Good morning.
Thank you for being here for a regularly scheduled briefing.
We have several excused absences this morning, so we should have a relatively short agenda for our briefing, but we do have two executive sessions that we will go into.
I'll just briefly say that I am joined by Councilmembers Bagshaw, Pacheco, and Gonzalez.
And if there's no objection, the minutes of the June 10th, 2019 Council briefing and meeting will be approved.
Hearing no objection, those minutes are approved.
We have no items for vote this afternoon from the Governor's Equity and Technology Committee.
We do have our regularly scheduled meeting.
tomorrow at 9.30 and we have some appointments to several commissions and we may talk through some information on the information technology and organizational issues.
We may or may not.
We're sort of deciding that now.
So, Council Member Begshaw.
Thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody.
So we have one item this afternoon on the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee.
It's an ordinance from our FAS department regarding Seattle Public Utilities Wharf building lease.
Nothing abnormal about it, routine, and we expect to bring it forward and hopefully pass today.
We actually have, next week is going to be a big meeting for the Finance and Neighborhoods Committee.
We'll have the Seattle City Employees Retirement System report.
That's something that I've been working on, as you know, by virtue of the fact that I'm chair of the Finance Committee, and we are asking the head of the department, Jeff Davis and Jason Malinowski, who leads our investment team, to come and talk to us about some of the things that they've been working on, and the fact that we have had a clean audit on the retirement system, and also in response to legislation that Senator Reuven Carlisle had offered for the last three years, which would give the city the option to join the state system.
After an independent analysis and review that I had asked for, he came back and said, They wouldn't object to having the option, but there was no movement or desire to take the Seattle City Employees Retirement System into the state, so they'll tell us more about that.
I've got two proclamations today that I'll be circulating.
One is for recognition of the Design Commission and their 50th year anniversary event, and this comes at the request of our friend Michael Jenkins.
And also we received a proclamation which is recognizing the need for communities to deal with and get prepared for wildfire smoke.
The last couple of August, all of you remember that we could hardly breathe around here.
And this is a proclamation that started in the mayor's office proclaiming June 19th recognition of wildfire seasonal air quality response.
And we're going to have a community day.
So I'm going to circulate those for you right now.
Thank you very much.
And that's it.
Good morning, everybody.
There are no PLEZ related items on the full council agenda today.
The next PLEZ committee meeting is on Wednesday, June 19th, and there will be three items on the agenda.
A discussion and possible vote on clerk file 314413. The council land use action to approve the temporary expansion of the north precinct to add portables and parking.
A discussion and possible vote on council bill 119471, clarifying the definition of a vessel.
I want to send a quick shout out to Councilmember O'Brien and Councilmember Herbold for their work on that as well.
And a briefing and discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 119546, which is the update to the RIO.
make a couple of quick announcements around this week.
There's going to be opening of my district office, grand opening, I would say.
We'll be hosting an open house outside of the new district office.
It's going to be at the University Heights Center in the South parking lot and basketball court area surrounding the U District Farmer's Market.
We'll be having demo of Lime Scooters, and if you're available on Saturday, I'd love to have you join me and my team.
There's also going to be, I believe, participate on a transit talk with the Transportation Choices Coalition at the U-Height Center on Thursday.
And I want to recognize really quickly volunteers from Ravenna who do a neighborhood pop-up to help feed the homeless.
And so I was able to participate yesterday as part of Father's Day.
Because one of the things that my dad always taught me was to always count my blessings.
So I made sure that while I was not able to be with him, I was able to recognize the lessons he instilled in me.
So thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Pacheco.
Let's do a little rewind here.
Well, let's get settled.
We'll go to Councilmember O'Brien and then Councilmember Herb will get a little settled.
I'm not going to give you too long there, Council Member Herbold.
Good morning, everyone.
The Sustainability and Transportation Committee doesn't have anything on this afternoon's agenda.
We have our next committee meeting tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.
Three items on that agenda.
The first item up will be discussion and possible vote.
That's the plan, at least, for the backyard cottage legislation.
I appreciate all your work with me on this.
There's a central staff memo posted with the agenda that lists over half a dozen amendments, possible amendments that we'll be considering.
So if folks are planning to be at that meeting, take a look at that to get a sense of the types of things we'll be discussing.
