Seattle City Council Briefing 121123

We are recording.

Good, everybody's here.

Happy Monday, everybody.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Today is Monday, December 11th.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.02.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

And Council President Juarez.

I'm here.

6 present.

All right.

Okay.

So if there's no objection, the minutes of December 4th will be adopted.

Not seeing an objection, the minutes are adopted.

Let's see, let's go on to the president's report.

I kind of have a lot here today.

Normally I don't, but I want to get through this since we have a lot to clean up before we all head out.

Today we will begin with considering a proclamation honoring the career of Linda Barron, a valuable member of our clerk staff.

Tomorrow we hope to proclaim December 12th, Linda Barron Day.

Um, we will, uh, following the proclamation, we will receive a presentation by the office of intergovernmental relations.

That's director Gail Tarleton and her team will present on resolution 3, 2, 1, 2, 0, the city of Seattle's 2024 state legislative agenda.

This resolution has been reviewed and provided to each council member.

To their offices by credible from central staff.

It is also attached to today's published agenda.

Let's see, I should add it's.

Oh, thank you for the memo.

I think it's like, 16 pages and 10 topics.

So thank you for that.

And I'll let you get to that when you're when you're ready following the presentation on the state legislative agenda.

We will have individual reports, obviously, from council members.

Council members.

So, why don't you kick us off today?

And if she is not present, then we'll go on.

I think it's council member Strauss is after that.

So customer strategy may go 1st today.

Tomorrow tomorrow's council meeting December 12th will include a consent calendar.

which contains six individual bills recommended by the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

It will also include 28 individual appointments to boards or commissions, including the following.

Councilor Morales has been very busy in her committee.

The Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights, and Cultural Committee is recommending 21 appointments to eight different boards or commissions, including the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, one appointment, the Human Rights Commission, four, the Women's Commission, two, the Immigrant and Refugee Commission, five, the Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee, three, Uh, the community involvement commission for the Pike place market development authority 1, and the disability commission 1. Thank you.

Council member for all this work on all these appointments.

Uh, big.

Big, thank you.

Um, also on the consent calendar, there will be 5 appointments to the Seattle center advisory commission.

and two appointments to the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Commission, as recommended by Councilmember Lewis, who chairs the Public Assets Committee.

And I understand that Councilmember Peterson, through the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

All of these appointments, along with six council bills from the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee, will be taken on one vote, unless of course one of you wants to pull any of these appointments or bills.

So that will happen tomorrow.

Following the consent agenda, we will consider the appointment of to be the director of the office of.

Arts and culture, and then the appointment of Jennifer chow as the director of the Department of neighborhoods.

Both of these appointments are recommended unanimously by the neighborhoods education, civil rights and cultural committee.

Again, Councilor Morales, she's the chair of that committee, and she will speak to that when we get there.

We'll then be considering legislation which was sent directly to full council for consideration without a committee recommendation.

These include Council Bill 120730, the collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Firefighters Local 27. and the memorandum of agreement, the MOA, with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77. Corinna Bull and central staff sent the analysis of these agreements to all members and can respond to questions.

In addition, we'll be considering 11 appointments to the Design Review Board from Councilmember Strauss, and he can speak to that tomorrow as well.

We will then turn our attention to three bills recommended by the Finance and Housing Committee related to taxicabs and for hire vehicles.

Councilmember Mosqueda will be speaking to those.

Next on the agenda will be the greenhouse gas admissions legislation recommended by the Select Committee on Climate Action, and Councilmember Herbold will be speaking to that.

The Land Use Committee has recommended two council bills and one resolution for our consideration tomorrow.

I will allow Councilmember Strauss to speak to those as well.

The Public Assets and Homeless Committee is recommending three bills, and of course, Councilmember Lewis will speak to that.

The Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee is recommending one bill and one resolution, both of which I believe Council Member Morales is sponsoring.

I will assume Council Member Peterson and or Morales will speak to those.

Finally, tomorrow, the Council will consider Resolution 32120, adopting the 2024 State Legislative Agenda, as well as the Resolution 32121, which retires legislation that has been introduced but has not received any further action.

Information about all of these meetings will be available online in advance of the meetings.

So that was exciting.

Let's move on.

So we'll go to the signing of letters and proclamations.

As I shared, we're going to honor Linda Barron, our clerk for 18 years.

I'm bringing forward a proclamation for your signature declaring December 12th to be Linda Barron Day.

That's tomorrow.

As you all know, Linda Barron is one of our most incredible deputy clerks and she is retiring soon, ending a significant career with the legislative department.

Linda Barron has been working in the legislative department since 2006, and she has always been a friendly presence on the third and second floor.

She has clerked countless hours of public meetings, carrying out her role with ease and patience.

She'll be deeply missed by her colleagues and by the city.

However, we wish her the absolute best in her retirement.

I would like to now offer my colleagues an opportunity to share any comments regarding the resolution or the proclamation before we call for a roll on your signature.

And I'll let my colleagues speak first, and then I will say a few words as well.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Council President just taking a moment to say, I have deeply appreciated Linda's service to our city and the city council.

She's somebody that I have relied upon heavily for the last 6 years.

And while I know that she's off to do.

More fun things we are going to deeply miss her here at the Seattle City Council.

Thank you.

Council President.

Is there anyone else that would like to say a few words regarding Linda Barron?

Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just want to congratulate Linda again.

We had a chance to give her a warm send-off from the Budget Committee, our last Budget Committee meeting.

She was clerking for us.

So I just want to thank Linda.

And especially in these times as we've turned to hybrid meetings, the clerks have often been on the forefront, literally in the front of the room, receiving all of the Public comments as well as putting their life on the line in the midst of cobit.

So we have done everything we can to increase precautions and protections for public health reasons, but also the health and safety of the clerks.

I want to think the council president for her leadership on that effort and really just think the clerks for showing up and being there and providing that level of.

assistance to us, but also direct engagement opportunities for members of the public to provide their comments.

So thanks so much for helping our meetings run smoothly, but also ensuring that members of the public were able to make their comments heard as well.

Congratulations, Linda, and we wish you the best in retirement.

Thank you, Councillor Mosqueda.

Councillor Nelson.

Well, I'm going to miss Linda a whole bunch.

I'm really sorry to see her leave.

It's well-deserved.

I was around when she was hired first, and she commands respect.

You said in a friendly way.

That is absolutely true.

She also is an even keel, and when she talks, you listen.

And I'll really miss that presence around here and just...

I want to thank her for everything that she's done through the years and wish you the very best, Linda.

Thank you.

Thank you, customer.

Nelson customer herbal.

Thank you for letting me into the mute button before being told.

It's always a race.

Like, can I unmute myself before somebody tells me?

I just want to add my appreciation and admiration for Linda Barron.

I've worked with her for many, many years since she came on, since 2006. She is incredibly knowledgeable, always helpful.

And it definitely, it says something as the resolution itself mentions, she's worked under seven different council presidents.

and six different mayors.

So that says a lot about her resilience.

But even more important, it says a lot about her commitment to public service.

And it's a much-earned retirement, and I'm just really happy to have had the chance to get to know and work with Linda.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before I begin, I want to thank Layla Gazar in our office who struggled for a week to write a proclamation to capture not what the clerks do, but particularly Linda with her leaving.

And Councilmember Herbert, you stole a little bit of my thunder I wanted to share in the proclamation.

We could have written, trust me, this could have been a 10-page proclamation.

So the fact that we got it down to three pages Two pages isn't enough, but there is a few things I want to read out loud that we put together.

And I like what you said, Council Member Herbold and Council Member, all of you, how patient Linda has been through everything.

And particularly, I've only been here eight years, but let me read what this, I'm going to read just a few paragraphs because I would like the public to know how hard our clerks work JoAnne Hanrahan, To make sure that the train is on time and that public comment gets done and a lot of times people aren't kind to them out there and they put up with a lot and.

JoAnne Hanrahan, Everyone knows the lower bench runs everything, and if you have a good lower bench good clerks who understand not only the rules.

JoAnne Hanrahan, roberts rules of order, it goes way beyond that just managing people managing the calendar managing the agenda.

making sure we understand the rules when we have a multiple amendments and bills that come up and having respect for all of these women who do this every day.

