Finance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee 6/16/2026

Good morning, the June 16th, 2026 Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, Chair of the Committee.

Council Member Rivera and Hollingsworth are excused until they arrive.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Call Rivera.

Councilmember Saka.

Here.

Vice Chair Rivera.

Present.

Chair Strauss, for present.

Thank you.

We have two items on...

We have everyone present except for Council Member Hollingsworth who is excused until she arrives.

We have two items on the agenda today.

We have the 2025 Exceptions Ordinance and the 2026 Carry Forward Ordinance, both for briefing discussion and possible vote.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

And just for reference, both of these items have been briefed in committee before.

We will, at this time, now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to items on today's agenda.

We have one person signed up.

And with one person signed up, the public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in order in which they registered.

We'll begin with in-person speakers.

speakers will have two minutes and we'll hear a chime when 10 seconds are remaining in their time.

Speakers' microphones will be muted at the end of that two minutes.

Public comment period is now open.

We have David Haynes here.

Good morning, Mr. Haynes.

Welcome.

Good morning, counsel.

Thank you, David Haynes.

Everything that's in the budget originates from the three worst mayors in the history of Seattle, some of the worst politicians and ideas who took one-time grant money and baked it into the budget that was tainted in racisms and defund police, shift the paradigm away from improving the war on drug pushers and pimps, and practically legalize drugs under the 3.5 grams, misconstruing what constitutes a criminal, as if we have George Soros dictating the pilot project of LEAD.

I want to know, and a lot of other people want to know, exactly what is council doing today when it comes to all the money that you didn't spend that's still going to be reiterated or spent on bad policies that are exacerbating the public safety crisis, the homeless crisis?

It's like, if you're paying people to run interference for repeat offenders that are running interference or that are connected to the criminal underworld, you're exacerbating the crisis for the cops.

You're making it still...

and safe in a living hell while catering to all these businesses who just want their doorsteps swept while URLs like failures to respond properly within the budget with policies that are undermining the integrity of crime fighting and public safety and the homeless crisis.

It's like you all are putting repeat offending junkie thieves with no accountability or requirement to break their addiction like in an authorized encampment where they're fully focused as opposed to just giving them big pharma Medicaid gouging drugs and have some case manager help them get IDs so they can get more money so they can be charged more rent in the same nonprofit who's manipulating their own statistics to dictate a perception of success.

And it's like, how much money has not been spent on proper policies that still need to be dealt with?

And every time you all do a budget consideration, it's always a reiteration of the tainted, ignorant past that has messed up and imploded our society.

So what's all the money gonna be used for?

Is it gonna be to improve?

the efforts or is this going to be to double down on the same bad policies that are tainted like lead, code lead, just care only for certain self-destructive more profitable people and it seems like Human Services has run interference for criminals as well so we need more transparent with Ali Panucci please as opposed to withholding your Thank You Mr.

Thank You Mr. Haynes Thank You Mr. Haynes Always appreciate having you come to committee.

We have no additional public comment speakers registered today in person or online.

Council President has been with us during public comment.

We will move on to the first item of business.

Since both of these items are connected, there is one PowerPoint and I'll ask the clerk to read both items into the record and you can read just the short titles if you'd like.

Item 1 Council Bill 121208 in ordinance amending a more ordinance 127156 which adopted the 2025 budget including the 2025 to 2030 capital improvements project and item 2 Council Bill 121209 in ordinance amending ordinance 127362 which adopted the 2026 budget including the 2026 to 20 uh 2031 capital improvements program for briefing discussion and possible vote Presenters are Ali Panucci, Director of City Budget Office, and Ed and Sisic, Council Central Staff.

Thank you.

Good morning.

And since it has been a few weeks since we've had this presentation, I'll ask us just to run through it from start to finish again.

Colleagues, Edwin's memo is in great detail.

Attachment 1 is very helpful.

And I know that he's got even additional information from there if you do have deep probing questions.

And at this time, I'll turn it over to Director Panucci and Edwin says it.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair Strauss, committee members, Ali Panucci, budget director, happy to be here today.

Good morning, Ed and Sisic, with your set of staff.

I...

