Seattle City Council Briefing 3/14/22

Everybody today is March 14th.

This is the Seattle Council briefing.

Your time is 2 o'clock.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Oops.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Seven present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Let's go to approval of the minutes.

There's no objections.

The minutes of March 7th will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objections, the minutes are adopted.

Going to the President's Report.

So today on our agenda, we will be considering a proclamation declaring March 20th, that's a Sunday, 2022 Native HIV AIDS Awareness Day.

I am sponsoring this proclamation and my office sent your offices a copy of the proclamation to review in advance last week.

You should all have it by today so we can vote on it tomorrow.

or have the presentation tomorrow.

Also going forward, as you know, the state legislative session has ended and you should have all received our report from OIR, the CINEDAI.

And we plan to hear a comprehensive wrap up of that report.

I have it somewhere.

Oh, here we go.

So it looks like we're gonna get a comprehensive wrap-up report from our OIR friends, Office of Intergovernmental Relations, at a council briefing at a future date.

They'll report on the operating capital budget, and of course we're excited and happy about the transportation budget that got passed, the Move Ahead Washington, which is a $16.9 billion, 16-year revenue package, and there are many Seattle projects inside that report which you've all had a chance to look at.

And then I'll list some of those projects in the next meeting.

So in regards to the proclamation, tomorrow we'll open our council meeting with the presentation of the proclamation to the Seattle Indian Health Board President and CEO, Eso Lucero.

And as I shared, that will be the proclamation regarding the Native American HIV AIDS Awareness Day.

Our agenda will include three items reviewed and recommended by committees.

One is from the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee, one is from the Land Use Committee, and one is from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

So we will have those discussions tomorrow.

In regards to the proclamation, I have a proclamation for your signature and support.

This proclamation proclaims Sunday, March 20th to be Native HIV, I'm sorry, yes, HIV AIDS Awareness Day, Native HIV AIDS Awareness Day increases understanding, starts conversations, and spotlights the work being done to reduce HIV among American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

It also shows support for people living with HIV in these communities.

Tomorrow we will welcome President and CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board, Eso Lucero, to the Seattle City Council to speak about the important issues.

Are there any council members that also wish to speak on this proclamation before I request your signature be affixed to the proclamation?

Council Member Strauss, did you have your hand up?

Oh, you're doing a thumbs up.

Okay, thank you.

I do not see anybody.

I'm guessing most of you will save your comments for tomorrow when we actually have the CEO, Esther Lozada, here and you'll have an opportunity.

And as I shared earlier, this is a nice compliment to the proclamation that Council Member Morales brought to us last week regarding Phyllis Little of Pocan, where her granddaughter appeared, Naomi Ashford, for the proclamation proclaiming March 8th, Phyllis Little Day.

So seeing that there's no further discussion on this proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll?

Oh, wait, I'm sorry, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

As soon as I said that I didn't have anything to say, I remembered that Council Member Mosqueda signed on to the proclamation during my committee last week.

Oh, she did?

Oh, okay.

You mean the one from last week, not this week?

For your proclamation today, since she's at National League of Cities.

Oh, that's right.

Okay, thank you.

I thank you for reminding me of that.

Okay, so seeing that there are no other comments, can the clerk please call the roll on the, you're right, it is in my script, I'm sorry, you got ahead of me, Council Member Strauss, that Council Member requested that the clerk affix her signature to this proclamation in preparation for her absence today.

Clerk, can you please call the roll on the signature to the proclamation?

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, and I'm guessing you will affix my signature to the book mission along with my colleagues who voted yes.

Moving on to the agenda to item number four, the preview of city council actions, council and regional committees.

The rotation, as you know, starts with council member Nelson today.

And after that, this is the roll call.

It'll be after Council Member Nelson will be Council Member Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbold, Lewis, Morales, and Council President Mee.

All right.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you, Council President.

There's one item from the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee on tomorrow's City Council agenda.

Council Bill 120278 authorizes the execution of a memorandum of agreement between the City of Seattle, the National Park Service, and the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe to transfer the ownership and curation of almost 300 pre-contact artifacts from the City of Seattle to the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe.

I can go into more background.

There was significant media interest in this when it was discussed last week, and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any before tomorrow's vote.

At last week's meeting on March 9th, in addition to voting out this piece of legislation, we introduced and welcomed OED's new interim director, Markham McIntyre, that's Office of Economic Development, and we're very much looking forward to working with him going forward.

We had a presentation from OED and Visit Seattle on Council Bill 120273, which effectuates a Seattle tourism improvement area rate increase from $2 to $4.

And this was just a discussion.

There will be a public hearing at the next meeting on March 21, and we hope to suspend the rules and vote that out of committee on that date.

And then finally, last week, we had a briefing from Seattle City Light on their electrification assessment, which examines current and future city-like capacity for bringing transportation and building electrification to scale.

So that was our meeting last week.

Also last week, on Monday, I attended an event at the Women's University Club that featured Dr. Constance Rice as their keynote speaker.

I've never met her before.

I was honored to have met her.

She's got a long history of leadership in education, healthcare, and in the arts.

