Seattle City Council Briefing 6/2/2025

Okay.

Good afternoon.

Today is June 2nd, 2025. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.03.

Will the clerk please call the roll and council member Moore is excused.

Thank you.

Council member Rink.

Present.

Council member Rivera.

Present.

Council member Saka.

Here.

Council member Solomon.

Here.

Council member Strauss.

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Council member Kettle.

Here.

And council president Nelson.

Present.

Thank you.

So I think that's seven people.

That is one, two, three, four, five, eight.

That's seven present.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of May 12th, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

All right, we have an executive session today.

On tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are 10 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

Those are Council Bill 120991, the weekly bill payment ordinance, Appointment 03176, appointment is Stephanie Morris as member of the FEP Levy Oversight Committee for a term to December 31st, 2026. Council Bill 120992, an ordinance granting Downtown Seattle Association permission to install, maintain, and operate interactive media kiosks.

in public places.

Council Bill 120994, an ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation, authorizing approval of uses and accepting the 2025 updated surveillance impact report.

Council Bill 120995, an ordinance relating to a new civil cause of action against graffiti taggers for illegal graffiti on public and private property.

Council Bill 120996, an ordinance relating to emergency medical services authorizing execution pursuant to the Interlocal Cooperation Act of an agreement with King County regarding the imposition and allocation of property tax revenues generated by a six-year voter approved King County-wide tax levy.

Appointment 03175, appointment of Sean Fitzgerald Barnes as Seattle Chief of Police and Council Bill 120979 in ordinance amending ordinance 126995, which adopted the 2024 budget.

Relatedly, Council Bill 120988 in ordinance amending ordinance 127156, which adopted the 2025 budget, including the 2025 to 2030 capital improvement program.

Let's see.

And then finally, Council Bill 120993, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, implementing a major update of the neighborhood residential zones and modifying development standards in other zones to comply with various state laws.

Let me make sure I've got all of that.

Yes, I do.

Okay, the consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance, and there are nine pieces of legislation from committees.

First, going to full council, and these are time sensitive land use bills that council member Solomon will address later.

And so that is clerk file 314465. and Council Bill 120990, both having to do with a, let's see, the first having to do with a unit lot subdivision of Modern Homes, LLC, and the ordinance approving and confirming the plat of Ballard corner townhouses in the portions of southeast corner of northwest corner of section 12. Okay, governance, accountability, and economic development committee.

We've got resolution 32170, resolution granting conceptual approval to the Downtown Seattle Association to install, maintain, and operate interactive media kiosks in public places.

And then in parks, we've got about five pieces of legislation.

And very quickly, I'll just read all of them.

Council Bill 120982, 120966, 120967, 120968, and then Resolution 32171. And these are all having to do with their apportion between the matters of the Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center and revising and consolidating the related system developed changes for sewer, water, and drainage infrastructure.

That has to do with the legislation to change how we apportion costs for development projects.

Let's see, an ordinance relating to the authorizing of the general manager and CEO of public utilities to develop municipal assessment reimbursements areas in accordance to, and then it goes on from any titles of the RCW, but my point is the SMC.

And then amending ordinance 127156, which adopted the 2025, 2026. This is another, I actually think that this was perhaps misplaced under Seattle Parks and Utilities.

I think that belongs in the Finance Committee.

In the Public Safety Committee, we've got Council Bill 120977, an ordinance relating to oversight of the police, revising the process for investigating complaints, naming the chief of police.

and adding new sections to best implement those changes.

So there's a lot going on in these next weeks.

We've got our plates full of a lot of very important legislation.

So we will now move into the preview of council actions in council and regional committee reports.

And our roll call order today begins with council member Rank.

You're welcome to proceed.

Thank you, Council President, and good afternoon, colleagues.

Sorry, I cannot be there with you in person today, so I'm just going to be a floating head on the screen.

The Sustainability, City Light, and Arts and Culture Committee will be meeting this Friday.

We have three appointments to the Arts Commission and a discussion and a potential vote on City Light supply fiber sharing agreements.

With that, I have no regional committee updates to share at this time, but wanted to note a couple of things related to some community events I was at over the weekend.

So I was really proud to stand alongside community leaders in the flag raising ceremony, recognizing this month as Pride Month.

So happy Pride Month, everybody.

This is just a really special time, but also one that is certainly leaving me in a really thoughtful place as we think about the attacks on the LGBTQIA2-spirit community happening nationwide.

So I was proud to stand alongside a number of amazing queer leaders who were also recognized firmly with the proclamation, organizations represented such as the LGBTQ Resource Center, as well as Lavender Rights Project, and then our LGBTQ commissioners also there as well.

Last week, I also stood alongside the Cambodian community at the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington event, where I presented on behalf of my office in AANHPI Heritage Month proclamation.

And with that, I don't have too many additional updates to share.

And in the interest of time, I'm happy to pass it along to Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Rink.

Last week, I had my monthly meeting with Chief Barnes, where we talked about the Magnuson activation and the activity at Gasworks Park.

I also today had my monthly meeting with North Precinct Captain Davison, where we talked about similar, the Magnuson Park activation and also the monitoring of Gasworks Park and noise stemming from the park.

I'll say there's a new development that I'm hearing from in the district and I believe that is citywide is this dirt bike people on their dirt bikes, riding really fast and using the mounds at the parks to do their activity.

And so in conversations with SPD on how we mitigate for this activity at the parks in an undangerous fashion, or excuse me, in a dangerous fashion.

Last, this past weekend, I too was proud to attend the LGBTQ pride flag raising ceremony.

This is a really important month, and I look forward to celebrating the month with our LGBTQ plus community here in Seattle.

I just have to say that I feel really lucky to live in a city where we are welcoming, where we celebrate.

Hi.

where we celebrate love and we're in a city where we can all be together to celebrate folks and folks, whatever it is that folks are and who they are We celebrate that in Seattle and I feel really proud, particularly at this time, at a time where folks are getting attacked across the country.

I just feel so lucky and proud to be and that my kids are being raised in this city.

So wanted to say that.

I will be attending Councilmember Hollingsworth Garfield High School to attend the honoring the life of Amar Murphy Payne, the young man who was a victim of gun violence and killed at Garfield High School last year.

He was actually trying to break up a fight and was the recipient of gunfire.

Amar's dad, our own Murphy Payne, invited me to attend, and I will be joining um this celebration of life it's very tragic my heart goes out to his family and um uh i will well i to say i'm pleased to be there is not the right word um but i am looking forward to to being in community for this particular celebration um and then uh the other thing i'll be doing this week is attending the in-person meeting of the north precinct advisory council they have a one in-person meeting a year and it's this thursday maybe some of you will be there council member strauss i'm thinking or council member moore we're all north precinct uh council members and looking forward to being there.