I'm going to share my screen, and we'll walk through a brief summary of the two budget bills before you today, Council Bill 1208, the budget exceptions ordinance, and 121209, the carry forward ordinance.

These two pieces of legislation are sort of routine budget legislation that typically comes before this committee every year around this time of of the year.

We always start with the first slide, just reminding you of the mission statement for the City Budget Office.

We are here to provide financial and budget analysis and help in policy and development and analysis.

The first bill, the Budget Exceptions Ordinance, is a supplemental budget bill that provides retroactive budget authority for 2025. The total request this year, 8.1 million.

This is essentially where there were portions of department budgets that spent above what was authorized in the revised budget for 2025. typically due to circumstances that couldn't be anticipated when we transmit the final supplemental budget of the year, which gets transmitted in September alongside the next year's budget proposal.

This table summarizes the budget exceptions that are included in this, and this is basically giving after the fact approval.

There are six departments that had budget exceptions.

I'll just highlight a couple of examples, but happy to answer questions.

One example is in the Department of Human Resources.

This is essentially due to medical claims that came in higher than expected in the final quarter of the year.

Seattle City Light, the $2 million City Light utility taxes are paid based on the revenues they collect, and final revenues were higher than was budgeted, so this addresses that.

There are some other technical corrections described here, and the Budget Office continues to partner with the departments to identify strategies to avoid these errors in the future, but sometimes it is hard to anticipate, given the timing of when budget legislation comes through.

that is a summary at a high level of the exceptions bill.

We'll pause here just to check in with folks to see if you have questions on exceptions.

Please, Vice Chair.

Chair, thank you.

Thanks for being here.

I noticed for the exceptions here, it's a big, There's a big amount, five million for exceeded expectations.

Can you talk a little bit about that or we can talk offline if you need to, director?

I'm happy to talk more in more detail offline.

I don't have a great number of details.

Sometimes we are self-insured and when medical and dental claims were just higher than expected, we base this on a lot of data and projections of past history and sometimes the actuals don't meet the pattern, and that's essentially what we're seeing here, but I'm happy to get you more details on what exactly is, was there sort of a significant area type of claim, or was it just a hodgepodge and went in over?

So I'll follow up with you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

And that was a great explanation anyway.

So if you have more, that's fine.

But if not, that was, thank you for that.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

And Edna, I know that we brought it up briefly in the last committee, but I'll ask again.

The history of exceptions, it's my understanding that we have been trending in the correct direction with one blip maybe a few years ago.

But could you remind me over the past, five, six, ten years.

What direction have the departments been trending as far as needing exception requests?

It's been trending downwards.

Thank you for the question.

This is the third smallest exceptions we've had since 2018, so eight years.

and I believe last year or the year before was the smallest we've ever had so it is trending downwards and some of these are unavoidable obviously because healthcare costs come in as they do as an example and then our tax revenues from utilities.

So yes, it is trending downwards to answer your question.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any additional questions on exceptions?

We're not voting right now.

We're going to brief both bills and then move the bills individually.

If there are no further questions on exceptions, let's keep ticking forward.

Thank you, Director.

The second piece of legislation before you today is Council Bill 121-209, that's the Carry Forward Ordinance.

This is essentially taking budget appropriations that were approved in the 2025 adopted budget or revised budget that were not completed, in 25 and carrying forward that appropriation, but the spending still needs to occur.

So for example, if funding gets added to a department late in the year for a specific type of activity, they may not get it fully under contract or expended in 2025, but it was a policy decision to approve that spending.

So this pushes that appropriation authority into this year and allows that work to continue.

On this slide, there's a total of about $138 million of carry forward requests across all funds.

I've highlighted some of the major ones.

Some of these are the types of carry forwards you tend to see regularly.

both in the general fund and the jumpstart payroll expense fund, for example, you see carry forward for the equitable development initiative awards.

Those are awards that get promised to community organizations that are working on these projects, but it takes several years for the project to really start expending those funds.

So you see those carry forward requests for those projects.

They are committed, but not yet under contract or fully encumbered.

Similarly for the Jump Start funding that goes to the Office of Housing for multifamily projects.

