Council Briefing 6/29/26

Good afternoon.

Today is June 29th.

This council briefing will come to order.

It's 2.05 p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Lin?

Here.

Councilmember Rinke?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Here.

Councilmember Foster?

Councilmember Juarez?

Councilor President Hollingsworth?

Here.

Seven present.

Councilmember Foster and Councilmember Juarez are excused today.

If there's no objection, the minutes of the June 1st, 2026 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

There are five items on the introduction and referral calendar, bills and minutes, ordinance relating to land use and zoning to adopt temporary regulations for design review exemptions for MHA units, that's in land use and sustainability, an ordinance authorizing Seattle City Light to enter into a long-term agreement for acquisition of electric power, that is parks and City Light, and an ordinance relating to the 2025 Family Education Preschool Promise approving an implementation and evaluation plan for the select committee.

There's also an ordinance granting skyline permission to construct pedestrian skybridge over 8th Avenue in First Hill neighborhood.

That's in the transportation waterfront in Seattle Center.

And we have no executive session scheduled for today.

There's no letters or proclamations for signatures today.

And I guess right now we're going to jump right into beginning our discussion on the preview of City Council actions and Council and regional committees.

And the order of discussion, I guess, will go to my right and colleagues.

I know we haven't...

We are still trying to figure out our flow for Monday briefings.

I know there's been a lot of committees.

There's been a lot of time dedicated to your regional committees.

your city committees, constituent affairs, special meetings that we've had, all the legislation coming down that we have to be able, that's being transmitted, not coming down that is being transmitted, excuse me, before budget, or excuse me, before our recess, and then we jump right into budget.

we're still trying to get a feel on these Monday briefings.

Ideally, what we're trying to do is making sure we stay focused on what you all have in your committee and regional as well for the public to understand what those things are.

So just trying to be mindful of people's times, and I guess we'll start to the right with Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Council President, and hello, everybody.

It's been a while since we've been here at the table.

Starting off this week and starting off today, I was very happy to participate with a Belltown mural event that included the Norwegian Cruise Line, and it was a fantastic event.

Port of Seattle, City of Seattle working together, working with community, Belltown United, the business community, not just Norwegian Cruise Lines, and the property owner and others visit Seattle across the board and we basically dedicated a mural by the artist Shogo who did the famous World Cup poster and yours truly got to do the finishing touches on this mural with the captain of the cruise ship.

He had his piece and did this.

And it's really, the point here is about bringing art and community together in Belltown.

And I think it's what they've done with the mural program is unbelievable.

It has a lot of other benefits as well, if I put my committee chair head on.

And so it was fantastic.

to be with a now a famous artist was, I will add, was pretty nice as well.

So this week I've been meeting with various members of the various departments, like today with Parks and SDOT.

Tomorrow I have Director Pham from neighborhoods along with others.

Of course, we have our Round of 32 match on Wednesday, but then I'll be meeting with the aquarium.

We have all our different, you know, committee meetings as well.

Happy Fourth to everybody.

Next week, the following week, again, different meetings and so forth, nothing specific.

My next Public Safety Committee meeting, because we've had five essentially weeks this month, is actually not until July 14th, so it's kind of like two weeks ahead, which is kind of weird.

and we'll be diving into our update of the public drug use and possession bill, which in partnership with the CARE bill, which was passed out of committee last week, kind of worked together in terms of dealing with some of the challenges that we're seeing on our streets.

And so that is, oh, in terms of last week, I have to highlight, spent a couple of great events with our council president.

First, we had a tour of KAXP down there in District 7, but also Seattle Center, and it was a great event.

a great event, and they're a great asset.

And by the way, they are an asset to the city because, as I said in social media, a way that a lot of people see Seattle is how they hear it through KXP in terms of the music, how we do business, how they do business, and then also the community that is born from that.

So that was fantastic.

So that was in the morning that we did this with Council President.

and then the two of us then went to a Seattle Storm with Director Foster, who's not here today, to read the proclamation and to follow up with the Seattle Storm.

They're at their Performance Center in Inner Bay, in District 7. And so, fantastic event.

Anyways, I just wanted to highlight that.

I also did some other things.

went to the new core steel plant last week in District 1, an unbelievable event there.

But I just wanted to highlight the Friday visits to KXP and the Seattle Storm Performance Center and all the work that they do in community, which is fantastic, the kids' programs and the like.

So anyways, over to you.

and a colleague from District 6.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

I, too, have part of Interbay in District 6 and part of Fisherman's Terminal.

It's on the other side of the train tracks.

Anyhow, in Finance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee, we have reserved this month really to focus on the midyear supplemental.

I will tell you, we've received the midyear supplemental.

We are taking a little extra time before introducing it to ensure that we don't- there aren't any needs for pre-introductory changes.

And so we had next week, July 7th, scheduled to start the mid-year supplemental conversation.

We are going to wait another two weeks, and so if we are able to have some of our Native communities and tribal governments work present next week, we will still have committee.

If not, we will just have a more compressed schedule later this summer.

So the remaining work that we need to do in Native communities and tribal governments are a point folks to the Indigenous Advisory Council, hear from the Indigenous Advisory Council about their work program for the year, and then also walk through the different commitment areas that we made during the Tribal Nations Summit.

So whether that starts on July 7th or is part of a more rigorous committee process later this year.

That's what's happening.

So stay tuned to hear if next week's committee is a go or if we're going to cancel in lieu of spending more time together later.