I wish the public could see how hard they work.

Maybe they would be kinder when they're out there.

So let me just read this quickly.

Whereas since 2006, the Office of the City Clerk has been enriched by the breadth of experience offered by Linda Barron, who joined the Office of the City Clerk after a career at the city's Human Services Department.

Whereas in her distinguished time with the Office of the City Clerk, Linda Barron has served under seven council presidents, worked with 25 council members, and worked with six mayors.

Whereas Linda is also a calm and caring member of her family, which includes her three children and eight grandchildren.

And whereas since 2020, the Seattle's Office of the City Clerk has been a vital resource in the continuing of operations during COVID-19, the COVID-19 emergency as it relates to transparency, accessibility to public meetings, public records, supporting the state of Washington sunshine laws and transitioning essential functions and services to virtual or hybrid modes for the safety and well-being of the community in our great city.

With clerks such as Linda making these essential functions possible, and whereas we trust Linda will deeply enjoy her next chapter of life outside of City Hall.

So, therefore, the Seattle City Council hereby declares tomorrow, Tuesday, December 12th, as Linda Barron Day and further extends their appreciation to Linda Barron for 18 years of the vital service she has performed in the office of the city clerk and for her exemplary dedication to the city of Seattle and its people.

So I'm hoping, Linda, when you watch this recording, and I hope your family watches it, and I just hope that you understand how much you mean to all of us, and particularly me, because there's been times I've lost my mind and you've called me and helped me.

And your patience, Can't say enough.

Anyway, I'm gonna miss you, Linda.

All right, is there anything else before we go to a vote?

Do not see any.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the vote for the signatures for the Linda Barron Day Proclamation?

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Herpel?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Eight signatures will be affixed.

Thank you.

So moving on to item number four which is resolution 3 2 1 2 0 proposed city of Seattle's 2024 state legislative agenda.

Today we have Director Tarlington, and I will let her introduce her staff.

So with that, I should add, Director Tarlington, we got a copy of your 16-page memo with your nine topics all outlined.

Thank you very much.

We did go through them.

So with that, I'm going to let you introduce your staff and walk us through this resolution and the topics, which we will be voting on tomorrow, which, again, is Resolution 321, to zero and it's been posted, right, Brindell?

It's online?

It's online.

Okay, so we're good.

With the agenda.

All right.

With that, Director Tarleton, you want to take it away?

Council President Juarez and council members, thank you so much for taking the time at this very busy time to hear about the state legislative agenda for the city of Seattle going into the 2024 short legislative session.

which begins on January 8th.

I realize you have many things to accomplish in these next couple of days, but if I could just share the thanks of the entire OIR team over the course of the last year for all of the work that you have done with us to get us ready for everything happening inside our city in Olympia, as well as in Washington, DC.

I want to extend a special gratitude to the members of the council staff who have worked so closely with the OIR state team to prepare this legislative agenda.

And I also really want to thank each council member for the time you and your staffs have taken to review and provide comment and have meetings with the state team.

I personally just would like to very much extend a best wishes to all of the council members who are leaving their city office as city council members in the coming year.

and wish you all of the best in your future endeavors.

Sameer Janejo, our state relations director, and Anna Johnson, our state legislative liaison, will now walk you through the state legislative agenda for 2024. And looking forward to hearing your comments and appreciate your time.

Sameer.

I'm actually going to start it off for us.

I'm Anna Johnson.

I'm the State Legislative Liaison in the Office of Intergovernment Relations.

Today we'll provide a little overview of what's to come in the short session and also remind folks of what the process was for setting the agenda and then also go topic by topic of a little preview of what we expect the legislature to take up next session, what are some of the hot topics that we're expecting in 60 days.

So just a little bit of a general overview, as Director Charlton mentioned, next session starting January 8th is a short session, so 60 days.

It's also a supplemental budget year, and this means that the legislators will update the current biennial budget that was set last session, mostly making changes or adding new funding and spending.

The state revenue forecast for this fall was pretty positive.

The revenue forecast group projected that the near general fund revenue collections for this biennium have increased about $1.2 billion, making the total of the spending available to be about $66.9 billion.

This forecast does not include any of the money that's raised from the cap and trade program auctions that have occurred throughout this year.

Additionally, this session, we're going to see a couple new changes in committee leadership, specifically for the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee.

There is a new chair, Chair Jamila Taylor from the 30th Legislative District.

The Senate Ways and Means Chair and Vice Chair also have changed to Chair June Robinson and Vice Chair Joe Nguyen.

And folks should also be aware that this is the governor's final session of his final term, and we're expecting him to release his final budget any day now, kind of mid-December timeframe.

And this is the budget that the legislators kind of start with and work with as they begin to draft their own respective budget proposals.

A little reminder of our agenda process for the city, we essentially take priorities from the top down bottom up.

We work with the executive and legislative branches of the city beginning late summer and fall.

We work with the departments to solicit their priorities.

We usually meet with every council office and get their priorities and then we also coordinate with the mayor's office and try to incorporate.

everybody's priorities into one collective document.

Prior to this briefing, we circulated a draft agenda to all the council members in their offices and received feedback and incorporated that feedback into kind of the final proposal that is on the resolution today.

The ledge agenda is intentionally broad and covers a lot of policy areas that either impact the city or OIR needs to engage on during the legislative session.

And with that, I'm going to pass it to Samir.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Samir, and I'll be talking, we'll be previewing some of the issues that we'll be seeing this legislative session, starting with budget and revenue.

So I've highlighted a few of the ones that are most relevant to the city that will be discussed in this session.

The first one being changing the local property tax growth limit from 101% to allow for population change and inflation, capping it at 103%.

Another area of consideration will be amending the state REIT, the real estate excise tax, in order to create a dedicated revenue source for affordable housing.

Also, the public safety sales tax, this would be providing cities with councilmanic authority to impose a sales tax to fund the public safety.

It's also another revenue option that will be discussed this upcoming session.

In the climate and environment space, there's going to be a lot of focus on the Climate Commitment Act.

This is a program that became law in 2021. It creates a carbon market for greenhouse gases and sets a cap on greenhouse gas emissions that are going to look lower over time, and businesses buy and sell credits to cover the cost of their pollution.

The conversation really is around the auction revenues.

It's estimated that about $1.3 billion so far in revenues have been generated.

And those are directed to be spent in very specific areas, namely climate resiliency, alternative transportation, and transitioning Washington to a low carbon economy.

So the big conversation next session is how to spend some of the auction revenues that have occurred since last session.

Additionally, there's been citizen advocacy groups that are working to repeal the Climate Commitment Act.

They've collected about 400,000 signatures that are awaiting confirmation.

And the citizen advocacy group is working to put a ballot measure in front of the voters to repeal this program.

The legislature, once the signatures are reviewed and confirmed, has three options.

They can either adopt and pass the proposal from the citizen advocacy group as written into law, They can choose to take no action or reject the proposal and the initiative would then just go straight to the November ballot, November 2024 ballot for the voters.

Or a third option is that the legislature can decide to place an alternative proposal on the ballot for the voters to also consider.

There's also a couple of policy bills that are likely to come up next session to amend the Climate Commitment Act or follow suit.

So specifically, the director of the Department of Ecology made a preliminary decision to pursue market linkage.

This is not confirmed yet, but it's getting the Washington state the next step in order to pursue linkage with Quebec and California, who also have their own carbon markets.

We've also heard of a few legislative proposals related to gas prices and oil company profits, and there's going to be legislation asking for increasing transparency for both of those areas.

Hey, Anna, before you move on, just hold up.

Director Tarleton, did you want, how many pages is your PowerPoint?

I don't have a copy of it.

I think it's about, what, four more, maybe?

Nine pages?

Nine pages.

Yeah.

Would you like to take questions during or would you like to wait until after?

Either one is fine.

Yeah, I didn't get a copy.

Nothing against you guys, but usually if I...

So I want to ask, how would you like to do this, Director?

Would you like us to go through all 10 pages and then...

I think it's best if you ask questions while you're going so that Samira Nana can...

get to those questions as they get asked.

But they can't, I don't think both of them can see the hands being raised.

If you would be willing to call on the legislators who have a question, Council President.

I great.

Can we go back?