And other larger projects you can see here, $2 million that was appropriated to the Parks Department for the participatory budgeting, through the participatory budgeting process for public restroom access.

That work is still very much underway, but hasn't been expended.

yet.

So $16 million of general fund, $79 million from the payroll expense tax, and then $42 million across all other funds.

Again, $11 million of that is from the short-term rental fund, similarly is supporting the equitable development initiative, $17.5 million for the judgment and claims, and then there's about roughly 10 to $15 million sprinkled across many, many departments for small carry forward requests that vary in size.

Happy to answer questions.

Thanks.

Colleagues, questions on this?

And I'm gonna jump into a couple of them.

So you've talked about the OPCD.

Can you talk about the Youth Care South Annex redevelopment and what this project is?

I'm sorry, Chair Stras, I couldn't quite hear you.

I'm sorry, I'm not doing what I say, which is talking to the microphone.

Now I see why this microphone is so tall.

With that, if you could just walk us through, you've spoken about the EDI Awards, there's also the Youth Care South Annex, there's the public restrooms.

Can you talk us through any of these projects, just what they are at a high level?

Yes, I can.

I'm just going to flip through my notes.

So the Youth Care South Annex Redevelopment Project, I don't have a lot of details on this in front of me, but this is for capital investments in this project.

It was awarded or committed to that organization last year and has not yet been not yet been expended.

I am happy to follow up with more details.

I'm not necessarily the subject matter expert on every individual item.

The participatory budgeting restroom access, that came out of that several year process on participatory budgeting, and that is really to provide funding to the Parks Department to continue work that has been, I would say, in a number of funding sources prioritized through previous administrations, this current mayoral administration and this council to really improve access to bathrooms in our public parks facilities.

The Rainier Beach Early Learning, excuse me, Rainier Valley Early Learning Campus, that $5 million, that is, again, to support implementation of their, I believe, their capital projects.

So that is funding that's been committed for, I think, a few years and getting carried forward for that and it was not implemented in 25. It's based on the project site's development timeline.

So it is just a matter of these types of community organizations that are working on capital projects, they really need the commitment early in order to help them achieve other funding commitments.

And so it is not uncommon for the city to have made a commitment in advance in a year or sometimes several years in advance of when they're ready to start drawing down the money.

And this is just us keeping that commitment and moving the money into this year's budget.

Some of these things you may see come up in future years if the project doesn't proceed in 2026. Thank you.

And the judgment and claims, that was four claims that we expected to pay last year, not new claims that we're expecting and adding money.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

And so it's always a bit of a art more than a science of estimating when cases might close, what those judgment or claims may be, and which fiscal year the claim may come in.

And so what we expected to pay out in 25 didn't fully come to fruition.

We are still expecting that we will have this liability.

So it's moving that budget into this year.

Thank you, and that's because we are honoring due process for it to work its way through the process.

Correct.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

I see Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

I just had a, I was gonna ask about the judgment and claims, so thank you for that, but, and thank you for the answer, Director Panucci.

And can you speak to this in a bigger picture way in terms of the impact and budget planning?

Because, you know, recently there was the massive, horrific story, but the massive judgment against the state.

$80 million, and there's a general trend where these judgments against various types of jurisdictions are going up and up and up, which are creating some really big public policy issues.

This is starting to get beyond, you know, a small judgment here and there.

This is becoming big money, for lack of a better way of saying it.

thought process behind the budget office in terms of approaching this.

Is this something that we should be engaging OIR on in terms of state law?

What needs to be updated?

All of the above.

What's our insurance cost, for example, and the like?

I don't have that.

So our insurance costs, we are just updating that and I think what I'd like to suggest is in July I'll be coming back to this committee with the mid-year supplemental and I can prepare a couple of more detailed slides on this issue in particular.

It is a particular area of concern right now and so when we are looking at our budget and the Judgment and Claims Fund, what we are budgeting annually is based on our actuarial reports and it's looking at sort of trends and that sort of thing.

In the last several years, we have had some major cases that kind of don't follow the trend.

And so we have been holding some reserves for this type of thing.

So I would say that this is, we are hopeful that we are coming towards the end of those major Judgment and claims that in the next few years, it will sort of go back to the norm, but it is a continuing area of increased risk for the city.