Back to the mid-year supplemental.

Central staff is currently working to review and write the memo.

and we'll take a couple extra weeks.

So we anticipate hearing the midyear supplemental for the first time during our July 21st meeting.

This does mean amendments are due to central staff by July 24th, just three days later, but you will all have access to this information well in advance of that committee meeting.

We would have a second briefing and committee vote on August 4th.

So that's, and then it'll come to full council in the middle of August.

In my external relations committees, I was in Spokane last week with Councilmember Rivera representing the City of Seattle at the Association of Washington Cities at both board meetings and the conference.

It was a productive conference.

We were able to connect with many different cities and towns, whether they are just on the City of Seattle's border or across the state.

I can tell you all 281 cities are feeling similar pressures.

And whether it's public safety, transportation, the budget.

What I can tell you is that all cities are feeling this budgetary pressure that we are here in Seattle, and that's, again, because all cities in Washington State are not able to raise revenues beyond 1%, which is oftentimes 4% less than inflation.

So every dollar that we have today goes three-quarters of that distance the following year.

Also in external relations, I attended the Sound Transit Board meeting last week where we did pass the first round of design funding for West Seattle and Ballard.

While we heard bad news earlier this year, the month before regarding Ballard, this is a bit of good news because this process, thanks to Executive Zahalai, this is now the process in which we will find the cost savings within the ballot line.

So this is the first step to a brighter future.

In District 6, we did not have office hours last week because I was in Association of Washington City, but we were able to reopen the Golden Gardens direct pilot program that connects the only...

Alki and Golden Gardens are the two most popular beaches in the city.

Golden Gardens has no transit service.

Something that I learned, actually, after the fact at the press conference, was if we wanted to make this pilot to Golden Gardens permanent, the current language in the Seattle transit measure does not allow us to do that.

So if we wanted to, like, I mean, I think of Lake Washington, I think of the waterfront, I think of Alki, you know, I think of Magnuson, you know, all of these different places where people do need that last mile transit, we might need to make a change so that that can be permanent.

And then I've got office hours this week, and that's my report, Council President.

Any questions?

With that, I'll turn it over to Council Member Zaka.

All right, thank you, Council Member Strauss, and good afternoon, colleagues.

On the Select Committee on Seattle Transportation Benefit District Fund, thank you all for working so diligently with our central staff experts to get in those amendments on time.

approximately 20 plus amendments that I'm aware of at a high level, so I just ask that you all kindly release confidentiality with my office so we can make this the most efficient and productive set of remaining two meetings that we have outside of the public hearing.

But I appreciate all of your thoughtful engagement on that.

Our next meeting will be next Monday, July 6th at 11 a.m.

We have slightly revised the meeting start time in large part to accommodate a FIFA match.

And we have a lot of workers and staff members that are here for that.

And it's going to be an elimination round, round of 32 match.

So we want to be able to start and end on time to preserve flexibility for logistics and all the staff that need to go to various places.

But I appreciate your meeting on that.

In community, Last Friday night, I was really honored to participate in a memorial for Meredith Bonadea, a Vachon resident, community leader, lifelong cyclist, LGBTQ community member and advocate, respected political activist, 76-year-old who tragically lost her life on our roads, in particular in West Seattle almost two weeks ago.

So she was cycling at that time to participate in an anti-ICE protest, continuing her lifelong commitment to human rights and community advocacy.

to her wife, Laura, and her daughter, friends, and the Rainbow Riders Cycling Group, my heart is with you.

Mayor Dee meant so much to so many people, and the West Seattle bash on LGBTQ and cycling communities are grieving deeply and will continue to.

Huge loss for the City of Seattle, but was honored to be able to join and visit a community rally and memorial to honor Mary Dee last Friday night.

The ghost bike placed at that crash site stands as a memorial, but it's also a warning that our streets are not safe.

Plenty more work to do.

All right.

Well, okay.

On a much lighter note, FIFA.

FIFA was mentioned.

I know there's a lot of excitement and energy pertaining to FIFA.

We're about two-thirds of the way through our hosting duties as a city, and not at all time to step off the gas in terms of all of our immense planning and execution that is under that is taking place as we speak.

But so far, some of the initial data looks like we've been successful in this multi-year planning effort.

So I really, really wanna thank all the 14,000 or so City of Seattle employees across 40 plus departments who have been working so hard, so diligently in planning over the last three, four plus years.

to help us be so successful.

So far, whether they're from the Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Center, Office of Waterfront, Seattle Fire Department, Care Department, Seattle Police Department, and so many more, we're experiencing success.

And all of our regional partners as well, from King County Metro, Sound Transit, et cetera.

I want to briefly share some important data.

I think a critical picture about why we're here in this somewhat successful state.

On the Juneteenth match alone, of course, that was the big Team USA versus Australia match.

Lime, so shared micromobility scooters, Lime scooters tallied over 83,000 rides alone, which was a record.

Beat the Seahawks victory parade back in February.

So shout out to shared micromobility.

Sound Transit, Light Rail had a record 280,000 plus boardings.

King County Metro tallied over 320,000 riders on that day.

Seattle Monorail, King County Metro was a record.

Seattle Monorail, no record.

I do not believe it was a record, but still 84,000 plus fans on Juneteenth.

The Seattle streetcar combined for a ridership tally of 7,000, which included record ridership for the First Hill line.

Record ridership.