I believe Chief Barnes will be there as well to hear from folks and the issues in the North Precinct.

Usually the Captain Davison attends and the City Attorney's Office attends and the Prosecuting Attorney's Office attends.

It's a really good way to share information

and hear back from those agencies on the work that they're doing so looking forward to being there and with that i'll pass it along to councilmember sacca awesome all right thank you and uh thank you for uh allowing me to play a little musical chairs today uh i think it made a lot of sense when i originally sat over there when but but now we know it's a less than full table i wanted to move and i noticed myself trying to look at my colleague from two people down, and I thought it's better to just see eye to eye, which is, by the way, I think the value and benefit of this whole arrangement here.

So also, I guess I'll start off by saying happy Pride Month.

I'm excited as well and proud to live in a city like Seattle and honor the the service and sacrifice, unfortunately, of many people in the LGBTQ community over the years that led us to a place where we're able to honor and everyone celebrate pride in such a manner these days.

It did require a lot of sacrifice, unfortunately.

We're nowhere near where we, there's still plenty more work to do, but it is pride and happy pride, so.

On the Transportation Committee front, next...

Oh, this is right up to my mouth.

On the Transportation Committee front, our next meeting is gonna be tomorrow morning, June 3rd at 9.30 a.m.

Three agenda items.

First and foremost, we're going to consider appointments, the second slate of appointments for the new levy oversight committee.

And we've already considered four council appointments.

We're gonna consider the other three council appointments.

And so that is an important item going through the committee tomorrow.

Hopefully, the way the timing works out, the goal is to make sure we review and consider everyone to allow people that are approved the opportunity to attend the very first levy oversight committee of this new levy.

And that is tentatively planned for Tuesday, June 17th.

The second item we're gonna be discussing tomorrow is SDOT legislation related to adopting a state required commute trip reduction plan.

And then third and finally, SDOT legislation related to authorizing the department to enter into and execute a deed of trust related to the department's work with the arts.

So that is the agenda for tomorrow.

Looks like I have two committee members, three, actually, four, all of us, all of us are here, all of us are here.

And so colleagues look forward to join you all tomorrow morning.

With respect to regional committees, we had the honor last week or the week before, I can't remember, but joining my colleague, Councilmember Kettle at the PSRC General Assembly meeting.

where, among other things, we adopted a new regional safety action plan focused on eliminating serious injuries and deaths on our region's roadways.

A couple of key next steps there.

namely that we're going to consider that plan and that resource as we iterate on and develop and finalize our soon, our new regional transportation plan.

We did a Seattle transportation plan last year, as you know, doing something similar regionally in 2026. Also in the regional committee forum or front, one other significant item to note is that last week I attended a three hour regional fair forum.

It was the second of probably four or five such meetings, but the regional fair forum is a cross-government regional forum that is tasked with helping set a vision for regional fairs to help ensure that The public transit system is managed effectively, specifically focused on ORCA card implementation policy and strategies.

And so cross-government association or amalgam of mostly elected officials that represent the various transit agencies, Community Transit, Around Our Region, Community Transit, Everett Transit, King County Metro, Kitsap Transit, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit, Washington State Ferries, and then I am joining on Seattle's behalf because we operate, as you know, the Seattle Center monorail and the streetcar.

So the second meeting focused on fare simplification.

and we discussed a few simplification options, and of course there's trade-offs with everything.

But the range of options that are initially being considered to improve and drive simplification that we started to discuss, although no decisions are made.

One, aligning calendar dates and the cadence of fare changes across the region.

Also simplifying past pricing.

adjusting the transfer window period.

Currently, as we know, it's two hours in King County Metro, for example.

Fair capping.

These are just a few of the strategies and policies that we discussed.

Ultimately, the goal is to align on a set of recommendations that each individual transit agency would be free to adopt or not, if they think it makes sense based off their own unique needs.

but honored to participate in that forum and looking forward, I expect three to four additional such regional fair forums in the next few months.

Hopefully none of them will be during our budget process, especially since these are recommendations.

In any event, That is all I have from my perspective.

I welcome any comments or questions from you all colleagues.

I have a question.

Yeah, please do.

And I was trying to look it up on the calendar for your meeting, but does the transportation levy advisory committee have designated positions for categories of people that should be there?

Yes, absolutely.

Great question.

So I think there's 18 or 19 members.

Yours truly as chair of the transportation committee is a de facto member.

All seven district-based council members get a seat or get to make an appointment.

So we got all folks, all the names in the hat.

So now we just need to finalize those.

There's a strong preference for people with auditing experience.

uh engineering experience the mayor gets to make five appointments and each of the advice the modal boards get to make their own appointments so each of our four so bike freight uh pedestrian and transit got it i ask because that makes complete sense i ask because when the um when we approved in past when we put the

housing levy on the ballot.

There was an editorial from the Seattle Times that was noting that many of the people on the advisory committee also stood to financially gain from allocations of the monies within the broad categories that are described in the IN THAT LEVY.

SO ARE THERE ANY PROHIBITIONS AGAINST ANYBODY HAVING DIRECT CONFLICT OF INTEREST IF THEY ALSO COULD POTENTIALLY RECEIVE MONEY FOR AN ORGANIZATION?

YEAH.

SO THAT IS PART OF OUR WORK RIGHT NOW.

AND I DON'T PERSONALLY THINK THAT WAS THE CASE FOR THE FIRST SLATE THAT WE REVIEWED AND APPROVED AND THAT ALL OF US ACTUALLY REVIEWED AND APPROVED AT FULL COUNCIL BECAUSE IT STARTED AT COMMITTEE MEETING.

the essence of our shared responsibility.

And that's why, you know, we all need to take this work seriously.

I don't think that's the case.

And I'll speak on my appointee.

I know they have direct, like, solid financial experience and worked in the financial sector for years.

So, yeah.

But that's always something we need to, yes, be mindful of.

Thank you.

or seeing no other questions, comments, I will pass it on to the next person.

I've learned just the next person because it sounds like...

It's hard to go through the alphabet when we're not sitting in a line.

So, Council Member Solomon.

Thank you very much.

So, as referenced earlier, the council will be voting on the Bellart subdivision as required by law.

The The subdivision would create 14 new homes in Ballard, and the hearing examiner has reviewed and approved the preliminary plan.

It will be up to Council to provide final approval, and I urge everyone to do so at tomorrow's meeting.

We're speaking specifically about Council Bill 120990 and Council Filing 314465. So that will be coming up tomorrow.