Sure.

Slides because I was not sure.

I apologize, but just just I just had a few quick questions from the beginning.

I don't know if it's page two or three.

Oh, here we go.

Perfect.

So I had a question about the real estate excise tax amending the REIT for affordable housing.

And then a question about the public safety sales tax, providing cities with councilmanic authority to impose sales tax upon.

So what is the genesis of those two?

Where's that coming from?

If you don't know, that's okay.

I know that we had talked about some of these issues in the last two, three years, but I see they've come to fruition.

So I'm just wondering how they arrive now.

Is any particular representative we should be reaching out to or?

Yeah, I mean, both of them have been discussed, specifically on the REIT.

There was a bill last session, and Representative Chopp was leading a lot of those discussions, and I believe Representative Berg will be leading a lot of the discussions this year on REIT and creating a dedicated revenue source for affordable housing.

Did that fail?

Is that what happened?

Is that why you brought it back?

Yes.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I thought I'm going from memory.

It's funny.

I can remember this, but I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.

And then on the public safety sales tax, didn't we do this one before and now it's back?

Yeah.

Well, I believe there'll be some changes to it.

So providing cities, making it councilmanic will be a new change right now.

It can only be approved by voters.

And so that is the significant one.

And also there might be some changes around the use of the tax.

And I believe Senator...

Kaufman will have a bill on this, and then other legislators may also be involved in this as well.

That's what I thought.

I thought Senator Kaufman was on that third bullet point, but I wasn't sure.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions?

I'll just kind of look around and see if there's any hands up, and I don't see any yet.

Oh, I do see one.

Council Member Nelson.

Well, since we're on this page, I'm not familiar with the public safety sales tax, so how does that work?

Who would pay it?

Yeah, Ana, you want to just describe it in a couple sentences?

Yeah, this is essentially a local authority property tax.

And right now it's written, as Sameer mentioned, it does require voter approval.

It could be county or it could be city.

And there's also some specific uses of these tax.

I don't have off the top of my head the percentage that the tax is leveraging.

And we can get back to you about that information.

But essentially, it is a local option property tax.

and what would the money be used for?

Right now in statute, there is criminal justice purposes, so public safety functions like law enforcement, criminal justice system, and then currently there is a time-limited flexibility that's set to expire at the end of next year where it's also be able to use for purposes where the criminal justice system and homelessness intersect, programs that relate to that intersection, as well as programs that relate to criminal justice and behavioral health.

Legislators are hoping to continue that expanded set of uses beyond next year where they're set to expire.

Got it.

And it's my understanding that we are supporting this, right?

Is that, or does our legislative agenda say we're supporting it?

I'm asking just because I can imagine some grumbling on behalf of our constituents saying, well, they're taxing us for a service that we might not be, you know, completely satisfied with because we don't feel like, you know, we've got a handle on public safety.

So I'm just wondering, is it, is that the case?

Yeah, it does appear in our legislative agenda.

Okay.

And another question is, Is it normal to have, I think you said 66 billion or I don't remember, 60 billion leftover in our budget unspent?

Is that pretty much par for the course?

That's just an estimate of all the revenue available for this biennium.

Some has already been, most of it has already been allocated in last year where they either, they directed the funds in the two-year budget.

What's available now is about $1.2 billion in additional revenues that have come in since last session.

$1.2 billion.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry to interrupt your flow, Anna.

Again, we can take questions as they come.

I think, should we head back to...

Yeah, I'll watch it for you.

Thank you.

The wrapping up climate and environment is the final bullet here, which is producer responsibility for paper and packaging legislation.

This was legislation that was up for consideration last session, so hopefully folks have some familiarity with it.

But essentially what this legislation is looking to do is put more responsibility on the industry associated with creating paper and packaging products.

um in order to improve our waste stream improve our recycling and make sure that recycling and and waste services are available to everybody throughout the state and improve um kind of our our impact on the climate in terms of our our waste streams and recycling

Moving to healthcare and behavioral health, specifically I want to talk about behavioral health because this will be a top budget priority of this year.

There will be a lot of areas in which we'll expect and hope to see investments.

There's a list of them on your screen.

I think we'll be keeping a close eye on access to Naloxone, especially increasing bed capacity and also funding criminal diversion programs.

Other behavioral health bills that we are expecting to see will be bills on furthering 988 implementation, corrective responder liability protections, funding for ambulances, policy-related children and youth behavioral health, and also helping the behavioral health workforce and the behavioral health professions.

Samir, can I ask you a quick question before I go to Councillor Humboldt?

Was it funded last year to do the revamping of Western State Hospital?

I believe not last year.

I believe, well, they've been adding funding to it for a couple of years or a couple of bienniums.

But yeah, it might have been the year before that or two years before that.

They're actively doing that now.

They're rebuilding it now for beds, behavioral.

And I'm just hoping, I know I won't be here, but I'm hoping for my colleagues we have an update Because one of the things I think Councilor Nelson has spoken to this as well is having people ready to go into treatment and also who are experiencing mental health issues that we have nowhere to put people since it was dismantled under the Reagan administration.

So if there's going to be an update on that, well, you can send it to my house.

But thank you.

Councilor Herbal.

of that we're gonna um have departmental folks uh give us our our updates when we're out of office and at home all right thank you for starting that council president yeah can you guys just dial me in because you know i still care I wanted to ask, I do see that there's a bullet there for access to naloxone, but I have a specific question about what happens after the administration of naloxone for an overdose treatment, an overdose reversal.

There are other cities that allow their first responders after reversing somebody's overdose with naloxone to give an initial treatment of methadone or buprenorphine And it's very helpful in doing so with the agreement of the subject.

But it really helps address the low rate treatment initiation.

And I know the fire department is interested in doing this, but apparently we need approval from the Washington State Department of Health because initiation of buprenorphine treatment is not in the scope of practice for either paramedics or EMTs.

There's also a concern that we might need approval of the Washington Pharmacy Commission and just wanting to know whether or not that effort is appropriate included in these bullets around health care and behavioral health.

It's really, really, really helpful, again, to get people on the treatment pathway soon after an overdose has been reversed.

The more time you wait, the less likely people will get on that treatment pathway.

That's an issue that was brought to our attention by the fire department, and we had heard that there were ongoing discussions with the Department of Health, and so I'll have to check back in with them to see if they're hoping that legislation may not be required and it would be something that would be able to do through rulemaking.

But I'll check in with them and see the status on that.

DR. Thank you.

I similarly had heard rulemaking might be an option, but I just think if it's not, we need this as a backup.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

So switching gears to housing and homelessness, a few of the things that kind of high profile items we expect to see this legislative session.

Again, this is a transit oriented development with a bill from last session that did not pass.

So we'll again see that return and be discussed and considered by the legislature.

Addressing rent increases and other tenant protections.

Again, there was some bills that did not pass last session that will come back on those topics.

There will be more work on incentivizing commercial to residential conversions.

There's a number of ideas around how best to do that, so be close eye on that topic.

Encampment resolutions along state right-of-ways, there was money in the last budget for that, but I think we'll continue to see more funding asked to get more resources into that program.

And then lastly, there'll be some discussion of stabilizing non-profit affordable housing providers through things like insurance solutions, workforce investments, and also operations funding.

Hey, Samir, I got a quick question before I go to Congressman Herbold.

So remind me why transit-oriented development didn't happen last time.

You don't have to give me the whole rundown, but I'm trying.

Yeah, it was one that came down to the wire.

I think there was just lots of disagreements between cities and also builders and legislators.

And one of the topics that was most discussed was affordability requirements that could or could not be included in the bill and essentially how much that would impact the effectiveness of the program.

But I think those discussions will continue to happen as to what parameters, what the level of density and also what level of affordability may need to be required for this new development.

And then the other bullet point, investments and encampment resolutions along the state right away.

I know that two years ago or something, and thank you, Gail, you were helping us out on that, when the governor announced the money that was going to be set aside to clean up the Washington State Department of Transportation right-of-way property, which they've been doing, which is great.

So when you say investments, does that mean that we're looking to get more money to clean up the piece, the property, the WSDOT property along I-5?

Right, yeah, this is all encampments on the WSDOT land, which is along I-5.