And she's currently the first black woman to lead the Seattle Art Museum's Board of Directors.

Also last week, I attended the welcome ceremony of Greater Seattle Partners, where they announced and welcomed their new CEO, Brian Surratt.

And some of you might know him because he used to work at OED.

And I'm looking forward to his leadership bringing an equitable recovery to our whole region.

And then finally, I'm still getting to know city leadership.

And last week, I was able to meet for the first time with Marco Lowe.

and he's the city's chief operations officer.

And also I met with city attorney Anne Davison.

This coming week is packed with some evening events.

On Thursday, I will be speaking on a panel with the Regional Homelessness Authority's CEO, Mark Jones.

and City Attorney Ann Davison to address the, well, it's the Downtown Seattle's Association's Annual State of Downtown, and we'll be discussing the reimagination of downtown.

And so I'm looking forward to that event.

I will also attend the Organization of Chinese Americans Annual Golden Circle Dinner on Friday, March, on March 18th, and then My Chief of Staff, Jeremy, will be attending and speaking on my behalf at the SPD Appreciation Dinner, which is hosted by the Asian community while I'm at the DSA event.

And I must say I had to twist his arm to attend the OL Rain Home Opener at Lumen Field on Friday in my stead as well.

So busy week ahead.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions?

Okay.

I pass it on to Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are no items related to our Committee on transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Our next committee on transportation and Seattle Public Utilities will be tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15, at 930 in the morning.

Our committee tomorrow has four SDOT items on the agenda, which we made available online this past Friday.

The plan is to vote out of committee the item we already heard two weeks ago.

That's Council Bill 120271. which includes various easements needed from other jurisdictions for SDOT to maintain the new John Lewis Bridge and Northgate D5.

We will also have a briefing and discussion about an alley vacation downtown.

as well as a 15-year term permit in Eastlake.

Both projects leveraging the public right-of-way are in their second stage of approval when the council simply has SDOT and central staff confirm that the original public benefits and other conditions have been met or will be met.

We will also hear from SDOT on their initial outreach and engagement strategy before the department drafts a consolidated comprehensive transportation plan for later consideration.

In District 4, I wanted to give a shout-out to a road repair crew from our Seattle Department of Transportation.

This past weekend, I noticed they were replacing failed road panels used heavily by buses near Magnuson Park.

I stopped to chat with them about their work.

Magnuson Park is home to 850 low-income residents, and many rely on buses that run along Sandpoint Way Northeast.

So thank you, SDOT, for working over the weekend to alleviate those dangerous road conditions for transit riders and our residents.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we turn it over to Council Member Swan?

All right.

Bye, Council Member Swan.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Good afternoon, everybody.

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

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee is this Friday, March 18th at 9.30 a.m.

At Friday's committee meeting, we will likely hear a briefing on a new bill sponsored by Council Member Peterson, adding information about rents charged to the information collected under the Residential Rental Inspection Ordinance.

And of course, I don't know if Peterson can add more.

That will be a briefing and not for a vote if we add this to the Friday agenda.

And also on Friday, the committee will continue the discussion about how renters' rights are enforced in our city.

My office continuously hears from renters who are having their rights violated and far too often they find that despite the illegal actions by their landlords, they are not able to get justice.

I want to give a couple of examples of the problems in Seattle's enforcement of renters' rights.

My office has spoken to renters who have gone for months with no heat, no hot water, holes in their ceilings, walls and floors, mold or pest infestation, doors that are not secure, and so many other unacceptable housing conditions that are legally violations of Seattle's housing codes.

And council members have heard me and my staff mention these before.

both in the briefing and also in our committee meetings.

Seattle's rental inspection ordinance requires buildings to be inspected, but most buildings are inspected by private inspection companies that are clearly willing to sign on to anything based on some of the conditions we've seen.

If a renter calls the complaint line of the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections, a city inspector will visit the property.

The city inspectors are responsible and they do a serious inspection once they come to the property, but that only happens after a renter calls the complaint line.

Most renters don't ordinarily even know that they can call the SDCR, that there is such a department.

And when some of the renters do call, it's when they're truly at their wit's end and they have someone like the Tenants Union actually letting them know that they have this option of making a complaint to the city.

When a renter cannot take the conditions anymore and does get the inspector from the SCCI to visit the property, then the landlord is required to make repairs in a reasonable timeline or face possible fines.

But the clock doesn't start when the heat broke.

For example, the clock starts when the SDCI completed its inspection.

So renters who have been suffering, for example, with no heat for months prior to the inspection get no justice for that whole duration.

Even when a landlord fails to complete the repairs in the time required by the SDCI, they are not necessarily fined.

In order to issue a fine, the SDCI sends the details of the violation to the city attorney's office, and then the city attorney's office needs to take the landlord to court to win a judgment for the fines.

In practice, this means that the SDCI and the city attorney's office give a lot of extra chances for landlords to complete the repairs before collecting fines.

And keeping in mind, this happens in a very small minority of the instances.

In reality, most of the instances, inventors don't even know that they can complain, make this complaint.

And so what we see is a stunning statistic that citywide SDCI has issued, for example, in all of last year, only five fines to landlords.