In terms of regional committee reports, I have nothing to report.

Regarding the land use committee, this past week we had a briefing on ST3 with a final vote scheduled for this coming Wednesday.

with a potential amendment from Councilmember Rivera.

So again, we'll be voting on ST3 zoning this Wednesday on the 4th at 2 p.m.

Also at the next Land Use Committee meeting, I'll be doing a briefing and overview of crime prevention through environmental design and the desire to get CEPTED codified within Seattle City Codes.

as do other 40, as do 42 other jurisdictions in Washington state already have something, already have CEPTED codified.

And my goal is to bring Seattle into that fold.

So if anybody's interested in getting a CEPTED 101, please join us on Wednesday.

Let's see, a constituent will work, answering a lot of calls regarding certain properties of concern.

uh, throughout district two, uh, one in Claremont where we're working with the property owner to try to get that resolved in a multi-agency response type area.

Uh, same thing with the area at 24th and Walker.

Um, and we've got, uh, getting some information regarding a large structure that has gotten that has gotten erected in Jose Rizal Park in the dog park area that evidently has surveillance cameras.

So I'm going to be working with parks, the parks department.

The other thing that I wanted to point out about coming up in district is Saturday, June 14th, we will be co-sponsoring along with the parks department and a number of other entities and anti-displacement resource fair.

So we're bringing in both government and community-based organizations that have a piece of helping people stay in their homes, whether it's through utility discounts, low-cost home repair, tax breaks, whatever the case may be.

There's a lot of resources out there.

Not a lot of people know whether or not they're eligible for them or how to access them.

So we want to make that available for folks, you know, bring all these resources together and then let people know how indeed they can take advantage of those existing resources to help stay in their homes.

Also had the opportunity to participate in a couple of community events such as the flag racing on Saturday.

Happy Pride Month.

You know, want to echo that as well.

As well as attending events for the Recovery Cafe at their SOTA location, as well as the Evergreen Treatment Services Gala on Saturday evening, where I was, you know, joining President Nelson and Councilmember Moore at that event.

Let's see.

Also, did attend the South Precinct Advisory Council meeting this past Wednesday at New Holly Gathering Hall.

Chief Barnes was there, spoke about what his priorities are for the department.

I know it's good for folks to hear from him directly, as well as have an opportunity to speak to the Precinct Command Staff about you know, community concerns and what the precinct plan going forward is looking like, especially for the summer.

And I will end by mentioning that Memorial Day, I had an opportunity to spend the morning at Lakeview Cemetery with the Nisei veterans and the afternoon with Cathay Post 186 at Hing Hei Park.

It's always great to honor those heroes who served and sacrificed.

And that's all I have at this point.

And I will pass it on to the next speaker, Councilmember Strauss.

Thanks, Councilmember Solomon.

This week, the Select Budget Committee will meet this Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

I've asked everyone to receive briefings on the two items that we'll be voting on if you were not in committee or are not on the Finance Committee.

And so on the agenda, we will have budget reform, both process and content.

We will be looking ahead to the fall budget calendar where we are making content changes to how the process will work this year to increase transparency, to give you all a little bit more view into what everyone's asking for and what people's priorities are.

We were going to have the remainder of the committee held on the content, the actual what are we doing regarding budget reform.

We're gonna give you a preview because we're also at this time still reacting to the downturn forecast from April.

So in the content, we were going to have the five year sick look back.

on the budget, what is that trend over the last five years.

This year, spoiler alert, sorry Ben, we're going to be looking at six years.

It was supposed to be ready for this committee.

Unfortunately, because of the level of departures and turnover at central staff, they've needed more time to complete this task.

We were also going to spend time looking at the Statement of Legislative Intent reports that we requested last year, we are instead going to briefly highlight that and get into what has the executive been doing since the April downturn forecast.

So we will have an executive budget update where we will have a briefing from the city budget office on budget-related measures the mayor's office is instituting in the wake of our forecasted downturn.

The two items of voting is, There are two items.

One is the exceptions ordinance, and one is an advance repayment of bonds.

The exceptions ordinance is a standard annual piece of budget legislation that monitors overspend by departments.

Colleagues, you'll see that we went from having a high number and amount of exceptions that we have had to approve in the past.

We are down to two departments and a smaller dollar figure than I think ever before.

So in the budget reform content, This is one of those things.

As well as the advance repayment of bonds, we have been able to take interest earned from other bonds.

So the amount was used while we had it.

We accrued interest.

We're now going to pay off a bond early using that interest.

So that's the 30-second summary on that.

So this is, again, the way that we are engaging in budget reform in the content of our budget.

On full council tomorrow, I'm bringing forward two amendments on resolution 32-17-0, the resolution on interactive media kiosks.

Amendment A would prohibit the deployment of camera technology on digital kiosks as a condition of the term permit.

And amendment B would establish a 10-year term for the digital kiosk permit with an additional 10-year re- extension.

The original legislation has two 15-year terms.

In my layperson's mind, I think of what was cell phone technology 30 years ago, and how are we today in applying that forward.

So that's the basis of where I'm coming with these two amendments.

On external committees, we had a Sound Transit retreat last week.

I've been kind of teasing it out, but the assumptions that I've been making were made public, which is that if Sound Transit's budget is not reformed and the practices are not reformed, then by the mid-2020s, we will not be in balance at Sound Transit.

And so this is extremely important because tariffs, land costs, concrete costs, all of these different cost drivers have all been going up.

The biggest driver of cost is delay.

Thanks to Council Member Sacco, we did have, I believe we had the efficiencies presentation brought to your committee where we're looking at smaller, I'm blanking on the pilings essentially.

Either way about it, there's a lot of work being done right now to be able to reduce costs, make more efficiencies possible.

But it's something that I share with you as the representative here.

It's been something that I've been asking for For quite some time, I feel that I've gotten more information in the last two weeks than I've gotten in the last year, and so I think we're trending in the right direction.

But I'm sticking on top of it, and I just wanted to provide you all that update.

In District 6, I have continued hosting walking tours related to the comprehensive plan and proposed neighborhood centers.

Last Friday, I joined neighbors in Tangletown and then in Upper Fremont.

We had really good conversations about density and neighborhood-specific perspectives.

I wanna thank anyone who's attended for joining, and if anyone wants to talk to me, I still hold office hours.

I held office hours last week, holding office hours this Thursday at my office in Ballard.

And then lastly, I wanna talk about the process for the ethics bill that has come before us, and just that this is a high-intensity conversation that a lot of people are engaged in.

I've seen this type of...

you know, topic in the past.