Even the water taxi system, especially the West Seattle water taxi, brought in over 8,500 passengers across the bay that day.

Not specifically limited to that Juneteenth historic match, but from the time FIFA started, so through the first 11 days of FIFA, the Friends of the Waterfront Park reported over 450,000 people at Seattle's Waterfront Park.

And guys, as you know, under our distributed sort of fan experience model, we don't have everything concentrated in one location.

It's not just Seattle Center.

There's also the stadium.

There's also Pacific Place and the waterfront, and there's other unofficial places like Pioneer Square.

Check that out.

Visited them all.

Me and my office have visited them all.

I think the waterfront is probably one of the most exciting, but they're all super cool.

Check them out.

And I'll close on FIFA excitement and energy.

We're already having some very initial preliminary conversations about Seattle potentially hosting the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup, should it be selected later this year.

as part of a host country, and currently the US, Jamaica, Costa Rica, I think, maybe one other country are in the running, leading candidates to be a host country for the Women's World Cup in 2031. So we're already having initial conversations about, let's run it again.

Let's run it back, Council President.

Pride match, or excuse me, Pride, Happy Pride, everyone.

It's still June.

Happy Pride.

I was honored yesterday to participate with my office in our annual Big City Pride March downtown.

Such amazing vibes, terrific experience.

Brought my 12-year-old daughter Maeve with me.

She really loved it.

So just so honored to be able to participate in that.

Moving on to...

last week had the pleasure of joining Councilmember Rink, Councilmember Foster's office, to participate in the West Seattle Democratic Women's Forum right there.

And of course, West Seattle.

Such a great event.

Opportunity to speak with some women who have been, you know, community, neighborhood, community leaders, neighborhood leaders, political leaders in my district for many decades.

Topics of conversation, focus areas included transportation, public safety, housing affordability, and so much more, how people can age in place, et cetera.

So honored to be able to join that, and I want to thank everyone who attended.

the members who attended and Councilmember Rank and Councilmember Foster's office for bearing with me through my corny dad jokes.

There were a lot.

I am a dad from Delridge, so I was effusive, those corny dad jokes.

Finally, I want to note the ReConnect South Park effort over specifically the effort to reunite our vibrant and wonderful and very diverse South Park neighborhood, which is currently cut in half, bisected by State Route 99. Last week, OPCD released a report in conjunction with ReConnect South Park, a project that my office has been engaged on since I've been in office, over two and a half years now, that identifies Highway 99 as a major health and environmental burden on South Park.

Note that there are As the report notes as well, there's four other major north-south arterials, similar to Highway 99, that are within one mile of Highway 99, including I-5 and State Route 509. The report finds many opportunities, presents a number of options, each of which would need to be further refined and studied, and environmental reviews, and then community stakeholdering, feedback, all of that.

Whatever the final option, maybe one of the final options is a hybrid of some of the current options.

But irrespective of final community-endorsed options, I think it's very clear that the status quo of having South Park cut in half and the danger that poses on people's health, the environment, and traffic safety, and so much more.

The status quo is totally unacceptable.

We need to do better, and looking forward to supporting the community to do exactly that.

That concludes my report, with one minor exception.

Fourth of July is coming up.

I want to wish everybody a happy Independence Day.

We had a great, one of the most profound in my two and a half years on this body conversation a month or two ago about what it means to be a patriot in this country, in these times in particular, a minor epilogue to that.

There's a really cool documentary on Netflix available called Black Patriots.

It's a three- or four-part docu-series.

I started the first one last night.

Really, really great.

Highly recommend you all check it out, Black Patriots on Netflix.

Thank you.

Welcome any comments, questions, and if not, we'll pass it on to Council Member Rivera.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

I'm going to start this week.

This morning, I hosted a public safety walk in Wedgwood.

You all have heard me talk about since I came onto the council hosting public safety walks to visit with our small businesses across the district and hear from them on their experiences.

was joined by Chief Barnes, Chief Scoggins, representatives from CARE and Seattle Public Utilities and Parks, and also want to thank Director Allison Holcomb from the Mayor's Office for also joining us.

And I have to say I was very encouraged because our small businesses in Wedgwood are reporting that things are a lot better than they were last year.

I had a conversation with a lot of the businesses last year with then-Mayor Harrell and businesses were very stressed out.

And this year, things are much better.

And so I really want to thank all the people, you know, Chief Barnes and his team for really focusing, really appreciate Chief Barnes's community policing efforts.

It's something he very much cares about and has really fostered in the department, and we're seeing the results of that with his great team at SPD.

And then, of course, our Chief Scoggins, who's been really diligent about implementing our vacant buildings, legislation, amongst other things.

Of course, huge respect for both the chiefs and then a lot of our folks across the city departments like utilities who are helping with trash mitigation and especially with some of the dumpsters around.

And then, you know, down to our care team helping to addressed our needs, our unhoused neighbors, the needs of our unhoused neighbors in our district.

So really shout out to everyone and the results.

We're seeing the results and that feels really good.

because this was something, as you all know, when some of us started here two and a half years ago, it was something a lot of the small businesses were talking a lot about the impacts, and it really feels good to be able to address some of those and have them feel like they're being heard and things are better for them.

So we're on the right track, all that to say.

Really appreciated everyone's participation this morning.

Also tomorrow we're going to be hosting another select committee on the FEP implementation and evaluation plan where we're going to hear from central staff on their issue ID and our policy considerations.