This is another example of how The rich and powerful in our society are being held to a completely different standard by the legal system.

In my experience, the staff who work in the department investigate abuses by landlords, and they do this thoroughly they are dedicated to their work, but the system is totally stacked against renters.

It is illegal for a landlord for example to rent enter a rented apartment without giving notice, unless there's an emergency.

However, under Seattle's law if our landlord breaks this law they are issued a notice of violation that essentially says they have to correct the problem, which is accomplished, the minute they leave the apartment if they do it again to get another notice.

In order to actually get a penalty a landlord would need to enter your apartment without notice stay in the apartment until the renter contacts the DCI and the department issues a notice of violation and then remain in there for days longer.

I mean that that's just an example to show how the current law in the city needs to be improved.

And fundamentally, we know all of these problems are the result of a terrible power imbalance between renters and landlords.

Just to give one more example, and a very recent one, my office spoke last week to a renter in an apartment building in Wallingford who was gutted by fire on February 25th.

I want to quote from the settlement agreement that the landlords tried to intimidate renters into signing.

Quote, the parties agreed to mutually terminate the lease agreement as of February 24, 2022, which was, note, that's the date before the fire.

All parties agree that the above actions taken by management constitute a full and complete settlement and a full discharge of any liability for any and all claims, known and unknown, suspected or unsuspected, that residents or any guests, invitees or licenses or any other persons a person or entity acting on residents' behalf or any subrogation of rights have or may have in the future against all entities comprising the management and its owners, individual officers, agents, employees, attorneys, partners, members, principals, successors, heirs, devices, ligates, assignees, directors, and shareholders, including but not limited to added utility costs, inconvenience, loss of use of the apartment, personal property damages, lost wages and time, any possible health claims or discrimination claims that the resident may believe stemmed from or are related in any way to residency the property end quote.

I mean, this gives you a sense of just the absurd level to which renters' rights are violated.

And to be clear, this so-called settlement agreement does not offer the renters one penny in compensation.

Instead, we heard from the renters that the landlord told them that they would need to sign to get their security deposits back, which for low-income renters, working-class people, who are especially the ones who are suddenly displaced and searching for somewhere to live, getting back your security deposit is an urgent necessity.

So at Friday's committee meeting, we will hear from the SDCI about the enforcement procedures when renters contact them about renters rights violations.

And I'm really appreciative of the department staff making their time available.

And then we will hear from a panel of renters and renter advocates about what the experiences are and what they believe needs to be changed in our city.

And the intention of my office is to use these.

briefings in the committee to develop legislation this year to make it far easier for renters to get justice when their rights are violated.

That is it for the report from my office and committee.

Do council members have any comments or questions before I end the report and hand it over to President Juarez?

Seeing none, I pass it on.

Thank you so much.

That's it, Council Member Strauss.

Sorry, Council Member Strauss.

He's on mute.

There we go.

You'd think by the end of this, I'd have, not even the end, you'd think I'd figured this mute button out already.

Well, good afternoon, Council President, colleagues.

Here in District Six last week, I hosted my weekly office hours with D6 residents.

Thursday from 2 p.m.

to 6 p.m., met with seven folks from Finney, one from Green Lake, one from Fremont Ballard Industrial District, and one from Whittier Heights, where we discussed zoning in the Maritime Industrial Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

safety improvements to Leary Way, bathroom quality and access in parks, addressing homelessness in both industrial and residential neighborhoods, and the Green Lake Outer Loop.

I also attended the Green Lake Advisory Council to discuss the Green Lake Community Center, which we are hoping to have part of the Metropolitan Parks District funding round that is forthcoming.

I also was able to join Mayor Bruce Harrell on Ballard Avenue for the signing of the cafe street legislation at La Carta de Oaxaca in Ballard.

It's one of my favorite restaurants in the East Six and it was great to have the mayor there.

So really happy to be able to bring a spotlight to some of the smallest businesses making our neighborhood vibrant.

My staff separately coordinated with SPD, and both my staff and SPD attended a meeting hosted by the Finney Neighborhood Association to discuss public safety measures for local businesses regarding a string of burglaries in the neighborhood, and I'll be working to facilitate the follow-up meeting shortly.

My staff also attended the Ballard District Council meeting on Wednesday, and I was able to meet with the Ballard Alliance on Thursday.

I get to continue working with Councilmember Nelson and Mayor Harrell's team and the Fremont Arts Council to ensure that the Solstice Parade and fair have the city support they need to be successful.

We had some great developments last week and just looking for this to be a great success for our whole city opening up the summer.

And as always, each week, last week and next week, I hold operational coordination meetings with community leaders governmental entities and non-governmental entities to make meaningful interventions to address homelessness in specific places in D6.

If you'd like to meet with me or bring the site to my attention, please do sign up for office hours or email the office.

This coming week on Wednesday, I will welcome the Prince of Sweden and 50 Swedish business leaders and entrepreneurs who are visiting the United States this month.

I will also be hosting my weekly office hours for D6 residents on Thursday from 2 p.m.

to 6 p.m., and my staff and I will attend a walking tour on Seaview Avenue to discuss pedestrian safety improvements ahead of this summer.