We had, you know, Councilmember Mosqueda passed hotel legislation maybe six years ago, five years ago.

I worked on maritime and industrial zone changes and the tree ordinance.

In each of those conversations, there were five meetings, approximately.

We held time and reserved time for public comment.

We held time and reserved time for all colleagues to participate and ask all relevant questions.

So I'm not here to ask to rehash the process of the last few weeks.

All to just say is what I'm asking is if we take up high-intensity topics again in the future, I ask that we have enough time reserved in committee for discussion and participation.

Thank you, colleagues.

That's my report.

Any questions?

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

thank you councilmember strauss hello colleagues can you hear me okay yes ma'am Awesome, thank you.

Okay, so the Parks Utilities Technology Committee will be meeting Wednesday, June the 11th at 2 p.m.

Some of the agenda items are going to be golf courses regarding a contract with a different contract, or the one contract, the RFP process for that, concessions agreement with Seattle Parks, and an SPU audit as well.

the Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan We sent out a memo on Friday regarding the timeline of that and information.

So you all should have received that in your inbox.

It was super high level.

It just had key dates for everyone.

We are going to be working on another memo that kind of outlines with central staff regarding the amendment process.

So people have the proper dates and timelines and information regarding that to make sure that central staff has all the information correct dates and please bear with us because central staff is a little short staff so we're going to be doing our best to stay organized our office and to make sure that we can kind of just be prepared for a lot of things.

uh the select uh just a heads up thursday our our first meeting that we'll be talking about the permanent legislation the house bill 1110 in addition to the comprehensive plan phase one is going to be thursday the june 5th at 9 30 and that uh just a heads up we're going to only be allowing written public comment because we have to get through the presentation from the executive We are also doing written public comment for Friday, June the 13th at 9.30.

That is going to be central staff's presentation.

And then we have a full day on the – and I'll be able to announce it.

I'm losing my train of thought regarding the dates.

But we also have another date scheduled this month for a public hearing.

and that's going to be on the comprehensive plan and the permanent legislation for house bill 1110 which will be coming out with some more details so i just want to thank central staff for all their work and our clerk's office as well for all their help i also have a regional water quality committee with council member kettle and that is this wednesday we'll begin again continue to talk about rates and infrastructure improvements there's some presentation regarding you know how we're preparing uh councilmember kale and i were briefed on how we're preparing for our water quality for you know in the next 60 75 years what does that look like and and what you know what um investments do we need to present to make sure that we're protecting our our waterways and puget sound and fresh fresh water opportunities as well um last but not least i wanted to um just give an update I know last week there were a lot of statements made about Cal Anderson and where do we go from here and just want to give a little update the planning the preparation and protection are those are the three key piece that our office will be doing and just so you all know that we have requested a comprehensive list from Seattle Parks Department Seattle Department of Transportation and also Office of Economic Development of all scheduled events that are all in district 3 my district from parks streets city spaces to proactively access the potential community impacts we're going to be collaborating with the city city departments to ensure that Through this process, there's always a public safety lens, but just to understand elevated levels that we're experiencing and making sure that we have public safety considerations and also the civil rights lens that applies to that as well.

The legal framework around that is making sure, obviously, that we're balancing First Amendment rights with the need also to protect communities that are vulnerable and also from harm as well.

So that's a delicate balance, and we're going to be exploring what that looks like.

Also, the communication, and this is for any vulnerable group.

This is in addition to our LGBTQ group, but hey, this could have been at Jeffers Park, something else that targeted a potential neighborhood, or it could be an event somewhere in the south end or over in West Seattle.

It could have been anywhere, okay?

And so what we want to do is make sure that we are maintaining consistent and open communication communication with organizations and groups to ensure that their concerns are heard and addressed with planning and responses and so make sure that we're ahead of this so we can be prepared for responses and then also logistics and on-ground support that you know we are gonna you know have requests like de-escalation trained like community liaison and you know, people at events to help diffuse tensions and situations so they can support some of those vulnerable individuals because we want to make sure that we're keeping the peace within our city.

So I just wanted to state that for the record, that that's some of the planning that we have going on at our office and to make sure that it's like, hey, what's the next steps?

And I've heard from a lot of community people.

I've heard from a lot of organizations like, hey, what next after this?

And so developing those long-term plans, but the short-term information for us is to make sure that we have a list of all events that are happening in our district so we understand what those look like and we can be prepared for those.

So...

That is all I have.

Happy Pride Month as well.

Got to celebrate the pride raising of the flag on Saturday.

So that flag will be flying for the entire month of June.

It was raised on the 31st.

So it's going to get its full June month with the proper theme of being louder this month.

And also, I thank you, Councilmember Rivera, for talking about the gun violence.

going on in the community, and then also the memorial that's going to be on Friday at Garfield.

Obviously, I know a lot of us have had gun violence in our districts, and Friday's going to be a celebration of life with the Payne family, and I know a lot of students.

And so, obviously, I'm looking forward to the conversation and figure out ways we can prove it's a sad moment, but we need to continue to protect our babies, our kids, as we say.

I will pass it off to Councilmember Kettle.

Pending any questions?

Questions for Councilmember Hellingsworth?

Hearing and seeing none.

I think it's for, pardon me, it might be for you Councilmember Hollingsworth, you Councilmember Saka, but when I remember Councilmember Saka, you pressing the legislation that would have modified the process by which or the rules around which officers could speak with youth that might have been WITNESS TO THOSE.

CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME IF ANYTHING HAPPENED WITH THAT?

YEAH, THANK YOU, MADAM COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

AND UNFORTUNATELY, THAT BILL IN OLYMPIA DIED THIS PAST SESSION, AND SO I WANT TO THANK say senator solomon for for bringing that forward um and i i look for i think it's much needed and i look forward next year next session to supporting that again because i think clarity is still needed the problem didn't clearly go away so thank you okay sorry to interrupt

Now it's an important point and it shows that we do have a lot of unsolved cases because there's no one speaking to these unsolved cases.

So it's a very important point.

And with that transition, I always start with public safety committee.

We have transportation this week.

So our next public safety committee will be on the 10th of June.

And the big ticket item here will be the chief of police confirmation introduction.

Thank you for everyone who provided questions for Chief Barnes.

I know there was some questions in community.

Trust me, I was getting some questions from different areas to include the press.

And there's two ways of doing this.

One, you could do it really quick, like within 30 days.

I believe Chief O'Toole did that.

But I think we have somebody coming from the outside.

I think it was important to give Chief Barnes an opportunity to get on his feet, learn the city, hear the challenges, and in fact, experience the challenges.