A lot of it, though not all of it, but much of it will be along I-5.

Do you remember off the top of your head?

I thought it was something like 70 million we got or something.

Do you remember what that was?

Yeah, I believe it was actually, I think you're right, 70 million, but don't quote me, but I believe you're right, yeah.

Yeah, okay, good.

Okay, I'm not crazy.

All right, Councilor Herbold.

I withdraw my other question.

I was interested in some of the specific language around tenant protections.

I just opened up the resolution to check myself, so thank you.

Glad you're there.

All right, let's continue.

On the in the labor and commerce world, some of the kind of high profile issues that we expect to see bills on the first one, unemployment protections for striking workers and then also protecting employees from captive audience meetings, either employer, employer or employer mandated meetings in which there's certain political or religious or other things are being required for employees to listen to.

also grocery worker retention policies, and also we'll be watching a whole host of policies related to increasing tourism and bolstering our creative economy.

Hey, Samir, can you just humor me?

Protecting employees from captive audience meetings, is that the labor ones?

What is that about?

Generally, I think it's employer meetings in which they're forced to hear things about unionization and other topics.

That's what I thought.

Okay.

Is this the first time we've seen this?

There was a version of this last session that didn't pass.

Oh, there was.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, jumping into public safety, we'll see a number of proposals come forward around gun violence prevention.

Specifically, if you are listed below there, regulating firearms in sensitive places like public parks, transit centers, requiring a permit to purchase a firearm.

This is a proposal that ended up not passing last session, so this will return this year.

Reporting lost and stolen firearms.

bulk purchasing restrictions, and increasing dealer accountability and establishing code of conducts for firearm dealers.

We'll also see a number of police accountability measures return this session.

All three of the bullets listed below are bills that were under consideration last year that will return, so independent prosecutions for law enforcement, regulating traffic stops, and also an Attorney General Office investigation and reform bill relating to department-wide patterns.

Finally, some of the funding that we might see is increasing funding for the Basic Law Enforcement Academy and specifically new funding for those regional training facilities that they established in the budget last year.

We'll also see policies and funding to help improve law enforcement recruitment and retention.

Okay.

Looks like Councilor Herbal has a question.

There was a bill a couple years ago, and I don't know if it came back yesterday, and it's one of the ones that we're working on, but it relates specifically to the arbitration process for appeals of the chief's decision for discipline.

Specifically, the issue that Judge Robart has identified as critical to resolving the consent decree.

I think, as folks know, last week an arbitrator decision was published at PERC, and the action of the former police chief best to fire two officers in 2018, one of those firings was upheld, the other was overturned, and it was overturned in part because of the different uh standard of review and so um again just wanting to find out whether or not it doesn't fit neatly into any of those bullets on the on the slide but want to make sure that um the bill that was i that we heard a couple years ago i remember myself and former mayor durkan speaking out in favor of it that reforms the arbitration process

We are certainly tracking that issue as it comes up.

We have not heard of any reintroduction of legislation on reforming arbitration for law enforcement, but you're correct.

Back in 2021, there were a few proposals related to arbitration, one from Senator Solomon that didn't make it all the way, and then also one from Senator Wynne that did pass into law.

So we'll be certainly monitoring that issue if it comes up this session.

Got it.

So the language in the, because again, I'm just now seeing the language in the agenda itself.

It says, we support reform of civil service hearings and arbitration and law enforcement officer cases, including requiring arbitrators use a uniform standard of review, fined by a preponderance of the evidence.

City supports removing private arbitration as a route of appeal.

The point of this language in the agenda itself is to say if the issue comes up again, we'll support it.

But what can we do to solicit the interest of a lawmaker in reintroducing, if not the same bill, one that accomplishes this goal?

Is there something that we can do before session starts?

Certainly Samir and I can raise those with legislators as we've been meeting with them kind of leading up to session and express our concern for that issue and a refocus on that at the state level.

Thank you.

And also, as I mentioned, to the extent that a Seattle legislator is interested, it is something that is very important to resolving the outstanding issues related to the consent decree.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Council Member Nelson.

Yeah, I'm hoping that Council Member Herbold or perhaps Lewis can remind me, but the first recommendation of the organized retail theft audit, what had something to do with encouraging the state legislature to do something, and I can't remember what that was.

Do either of you remember?

I hate to put you on the spot, but I can look through my emails and also remember and find the audit myself.

And if you don't remember now, I'll just get back to folks offline.

I remember some reference to a statewide sort of collaborative effort, but I agree with you, Council Member Nelson.

There, I think, were some legislative items as well, in addition to creating a statewide task force, which you don't need to legislate.

Okay.

To be continued then, OAR.

Thanks.

I'll just add a quick update that last session, they did fund an organized retail theft unit within the Attorney General's office.

And also, we've seen policies come and go.

None that I can recall that made it to the finish line around fencing of items from organized retail theft.

Hey, Anna, just a quick recap.

And if you don't have it, I can figure it out between now and tomorrow.

But under gun violence prevention legislation, which this council has been active on for at least the last eight years that I've been here with Council Member Herbold and other council members, the first bullet point under regulating firearms in sensitive places, I can't remember, the sensitive places, where did that fail?

Because that was in front of us last year, right?

Yeah, correct.

There's been a number of proposals last session and previous years where the state has gone in and said we would like to restrict the either open carry of firearms in said locations.

Some of the ones that are already in state law are like childcare facilities.

Obviously, K through 12 schools, government meetings, and like the legislative campus, places like that.

And they're looking to expand kind of that list.

And so there was a couple bills that were introduced last session but never received a hearing that would expand the list of sensitive places to include transit centers, public parks, aquariums and libraries, places that kids are likely to be at, and a few others that I can't recall off the top of my head.

That's fine.

Thank you.

I just helped me with my memory.

Of those five bullet points under gun violence prevention, are all of these, are these all coming back?

Yeah, I think we'll likely see at least one bill per bullet point.

There's a lot of interest to continue the momentum on gun violence prevention.

Okay, great.

That's what I thought.

I was trying to remember some of the history.

And the bulk purchasing one,

That was a new we haven't seen that come back.

This would essentially restrict the amount of firearms one person can buy in a given period of time, so that they aren't both purchasing a number of firearms.

Okay, thank you.

I do not see any other court hands up.

So why don't you continue?

Thank you.

All right, and then last for me, at least, is social programs and education.

We'll see a renewed interest in achieving universal free school meals.

This came up last session, but they ultimately scaled back the proposal.

So there'll be a big push this year to try to get universal free school meals.

We'll also see just general funding conversations around emergency food assistance, support for food banks, support for summer EBT for students and families, and also support for Meals on Wheels for seniors.

Also, unemployment for undocumented immigrants is likely to come back and funding for that.

And then we'll also see efforts in the childcare space to continue expanding access to high-quality childcare by improving qualifications for ECAP and working connections childcare, and also working to increase the capacity for the non-standard hours of childcare by offering a non-standard hours bonus in order to have more slots for those hours outside of the traditional window.

Anna, let me quickly again, on the universal food meals, isn't that something that we've been doing?

Haven't we been rolling this boulder up a hill for a long time?

Yes, I feel as though there's been efforts over the years.

I think there's a big push, this biennium at least, with the OSPI director and legislators that really want to see this across the finish line.

I think they've been chipping away at it.

being able to expand and expand access to free school meals for more and more students throughout the state and increasing those kind of qualifications of who would be a recipient.

But it's still not all the way done.

And I think legislators will keep at it until it's a reality.

Thank you.

All right.

And the last slide here is on transportation.

Traffic safety will be a big focus in the transportation world.

We'll be keeping a close eye on policy related to automated traffic safety cameras.

There may be a number of funding or policy bills on that topic.

Also, regulating autonomous vehicles will be an area we'll likely see legislation And on the funding side, the transportation budget will have to address transportation project overruns, including overruns on fish culverts and also the 520 Mount Lake project.

And that is our last slide.

I'm happy to take any additional questions.

Samir, can you go back to your last slide so all people can remember what I was looking at?

What was the deal on the culvert thing?

On the fish culvert for the SR 520 Montlake?

This is new, right?

Yeah, fish culverts and the 520 are two separate projects there.