In the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, there's one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the full agenda.

It's Council Bill 120266, which expands the transferable development rights program to an additional zone on First Hill.

The next meeting of the Land Use Committee is on Wednesday, March 23rd, starting at 2 p.m.

There are four items on the agenda, a public hearing and vote on Council Bill 120265, which extends the Bring Business Home Bill for another six months while permanent regulations are finalized.

We'll have a discussion and vote on Council Bill 120207, Councilmember Peterson's legislation that I've co-sponsored.

requiring tree registration, requiring registration for tree service providers.

This is one of four strategies in the new stronger tree protections suite of bills.

We'll also have a briefing from OPCD on the maritime industrial strategy and a briefing and vote on a resolution ratifying recently adopted countywide planning policies.

Colleagues, that is the committee report.

Does anyone have questions?

Council President.

Did you say you're going to see the king of Sweden tomorrow?

A prince on Wednesday, which is why I can't attend the celebration for the state bill regarding regional transit.

I'm forgetting what the C stands for.

Doesn't matter.

So OK, well, when I do my comments, you will see who I'm going to meet from Sweden when we get there.

You're going to Sweden?

No, I'm not, but I'm going to go to the Swedish club when I get to my turn to speak.

They have an amazing view.

And did you know that you can sign up and you don't even have to be Swedish?

No, I did not know that.

Do they do a land acknowledgement there as well?

They might.

I don't know.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

I'll pass it on to Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

So the council agenda tomorrow includes Council Bill 120277, which accepts two grants from the Department of Justice.

The first grant will allow for continuing the work of the Northwest Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to address technology-facilitated child exploitation.

The second grant is to continue the work of the Human Trafficking Task Force.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee does not meet this week.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 22nd at 9 30 a.m.

Just a quick set of updates.

On the public safety side, last week I met with Southwest Precinct Captain Rivera and discussed with Captain Rivera from the Southwest Precinct a number of different constituent inquiries related to public safety.

I also had my regular meeting with Inspector General Judge.

I know Inspector General Judge has been working to meet with many of you to talk about some of the issues coming out of her Office of the Inspector General, as well as to discuss the Wave 2 report on the Sentinel Review, which will be coming out this week.

I just want to highlight the news that we all heard last week that Amazon is providing some alternate work options for those members of the 1,800 employees who work at 300 Pine Street.

Some of them are choosing to work elsewhere.

Some of them have already been working remotely.

And given the recent incidents in the area, including at least three shootings, two stabbings, and one carjacking in the area since February 21st, the alternate work arrangement has been made for the subset of those 1,800 employees who don't already work somewhere else and who feel that they would be safer working elsewhere.

Amazon notes that they're hopeful that the conditions will improve and that they'll be able to bring employees back to the location.

And just to clarify, the building is not closed.

And just want to let folks know that I will be having my regular meeting with the police chief this Thursday, and one of the topics of that meeting will be progress in both the law enforcement and non-law enforcement efforts associated with Operation New Day.

I am supportive of Mayor Harrell's efforts to develop a comprehensive approach to public safety in collaboration with police and community to activate, revitalize, and restore downtown.

So this week I will be having my regular meeting with the community police commission.

On the public health front, just again, most people are aware that both the statewide and King County mask mandates ended over the weekend.

It's now possible to go without masks in many indoor locations.

Masks are still recommended and encouraged, particularly in crowded indoor settings with poor ventilation.

By continuing to wear masks, you can help keep folks who are immunocompromised, safe, unvaccinated, or otherwise at high risk.

Remember that masks are still required in health care facilities, long-term care, public transit, rideshare, and in correctional facilities.

And of course, just be sensitive to the fact that individual businesses and buildings are choosing to still wear masks and we support their doing so.

The pandemic isn't over yet and you can always help by getting vaccinated if you haven't yet, get boosted if you haven't yet, staying home when you feel sick and wearing masks when required.

on the regional committee front.

I wanna share, I know I reported last week that I was attending the Lead Policy Coordinating Group, and this is a sort of a governing entity for Let Everyone Advance with Dignity, the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program.

And this is a meeting that is attended by elected officials representing the city and the county.

the City Attorney's Office, the King County Prosecutor's Office, the Mayor's Office, the King County Executive's Office, Seattle Police Department, and the King County Sheriff's Office, as well as lead staff and reach staff.

And this coordinating body gives direction to lead for many of its policy development for how to prioritize populations, as well as interacting and engaging on certain locations.

I want to report how happy I am that Scott Lindsey was there representing the city attorney's office and expressing his support for LEAD.

Also, We got some great news from HSD Director, Human Services Department Director Kim, who announced that the additional $3.9 million that the council provided for LEAD in 2022 is moving forward into contracting immediately.

As we know, this funding is essential to stave off cuts.

in services provided by the previous administration.

Also in attendance at the policy coordinating group was Assistant Chief Mahaffrey and a number of SPD representatives attended and were really actively engaged in problem solving with reach around coordination during the Seattle Police Department's operations.