Thank you for your participation and I'm not sure if I was able to say last time when we had our last briefing, but just to say that I created the select committee so everyone could participate in this conversation rather than me having it through our committee or my regular committee meeting because only five of us can participate on that.

Um, robustly, anyone can join, but only five people can vote.

It was really important to me that everyone had the opportunity to weigh in equally.

So created a select committee for that and really thank you for, um, uh, prioritizing that as part of your schedules.

I know you all, we had that first meeting and tomorrow's the second meeting.

So please, I, like Councilmember Saka, would appreciate if you all let me know if you have amendments.

It's great when you tell central staff, but to be honest with you, it's also helpful when you tell the chair, because we know what to expect as we're leading those meetings.

And so I would say, you know, it's great for you to tell central staff they're helping you actually craft those, and it's also equally important to tell the chair.

would encourage you to please tell me so we're not, you know, we can prepare, helps us prepare.

And then last week, as Councilmember Strauss beat me to the punch there, we attended Association of Washington Cities.

We both sit on the board as representatives to Seattle.

I also sit on the Legislative Committee So we had a meeting about that as well.

More to come on that.

We're starting to formulate the agenda for that.

Not surprising, most cities across the state are grappling with budget issues and structural budget issues.

And that was a lot of the conversation at legislative committee.

I also was really honored to have been asked by AWC to lead, co-lead, with my friend and counterpart in the City of Waitsburg, Councilmember Jillian Henze, to lead a roundtable for new electeds, and that was really great.

It was great to hear, first of all, some folks watch our meetings some of our counterparts across the city.

So that was really interesting and really just kind of a neat thing to know.

And it was really great to hear from new council members, their experiences.

And it was really a round table to share how we, you know, problem solve for challenges as we sit on councils across the state.

So that was really humbling.

I was really honored and it was really great to hear from freshly appointed, not appointed, but elected council members.

And some are appointed like we do here, where they're backfilling and then they go on to an election.

So very interesting.

And then the week before, I'll say something that I'm super, super, just, I felt so privileged and honored to attend.

Seattle Promise and Project Baldwin had a graduate reception for the Seattle Promise students.

And it was for the first generation college students, which I'm first generation college.

I was very teary-eyed, I'm going to admit, just seeing all these families and young people, and some older people too, get their college degrees from the Seattle colleges.

It was really just such a joy.

As you all have heard me say, I was really privileged to have helped, along with Director Chappelle, implement the first iteration of the Seattle Promise, along with the Seattle Colleges and Mayor Durkin.

This was, you know, her legacy, part of her legacy.

And to see the last seven years of Promise and it exceeded our expectations in terms of success.

That was really a really wonderful thing to be a part of.

I can't, you know, so many first-generation kids, you know, many of which are members of our BIPOC community, black and brown students, and so many immigrant families and students.

This is such a great opportunity and it just makes me so happy.

That's what I'm trying to say.

I'm so proud of them and it was very uplifting.

And then lastly, I'll say another equally uplifting event was this Immigrant Heritage Month event put on by our Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs to celebrate our immigrant and refugee neighbors here in the city.

Councilmember Rink was there as well and we got to greet the audience and that was also really special and to really talk about and support our immigrant and refugee neighbors across the city is of course important to all of us and I was just so honored to be there as well.

So there's more I can say but I'll leave it at that and turn it over to my colleague.

Councilmember Lynn.

Oh, unless you have a question.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thanks, Councilmember Rivera.

Sorry, I probably should have asked you this last week.

Thank you for being our city's representative on the Legislative Priorities Committee at AWC.

Colleagues, we've had times where AWC has lobbied against our interests.

We have had times where they have lobbied alongside of our interests.

One thing that I brought up to their legislative team, and they didn't give me firm commitments because they needed to hear from the Legislative Priorities Committee.

It's about HB 2213 relating to recycling laws.

This was an amendment that I added to our own legislative priorities for here at the City of Seattle.

And last year the bill didn't even get a hearing, and so it moved nowhere.

And it's just basically, right now there's a loophole that if you get $30 of copper recycled, you don't have to show ID, you can get paid in cash, there's no accountability efforts.

Do you know, did anyone in that Legislative Priorities Committee raise that issue?

Do you know if AWC is interested in supporting us in this or did you get a sense?

We haven't yet established what the committee is going to be working on for the next legislative session.

We're kind of in the ideation phase, if you will, so I'm happy to go back and ask about that in particular, but we don't have the particulars yet of what will be on the agenda for this next legislative session in January, but more to come on that.

and you also don't need to wait for me, but I'm happy to also ask about that particular one.

Wonderful.

But we don't have the list yet.

Like, we don't hear either, in fact.

So, but yeah, we'll see.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And I think next we have Councilmember Lynn.

For the record, Councilmember Foster's here.

We'll go Councilmember Lynn, Councilmember Rank, and then bounce it over to Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Lynn.

Thank you, and thanks for bringing that up, Councilmember Strauss.

We all know that copper wire theft is a pretty big deal, including the West Seattle Bridge.

The lights were out recently.

We're just spending enormous amounts on something that can be solved pretty simply, and so there's no reason for that not to be A priority in my mind, you know, we saw similar issues with catalytic converter thefts.

And, you know, I have not heard about catalytic converter theft for quite a bit now.

I don't know.

Maybe it's still happening.

Okay.

But it certainly has declined from the height.