The fish culverts is related to funding that the state had to do in response to uh a court case and uh so they they've funded um they find it replacing fish culverts but it just came back that they actually need double essentially it was double the amount of money um is that what they actually need so about two billion dollars more and so at some point they're gonna have to they're gonna have to uh put that two billion in to into fish culverts um and then the 520 modeling project is a project that they also had previously funded but uh the bids came in um hundreds of million dollars over what they actually put in so they'll have to go back in and fix that

On the SR 520, there's not, we don't have a number yet, or do you have a number?

There is a number, and I have to check back to see what the number was, but it was in the hundreds of millions, yeah.

Okay, that's probably good enough.

Thank you.

Okay, Council Member Herbold.

thank you and i apologize if i missed this um the uh issue that has come up again in prior sessions uh that um you know hopefully we can uh make more progress this year um but didn't see it called out but again if i missed it my apologies but that could be the um obligation for uh medical facilities particularly medical facilities that are um are religiously affiliated and the obligation to inform patients of the fact that they may not offer abortion termination services.

I know there's a legal requirement that that information be posted on a website.

It's pretty obscure.

And there's been an interest in making that requirement more robust.

And then there's, secondly, an effort to limit the ability of hospitals to merge, because that's a lot of what we're seeing is we're seeing hospitals that may not be religiously affiliated merging with religiously affiliated um hospitals and um again that uh reduces the access that pregnant people have to the full complement of health services, including abortion.

So I think there was a bill that created some standards prior to authorizing these mergers.

Just wondering where those two ideas might be.

We've heard a lot about the mergers and acquisitions hospital mergers bill.

There's a number of abortion access bills that passed last session.

That one was the one that did not pass.

And so we've heard a lot of interest to come back and be reconsidered next session.

That's known as the Keep Our Care Act.

um and uh on the notice sort of hospital notice and disclosure piece um i think that's been part of the same discussion but i haven't seen a bill on that but i understand that there's some there's it's still an area that um stakeholders and other folks are thinking about and and it's possible they may get folded into the um the hospital mergers bill as well fantastic thank you so much

Thank you.

Are there any other questions before I say a few comments and then let Director Tarlington kind of close this out?

Chancellor Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll keep it brief.

I haven't had questions along the way because I do a lot of work with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, especially through my work as a board member for Association of Washington Cities representing the city of Seattle.

Just want to take this moment to thank you for such a robust document and always being present to brief me ahead of Association of Washington Cities meetings and to be able to meet with me quickly on the fly so that we can get important things done for our city and our state.

It's just a darn pleasure to work with you.

Thank you.

Those of you following on your bingo card, we have robust three times now.

So thank you for that.

Let me let me just wrap this up and I'm going to hand it over to you real quick, Gail.

But oh, what?

Councilman Mosqueda.

Well, thank you very much.

I just want to say thanks to the team who is providing the incredible advocacy down in our halls of Olympia.

Thank you for representing Seattle.

And speaking of AWC, even when AWC is not representing their largest paying dues affiliate, we appreciate that you are.

So thank you for doing that and doing it with such integrity and with collaboration and doing so with the executive and the legislative branch.

We know you have a very challenging job.

uh i wanted to thank you for um finding the ability to kind of thread that needle and to be able to carry forward the legislative branch's priorities um in the halls of olympia uh just a few notes of appreciation on your legislative agenda progressive reit um appreciate that that's being included along with the wealth tax and the other tax items that we mentioned If the Council is unable to pass progressive legislation to increase revenue, to close the revenue and expenditure gap, we greatly appreciate your advocacy across the state as well to help cities to have additional revenue streams or options in the future.

We know that many of our cities are experiencing increased growth in population and along with that increased needs, so really appreciate that.

I appreciate that there's been funding added to address the affordable housing and operational sustainability issues.

Councilmember Herbold and myself and Lewis and actually probably every council member at this point has talked about the important need for having human service providers within the buildings be able to provide services to people.

So as we increase the ability to build and hopefully the funding to build, we also need to increase the funding to provide workers and the workforce in those buildings for affordable housing.

housing residents to keep people stably housed.

So thank you so much for adding that as part of the legislative agenda.

We know that that will complement the city's efforts tremendously.

In addition, I want to thank you for the work that you've done to ensure that the acquisition and preservation dollars are included.

We can't just build.

We have to preserve and we have to acquire buildings.

We have to take those off of the private market.

and turn them into affordable housing or provide upgrades.

I know council members across the board here have also been leading on those efforts from Council Member Strauss and Herbold and others.

So thank you for ensuring that there's more opportunities for community organizations to acquire land, take it off the speculative market, put it in the hands of either our community partners or into a public private um partnership so that we can create housing paired with child care and services and small business space that is how we will recover more equitably and state funding can help expand and multiply the city investments that we put on acquisition opportunities so thank you for that and finally Thank you for continuing to work on police accountability components.

We know that there's sort of been this pendulum swinging over the last few years, but anything that you can do to help us ensure that future councils never have to bargain accountability efforts in the future.

We know that you've been working on that.

It is a good thing, both for ensuring transparency and accountability for implementing the accountability components.

were passed far before my time on council but we are still in the process of trying to actualize those so thanks for that advocacy at the state level as well and back to public health i'm looking forward to working with you in my future role on everything public health because we know these issues of housing and homelessness and substance abuse and mental health crises.

None of this stops at any border of the city and really appreciate the work that you're doing that will improve access to health services for people across our state and that will greatly serve the residents of Seattle and our greater region.

So looking forward to building on what you've been able to accomplish so far.

And it has not been easy to do this remotely.

over the last few years.

And so I just want to thank you and your leadership.

Thank you very much, Director Tarleton, for taking this on.

And really thrilled about the team that you've compiled.

So congrats and best of luck next session.

And hopefully I'll see more of you wearing more of a public health role in the future.

And of course, Council Member Strauss, anything we can do to support land acquisition and building and density, I'm going to do that too.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Mosqueda.

Councillor Nelson.

I don't know if I'm jumping the gun here and what Director Tarleton was going to say to close us out, but I did find that audit and I just want to read it into the record.

Recommendation 10, the city should advocate for new state and federal legislation that could help address organized retail crime investigations.

and should seek opportunities for funding, technical assistance or collaboration resulting from the legislation.

And I believe the whole committee was in agreement that that was a good thing.

So anyway, so that is that gets to the point that I made before.

I have a statement and just two quick questions.

I am very motivated, as Director Tarleton, you and your staff know, to pare down our legislative agenda to one or two pages, which is I think, standard for most jurisdictions and organizations that lobby Olympia, because a 16-page document is just not a handy tool, reference-wise, for legislators and their staff when things are moving quickly.

So I'm looking forward to hopefully doing that at some point in the near future, because this is a collection of of things that individual members support but they don't necessarily represent a consensus which i i believe is a is a strong statement that that when presented in one or two pages really does provide um you know clear direction to our legislators so my question is you how did you AFTER GETTING ALL OF OUR INPUT, HOW DID YOU DECIDE WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE FINAL VERSION AND WHAT TO EXCLUDE FROM INPUT YOU RECEIVED FROM COUNCIL MEMBERS AND MAYBE THE MAYOR'S OFFICE AND OTHER PEOPLE?

THANK YOU SO MUCH, COUNCIL MEMBER.

AND I WANT TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION VERY SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE PROCESS WE USED THIS YEAR, BUT ALSO TO ACKNOWLEDGE ALL OF YOU HAVE MADE OBSERVATIONS.

along the way in the last two years that I have been here, that a 16-page document is extremely cumbersome.

And it's a document that is a reflection of years and years of accumulation of Big city needs wants wishes work, a lot of work that has gone into setting city policy as well as state law and state policy.

There's a shared.

interest in the OIR offices, as well as in the mayor's office, looking at new ways in which we can express the work of the city in Olympia.

And the work in Olympia is more than just lobbying a legislative agenda.

It's a really important way for our city to represent the needs of people in the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, let alone in Washington state.

And our legislators in Olympia are working off of our agenda, their own agenda, as well as the agendas of state departments, right?