Specifically, there was a conversation around activating of LEAD is not just here in Seattle, it's in dozens of jurisdictions across the country, as well as in other countries.

The announcement included South Africa and the UK.

We're also going to be starting a new LEAD chapter in Minneapolis.

This is on top of the 72 other jurisdictions around the nation where LEAD has already expanded and are receiving technical support from the Training Bureau.

As far as regional committees that I'll be attending this coming week, I will be attending the Board of Health and the County Regional Homelessness Authority Governing Committee on Thursday.

Other major events coming out of last week and coming up this week.

On Friday, I met with representatives from a number of different business improvement areas to discuss their ideas for increasing public safety coming out of panel discussion.

I'm really looking forward to sharing more in an upcoming public safety and human services committee meeting about the efforts that they are working to advocate around.

Seattle Times editorial signed by many of these same individuals about the efforts that they are pursuing.

Also this week, I will be joining Councilmember Morales on the Council edition for the Seattle Channel.

And then, lastly, even though she's not here, maybe somebody's listening in, I want to thank Council Member Mosqueda for including a presentation on Pride Place at Wednesday's Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

This was a request that had come into my office.

She very generously and graciously included it in her committee agenda, and I really appreciate that.

With that, that concludes my report.

Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments on my report?

not seeing any.

Thank you so much.

I will pass it on to Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for those updates.

So I want to start here by responding to some inquiries from a couple of weeks ago now, I think, about the state of the free clinic at Seattle Center and whether that's going to be hosted at Climate Pledge Arena, and if so, when.

Just as a little bit of reminder for colleagues, every year there is a free clinic that historically had been hosted in the key arena.

providing a variety of different medical services, including vision, dental, and other things that many members of the community are only able to access on an annual basis at this clinic.

Making sure that we can continue to host this critical service is incredibly important, and understandably, that's why it was the focus of many colleagues' questions.

There's been some reporting subsequently and crosscut discussing some of the challenges around getting that going this year.

So I did just want to report from checking in with Climate Pledge and checking in with some of our partners at Seattle Center that my understanding is that Climate Pledge Arena currently doesn't have a nailed down time to host the King County Health Clinic.

And this is something that my office is getting more engaged in now, given some of these logistical challenges.

As soon as we learned that the clinic is not scheduled for this year, we convened a bunch of meetings at the end of last week to get to the bottom of the situation and make sure that we could start working on putting together a plan.

I'm satisfied at this point from talking to the Climate Pledge Arena that they did fulfill their initial responsibility per the integration agreement for nailing down some specific dates that they sent along to the operators of the health clinic, but that none of those days as currently presented are sufficient for the operator.

The Oakview group also offered to use the Kraken Community Iceplex as a potential mitigation site.

That apparently did not meet all the logistical issues that the clinic has in order to be operational.

The Seattle Center is still set to host the vision portion of the clinic, at the very least, the way that is currently set up in 2022. But as we know, I mean, that in and of itself is not going to be enough for the 3,000 people who depend on this service every year.

So I'm going to continue to work with the clinic, Seattle Center, and Oak View Group to see if there's a way forward to make sure that this critical service is provided.

I do remember a few years ago, that we've mitigated during the construction of Climate Pledge by making some other facilities on the Seattle Center campus available.

So I'm looking forward to talking to Director Nellems and some other folks about how we might be able to emulate that practice from a few years ago if we still need to pursue some creative alternatives given the current challenge.

I think that is a good point.

That is just a quick update on that.

I appreciate Councilmember Herbold and others raising this issue.

We will continue to monitor it and provide updates.

Jacob Thorpe in my office is monitoring this for me.

Moving on to the Clean Cities initiative.

Clean Cities, as per usual, has sent along since the last briefing the metrics for the amount of needles, trash, and other things that they've collected.

1,343 needles since last council briefing.

and 102,940 pounds of trash from 30 different trash pickup locations.

Again, there's no focus on parks planned until next week.

And so going forward, I will provide updates on the parks where Clean Cities is planning to focus their operations for March onwards.

Libraries, the mask mandate has ended, as was alluded to earlier by Council Member Herbold.

Patrons of the library are no longer required to wear a mask during their visit to the library.

However, staff will remain masked on library property.

The library will continue to work with union representatives to ensure staff feel safe, and libraries will return to pre-Omicron staffing levels by the end of March.

So we should see fewer hour and service disruption at libraries by the conclusion of this month.

For the committee this week, the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee will meet on Wednesday.

We will hear a presentation from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority regarding Partnership for Zero.

We will also hear a report from the HOPE team for the 2021 Q3 and Q4 data reports.

So looking forward to that.

The clean cities initiative presentation is going to be also provided at the committee to receive a more comprehensive We will also consider two appointments to the board of We will be a crowded agenda but a lot of good information.

It will be good to hear from the King County regional homelessness authority about partnership for zero in particular.

Given that that initiative is underway.

Moving forward here to regional meeting on Thursday.

I'm also going to be attending the downtown Seattle Association state of the state of downtown meeting along with Councilmember Nelson and I'm looking forward to that.

Otherwise I don't have any additional updates.