Because he's had protests, counter-protests, counter-protests.

He's had triple homicide.

There's a lot of things that have been happening, so it gives him an opportunity to have that experience, but then also the chance to meet with communities, and he's done a very strong job on that.

And so I think this is a better time to have a more thorough and complete conversation with Chief Barnes as opposed to something really quick where he doesn't know the neighborhoods, he doesn't know the precincts.

And then we're saying, well, this is what I will do.

And so now he can speak with some more depth because of this time.

And I think this is a good, we're kind of getting close, but I think we're within a good window for this chief of police confirmation.

We also have Star Chase.

This will be the second.

on Star Chase.

We'll be getting updates on this in terms of its use in the region, actually in our county, which will be very helpful.

And also there's an EMS levy.

This levy is on a quick timeline.

I believe the executive side will be briefing, like pre-briefing, committee members on this.

It's really important.

It's normally, like I mentioned, chief of police intro, and then we have the follow-up on Star Chase.

Because of the timing, I'm looking to possibly have a briefing and then press to a vote because of the timelines that we're facing in terms of the levy getting it on the ballot and the like.

And I should note, too, for tomorrow's meeting, yes, speaking of chief police, we have our chief of police investigations ordinance bill basically updating it, fixing it, providing opportunities to set up OPA for success.

And I look for your support in that.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

This week, in terms of committees, regional, community, all of the above, today I already met with Neighborhood Care Health.

That was a very interesting meeting to have, particularly as we face the challenges coming out of the federal, Medicaid potentially, and other areas.

You know, they do have some in my district, the locations in my district, Pike Place Market, the New Horizons and Belltown.

And a big chunk of my district is zoned to Lincoln High School.

They also have a clinic there too.

Tomorrow, speaking of schools, I'm gonna be at the downtown school for their student safety forum, which is basically at Sacred Heart, just south of the arena.

And then tomorrow night, staff will be at the South Lake Union Community Council, very important.

Council Member Hollingsworth already mentioned the RWQC, the Regional Water Quality Committee, a lot, as she noted, is going on.

Big issues related to rates, big issue in terms of changing how we do business to get alignment in terms of approach, forecasting, And this is really important for SPU.

I think SPU has a good model.

I noted that it might be good for the region to have, and particularly its major component, to be in sync in terms of how far you look out.

And SPU has a good three-year, and then technically a six-year, but a three-year, which is they get set.

And so there's some stability in understanding what the rates are going to be.

So working that.

Thursday, I have a Habitat for Humanity luncheon I look forward to attending.

And I also wanted to note, particularly after...

Oh, sometimes I need my glasses to read my own writing.

I have a downtown walk, an evening walk, a public safety walk with the downtown community council and our 3rd Avenue group that we work As I noted in committee, big steps forward, but we still have many more to go.

And part of that is the difference between day and night.

And we do have some challenges.

So this will be not a late night, but an evening walk with community, particularly in the Third Pike Pine area.

Friday, been invited to the Seattle Propeller Club to speak to them.

So I'm looking forward to that.

and uh and continuing with the walk theme uh grisomany uh lutheran church i'll be doing a walk with them in the basically the south lake union area and that's really important for a host of reasons in terms of their their support to the community and which also highlights the need to find a replacement for the mary's place day center women's day center family is set particularly thank you, Amazon, for your support to that.

But the Women's Day Center, that is a challenge, particularly because it's impacting the other Women's Day Centers who don't really have the ability to absorb the extra.

So this is important for me to do this Friday.

Next week, continuing with the walks, this time, It's a Belltown walk, and I'm going to be walking with care, lead, we deliver care.

It's going to be a good combination in terms of where the synergies were working together.

Tuesday, FIFA World Cup.

I'm meeting with their safety security point contact.

Only one year away.

Club World Cup's coming up really quick.

Are we ready?

Are we on Glideslope to be ready for the FIFA World Cup next year?

A LOT OF WORK TO DO.

AND BY THE WAY, I'M GEARING UP, YOU'LL FIND OUT, ENGAGING THE DISTRICTS.

I THINK WE SHOULD ALL BE DOING THAT AHEAD OF TIME TO INCLUDE, YOU KNOW, PIGGYBACKING OFF BALLARD FC AND ITEMS LIKE THAT.

BUT WHO'S THE BEST TEAM?

So that is Tuesday of next week.

Wednesday of next week, I'm meeting with the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

I wanted to highlight this, too, because it's important to protect our Jewish community here in Seattle.

There's been tragic incidents in D.C.

with the murder of a diplomat and his soon-to-be fiancé.

And then sadly, what we just had in Colorado, which is horrific.

And we need to be looking to ensure much like the discussion earlier about like Cal Anderson, we need to be looking out for all of our communities to ensure that they're all safe across the board.

And so that will be Wednesday of next week.

Back to regional.

I will not be attending the PSRC Transportation Policy Board because the FEPP levy, very important.

In answer to your question, it was two weeks ago, it was just before the Memorial Day weekend for the annual assembly where we had the guest speaker, Shailen Bott, who's a former head of transportation in Delaware and Colorado and former federal highway administrator.

So we got some great insight.

And attending those assemblies, and you know from Association of Washington Cities, was great to be in a, at the, the Summit Convention Center with everybody from the region, including the county.

It's a great opportunity to meet our colleagues.

It was a great opportunity for me to have a quick conversation with King County Executive.

You don't get that a lot of times, so it was a great opportunity and good to be there with my partner in crime, Councilmember Saka.

And then lastly, well, not lastly, Friday of next week will be my next District 7 Neighborhood Council where we'd be focusing on FIFA World Cup because we can do a lot to prepare.

We have ideas, things that we can work that will help the community in addition to the World Cup.

And so, for example, we have challenges with the stanchions, the columns for I-5 over Cherry and James and the like.

It's a concern for First Hill.

And it's like, hey, what can we do?

Because the murals are way too low and so forth.

And it's like, well, maybe something new.

Maybe like a flagpole.

So the bottom is like standard gray or brown that can be easily fixed.

But higher up could be flags of all the participating nations in the World Cup.

And maybe some others.

And create a field of flags there.

So just a thought.

And as an example about how we can get ready and participate from a district perspective and then nevermind like the fan zone like kind of scenarios where we have an active stage three experience for the FIFA World Cup.

My last thing, I just wanna say I was really proud to join colleagues for the flag raising on Saturday for Pride Month, and I think that's important.

But you know what's also important?

And it's the fact that Seattle, it's not just a month.

I was just reading recently, and I've heard this other times too, It's not like a performative things, like with businesses where come July 1st, everything's taken down.