And so, yeah, we're probably not gonna get rid of copper theft altogether, but we don't need to make it easy.

for it to happen.

So yeah, I would love to see some action there.

In terms of committees, Land Use Committee will be meeting this week.

We will have our SEPA appellate procedure bill.

There will be a public hearing, not a vote this Wednesday.

So we're anticipating a vote on July 15th.

So just want to give you all a heads up about that.

But we will be having the public hearing this Wednesday.

The other thing that will be on just for briefing and discussion is a temporary design review bill.

Basically there was a temporary design review bill that has expired.

And so we basically want to put that the what was in place to kind of make that active again while the SDCI OPCD work on a permanent design review.

We are required to update our design review per state law.

That is a longer term project, but in the meantime, having this temporary bill would be helpful.

Previously, it allowed if you were doing MHA performance to be exempt.

It allowed a voluntary design review and it allowed for administrative design review.

And so we would be bringing, basically reauthorizing those on a temporary six month basis.

And that's all I have for the moment.

Thank you, Councilmember Landon.

Oh, there's questions.

Councilmember Saka.

If I may, Councilmember Landon, I just want to thank you for raising your kind of overview today, but also raising the important issue of copper wire theft and the impact that that has on our utilities, our economy, and Seattle City Light.

My office, you mentioned specifically the West Seattle Bridge, copper wire theft, which has been happening now for over a year, and my office has been closely involved and engaged with Seattle City Light.

The mayor's office spanning two administrations now, SPD on this issue, and Seattle City Light let us know earlier today that that I believe on Saturday night, there was SPD arrested an individual on the West Seattle Bridge, attempting to steal copper wire from streetlights.

So very, very dangerous and harmful set of conduct for our economy.

And talking about traffic safety and road safety, when you can't properly illuminate one of the most critical corridors in our city, the West Seattle Bridge.

Very, very dangerous.

So shout-out to Seattle City Light, SPD, for your effort to hold that individual accountable and then making appropriate upgrades to harden the infrastructure to better prevent the likelihood of that happening again.

Thank you.

And I'll just say, I just wanted to add, thank you, Council Member Merlin.

I, you know, AWC is one body, but we have our own legislative agenda, obviously.

And so this is something to talk to OIR about, obviously, because with AWC in the same way we do here, but probably even more so there, because there's so many cities, you know, it's really hard when you have hundreds and hundreds of billions and they prioritized, you know, the top three or four things, and it's not the only things that they care about, but it has to be this priority piece.

But it's something that we need to think about for ourselves, and whether, when we're talking to OIR, make sure that this is rising to the surface, because it is a big issue in our city.

I don't think it's just in our city, but it definitely is a big issue.

in our city, Councilmember Lynn.

And thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for bringing it up.

So it's something for us to talk to OIR and make sure that we're giving it our priority because we have lobbyists that go to Olympia.

And so this is something to talk to them about as we're prioritizing our agenda.

So thank you.

Thank you, CP.

And if I might step in real quick, I know I've heard from a number of colleagues regarding OIR coming for an update, just so we could kind of hear what what they're cooking up and they need to hear from us, so I've heard that request.

And I even got a side-eye from Council Member Kettle just now, so I will...

I'm just playing.

It was a positive side-eye.

Okay.

I'll make sure that that is on the docket for July for us to get an update from OIR, so that's on my list.

I've heard loud and clear, colleagues.

Thank you.

Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Council President.

And I want to kick off by thanking everyone who participated in last week's Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes.

For those who missed it, we had a few panels focused on healthcare impacts of HR1, as well as a panel focused on issues facing our local trans community.

and some of the partners that we had at the table last week included Harborview CEO, as well as Healthier Here and the Health Care Authority and some of our community health partners such as Seattle Indian Health Board, Asian Counseling and Referral Services, and then our own Aging and Disability Services division within the Human Services Department.

which provides a lot of long-term care support.

They actually hold the Local Area Agency of Aging.

And so it's important to uplift that.

One of the key things to know out of that update is that the impacts of HR1, so House Resolution 1, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill, or as many people also call it, the Big Betrayal Bill, included severe cuts to Medicaid, and those impacts are going to start coming in and facing our residents starting October 1st of this year.

Some of those big impacts include the institution of work requirements, as well as requiring folks to reapply for their healthcare in six-month increments as opposed to annually, and then there is the outstanding issue of non-citizen long-term care residents who will no longer be eligible for their healthcare, an outstanding question of where do those folks go.

So pretty severe circumstances coming our way and a definite call to action by some of our panel participants to start thinking creatively and coming together on how we really wrap our arms around our community to try and weather the impacts of these changes.

Additionally, we had a panel focused on trans issues facing our city, having the LGBTQ Commission, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Mayor's Office at the table talking about the interdepartmental team that has been stood up to take a citywide approach to addressing and really developing a plan to meet the needs of our trans residents and those who are fleeing other states and becoming new residents to our city seeking protections.

This week, the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee will be meeting actually on July 2nd.

So it's a special meeting because we will have this Friday off and we will be discussing and holding a possible vote on Council Bill 121207, which would establish a forensic digital evidence classification title series and corresponding rates of pay in the Seattle Police Department.

This was recommended by the Director of the Seattle Department of Human Resources.

We also will have appointments to the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

To highlight some regional committee work, the KCRHA governing committee met on Friday and we covered three main points.

We received an update on the corrective action plan.

We also provided some updates to the finance committee protocols.