If there are questions, Councilmember Herbold?

Thank you so much.

I want to follow up on the topic of the Climate Pledge Arena commitment in the MOU.

I appreciate you reporting out that you are interested in following up on this issue.

It doesn't sound like there are any updates as for this year beyond the Vision Clinic continuation, which I think – No, we're going to do so this morning.

Oh, nice.

Sorry, Madam President.

Was there something?

I'm sorry.

No, I'm sorry.

I interrupted you.

I didn't mean to.

I was talking.

I thought it was okay.

Go ahead.

I thought it was on mute.

I just want to highlight, you know, Councilmember Lewis, I appreciate, again, that you are going to continue to work on this.

And I do appreciate that Climate Pledge Arena did offer some dates.

But it's my understanding that there was a date that, or a set of dates that were scheduled.

And what happened was that those dates that were scheduled were canceled because the WHO was coming to town.

I understand that there was subsequent to that difficulty in finding dates, but I really want to highlight that the MOU that the council passed under the leadership of Madam President Juarez actually requires that dates be available every year.

four days for the Seattle King County Clinic held over a weekend including two days immediately preceding the clinic and until 11 59 p.m.

on the second day following the clinic for move out and so that's actually in the MOU itself it is not satisfied by simply offering dates it is satisfied by dates being identified and scheduled successfully.

And again, there was such a time and date that was canceled.

And I just, I don't find that acceptable.

I think the language in the MOU is really clear about what the expectations are.

Thank you.

Yeah, and Council Member Herbold, I appreciate that.

And I appreciate the clarification that, you know, it's not just providing the dates, but nailing them down and making the facility available.

So, you know, this is something that my office is going to continue to look into.

It's one of my first memories of being on the Council is taking a tour of that clinic.

And really, if we're going to start reverting back to services and institutions that people just expect to be operating in the city, this is one that we really need to make sure happens.

So we've made contact with Climate Pledge and Oakview Group over this issue and expressed our strong desire to see that this gets worked out in a way that that goes beyond just doing the vision clinic and not doing the dental as well.

And we'll continue to keep the council updated on that.

So if I may just offer a little historical perspective here, when we negotiated the MOU, the lease, the operation agreement and the integration agreement, yes, it was deemed that we would continue to be committed to those clinics.

But my understanding, and I have not looked at it, but I did have a chance to have a off chance meeting with Mr. Nelum's Friday.

Because we do not own the, we don't own the Climate Pledge Arena anymore, but we did negotiate that there were some things that we wanted in there.

And my understanding, and again, I believe you have the MOU probably in front of you, Council Member Herbold.

But my understanding, recognition was that we had to do it as it related if the scheduling permitted between professional sports and what Live Nation was.

Because there's millions of dollars for us, too, that we would lose as well.

I'm not saying one is not as important as the other.

And I don't have those.

In fact, I probably got rid of them.

Oh, I did not get rid of them.

I'm sure they're somewhere.

Those agreements, and Council Member Herbold was part of those conversations, being on council then, as well as Council Member Sawant.

So my understanding from talking to some of the folks at Climate Pledge and OBG and Mr. Nelum's is that they are still committed to that, obviously, and want the schedules to line up.

We had the same issues when we were trying to schedule stuff down in the stadium district with the Seahawks, the Mariners, and the Sounders.

So I don't think it's a lack of people don't want to do it because it's a mean corporation that doesn't want to provide medical services.

I think it's more like we need to hold them accountable for what we agreed if schedules permit.

So that's where that's where my push was.

And we'll continue to do that.

And I want to thank Councilmember Herbold to continue.

I know you brought this up in committee, Councilmember Herbold, but I wasn't looking at the MOU then.

I was I was going back and looking at the integration agreement and the and the operational agreement, which I think is where the the real languages, but I could be wrong, but we can, we can go through with that offline and you certainly have my support.

I do want to add that, um, it is absolutely 100% true that things that are identified as their community events, um, community events, other than the bumper bumper food festival and the South, uh, King County clinic can occur on days that the arena is available.

But, um, So the other events are supposed to be, are definitely supposed to work around the availability, but the commitment for the South King County, as I understand it, and I'm happy to run my understanding and the MOU itself by the law department to confirm my understanding of the, nature of this commitment, but my understanding is that those are events.

The clinic and Bumbershoot are not events that are supposed to be scheduled around other things.

Okay, well, I'm not disagreeing and saying it's not true.

You don't need to drag in a bunch of lawyers.

I'm just saying, I think everyone's committed to that.

We're just trying to find those dates and make sure that those commitments are upheld.

That's all I'm saying.

Council Member Herbert, my understanding is although some tentative dates were identified, nothing was actually ever formally reserved by the Seattle Clinic on their side either.

It just sounds like there's been a lot of miscommunications between all the parties that has resulted in the event kind of slipping through the both Seattle center and climate pledges, like calendar, like the fingers of their calendar.

So, uh, you know, now, like we're looking into it and I think the bottom line is just, you know, can we identify four days in 2022 where we can do this work?

somewhere on the Seattle Center campus, be it Climate Pledge or somewhere else.