Here in Seattle, I was reading, this person was noting, it was kind of like a review of Seattle, like first impressions.

And it was the idea that it is part of the Seattle values and it's a year-round thing.

And so it's not a, hey, let's do this because it's Pride Month.

But you see those symbols and the like and actions throughout the year.

And that was something that somebody from the outside had noticed about Seattle.

And I think that reflects well in Seattle.

And with that, I will turn over to you pending any questions.

Well, not a question, but more a comment.

I appreciate you bringing up the sadly tragic events, the anti-Semitism across the country and the events in DC and Boulder, Colorado.

You know, we need to make sure that we are...

So I appreciate you raising that, Councilmember Kettle, and just a reminder to all of us that we need to support our communities here in Seattle, particularly in the Jewish community.

because these tragedies happen across the country and they have a huge impact on our communities here in Seattle.

And so I want to thank you for raising your voice.

I want to add my voice to yours and say that we need to do what we can in Seattle to make sure that we are not perpetuating the antisemitism that we're seeing across the country and that we are a support to our Jewish folks here in town.

Thank you.

Councilmember Strauss.

Yeah, thank you.

I was just also going to say, you know, we had a discussion on my team in the Monday morning meeting this morning about the anti-Semitic attacks that have occurred.

And just, you know, for me, I don't talk about it often, but there's nothing more that needs to be said than anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have no place here in the city of Seattle.

Thank you.

I was going to add that it sounds like we are all, that we appreciate collectively you bringing this up.

I was gonna say something in my notes as well.

We do have resources in this city.

I have reached out to Solly Kane, who's the president and CEO of the Greater Seattle Jewish Federation, wanting to know, wanting to be proactive, not necessarily reactive, not expressing and disappointment after the fact and so if, we can talk about it offline, but if there is an openness to other folks maybe meeting, I know that we attend events such as Jewish Family Services, et cetera, so we do have the opportunity to meet with, talk with, and interact and learn from community members, but it could be that there are some more structured ways in which we can show our support and help be prepared.

for anything that should happen here.

So thank you, council president.

And I will say the Jewish community would welcome those conversations.

There's a lot of feeling like there is a lack of support and no one wants to talk about this.

And so I know that they would welcome that conversation and I would very much welcome that conversation and joining you.

and any meetings that you would like to have about how we can best provide support to our Jewish community here in Seattle.

There are a number of temples in my district, and obviously my family's Jewish, so this is something that's really not just dear and near to my heart.

and my Jewish daughters, but also just the fact that there are so many temples in the district that I represent and so many folks in our city not feeling supported.

I do think that's important.

That's one reason why I'm meeting with them and generally I don't speak about international events.

I can easily speak based on my background on international events or even national.

I try to keep my service here in Seattle local and kind of keep the focus local and this is one way to do it but as I noted we cannot be Divorce from the fact that things are happening nationally in other states or federally in D.C., you know, we do need to speak up and there's different ways of doing that, showing up at a Jewish Family Services luncheon or whatever it may be.

or in this case, having a meeting with the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

And I think that that is important to the point that Council Member Rivera and Council President was noting.

And it's not just in regardless, yes, I firmly believe in stay in our lane, which is precisely why I abstained from the two resolutions a couple of years ago that were put forward by Council Members Sawant and I think it was Musqueda.

I abstained because they were telling our national delegation to do something also because the Jewish community was voicing strong opposition to that.

So in general, I do take that, but we also never know when something could happen here.

You know, it's the next act of vandalism at a temple, et cetera.

So anyway, I am just expressing that.

I come at the conversation with humility, not knowing if there is something different that we could be doing, so.

I'm sorry, just jump in.

If there's an opportunity and availability for me to join you at that.

Yes.

Well, I will note to Solly Kane.

You know, thinking about the large Jewish community in my district, the number of synagogues, the amount of time I've spent working with that community.

I'd like to join you if I'm able to.

Sure.

Again, the key thing is we cannot have public safety in our city unless we look out for those communities who face those challenges, whether it's, as we mentioned, LGBTQ earlier, the Jewish community, there's others.

So we have to look for those, the minorities, for those that don't have a voice.

And I think that's important in terms of public safety, bringing that back into like, ESSENTIALLY MY WHEELHOUSE.

SO THANK YOU AND OVER TO YOU, COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

Thank you.

So tomorrow on tomorrow's agenda, as noted before, we do have the, let's see if I can find the resolution.

Anyway, it is resolution 3-2.

I know it starts with 3-2 because they all do right now.

It is the kiosk grant, it's the resolution granting 32170, granting conceptual approval to the Downtown Seattle Association to install, maintain, and operate interactive kiosk.

So that is going to be up for a vote.

I appreciate you bringing up your amendments that you will have.

I believe that there is another amendment that is also attached to the agenda.

I must say that I am in strong opposition to amendment B that would limit the term from its presently 16.5 years in the legislation sent down by Mayor Harrell.

This would limit it to 10 years.

My opposition and that of other organizations and folks that stand to Bennett from the revenue generated from the kiosk program is that the capital outlay, initial capital outlay for those technological machines is extremely great.

And so therefore not having the predictability and the certainty that the revenue will be coming in a sufficient amount of time to make up for that outlay of of expenses in the beginning is what gives pause I see this amendment as a poison pill you might not have thought of it that way but I do believe that it is it will damage the viability of the project and so I just wanted to put it out there that I do oppose that.

And we've had some emails that are starting to come in from, for example, Mike Stewart of the Ballard Alliance.

I'm receiving other information.

So everybody to be prepared for the meeting, please be prepared.

ask for a briefing from central staff or from our colleague or from someone who writes in about these amendments and try to get a big picture on what it would do for the conceptual design and for these subsequent ordinance that comes forward.

because this has been a long time in the making and I totally get what you're talking about when you talk about process and not having enough time.

And these amendments are, I don't know when they were published, Friday.

And so I'm just kind of getting my mind around the impact on the project in general and its viability.

So it's a good opportunity between now and two o'clock tomorrow to become more aware of the pros and cons.

So anyway, that is on tomorrow's agenda and the full council agenda.

Let's see, going back at our next committee agenda will be on June 12th.

Next Thursday, we're still finalizing the full agenda, but there will likely be, well, we'll have a second discussion and possible vote on the ordinance that sets the terms for that.

program and the reason why it has to be toward the at this time is because of the timeline it would take to possibly have them installed by fill in the blank World Cup season exactly but that's not the only thing that it will benefit in case so that's coming up in committee and we could have an auditor's report on the implementation of all the recommendations that have happened in this past year if there is time for that discussion Last Friday, I attended the walking tour organized by Tim Gatos, who is a D5 resident.