And so my hope for the new council, is that we take a shared effort to examine different approaches that have been used with other cities, not just other cities around the state, but other cities around the nation, for developing not just an agenda, but a goals and priorities look at very specific pieces of legislation that Ana and Samir will become aware of, the moment session ends, let alone as it's about to begin, but also to recognize that perhaps the one goal of the relationship with the state as stipulated in the city ordinance, which requires OIR to establish an agenda and a state program, a legislative program that is the the reflection of the needs of our city, the executive in consultation with the legislative branches.

And Councilmember Nelson, you used a really important word, the consensus.

So we know in any kind of consensus document, there are dissenting views.

And this goes to the heart of your question.

how do we handle dissenting views?

And in my experience over years and years of prior to the legislation, during legislation, and now in this responsibility that I have, I think it's extremely important to recognize dissenting views.

And I think I said that in my confirmation hearing that you gave to me two years ago, that a consensus document is shared among all.

So the executive branch reviewed this document.

It's sent to the legislative branch.

The individual legislators review from their own perspective.

And they provide feedback to OIR.

And OIR looks at the body of feedback.

Agree, disagree, not sure, don't think it's a priority.

And do our very best to acknowledge the integrity of the fundamental policy issues in the document and accommodate changes in the case where proposed changes by any single council member represent a significant change in the fundamental text of the document i'll just call it a new version it would represent a new version It is the responsibility of the OIR director to figure out how to get a consensus document.

In that case where we have had fundamental revisions proposed in my term, I've always spoken with the council president and said, if you wish us to incorporate these, we're willing to share a new version.

you know, for all of the council members to review.

And it would have to be reviewed again by the mayor's office because the single document has to be reviewed by both branches.

That is a process that can be used in the future, and it could have been used today.

The council president has the prerogative of determining how much time they want to devote to that.

And in the case of timelines and deadlines and all of that, This year, we didn't accommodate substantial change requests, but we did accommodate many requests from different council members.

And those were highlighted in the document that you were all provided.

I will also note, however, that in the legislative agenda, we highlight the new council members will not have played a role in developing the agenda that they are now going to adhere to.

And I think some of you coming into office may have had to adopt a previous agenda as well, and all of that.

And I want to reassure all of you that no matter what, when those council members take office, when they develop a core focus and core interest in whatever's happening in Olympia, they absolutely should be in contact with Samir and Anna and our office.

And they have every prerogative to weigh in with their priorities in the same way that all of you have.

And I really just want to thank again, all of you for being so willing to engage in a process that is not inherently geared to find consensus, even though that's what we try to do.

And it's okay to have differences of view because that's what makes us all interesting people.

So with that, Council President Juarez, just thank you for your grace and your leadership and your willingness to lead your councils through that process of debate and discovery and dissent and consensus.

2024 will be an incredibly intense year.

We're going to have a whole bunch of new people elected into the state executive branch, and no doubt we'll have a number of retirements and new legislators elected in the state legislative branches.

it will be a lot of change happening in 2025 which means that new agenda state legislative programs priorities it's a good time to review them so thank you so much council president and thank you for the time today so thank you Gail um let me just first comment on the presentation and then my remarks to you in particular and your staff your great staff um council member um

NELSON RAISED AN ISSUE AND I'M GLAD SHE DID BECAUSE WE TALKED ABOUT IT OFFLINE AND I HAD A CHANCE TO TALK TO YOU AS WELL.

SO THE STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA I USUALLY PUT AN INDEX TOGETHER AND IT IS 16 PAGES LONG WITH NINE TOPICS And those of those who are watching from home and you'll see it on when you get online, you'll see that the memo covers everything from budget revenue, climate and environment, general governance, health care, behavioral health.

housing and homelessness, labor and commerce, public safety, social programs and education, and transportation.

And quite frankly, with nine topics and all of these issues, a lot of this hasn't changed because they are all major issues in any government that you will see regarding essential governmental functions, essential governmental services.

And there's no way that this council, and people should know that, I know you all know this, but I want the public to understand, that Director Tarlington's office, the OIR, is on the executive side, which is fine, and we're the legislative side.

So when we get this from the executive side, we, of course, go through it.

Nothing here precludes any particular council member from opposing or supporting what's in here.

I've been on this council eight years.

There's been some issues that have come up where the majority of council has not agreed with a particular council member or members to go to Olympia to lobby against this.

And they're free to do that.

Nobody stops you from doing that.

And I don't want to highlight any particular hot topics, but on the general consensus for the good of the order and the good of the people, and as you quite, I'm glad you pointed this out, Director, is Seattle is the largest city in the state of Washington.

And we try to be, I think, a little bit more progressive about the ideas that we want to bring forward.

It doesn't mean we always get what we want.

And that's why I was asking some of your staff, some of these issues come back.

We take another run.

We try to make it better.

It never comes out of the gate perfect, nor does democracy.

And you guys are the ones that are the vehicle that help us say, OK, we tried to do this four years ago, three years ago, two years ago.

We're getting closer to it.

Gun violence is a good example.

Police accountability, as Council Member Hurwalt brought up, is a good example.

We all had some different opinions prior to 2020, and they evolve.

So we would be, quite frankly, I won't be here, but it would take forever if you were to get consensus.

on every one of these issues.

So it's more, I see this more as a guide of principles and some topics and some issues that we want to go back and correct and fix.

But what I like about your process, Gail, our Director Tarlington and with my colleagues, is that we keep talking throughout the session, what we've always done, offline, online, the times that you've carted us down to Olympia to give public comment on particular issues that are important to us.

I know that Councilor Herbal and I did that on health care, abortion rights, on gun safety.

We took a different, and some of us in our committees have more, we're more waist deep in an issue than our colleagues are.

There's a lot of transportation issues.

I'm not on that committee.

I don't understand a lot of that stuff.

And I can go to Council Member Peterson and ask, what does this mean?

Or I can call the mayor's office and say, what are you guys proposing?

I know that with the help of the mayor and Mayor Durkan, that we work really hard to get more money in the state budget and to clean up encampments on washed out property.

That was not an issue four years ago.

It's a big issue now.

So, you know, I'm just saying that it's a document.

that's alive, that evolves.

And the way it works is we keep talking to each other.

And you guys show up every week and you give us a memo, we break it down, we go through it, and then we start finding out what bills are moving and which ones aren't.

And then you also instruct us, which I really appreciate, what state legislator, what senator, what state rep is handling that?

What committee is it at?

Is it going to get on the floor?

We've had late night conversations about that.

And I don't know if the public sees that, because they don't, obviously.

So I just want to assure you, Council Member Nelson, just because we, hopefully this will pass tomorrow, doesn't mean you have to agree with everything here.

but it certainly is a guide about this city and what our values are, our principles and where we wanna go.

And everyone is free, no one is precluded from going to Olympia or making a statement or a press release or a press conference or having an issue in their committee where they maybe don't agree with something on here.

I've seen that happen many times here.

And I have to say, everyone has done been very diplomatic and very the language of consensus to get us where we need to be.

And I appreciate that.

And Director Tarleton, thank you so much.

Your staff has been great, particularly our D.C.

staff.

Leslie Palmer has been phenomenal.

She's always available for the issues that we deal with in the federal government.

Sienna has been great on the issues that we dealt with, particularly issues when she was working in issues in Indian country.

We have Tin Reynon in the executive side.

We have the Indigenous Advisory Council on the legislative side.

So we've really grown a lot about knowing what issues are going on in Olympia and Washington, D.C. And we have your leadership to thank for that, Gail.

So thank you so much.

You're very welcome.

Is there anything else before we move on?

I see.

Nope.

I was going to hopefully have Council Member Mosqueda say kiddos one more time for me, but she's not going to do it.

Okay.

You got it, kiddo.

I was waiting for that.

Okay.

Well, all right.

Well, I don't see any more hands up director.

It's been a pleasure and an honor to work with you these last couple of years and your staff, Samir, Anna.

I don't see Sienna anymore.

She's here.

Sierra, I'm sorry.

Sienna's my niece.

I have a niece named Sienna and Sierra.

So thank you so much.

You guys have been so good to all of us and your patience with us and getting us the documents, talking to us offline.

I'm really going to miss working with you guys.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Best wishes.

Adios.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Okay, so we are done with the item number four, the state legislative agenda.

So let's go to the preview of city council and committee actions.

Councilor Sawant is not with us, or here today, sorry.