Our insurance costs are going up.

I can start to preview some of that in July, and then when I deliver the budget in September, I'll have more details because we'll actually know what our costs will be or what our predicted costs are for 26. I would say in general, the city budget office, the city attorney's office, the office of city finance risk and the risk management group, along with council central staff are on a judgment and claims committee.

And we're in regular conversation to try to track and understand better ways to predict these costs and to the extent possible, identify strategies to mitigate the city risks.

but it is very difficult to predict, particularly in a jury trial, and you have actual attorneys on the dais who probably have more experience than I do, on that and our ability to get significant, like the cost of insurance is going up significantly.

So I'll provide more details in the mid-year as well as in the budget, but it is something we are tracking very carefully and hoping that we start to get back to a more normal steady state versus these wild swings where we've seen, you know, 20, 30, $40 million increases in our annual costs for judgment and claims.

I hope you're right.

I don't have much confidence.

I feel like we're moving into a new normal and that's like a concern.

And so keep your fingers crossed, all of us.

Yeah, I'll continue to be conservative in our reserve options and try to be optimistic about hoping for a better future.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Colleagues, any further questions?

We are now gonna move into voting on these bills, and so if you could move the slide to 121208. So it's before us.

So at this time, we are going to move and vote on the exceptions ordinance.

and so at this time, I move to recommend passage of Council Bill 121208. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend passage of Council Bill 121208. Are there any further questions or comments before we take the vote?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of Council Bill 121208. Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Vice Chair Rivera?

Aye.

Chair Strauss?

Aye.

Five in favor, zero opposed.

Thank you.

The committee recommendation that Council Bill 121208 will be sent to the City Council is approved and we look forward to having it at the full City Council meeting.

Now I will move on to the next item.

If you could change the slide you already have.

to recommend passage of the carry forward ordinance, which is Council Bill 121209. So at this time I move to recommend passage of Council Bill 121209. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to pass Council Bill 121209, the carry forward bill.

Are there any final comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on passage of Council Bill 121209. Council Member Kettle.

Council President Hollingsworth Yes Council Member Saka Aye Vice Chair Rivera Aye Chair Strauss Thank you, yes Five in favor, zero opposed Got ahead in my script The committee recommendation that the council pass Council Bill 121209 will be sent to the full city council meeting That does conclude our items of business today Previewing our work in July As Director Panucci mentioned We will be taking up the mid-year supplemental bill and so this is our one opportunity to make changes mid-year.

I will tell you that with the upcoming budget this fall, this is the first time in a few years that we've had to budget for two years rather than one and we have to balance two years of budgeting rather than a single year which made last year a little bit more easy.

We've also taken a lot of the easier or mid to difficult decisions regarding the budget to bring us into balance over these last few years, and we still have a structural budget deficit.

So this is gonna be a more difficult year, which makes this mid-year supplemental a little bit different than others.

And so for me, you will see that I'll be bringing a few amendments that are appropriating funds that we already held in last year's budget but I'm going to be very limited in asking for new money because no matter what I don't think Director Panucci would say this but if I was in her position if there was new spending added, I would still be waiting until the full budget to see how that money is budgeted for the following year.

So that's a little bit different about this year's mid-year supplemental than other years.

And I know that we are still working to have as easy of a budget process this fall as possible, but it is just candidly more difficult than it has been in the past years because we have to budget for two years.

easy to mid-difficult decisions have been made and we still have that structural budget deficit.

So we will be preview for July.

We will be taking up the mid-year supplemental budget as well as having check-ins about the progress on the tribal summit and the departments work on that.

And so if you do have departments within your purview that have action items for the Tribal Nations Summit, it will be a good time for us to call you in to help to make sure that we're meeting our objectives if departments are not at this time.

That's the chair's report at the end of the meeting rather than the beginning.

Colleagues, do you have any questions on anything that I just shared?

Seeing as we have no questions and no further business before the committee, this does conclude the Tuesday, June 16th meeting of the Tribal, of the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee.

Our next meeting is July 7th.

Thank you, colleagues.

This meeting is concluded.