This was a Lake City walking tour.

He's a D5 resident and also leads together Washington.

And I was joined by over 10 business owners and Lake City Way residents where we discussed everything having to do with neighborhood safety, small business and the fact that this is an actual neighborhood business district and it needs some love.

And then I also met with Rita Maher, who is the president and executive director of TASVR, which, fun fact, happens to be the world's only Oscar qualifying South Asian Film Festival.

Why are we talking about this?

Because they have acquired and taken over the ArcLodge Cinema in Columbia City.

And it's a really great opportunity for them to actually have a headquarters because they do put on this festival every year.

But more importantly, the support that they provide the film community as a whole in this region and the pull that they have of productions from, from major studios is quite a positive, well it's an asset for the industry here.

And so as I'm reading my, they'll be taking over the historic space in Columbia City that's long housed large cinemas and I just extend my gratitude for everyone at TASVR for contributing to that sector.

So, stay tuned for that.

Met with the Downtown Community Council, some members of the Downtown Community Council, and you'll probably be...

Capital Downtown Community Council.

Newly formed.

Yes, newly formed and capitalized Downtown Community Council to talk about the issues that residents of our downtown core face.

Spoiler alert.

They asked that the downtown core be referred to as a mixed-use neighborhood.

to elevate the fact that it's got more residents than any other neighborhood, including Belltown.

So they really want planners and city officials to be thinking about the needs of the residents when it comes to public safety, retail, transportation, et cetera.

So I got the message and you'll probably be hearing it too.

Saturday, I just want to say yes.

I joined several of my colleagues at the Pride Flag Raising Ceremony.

Happy Pride Month officially, everybody here today and out there.

I put out a little notice yesterday.

That was really great seeing everybody together.

uh, not just council members and the mayor, but members of the community and really coming together around, um, the, the necessity to recognize the decades of activism and advocacy that brought us to this point.

And also the work of the LGBTQ commission to ensure, um, the rights inclusion and equity for, uh, for city employees cause that's their as city employees first and what more we can do policy-wise to protect our LGBTQIA plus community externally.

So it was great to see you all there.

That was in the morning.

I missed the 5K.

You didn't mention the 5K, but that was going on also.

The Waterfront Park, sorry to miss that.

In the evening, I attended the Evergreen Treatment Services annual fundraiser.

This time it was at the summit, the big, new, gorgeous convention center, which is an indication.

So it usually is in Belltown at lunch.

That was a big step for the organization.

It's a manifestation of their growth.

and the growing support that the organization has from the community.

It's all about helping people take the first step to recovery.

Recovery is defined in many ways.

I define it as helping people get their lives back together and also have lives to live.

when we're dealing with fentanyl.

In any case, there's still time to make a contribution to the organization.

All right, this evening I'll be attending the Portage Bay Roanoke Parts Annual Ice Cream Community Council.

It's a good chance for me to connect with neighbors and learn about their issues and update them on the work we're doing here on council.

What's going on tomorrow?

going kind of in your neck in the woods, not really, but I will be joining City Attorney Davison, Chief Public Safety Officer in the mayor's office, Natalie Walton Anderson at the Southwest Precinct Advisory Council to talk about public safety, what they want and what we're doing, or maybe the other way around.

So that'll be interesting and informative for me.

And then are there any questions or comments about stuff I said, go ahead.

Actually, I said earlier about the North Precinct Advisory Council.

I know you just said Southwest, but the North one is actually Wednesday, not Thursday.

So I gave the wrong day for the accidentally for that community, the NPAC.

That's Wednesday.

Okay.

Thank you very much for that correction.

Anything else?

We're gonna break into an executive session soon.

Before we do, colleagues depart for the executive session, I just feel like it's incumbent for me to address the recent disruptions in our chambers.

Over the course of the past few weeks, having to do with the ethics legislation, but not necessarily just about that.

We've seen this starting to come out on other things, including last year, February, et cetera.

and just provide to you some insight on how and why certain decisions are made on my part as presiding officer of council meetings for how to deal with it, all right?

So I just wanted to, first of all, say that to be clear disruptions in chambers inhibit our ability to govern and is against council rules, frankly.

While I understand that some of our community may feel frustrated with certain policy proposals, This disagreement does not grant anyone the license to block our consideration of it or take over a public meeting and impede the legislative process.

Ultimately, every time we allow for a disruption, whatever form it might take, a chant, multiple chants, protesters screaming shut up at other council members or fellow public commenters or whatever it may be, when that happens, not only are we allowing our rules to be broken, we're also preventing our ability to do our job.

What the viewing public may not know when they're listening to our voice that goes over the award-winning Seattle channel is that they're hearing our voice from the microphone and they can't hear the loudness of what's going on in the room.

And they don't also realize that We cannot hear each other very well because it's not projected.

What we're saying into the mic is not projected very well over the loudspeaker.

So that's sometimes why I can't hear what you are telling me when there's loudness in the room.

The point is that we can't hear each other and that makes it hard to govern.

And I'll say it, we have established rules and procedures for a reason and no individual or group is above them.

We will be having rules and procedures every two years.

We are supposed to, by our rules, revise the rules, look at the rules, add or subtract from the rules.

So we have those for a reason and it doesn't matter what side you agree with policy wise, blatant disregard for these rules just simply inhibits our ability to do our job and it prevents other members of the public from being able to share their feedback, which is in public comment is primarily about the public's ability to inform council of their opinions on the votes we're about to take.

So it does, you know, it messes up that whole process.

if my decisions when faced with disruptions may seem arbitrary, I do want you to know that a lot of hours go into, and depending on how much time we get advanced notice, a lot of time goes into figuring out what is the best thing for me to do when it comes to public comment, how much time to provide, what else is on the agenda, et cetera, or should I just straight up follow the rules and go through the whole process of getting people removed from chambers if they don't follow the rules.

I never want to take that step.

And so therefore the most expeditious option is to continue our meeting by Zoom from our chambers so that we can get through the business of the people.

So I just want to, for clarity and transparency, I want you to know what's going on in my mind, but for the most part, it's my responsibility to establish an environment of respect and safety for not just for the public, but also for you all and also for our staff that is sitting there at the table as well.

So that's what I'm going on in my mind.

So I repeat that I have a responsibility to ensure the safety of my colleagues, members of the public and departmental staff while preserving everyone's First Amendment right to free speech.

That means following our rules and parliamentary procedures to maintain order and respect in chambers.

And if that can't happen, the most expeditious way is to get through our agenda is to leave chambers and finish the meeting via Zoom.

