talking about.

And they continue to do great work.

They've got several contracts with the city.

I believe that graffiti removal is one of them.

And so I just, yes.

Mm-hmm.

And so, but it's their job readiness and job training skills that I'm really interested in.

And in this way, Uplift Northwest fills a crucial gap in our homelessness response.

So shout out to Gina Hall and Uplift Northwest for all the great work they do for our city's workforce development.

All right.

I'm going to now call for further business before we move into executive session.

Does anybody have any further business?

Yes.

Council President, I just wanted to ask you a quick question about the proposed legislation for the testing and recruitment.

I know in the Public Safety Committee we had talked about the 30 by 30 goals and trying to make sure that we are recruiting more women officers as well as actually promoting and advancing women officers into sworn positions.

So I'm just wondering, I just wanted to put in a plug that we continue to make that a very specific focus.

And I know council member Hollingsworth had some great suggestions, but also wanting to kind of just hear from SPD about their plan to address some of the issues that have been identified around childcare or scheduling flexibility.

on harassment issues so that they get those resolved so they can be more effective in recruiting.

But back to my original question, just sort of what's the focus on that?

Great.

I'm really glad you mentioned that because that is...

One of the reasons why this Manager 2 position is proposed to be moved into SBD, so there is a chain of command in the program that Mayor Harrell, in his wisdom, developed in August of 2022. Actually, it was developed in 2029. It accompanied the lifting of the proviso to pay for officer hiring bonuses as well as create, positions within the Seattle Department of Human Resources for innovations, such as the one that you're talking about that Councilmember Hollingsworth mentioned.

And that work has been proceeding there in the department, but two of those positions have moved over to SPD, and it's I want to make sure that there is one person who is accountable for making sure that that innovations including improvements to fulfill the 30-30 campaign goals are made.

And so having some more accountability for that and having this body within Seattle Police Department where they can interact with their colleagues and find out what is working when they're out there at outreach.

events is precisely why I think that we should move it all over so that it actually can get the job done more efficiently.

And there's a formal place for some of these ideas to be heard and vetted by the leadership of SPD and also the mayor's office.

So you're right along the same lines I am.

Great.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that.

Okay, I do have two, go ahead.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just wanted to quickly say a few words and really add, well, just a few words of support of this draft legislation to address police recruitment.

And so I wanna thank you and council or public safety committee chair Kettle for your leadership and allowing this to eventually come before council.

I'm strongly supportive based on everything that I'm aware of so far.

Council President, I've heard the same things that you kind of recounted in your recap of that in terms of this being a challenge amidst a sort of national crisis or trend.

Other jurisdictions are similarly suffering, may or may not be true, I represent the people of the city of Seattle, more specifically the people of District 1 who want us to treat this urgently and focus on what we can control here in the city to address staffing levels, to restore staffing levels to an adequate level that people would expect for a city of comparable size and scope, geographic scope of Seattle.

And so we have better response times from police and all of our first responders, and I think And I've been clear, you know, I think the challenge is, the reason, the rationale rather for the challenge is complex, but I see the solution is really twofold, addressing the really clunky process and then also really notable officer morale issues.

And this definitely squarely addresses the somewhat clunky process that we have in place today.

So again, thank you for your leadership on that.

I support using a test that our surrounding law enforcement agencies are using as one to supplement the existing tests that we have, but also encouraging more communication and support to police officer applicants who successfully complete the exam and want something that requires a more frequent update to the entry-level police officer position registers, and I think this does exactly that and can't just add new requirements and expectations from a council perspective and without making sure there's resources provided as well.

And I think the extra personnel to do exactly that is really helpful.

Bottom line, we must do everything possible to identify and support qualified applicants to proceed with the police recruitment process and to begin to truly reverse the worrying trends of fewer and fewer police on our streets.

So thank you again for your leadership.

Well, Darn, I wish that you could say that in committee.

I understand that you're not going to be able to be there, but that was eloquently delivered, and I'll remember that as we're discussing.

And I do want to note, this is the first thing that council...

Council Member Kettle and Vice Chair of Public Safety Kettle and I have been talking about since January.

I mean, this is one of the first topics that we got our heads together on, and this issue was discussed at length in which committee meeting of yours?

Our third meeting on SPD staffing.

Yes, so if anybody would like to watch that discussion, you can go to Seattle Channel and pull up that archive because this legislation relies on lessons learned from that discussion in part too.

That's a lot of the flesh of this legislation.

Don't worry, Council President.

I can cover for my vice chair as your vice chair to speak to the topic and to reiterate one point.

Just because other jurisdictions, other cities are having challenges doesn't mean that we can use that as an excuse.

We have to press on all fronts, and so that's what we're going to do.

Thank you.

This is Seattle after all.

I do have one thing to mention that I am going to be traveling on Wednesday on an airplane.

So unfortunately, I cannot attend the Human Services Committee in the morning, nor the parks meeting in the afternoon.

Councilmember, Chairs Moore and Hollingsworth, I regret that.

But I will be appearing on Zoom at my very own committee.

Thank you very much.

If there are any objections to that, now would be a good time to.

Okay.

All right, folks, there's no further business.

We'll move into executive session.

As presiding 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 attorneys as authorized by law.

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

And as a standard practice, we're now giving the executive sessions an hour, so the executive session will end by two.

45, that leaves five minutes to get from chambers to our desks to begin the executive session.

So if the session is to be extended beyond that time, I'll announce the extension and expected duration.

At the conclusion of the executive session, this council briefing meeting will automatically adjourn and the next one is scheduled, the next council briefing is on April 15th.

2024 at 2 p.m.

All right.

The council is now in executive session.

Council members, please log in to the executive session Zoom meeting.