We know in the past we've been able to mitigate.

I went to high school at the Seattle Center, very familiar with the campus.

There's plenty of space to do something like this.

And I would hope that we could just come together and center that this is something we we need to do and figure out what the bottom line is.

And I will just say this, I do just want to say that all the folks we have talked to like at Climate Pledge and with Oak View Group are very committed to trying to figure out how to make this work as a good partner.

Like we haven't, we haven't had conversations where they're trying to, you know, duck this obligation or or not put some elbow grease into figuring it out.

They're offering things to mitigate, like I said earlier, the iceplex.

They're looking at some potential partnerships to bring in expertise or equipment from some other places if necessary to support the work of the clinic.

So I do just want it to be clear that it's not like we're twisting their arm to do this.

They are actively They are trying to figure this out.

But that's why talking about this publicly at briefing is also helpful, too, right?

I'm sure this is going to also provide some motivation to everybody to try to work this out now.

So anyway, we'll continue to monitor it and provide updates.

Like I said earlier, if other offices want more information or want to check in, Jacob Thorpe will be shepherding this in my office and to reach out to him with inquiries if I'm not immediately available.

Are there any other questions of my report?

Okay, seeing none, I will turn it over to Council Member Morales.

Okay, good afternoon everyone.

Thanks for the update, Councilmember Lewis.

I'm also eager to make sure that we have that clinic held, so I look forward to hearing the resolution of that as you work on it.

We have no items from the Neighborhood Education, Arts, and Rights Committee on tomorrow's agenda.

Our next committee will be March 25th.

where we will hear 2022 work plans and committee members should also expect to vote on several appointments and reappointments to boards and commissions.

Let's see, last week I toured the new Al-Al building of the Chief Seattle Club.

They just opened down in Pioneer Square.

It is, as we all know, of the 12,000 or so homeless people that we have in the county, over 15% are American Indian or Alaska Native.

And so Al-Al is designed to be a place for urban Native Americans to really connect with one another and to find stability.

The facility is 80 studios over seven floors and it's designed for folks or it is for folks at or below 30% AMI.

60 of the units are designated for homeless households and 10 units are for veterans.

So it's a really beautiful facility.

Just walking by, you can see some of the artwork that is created into the brickwork outside.

It's lovely.

We got to visit the rooftop Pauline Echo Hawk Paris with its beautiful view.

The Seattle Indian Health Board will be occupying one floor where they will provide six exam rooms and a pharmacy, serve about 1,200 patients annually.

It's a really exciting new facility.

There's lots going on on that corner, so I want to congratulate Eric and his team.

I congratulate everybody over at Chief Seattle Club.

The clinic portion will officially open later this year, so very exciting.

Last week my staff and I met with Homesite to discuss their ongoing work to build affordable housing and to promote cooperative housing.

Very exciting projects that are happening down in the south end to really try to increase our community ownership opportunities.

So I'm very excited about the work that they're doing.

Oh, sorry about that.

Turn this off.

My staff attended the first meeting of the North Rainier Partnership, which is a group of small business advocates, homeless service providers, nonprofit and market rate property developers to discuss how we ensure that North Rainier is safe, inclusive, and a well-resourced place to live.

Met with some of these folks in some of the different community meetings that I've been having, and folks are really interested in, as I've mentioned before, we've got about 2,000 units going up along Rainier between the Mount Baker Light Rail Station and the new Judkins Park Station.

And so all those developers are asking the question about how we keep pedestrians safe, how we keep neighbors safe as all that activity is going on.

There's a couple of schools along the way and so there's they've formed this partnership to really start to talk about how we keep the neighborhood safe and how we make sure that the young people and the elders and the folks who will be moving into these new apartments are able to get around the neighborhood safely.

There's also, you know, in addition to the two light rail stations, cultural space, grocery stores, child care center, all of the things that folks need in their communities.

So we're excited to be working with them to make sure that we're keeping one another informed as things develop.

For the weekend, I had the honor of attending the production of the BBC's Art Hour program.

The BBC is touring the country right now with this program, and they recorded their Seattle show in D2's own Rainier Arts Center on Saturday.

So it was a lively discussion with artists, several artists from the South End, including Grammy-nominated musician Hollis, Filmmaker Tracy Rector, Seattle's Poet Laureate Claudio Castro Luna, and we had live music from the Marshall Law Band.

So it was an exciting evening.

The show itself will air on KUOW on March 23rd, so please listen in.

This morning I visited the new UW COVID-19 testing site at the Seed and Homesite offices on Rainier Avenue and Dawson Street.

I'm really glad to know that we will continue to have, that UW will continue to have a testing site in the South End and really appreciate the partnership between Seed and Homesite and UW.

See this week I have a Board of Health meeting.

I'll also be meeting with members of the Bicycle Advisory Board to discuss their needs and their vision for 2022, as well as SDOT's transportation plan.

Staff will receive an update on the Community Investment Trust work.

We've been working behind the scenes for a year or more now to try to create a pilot program for Community Investment Trust.

I think that's about to get off the ground and we're working with the Portland CIT team to discuss, they will be working with community partners here to to research the feasibility of creating a community investment trust here in Seattle.