The goal again will be to consider any amendments that people want to bring forward and then have a vote at a committee.
As a reminder, assuming we decide to bring it out of committee, it would go to the full council, but it won't be the following.
It won't be a week from today.
It'll be two weeks from today at the earliest because of other land use notices we'll likely have to do.
The other two items on the agenda were an appointment to the Levy to Move Seattle Oversight Committee, and then we're going to get a briefing from Seattle Department of Transportation on the implementation of the bike master plan.
They had a kind of draft implementation that came out in March that a lot of community members had some concerns with.
They released a new version of that last week, so we'll be having a discussion of that.
In addition, as part of that discussion, the other members of the Transportation Committee and myself sent a letter to SDOT two weeks ago asking them to respond to some concerns we have about the implementation of complete streets on 35th Avenue Northeast.
Originally, for the long time, there was a proposal to have a protected bike lane up there, but at the last minute, that was scuttled.
But in the convening couple months since that has rolled out, there's been a couple collisions with serious injuries, one to someone on a bicycle, one to someone on a motorcycle.
And there's other video footage indicating that it seems to be a not a very safe alignment So we're asking them to respond to some concerns we had about the safety up there If in fact we made some design errors, let's talk about what the opportunities are to fix them If they weren't design errors, you know, let's explain how we make this safer because it certainly doesn't look or feel safe What's going on up there?
Councilmember Bakeshaw
Thank you.
Council Member O'Brien, thank you for bringing this back up again.
And Council Member Gonzalez, thank you both for participating yesterday in the event that started at City Hall and went to Westlake.
I talked to another number of people up there, and I've not ridden my bike up on Northeast 35th, but I saw some video yesterday that was really scary, and that what we have effectively done is I think, respond to the people that wanted to continue to drive over 30 miles an hour in their cars on 35th Northeast, which really rendered it more unsafe for people riding their bikes.
What I saw yesterday was a group of people riding northbound and then cars passing them in the center lane and having to accelerate to do that.
Illegally, of course, too.
Yeah.
Those are illegal passes.
And I think that I'm going to ask for, as we talk with SDOT, to see what we can do to revisit that.
And if we just have to say, look, it was a, you know, it was well intended, but it's not working, then let's figure out something that we can accelerate.
And you mentioned yesterday, and I really concur on this, there are some things we want to do in the next six months.
And I would love to prioritize some of these safe bike lanes, whether they're, you know, take North, South, and Fourth Avenue as an example.
But to get these networks, because people want to ride safely, but I was, when I saw that 35th Northeast, I thought, we don't have this right yet.
So thank you, and I'd love to work with you.
Great.
Very good.
Council Member Bagshot.
The only other thing I was going to mention was the event that Council Member Bagshot touched on.
a street safety event yesterday that community members organized talking about pedestrian and cyclist safety and including folks in the disability rights community, talking about how we better prioritize our sidewalks to ensure that our most vulnerable transportation system users feel safe.
It was a really great event.
I don't know the numbers, but it was a packed city hall plaza.
And with the help of the police, they shut down Fourth Avenue for a parade, ride, walk, march up to Westlake Plaza.
And it was great to see so many people out there, including a number of young kiddos with their dads on Father's Day out there parading around.
So great day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council Member O'Brien.
Council Member Herbold.
Thank you.
There is no Civil Rights Utilities Economic Development Arts Committee meeting this week.
There are no items from my committee on the full council agenda.
I have two regional committee meetings coming up this week.
The Regional Transit Committee as well as the Flood Control District and then As far as events that are coming up this week, on Wednesday, I'll be speaking on a panel at the Women's Center Eileen Morris New Leadership Institute.
On Thursday, I'll be visiting with Recology with SPU Director Mami Hara.
And we'll be seeing the new electric truck that's in our new fleet.
First in the nation, class 8, electric garbage truck.
And then Saturday I'll be speaking at the Seattle University School of Law event, how real estate responds to disruptive change.
And then just as a TBD, I want to let folks know that I'm looking to host a Lunch and Learn.
We haven't nailed down the date yet.
But working with the folks at the AIDS Legacy Memorial, looking to do sort of an update on the project.
And just as a little bit of background, in 2015, the council allocated funds to the Office of Arts and Culture to do initial planning to build a memorial in honor of lives lost during the HIV-AIDS crisis.