And then lastly, we received the report on the 2026 point and time count.

Some may have seen the reporting on this.

The 2026 point in time count found that we had a 9% rise in homelessness over the past two years.

And in that presentation, we really walked through kind of the finer details of that report, but also had a few community partners, I should say service provider partners, a part of the discussion talking about their work as they're seeing it.

So Mary's Place participating in the discussion as well as DESC.

To that end, I think it's clear to say any increase in homelessness in our community is particularly challenging.

and saddening for many of us who have been involved in the work for a number of years and want to see our neighbors get housed.

And so I think it's worth commending the actions that we've taken this past year to scale more shelter across our city.

And we still have a long way to go and the challenges are mounting against us as we continue to keep our eyes on the continuum of care funding, which is under threat right now.

I wanna note with just closing a couple community events and I promise I'm gonna go to a more positive place after that note.

I wanna thank you all for signing onto the Trans Pride proclamation.

I was able to present that in community Friday night at Trans Pride.

It was a really beautiful event and there was a lot of appreciation for that proclamation and I also was able to attend Mount Baker Pride.

This is a family-friendly event that took place on Sunday.

Really beautiful, lots of kiddos and families out.

We had drag story time.

It was really beautiful out in Mount Baker Park this Sunday.

And then, of course, marching in the parade is always a blast.

And I wanna close with perhaps, I don't wanna choose favorites, but this maybe was one of the most meaningful community events that I was able to attend this weekend, and it was the grand opening of the Nicholsville Brighton Village, which was long awaited and something that my office has been gauged in and tracking for a number of years now.

and so having those 14 units of housing come online, for those who don't know, Nicholsville is a self-managed model.

This is actually now their third site in the city.

It was just a very wholesome day and one that definitely inspired a bit of hope because without shelter people die and we are making strides in trying to open more shelter across the city and so wanted to close on that note of positivity and happy to take any questions.

All right, I'll pass it to Councilmember Foster, who was there at that opening.

I was there at that opening.

What a great pass off.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Surprise, I'm here.

I know I was excused, but I'm really glad I made it and apologies for arriving late.

I was at a convening held by the county executive this afternoon that surrounded housing.

but happy to be here with you all right now.

I will start with committee updates.

So this morning we heard a piece of legislation that my office has been working on over the last several months for the first time in committee surrounding homeowner privacy and protections.

So this is legislation that our committee will be considering in the coming weeks.

and I believe my staff has chatted with your offices about it.

I will share just a little bit about it here.

I'm really excited about this legislation.

It came from engagement that we did and things that we heard around excessive solicitation, in particular for legacy homeowners and seniors and people who are experiencing consistent, frequent calls and letters and sometimes in-person visits to their homes when their homes are not on the market, asking them to put their house for sale.

We heard from people who shared some really emotional experiences, both about just the interruption of their privacy, but also on the other end of the scale, people who do end up going for these deals, which are not deals, but are often aggressive ways that get people to sell their houses for under market value.

We heard stories about people who left candy on the porch for the homeowners' children.

We heard stories of people dropping off signed contracts with offers under market value.

And it's really important because at the end of the day, we know that so much of wealth building is in homeownership.

and in particular for black residents of the city, we know that we have a gap in both homeownership and wealth building.

But beyond that, this is legislation that's gonna be impactful for everyone.

Our office put out a survey and we've heard from residents in every council district about their experiences with unwanted solicitation.

And we actually had lots of folks call in today and speak to that as well.

So really excited about this legislation that we are considering.

and the intent of it again is to allow people to opt in to a do not solicit list to prevent them from receiving unwanted real estate solicitations.

So this is not a blanket consideration, it's something that people can choose to participate in.

It would create a private right of action for folks, and it would also allow the city to assess fines for people who are in repeat violation of the ordinance.

We think that's really important because at the end of the day, we have to be able to enforce this.

I want to express my appreciation to the folks who joined us at this table this morning, Shikhandi Salisbury from Black Legacy Homeowners, We had Gregory Davis from Rainier Beach Action Coalition and longtime Beacon Hill leader Maria Bataola as well, so express my thanks for them.

Colleagues, please feel free to reach out to my office if you have questions, our central staff is also available for you.

We're gonna be making a couple of adjustments to the timeline to make sure that we have space to get all of those questions in, but this is something we feel very passionately about.

I also want to share, we'll have in committee tomorrow, we will be voting on three pieces of legislation coming from my committee that is going to set the city up to invest in building at least 277 new affordable housing units.

And you'll hear more tomorrow, but these are projects in Mount Baker, Montlake, and the Central District.

and I will express my appreciation to the Office of Housing staff for their long time work on these projects.

These are things that have been in the mix for quite a bit and have required collaboration with the city, the state and local developers.

So really excited to get to bring in particular the Mount Baker piece to the finish line.

but I will highlight today and I'll highlight again tomorrow for the Central District projects, really excited because we have the opportunity to not just bring these projects to fruition but we will be, the Office of Housing worked with my office on some pre-introduction edits so that we will be applying community preference to that project.

And community preference will allow the Office of Housing to affirmatively market and prioritize people with historic ties to the neighborhood.

So a really exciting opportunity for us to bring back affordable home ownership into the Central District.

All right, starting with those, then I'll just share a couple of updates.

We've been busy.

We've all been busy.

So most recently, I wanna appreciate many of my colleagues.