And finally, my staff and I will take part in our biweekly meeting with Little Saigon business owners, service providers, mutual aid workers, and city departments, as well as residential neighbors to talk about the ongoing work to address community safety in the neighborhood.

And unless anybody has questions, I will hand it off to President Juarez.

I do not see any questions.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I actually have more stuff than I normally have.

Let me just get started here.

The Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee will hold its first meeting Thursday morning, March 17th at 930. The OIR staff will be there, including Sierra Howlett Brown.

Leslie Polner and Tim Ranian, Mayor Harrell's newly appointed Tribal Affairs Director and former member of the Puyallup Tribal Council and also a friend of mine.

They will provide a briefing on relevant federal funding designated for tribes and also our city's work with federal agencies on tribal matters.

The committee will also consider two appointees, two appointments, that is Evan Chin to serve on the Civil Service Commission and Richard Schwart, I hope I said his name correctly, for the Seattle Ethics and Elections Committee.

I am going to be at the Swedish Club tomorrow for dinner on the 15th, honoring former Seattle Chief of Police, Carmen Best, regarding her presentation and being honored at the Swedish Club for her book, Black and Blue.

And I'm going to say this wrong and maybe Mr. Strauss can correct me.

It's called Kibnorr Con Dinner, and it means women can dinner.

So I will be there to sit at the table to honor former Chief of Police, Carmen Best.

Let's see, Native Communities.

The Muckleshoot Development Corporation announced the purchase of a 54-unit apartment building located in the U District, D4, at 4239 8th Avenue NE.

The building stands seven stories tall with a purchase price of about $16 million.

This purchase helps the Muckleshoot Development Corporation diversify its portfolio as the Board of Directors continues to move forward in real estate, as other tribes do as well, and we hope they will continue to invest in Seattle, their home.

We welcome the Muckleshoot Nation to the North End, and this development will contribute to our growing indigenous footprint citywide.

In regards to Sound Transit, community members are invited to attend an upcoming public meeting to learn more about the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extension Project and the draft environmental impact statement, the EIS, which all of you, I think most of you have.

The first meeting in the series is tomorrow.

All meetings will be virtual, but we'll focus on a specific geographic area of the line.

Each virtual meeting will include a brief presentation and then a Q&A session followed by an opportunity to provide oral comment.

So there are four meetings, four virtual meetings, and starting with Tuesday, March 15th, 530 to 730 is Interbay Ballard focused.

Tuesday, March 22nd, 530 to 730 is downtown focused.

Thursday, March 24th, 530 to 730 is the CID Soto focused, and Wednesday, March 30th, 530 to 730 is the West Seattle focused.

More information is available at Sound Transit's website.

Last week's summary, I met with Executive Director of We Are In, Felicia Salido, to discuss the effort to remediate downtown homelessness through the Partnership for Zero program.

I met with Deputy Mayor Yamaguchi, who will lead Mayor Harrell's external affairs team.

I briefed her on the many wonderful projects we are working on that fall under her portfolio.

Her portfolio includes Arts and Culture, Office of Economic Development, Department of Neighborhoods, Office of Labor Standards, Seattle Center, and the Waterfront.

And then I met with representatives from Vulcan to hear about their legislative priorities.

I took the opportunity to stress my interest and seeing Vulcan invest in the north end, not just in affordable housing, but also with a focus on economic development, vitality, employment, and a business center.

And finally, in regards to Sound Transit, I met with board member Joe McDermott and Sound Transit staff to discuss issues related to rider experience with a focus on public restrooms in our Sound Transit facilities, forward-looking, and those that we may have to go back and retrofit.

I also met with Kim Roscoe, she is the mayor of Fife and a friend of mine, and CEO Peter Rogoff and Sound Transit staff regarding the Sound Transit alignment in Pierce County.

And finally, I attended the meeting of the Seattle International Affairs Advisory Board.

And that concludes my report.

Are there any questions?

Mr. Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

I think you're going to love dinner tomorrow night at the Swedish Club.

You should have a fun time.

And when you walk in the doors, if you take a look to your right in the display cabinet, the Dala horses of myself, my mother, and my grandmother have been displayed there.

Dala horses are traditional horses from Sweden that are painted, come in all shapes and sizes and many different colors.

It's been a really interesting exhibit to get to see so many people's different Dala horses over the decades.

So that's great to hear you're going there and it sounds like it'll be a great event.

Well, I've been there a few times.

This isn't my first rodeo at the Swedish club.

I guess the secretary, the special counsel will be there from Sweden, but not the king, so.

I'll be there when the king came.

My grandma did get to go walk around and.

There's a whole story about it.

Will save it for another time.

Thank you.

Okay.

So not seeing any other questions or comments about my comments.

Let's see.

So that concludes our agenda for today.

And our next regularly scheduled meeting or briefing is March 21st, but I will see all, what does it say March 21st?

It isn't the 21st, is it?

No, it's not.

Oh, is it?

Well, I guess it is.

Sorry about that.

But I will see you all tomorrow at two.

So have a good afternoon.

Thank you.