In 2017, the council passed a resolution sponsored by Council Member Juarez to work to pull together an IDT of interdepartmental team of departments led by the arts office to look at how to bring this project forward.
And this, I went to one of their events that they held last week and thought with the organizers that this would be a good time to check in on the work of the IDT.
So would love to have representation from council members.
I am working with Council Member Juarez on identifying a date that works for everybody.
Very good.
Thanks Council Member Herbold.
Council Member Gonzalez.
Thank you, good morning.
There's only one item on this afternoon's City Council meeting agenda from the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee.
That is Council Bill 119539, related to the county-wide emergency medical services levy that is up for renewal on the ballot for King County voters at the next general election.
which is November 5th, 2019. This council bill would authorize the mayor to enter into an interlocal agreement with King County, as described in the bill, and would advance the effort of the county looking at placing this levy renewal on the ballot for the general election.
So if approved by King County voters, a new levy would provide $436 million during a six-year period.
total revenues to the City of Seattle's Fire Department for emergency medical services.
So that bill will be on the full council agenda this afternoon.
It is a product of about a year to a year and a half's worth of regional task force work that has resulted in this sort of agreed upon package as a region.
So 75% of the cities in King County have to agree to the structure as proposed by the task force.
So this is our opportunity to be one of those 75% of the cities in King County to signal our agreement with the task force recommendations via this bill.
And then we will go ahead and make sure that King County is aware that we have agreed and We'll be off to the races literally Okay, so then this week the Jusnet Ed committee is scheduled for a special meeting on Thursday June 20th at 6 p.m.
The location of the public meeting will be at Seattle Vocational Institute in a room 401 so you may have seen an announcement from my office last week that we were planning a special meeting to address a and have a conversation around gun violence in the Central District.
We had to change the location from Washington Hall to Seattle Vocational Institute in room 401 in order to take advantage of the fact that the African-American Advisory Council, which works very closely with the Seattle Police Department, was also having their meeting on the same day at the same time.
And so we're going to combine efforts and have a coordinated meeting with the African-American Advisory Council to have a community conversation around some of the gun violence issues that we have been seeing in the Central District.
I understand that Council Member Shalma Sawant will be in attendance.
It is her district and I want to appreciate her office and Council Member Sawant for her cooperation as we have continued to work through the logistics of this potential event.
All of you are, of course, welcome to attend if you're able to attend.
I think it'll be a really important opportunity for us to hear not only directly from community, as we'll be having public comment towards the end of the meeting, but as part of our committee agenda, we'll also have various city departments give a presentation on strategies to address gun violence in the Central District.
Those departments include the Seattle Police Department, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle City Light, Department of Neighborhoods, Human Services Department, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and the Office of Economic Development.
So really want to signal my appreciation for the mayor's office and her administration for their ongoing cooperation and partnership with us to make sure that we're getting timely relevant information out into community that hopefully will be responsive to some of the community requests as it relates to built environment upstream interventions that will disrupt violence and And of course then just the basic law enforcement things that need to occur in order to prevent and hold people accountable when they do engage in this behavior.
really looking forward to being in community.
This is a commitment that I made about three weeks ago to members of the community who were asking for the city to have a response to some of their concerns and to really present a plan on how we're going to move forward to really disrupt these incidents of gun violence in the Central District.
And, of course, we all woke up to an article in the Seattle Times this morning talking about how there were additional gunshots fired in the Van Asselt community area.
And, in fact, the last report that I heard said that there was about 50 gunshots, and some of those gunshots did, in fact, hit one of our community centers, the Van Asselt Community Center.
Luckily, no one was hurt.
But again, this is yet another incident that I feel like we keep having to bring up here in these chambers.
And I think there's a really great opportunity for us to work together with community, both new and legacy residents in the Central District to really take a serious look at how we can change the environment and invest more deeply in this community to prevent these kind of incidents from occurring.
I have been in contact with the Seattle, my office has been in contact with the Seattle Police Department and with Seattle Parks and Rec.
We heard back this morning from Christopher Williams, who of course is now the Deputy Superintendent for Seattle Parks and Recreation.
He indicated that today the community center will be fully staffed and operated.