I know I saw you at the Southeast Seattle Education Forum.

I think there was several of us there.

I think we had to issue a notice of possible quorum for that fantastic engagement.

I got a chance to have a tour.

I was over in your district, Councilmember Saka with Via Communitaria in South Park and talking to the community members there.

in particular actually about the changes coming from the federal government and the possible unenrollment of many of the community members who are currently served via Communitaria and the work that they are doing to plan and to adjust and that was really fantastic.

Big shout out, I don't believe we have Council Member Juarez with us here, but Council Member Kettle, Council President Hollingsworth, and myself had the opportunity to present the official Storm Day proclamation, and I lived to tell the story.

I didn't faint.

I didn't pass out from my fandom.

I'm very proud of myself for that, colleagues.

But it was really fantastic.

We got a chance to actually present the proclamation to the rookies that were there and it was really special.

And sandwiched between two home team wins, I would say.

Credit to the team, but the timing is important, I think.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying.

Our office also had some great engagement with the folks from Solid Ground, and I wanna appreciate them for engaging with us on the impact of sales tax on our residents, our low-income residents, and we wanted to make sure we were seeking proactive community feedback there.

Lots of other events.

We've been in Lakewood and Seward Park.

We were in Queen Anne and Council Member Kettle did not play pickleball with me, but we'll let that slide and lots more community engagement and events coming up.

So I will leave it there and happy to take questions.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

It's always good to hear what's going on.

what's going on committees, regional committees, what you have going on, engagement with community.

I'll be super quick on mine.

Governance Utilities Committee will begin.

We'll meet on July 9th.

We're gonna take up one appointment to the Washington State Convention Center Board, okay?

And then get a presentation from the city auditor's office as well.

As you all know that we are hiring, we're in the process of hiring a new city auditor with the city.

that is a process that we have been doing, but we'll hear from their office regarding some audits and some other background.

We will also hear the utilities discount program legislation that's sponsored by Councilmember Strauss, and get briefed also as well on Seattle Public Utility water rates, which will be great to hear about the water rates in conjunction with the Utility Discount Program.

So there's going to be a lot of movement, as we know from our utilities.

We know everyone is passionate about utilities and wastewater and all of the things.

I do know that even though we did send our letter to King County regarding the rates, I know they still push through with a different rate option.

So I think the utility discount program could not come at a better time, Councilmember Strauss, during this process and the expansion of it.

And I don't think people know how really big this is for the city and for the program and the folks.

So I know that you will...

I know there will be more information about it.

We'll have conversations in committee, but I think this is a pretty big deal, especially with affordability.

There's only certain levers that we can push as a council in our legislative role, and this is a big one.

I also wanted to flag that we have a special governance utilities meeting on July 29th at 9.30am.

An official notice will be coming soon.

so we have a special meeting.

I know there's a lot of legislation that we have to get through.

Our meetings only once a month, so I knew that during this time before break, before recess, or before budget, that there might have to be some meetings that we have to squeeze in to fit some of the legislation coming through.

So, colleagues, I appreciate your work on that.

Last but not least, end of June.

So Pride Month is coming to a close, but it's Pride Month every day here on council.

Different pride.

You might have different prides.

It might be Norwegian pride.

It might be your pride with the England.

You got a English flag just hanging up in your office.

It could be the West Seattle flag.

Whatever pride you're celebrating, I'm here for it, okay?

I just want y'all to know that.

The other thing is, colleagues, I do want to take this time and thank you all.

I know that it's Gun Violence Prevention Month.

Every Tuesday since the beginning, we've had different guests come, and I just want to really appreciate your time and engagement.

A lot of those families I've known for years, and so being able to have this platform where we can honor them in a respectful way is really, really meaningful to those families.

because it's one thing, you know, we have awareness, but I think it's another thing for us to actually see the impact that this is having on folks.

A lot of people don't know, a couple weeks ago, I lost my cousin to gun violence, and he was a gentleman.

Shout out and rest in peace to Cash Stewart.

His father was Anthony Stewart, who's my cousin, and he lost his life in Rainier Beach.

So, you know, this is very impactful.

It's always a couple degrees of separation from people that are, you know, in our city.

And I know we all have family or friends or we know of people who've, you know, passed away from gun violence and those things and how we're impacted.

So, you know, it's a very heavy month, but I do believe that there was a lot of forward progress during this month with the gun violence symposium.

We also had the people come and tell us this is what they would like to see in their community.

We had community passages come here, talked about what the impact they have on community.

So I know there's forward progress.

I know there's a lot of people who want to see this.

I know the mayor's office wants to see progress.

We do.

Everybody wants to see progress on this.

So just really thank you all for your engagement during this month.

So Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

First off, I want to just thank you for your leadership and those honorary proclamations in the last couple of weeks.

I couldn't agree more that they reflected forward progress and momentum and, you know, layer that on top of the Councilmember Rivera's Gun Violence Prevention Summit.

Sorry if the official name escapes me, but together a great set of specific actions from which to continue to build upon and tremendous momentum.

So kudos, hat tip, salute for your respective leadership.

I want to just quickly shift gears to a much more dry or dull topic.

You mentioned City Auditor and the pending vacancy that we have there within the City Auditor's Office.

I don't have the privilege of sitting on your committee, where that's gonna be discussed further, but can you help us just better understand the current timeline and plan and kind of schedule for hiring that critical role within the city?

Absolutely, thank you for that.