So we will start with Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

I will try to make this brief.

We have a lot to talk about.

There are 20 items from the Land Use Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

Luckily, 17 of those are appointments which will be taken in one vote.

and so we have three votes tomorrow uh with one one amendment to one of the bills so we have one bill which is council bill 120674 the master use permits extension we have council bill 120675 the industrial maritime medical use size limits bill and then we have resolution 32097 which is the maritime and industrial zoning changes resolution regarding transportation that is the one item that has an amendment so just as a brief refresher the council bill 120674 the master use permits extension this legislation will extend the life of master use permits approved for issuance from september 1st 2019 to december 31st 2026 from three years to six years so that master use permit will now be six years in duration We have our second bill, Council Bill 120675, Industrial Maritime Medical Use Size Limits.

This legislation would remove maximum size of use limits for existing medical services within the manufacturing maritime and logistics zone east of Airport Way South within the Duwamish Manufacturing Industrial Center.

We have Resolution 32097, the Maritime Industrial Zoning Changes Transportation Resolution.

As you may all remember, we passed the industrial maritime zoning changes after the five-year facilitated stakeholder work group that reached 87% consensus between groups that typically disagree That consensus was based upon some items of transportation changes.

And so because we passed zoning changes, they did not have the ability to change those transportation issues.

And so we have this resolution before us.

As you may remember in September, there was a little bit of consternation about two words, throughput.

Those two words have been taken out.

And I've worked with a number of stakeholders over the last few months to really create some beautiful language that everyone can agree on.

And so that is why we have a substitute amendment for this resolution.

And I'm excited to have this passed.

It is important for us to pass it because it is this body that passed those industrial maritime zoning changes.

i'm going to get into the 16 appointments to design review boards as well as one appointment to the equitable development initiative i'm going to just do this by zone so we have a number of different design review boards in our city in the northwest board we're going to appoint solomon wagner this is a joint appointment between the mayor and council solomon believes urban design that complements existing neighborhood fabric and contributes to a vibrant public environment can be a powerful tool for building stronger communities we have an appointment of ryan d romero which is a mayoral appointment ryan has been working in architecture in seattle for the last 12 years and the last seven years working on local projects that go through this program he brings a full understanding of what it takes to present design and approve projects through careful review of city-wide and neighborhood supplemental design guidelines In the Northeast Design Review Board, we have a joint appointment between the council and the mayor, Kaylee Schickler.

And in addition to a decade of professional facilities management experience in the healthcare environment, she brings a background in the arts and an interest in the built environment and a passion for seeing people's needs met.

also have the appointment of todd lee who is a mayoral appointment since 1989 todd has been working within the seattle area as a general contractor and now as a commercial real estate developer he has extensive experience with sdci land use process as well as all other aspects of city code on the west design review board we have the reappointment of tiffany retre uh which is a mayoral appointment tiffany wants to be a part of shaping our city through the built environment she brings over a decade of in this industry experience in architecture design real estate and construction we have an appointment of kinsley I am not going to try to say Kinsley's last name, but Kinsley is amazing.

Kinsley is a joint appointment between the mayor and the council.

They're a lifelong resident of Seattle who's deeply familiar with the design review process and the role that the design review board plays in shaping our city's built environment.

We are going to be pulling back the appointment of Logan Bowers if it shows up on your agenda.

We are pulling that one back because Logan has some exciting new developments in his life.

We also have the appointment of Nori Sato, which is a council appointment.

She is an artist who works primarily in public art in Seattle and the region and nationally.

In her public art work, she is considering context and site, function and the people as she develops artwork that is designed and made specifically for a particular place in our community.

the southeast design review board we have the appointment of z zhang which is a joint appointment from the mayor and council z is an operations and systems minded thinker independently motivated to solve problems across various stages from inception to finished product comfortable problem solving she is comfortable problem solving amongst diverse teams and leveraging people's various backgrounds to contribute to larger project goals we have the appointment of adriana lynn I said that incorrectly, I'm sure, which is a council appointment.

Adriana appreciates the careful balance required to follow the city guidelines and protect neighborhood interests while helping Seattle evolve to meet new needs.

In the Southwest Design Review Board, we have the appointment of Rob McCullough, who is a mayoral appointment rob is impressed is impressed daily with the level of civic attention and investment directed here to improve livability engagement which makes this a great place to live and why is proud to make councilmember herbal says west in parentheses seattle is home in the downtown design review board we have the appointment of jonas ku which is a joint appointment between the mayor and council jonas wants to serve on the board to promote the health well-being foster community and improve safety through design we also have the appointment of lisa vasser which is a joint appointment between the council and the mayor lisa is a dynamic and meticulous director of facilities real estate and travel with 20 years of leadership experience in construction project management real estate acquisition and growth strategy.

We also have the appointment of Chris Bendix, which is a city council appointment.

Chris says he is an affordable housing developer creating welcoming, sustainable homes that enhance quality of life and bring communities together.

On the East Design Review Board, we have the reappointment of Gina Gage as a member.

She's a mayoral appointment.

She understands the purpose of design review is to apply the city and neighborhood design guidelines and ultimately to raise the design standard for all projects around Seattle.

We also have the appointment of Jacob Kossman, which is a joint appointment between the mayor and council.

Jacob brings his experience as a real estate economist with the deep knowledge of the development process and employment in the housing industry.

In the central area design review board, we have the appointment of Parker Amen, which is a city council appointment.

Parker is an architect currently working at the Third Place Design Cooperative, working on a variety of projects, mostly focused on affordable housing.

He has had the passion and desire to work somewhere that he can benefit the community around him.

Those are all of the appointments.

So tomorrow I'm not gonna go through these like I just did.

So we'll save some time tomorrow.

I am going to make a motion to introduce and vote on the appointments in the same council meeting and vote on them all at once.

That wraps up what will be on council tomorrow.

There are, as you all know, no further land use committee meetings for the rest of the year.

I wanna thank you for letting me be your land use committee chair for the past four years.

I'm looking forward to working with you all still in other roles or as council members and your colleagues in this new year.

at the beginning of this year i was told the amount of work that we could that i set out to accomplish in the land use committee was not feasible to accomplish and granted there are some things that i didn't get to but i really want to highlight we passed the strongest tree protection ordinances in city history we provided the strongest protections for the maritime and industrial lands and we accomplished so much routine routine work we couldn't have done this without lish keitel yolanda alley everyone at sdci the OPCD in the mayor's office, and of course, my clerks, Naomi Lewis and Noah Ahn.

I want to just thank you all as well.

We couldn't have done it without the clerks, IT, security, and everyone who has testified at the Land Use Committee over the last four years.

Council President, that's my report.

I'm going to miss you next year.

Colleagues, any questions?

Seeing no questions, I'm going to pass it over to Council Member Herbold.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Thank you for

So let's see here.

What have we got?

We've got full council tomorrow.

We've got a couple items.

We've got a walk-on resolution calling for a Kia Hyundai recall.

You may recall back in January of this year, the city of Seattle was the first city in the nation to file a complaint against automakers Kia and Hyundai.

There are now 17 cities that have taken this action.

City attorneys' complaint seeks the manufacturers be required to install industry-standard anti-theft technology in specific Kia and Hyundai models made between 2011 and 2021. This resolution takes a different tack.

It calls on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a recall of Kia and Hyundai models lacking immobilizer technology, making these models vulnerable theft.

Local Progress, an organization I know some of you are members of, most of you are aware of, has been reaching out to member cities to pass resolutions such as this one.

If passed, we will be joining cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia.

I mentioned there are a total of 17 cities who have signed on to the lawsuit started by City Attorney Davidson.

There's some overlap between those cities and cities that are passing resolutions.

I think we've all heard from constituents about their experiences as thefts of Hyundai and Kias rose as much as 620% between 2021 in 2022 further it looks like 2023 numbers um don't show that this issue has abated in its significance uh here in seattle in 2023 november i'm sorry through october 868 kiosks have been stolen and 1021 hyundai stolen With the Kia and Hyundai theft totals are actually larger in recent months than all other makes and models combined.