He also plans to reach out to the South Precinct this morning to coordinate with them strategies for making sure that the area is going to continue to be safe so that folks who want to take part in the programming at Van Asselt feel like they can do so safely today, particularly in the aftermath of this report.
Parks and Recreation will continue to highlight their Summer of Safety Programming.
And for those of you who don't know about the Summer of Safety Programming, important part of Seattle Parks and Recreation programming at community centers, including Van Asselt, that will create safe space and structured programmings for young people in particular.
including and specifically focusing on diverse and low-income populations.
So again, Ben Asselt is one of the community centers that is receiving that summer of safety programming and will continue to monitor this and get as much information out to community and to each of you that might be interested in sharing the information with your networks as well.
So that is all I have on that issue.
If there's any questions, I'm happy to take them on that.
Otherwise, I'll finish my report.
Good?
Okay.
This week, just wanted to let folks know about a couple of other exciting things that I'll be participating in.
On Tuesday, June 18th, which is tomorrow at 6 p.m., I'll be co-hosting a screening of Knock the House Down with my good friend and senator, Senator Joan Nguyen, as well as Senator Mona Das and Vote Run lead at the Riveter on Capitol Hill.
After the movie, we'll participate on a panel discussion to talk about what it means to run for office, particularly if you have a unique set of lived experiences.
The event is free and open to the public.
They are requesting that you RSVP because space is limited, and that RSVP link is posted both on my Twitter and Facebook accounts.
On Friday, June 21st at 11 a.m., I'll be joining the Washington Leadership Institute at Perkins Coie to talk about ethical leadership while in an elected office, especially as we serve diverse stakeholders and solve complex problems in our city.
And for those who aren't aware, the Washington Leadership Institute is a leadership development program created to recruit, train, and develop traditionally underrepresented attorneys for future leadership positions in the Washington State Bar Association and the legal community in general.
So I'm really excited to go and spend some time with these young lawyers to talk to them about how to develop their leadership skills.
So that is all for me.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
Council Member Begshaw, you had some words for Council Member Warras.
Right.
Council Member Warras will be out of the office, and so I'm going to be chairing her committee this Wednesday, and it's going to start a little earlier than usual.
It's posted as starting at 1.30 p.m.
rather than 2. And there are two items on the agenda, both the RSJI reports, one from Seattle Center, and one from Seattle Parks.
So that's, again, this Wednesday, Council Member Juarez's committee.
And I do want to say special thanks to Council Member Juarez for her last committee where she was focusing on indigenous women and those who are missing and murdered.
It was really quite a stunning full house and very moving, and I want to say thank you to the Echo Hawks and others who were here to present.
And I also want to say congratulations to our former colleague, Tim Burgess.
He graduated from college this past weekend, and he was actually one of the speakers.
He said to the faculty that were behind him that he apologized because they try to have graduation rates at least by five years.
And it took him 50, but we're proud of him.
I'll mention that speaking of graduation, there were many graduations in the last week or so.
I know our chief best delivered the commencement speech at Garfield High School and we got some real good feedback about that.
I delivered the commencement address for the University of Washington Bothell campus at T-Mobile Park Saturday and that was a very well attended event and participated in the the kente ceremony graduation ceremony at mini hall Thursday evening and so that was some just great great times for a lot of particularly a lot of first-time graduates from college, but even those that but a lot of graduation, so it's a good weekend.
I do want to mention this Thursday coming up from 11.30 to 2 at the Birth of the Night Landis Room, we have the Juneteenth celebration event.
And so, all are welcome and it should be a real good celebration.
I think many of you know the story behind Juneteenth, so I won't bore you with that, but it should be an exciting event, so I want to invite the public.
That will be, it starts at 11.30 and it'll go until 2, okay.
And having said that, thanks for all those reports.
We're going to move into executive session.
After presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene an executive session.
The purpose is to discuss confidential legal matters relative to either pending, potential, or actual litigation.
And this gives us an opportunity to discuss these matters with our city attorneys as authorized by law.
We always have a monitor from the city attorney's office to make sure we reserve questions of policy in our public open sessions.
I expect this session to last for about 60 minutes.
And so we'll say 11 o'clock, a little over 60 minutes, 11 o'clock this morning.
And if it goes beyond that period, I'll announce the extension and its expected duration.
With that, we'll go into executive session.
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