This is not a dry subject.

It's important, yeah.

It's very important.

So the timeline for, so the city auditor,

David Jones has been with, I believe, over 20 years?

Is it 20?

20-plus years.

So this is a big deal, because the city auditor's office is very small.

It's between, I think, 15 people or less.

It's very small.

I'm looking at Councilmember Strauss, and if I get a head nod from him, I know I'm on the right track.

Just playing.

And so what we've done for the timeline is we have hired a consultant.

We have our HR department.

We've also had I believe Councilmember, someone was on the first round.

So we did have Councilmembers and then the Auditor's Office as well be engaged in that first round of pool of candidates.

And so then now we're moving on to the second round, which I'm on that committee, but more than happy.

Councilmember Saka, if this is an opportunity, if you want to sit on the committee with me, I see the hand raise.

Councilmember Saka?

Yeah.

Yes, Madam Council President, we'd love to.

I love this, thank you.

Okay, you want me to tell you the rest of the process?

Yes, please.

Okay, awesome.

So going into second and third rounds, which are us, some council members, I believe Council Member Strauss is on that.

No, maybe.

Okay, we'll find out.

But anyway, so we have a second set of council members who are on the selection committee, in addition to the auditor's office, HR, we have a panel.

they go through a process.

So we have our top five candidates, five to six candidates, and then we run a final round as well where we all kind of decide and, you know, I take feedback from you all and especially from the auditor's office about what they would like to see in that final candidate as well.

Well, thank you, Madam Council President.

All that makes sense.

And yes, for clarity, I would love to sit on any, you know, subsequent panel or participate in any way.

It can be helpful.

This is, compared to, you know, gun violence prevention, you know, arguably more, slightly more dry and dull, but very important as well that we're talking about accountability and oversight and transparency.

the cornerstones of effective, efficient, and responsive government.

So accountability, the city auditor's offices, it might be they perform some of the most important work across the city of Seattle, which is why I asked, and also to kind of thread the needle here through some of the previous conversations.

I previously, we talked earlier about Meredith's untimely demise on our roads as a cyclist in West Seattle a week and a half ago, almost two weeks ago now.

And that was two-plus weeks after another cyclist lost their lives on city streets.

And, you know, there's pedestrians getting killed all the time that no one reports on, unfortunately.

And there's no advocacy groups talking about all the pedestrians that are dying.

This is a really important topic.

I previously called for a city audit almost four months ago now of our Vision Zero Traffic Safety Program.

I will be pushing for, you know, looking for someone who's going to prioritize that work.

The City Auditor's Office has committed to me.

I met with them and their interim leadership that, you know, they're undertaking preliminary efforts right now, which I really appreciate.

and they've added this to their queue.

I think it's going to commence or whatever, end of the summer, early fall.

But given the sort of gravity and weight and importance of this, I think I'm going to be looking for someone who's going to be prioritizing.

Also noted, knowing you want a little extra involvement in the process, which is perfect because there's a lot.

We do have really great finalists.

I have selected between six to eight identified folks.

Six to eight?

Six.

Six.

Oh, I had six.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

I think I had to add it.

Anyways, the whole point is thank you, Council Member Kettle.

But we're in the middle of the process, and hopefully what we have is by the end of the year is we'll have selected a new auditor.

That is the timeline.

So I will get you enfolded in that process.

And if anyone else wants to be embedded in the process, leaning up to the final selection, more than happy to incorporate you all as well.

Yeah, Councilmember Rivera.

Council President, that would be great.

I mean, as you know, I am very interested in audits and making sure that we are accountable.

And sometimes the only way that we know for certain is if when we get that audit information back, it's very helpful and really important and a necessary part of this job.

And so I want to make sure that I'd like to know who the being considered and making sure that we all have that information.

I appreciate that.

Absolutely.

And just to clarify, they still have to get confirmed by council.

So this is like, you know, so yes, this is shaping that what that looks like.

But our auditor's office might be small, but they're mighty.

They're very efficient.

They get a lot of stuff done.

They're very close knit.

I've learned to get to know them very well and just couldn't be more impressed with the professionalism.

from our office, from our auditor's office as well.

So this is a big deal to, you know, have new leadership in there, but please know that the auditor's office, it was important to me that they were included in every single step of this process as they are choosing, as we are all choosing, but wanted them to feel like they've been a part of this process very intimately, so they're not just surprised by So they've been on round one in the selection, round two, round three.

We met with them previously before to find out what values that they were looking for.

We also have our consultant made sure they took a list.

So it's really important that we are running a good top-notch process.

Awesome.

Yeah, Council Member Rivera.

And one last thing, Council President, sorry, because you brought up the gun violence symposium.

This was not meant to be like a gathering and then we don't do anything, so I'm working on next steps with that.

Awesome.

And, you know, we've spoken, I've spoken with the mayor's office as well, so more to come on that.

I don't want folks to think that was it.

Thank you.

No, no, you're good.

Thank you.

Colleagues, is there any further business?

and just to clarify, my goal is always to have council briefing no more than an hour.

So we're around that time, you know, because I came late.

We only started at 2.05, but that is the goal, is for these to be an hour, get in and out, and be very efficient.

Yes.

Okay, awesome.

Is there any further business to come before Council Member Rivera?

Okay, Council Member Foster, no?

Okay, I'm messing with you.

Okay, hearing no further business, it's 3.10, this meeting is adjourned.

President, thank you.