Again, with a primary focus on ensuring that members of the public can continue Viewing the meeting from Sam Smith, the media can be there.

First Amendment rights, they are respected and always in the back of my mind for making sure that people are insured to those rights.

Okay, that is the end of my report.

I would like to go into the executive session.

If you would have a...

Go ahead.

Question and comment really here.

Thank you for that overview because over the past few weeks, we have seen a lot of people interested in giving public comment.

We've also seen that tension between the decision not to let all public commenters speak and the disruptions in the city council chambers.

I want to be clear that disruptions that do not let us hear public comment or do our jobs on council are simply unacceptable.

Whether the yelling at you, council president, to shut up while speaking or being disrespectful to other colleagues was simply unacceptable.

I'm just stating that for the record.

Also, there was somebody giving public comment last week that ran against me.

We have very different perspectives on the world, and that individual was not allowed to speak because they were being yelled over, and that's not acceptable.

However, I do believe that listening to public comment is part of our jobs.

That's not a however, actually.

That's an and.

listening to public comment as part of our jobs.

I believe that cutting off public commenters, especially on critically important issues before the council, is not just unacceptable, it's counterproductive.

I mean, the question here is, how many times have we taken recesses or cleared the chambers when we could have just let the five remaining public commenters speak?

I think we've fallen into a habit of preemptively cutting off public comment with the thinking, well, if we let everyone give public comment, then disruptions at the end of the public comment period, right?

There will still be those disruptions at the end of the public comment.

This may or may not be true.

I don't know.

It's not what I've seen in the past.

What I do know is that preemptively cutting off public comment, we are creating more tension.

The most expeditious way to return to our business is to complete public comment.

If we simply let everyone a chance to speak, we will be able to proceed with our business faster.

Thank you, Council President.

And if and when you are ever president, you can make those rules.

As I said, I have to weigh a lot of different factors, including the first time this happened, the need to get to a resolution that will honor George Fleming before his family had to leave chambers.

And so, like I said, yes, Our public comment, our council rules say that council rules shall not exceed 20 minutes.

And they pretty much always do without me asking to suspend the rules and go down the line and have people express whether or not we should suspend the rules.

There is actually a proposed rule change that will require that after every 20 minutes, the rules have to be formally extended.

And I do think that that would be a good idea because frankly, I don't like being the person to decide every single time whether or not we should go over or not.

And pretty much every time I have decided to, we by sort of, we've taken on the habit of just letting public comment go on without stopping it right before every 20 minutes, which are our council rules.

And we do that because of the spirit that I have expressed many times, and you probably have in committee, that it's best to let everybody speak.

However, when people are disobeying council rules that prohibit disruption in so many ways, I have to make a decision about whether or not we are setting bad precedent and also the chanting and the yelling and the disrespect shown, in between council comments adds time.

I was actually timing, they went from 15 seconds, 32 seconds, it went on and on and on.

I do not want to, I don't want people to feel uncomfortable, nervous, afraid to come to public comment because that is the environment that they might encounter.

I have got to maintain an orderly environment.

And when I set a time that we're going to go twice over our council rules that limit it to 20 minutes, then, and if I state that clearly, that's what I'm going to do.

I don't change horses midstream.

I don't change the rules just because somebody, just because there are 17 more people in public comment because as we had seen leading up to that, there was a lot of, there was a lot of time taken in between commenters.

So there was no way of knowing whether or not we would have been done.

in time, you know, in 17 minutes, of course not 20 minutes, et cetera.

So that is why I have to make a decision and I will do the audience justice and our public commenters justice by sticking to the rule that I stick with because it is not fair to change.

So anyway, You have your opinion on how to deal with public comment and you are welcome to that and exercising that in your committees as seen fit.

I ask that people understand that there's a lot of thought that goes into what I'm gonna do because I certainly don't want to invite criticism on the body.

All right, with that, we will now go on.

Actually, I'd like to say that I appreciate Council President's explanation and also moving forward.

Look, I'm just going to address the elephant in the room.

No one wants to go back to the old way where um people took over council chambers nobody could hear anyone and it was just everyone yelling and screaming all of the time that to me is not exercising free speech because if you can't hear people then you are disrespecting their free speech so i appreciate you having order we have order on purpose so we can hear everybody and so like i said i don't think that anyone and i have heard from constituents who are not in agreement with having the you know, chaos in chambers where no one can hear anyone, particularly when they come to give public comment and no one can hear them because they're all shouting.

That's not having respect for each other.

That's not actually respecting free speech.

And it is also meant to be disruptive to what the work that this body has to do.

So I actually, we are all here to listen to people, to listen to constituents, to listen to all voices, including the ones that don't agree with us, but we are not here for disruptions and to have people disrespect each other in the name supposedly of freedom of speech, but then nobody can speak except for them.

That is not respectful and that is not what freedom of speech it's about.

It's so that everyone can hear what someone has to say.

So I appreciate you explaining how we've been doing, how you've been deciding to do things.

I am in agreement.

And like I said earlier, I don't think anyone wants to go back to the old way where it was just loudness and chaos in the audience.

And I think that that is, as of late, what's been happening.

I think former council member Sawant has brought people here to be disruptive.

This is not her platform.

If she wants to come speak, she can.

She has freedom of speech, but we need to make sure that we are here for everybody and to hear everyone, because that is true freedom of speech.

And as someone who worked for the ACLU in the past, that is really important, including listening to folks that you might not agree with what they have to say.

So I don't want to go back to the old days.

I want to make sure that we are here and we have order in chambers so that everyone can speak, including council members so on, former council members so on, if she wants to speak, that's great.

I'm here to hear her and I'm here to hear everyone, but not to have people come here and pretend to.

everyone else to speak.

So thank you for how you're handling and I for one, I'm very supportive.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, and the way out of this inconsistency of having rules that prohibit certain behavior and then letting that behavior go on is anybody who wants to go back to a different way or wants to get rid of how we define disruption, they are welcome to put forward an amendment to our rules.

I just don't like being in...

I like, if rules are there, they should be followed, basically.

And so therefore, that is an opportunity to change our procedures so that we are in accordance with the rules that we set for ourselves.

All right, I have to say what is happening next.

All right.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will 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 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.

I expect the time of the executive session to end by, all right, now I have to do math.

434 plus 15.

I have 410.

410, all right.

Expect the time of the executive session to end by 410. If the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

At the conclusion of this executive session, this council briefing meeting will automatically adjourn.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is on June 9th, 2025 at 2 p.m.

The council's now in executive session.

Council members, please log on to the executive session meeting from the link on Zoom.

Joy, don't forget to log on.

you