I want to thank the police department in April for making anti-theft steering wheel locks available to Kia and Hyundai owners.

um and uh just folks information the the models that um don't include this anti-theft technology are typically the lower end models um so we can assume that it's uh folks who um may be of limited means that have this model model vehicle um and it's also important to recognize that the cost of the part uh for the manufacturers to to have inserted the anti-theft part in the first place, had they done so, it's a part that costs about $100 to manufacture.

So I hope I can get your support on this resolution.

It was circulated to council members and aides last week.

Also on the agenda for full council tomorrow, we have cause to celebrate what will hopefully follow our fantastic select committee on climate change meeting from Thursday, where we had unanimous vote in support of council bill 12 07 18 to establish building enforcement performance standards for existing buildings over 20 000 square feet and establishes greenhouse gas target reductions uh that again buildings larger than 20 000 square feet must be based on five-year intervals that begin in 2031. um not only did this Legislation passed unanimously out of the Select Committee last week with full support.

I want to also highlight the fact that this bill is co-sponsored by Council Members Mosqueda and Strauss.

So again, hopefully we'll have a great cause to celebrate tomorrow.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee is meeting this week, Tuesday morning, for our last meeting.

It will have two items on the agenda.

It will include an update on the LEAD program and its third quarter metrics.

It's very important to hear how the LEAD program has been working with the increased number of public use possession bill-related contacts with the police department.

We'll also be hearing a presentation from the Office of the Inspector General on implementation of surveillance ordinance and potential updates to their statutorily required review of SPD surveillance technologies.

Just sort of early on some other updates.

Last week, I met with Chief Diaz on Tuesday and general on judge on Friday.

With the chief, we discussed the status of the department's online reporting system.

The replacement is, fingers crossed, due to be finalized this month.

We also discussed SPD's filing of crowd control policies with the federal court as part of the city's obligations of the decree.

The filing of these policies include not only the administrative crowd control policies of the seattle police department but also um the um policies associated with less lethal weapons passed by this council um august 2021. With Inspector General Judge, we discussed some upcoming audits that I think will be released in a couple weeks.

If you recall, Office of Inspector General creates a schedule of audits above those that are required by ordinance.

They solicit audits from counsel from um the cpc um and include them on their work work program and so we're going to be hearing more from them soon i just want to also mention that i was in contact with it with the office this morning about the uh recent uh what appears very apparent to be intentional and horrific particular assaults, possibly homicides on Aurora.

There were two of them.

Detectives reviewed 911 call records, hospital admissions, canvassed the area for witnesses, not been able to locate victims, but evidence of these horrible particular assaults were captured on camera.

And just want to say if anybody has any information on what has happened, the violent crimes tip line is really helpful for that purpose, 206-233-5000.

And then just a couple more words about our state legislative agenda discussion as it relates to arbitration.

I think most of you saw that last week a private arbiter decision was published.

Again, it was related to the decision of former police chief Best to fire two officers.

We know that arbitration is one of the reasons that Judge Robart found the city out of compliance with the consent decree.

He has ruled specifically that the SPOG contract adopted by the council in 2028 did not adequately address the issue associated with arbitration.

There was a pretty high...

high profile case, the Adley Shepard case, that I think caught the attention of a lot of people, including the judge.

SPMA contract did actually address this issue, reforming the arbitration process.

The SPMA agreement created a new discipline review system, marks a sea change in how discipline appeals operate.

It ensures that arbitrations and arbitrators who are not generally experts on policing, they don't substitute their judgment for the police chiefs, undermining accountability as it has in this recent case, as well as the Adlai Shepherd case in the past.

The new system creates a preponderance standard for evidence rather than a higher standard of clear and convincing.

And this is a new approach that the CPC, I want to give them all credit, recommended in 2017. Again, in the judge's September order, finding the city in compliance with much of the consent decree, the judge was clear that the city must report back on accountability.

And I think the high likelihood that the decision announced last week about these two cases being reversed in arbitration, there's a high likelihood that those decisions caught the eye of Judge Robard.

last week um had uh the rpc meeting uh and we successfully uh reversed a harmful amendment that passed in the previous rpc meeting reducing funds for workforce investments we revisited the issue after the king county council committee of the whole revisited the issue and as is the nature of the regional policy committee changes that are made at the king county council committee uh level have to come back to rpc and so um whereas last time i reported to you on rpc efforts uh there had been again a very um troubling amendment that had that had passed and i'm happy to report to you today that that um a change was was reverted back to the investment buckets being consistent with the will of the public vote with that it is uh i have nothing further to add if there are no further comments or questions i can pass up looks like councilmember nelson has something

I had a question about the complaint.

You phrased it as a complaint that City Attorney Davison submitted with, I don't know, 28 total cities.

He was the first in the nation.

Right.

Okay.

What is the anticipated outcome of that?

Or what did it ask for and when will we find out?

It asked for the city to be compensated and for the...

for manufacturers to install the industry standard anti-theft technology.

There's basically an industry standard technology, and that's what the complaint requests.

There was just very recently a hearing on part of a federal court judge.

The manufacturers had submitted a request for the case to be dismissed.

and happily declined to do so, but the complaint itself still needs to be heard.

Got it.

Thank you.

I'll note that we're not just talking about stolen vehicles and, oh, bummer, I don't have my vehicle anymore.

These vehicles are being used in crimes like driving into small businesses and a lot of violent crime out there as well.

Yes.

A lot of secondary crime being done with these stolen vehicles.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

If there's nothing further, pass it on to Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold.

Okay, let's jump into these updates.

I'm right at the top.

I want to mention one thing that we were not able to consider in committee that I will be bringing to walk on to full Council tomorrow.

because this was not ready for committee consideration, but it is now ready for council consideration, which is the reappointment of Dr. Simha Reddy to the King County Regional Homelessness Authorities Implementation Board.

Dr. Reddy has served very ably representing the city of Seattle on the implementation board as a city council appointee, even for a time chairing the implementation board.

uh dr reddy is a medical professional who serves homeless uh clients and brings invaluable experience and perspective to the deliberations limitation board that would be very difficult to replicate with a different nominee i mean it's my hope that we can consider that nomination as a walk-on during tomorrow's full council meeting also at tomorrow's full council meeting the council will consider from the public assets and homelessness committee five reappointments to the seattle center advisory commission an ordinance authorizing seattle parks to convey utility easements to magnolia for the purposes of operating a combined sewer overflow pipeline with king county an ordinance amending section 5 of Ordinance 125761, which establishes new appointment terms for the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee and creates additional positions on that committee.

An ordinance relating to commercial tendencies, establishing limits on maximum personal guarantees, and all of these items passed unanimously out of the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee last week.

Moving on to Clean City updates.

Between November 25th and December 1st, the Clean City Initiative recovered 403 discarded needles and 32,500 pounds of trash at 132 different locations.

Moving on to the Seattle Public Library.

The Seattle Public Library is making it known to the public that people can apply for sessions at the library's Ulili and Carlo Scandiusi Writer's Room Residency Program.

Each year, the library chooses writers to become residents of the Writer's Room located in the Seattle Central Library, offering a space for writers on level nine of that building to work on projects and access library resources.

The library asks that interested parties apply by Friday, December 22nd of 2023 to become a resident next year.

And, Council President, with that, I do not have additional items, and I will hand it over to Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

Let's see, we have several items as Council President indicated from the Neighborhood Arts Education and Rights Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

We have 21 appointments to boards and commissions on the consent agenda.

We also have the appointments of Jennifer Chow as Director of the Department of Neighborhoods and Gulgun Kayyem as Director for the Office of Arts and Culture.

We have Council Bill 120729 relating to the historic preservation of the elephant carwash sign.

Iconic sign I know we all know and love.

It's been designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board.

We have two pieces of legislation from the Transportation Committee.

Council Bill 120658 relates to sidewalk construction and pedestrian mobility improvements requiring sidewalk repair or addition when there is a major road construction project across the city.

We also have Resolution 32119, which provides an honorary designation of South Mount Baker Boulevard as Cheryl Chow Boulevard in honor of former Seattle City Council Member Cheryl Chow.

I also do have an amendment to Council Bill 120643, Council Member Lewis's commercial tenancies legislation.

Council Member Herbold and I have been working on this together.

I do believe it is a friendly amendment, will be a friendly amendment that basically just provides some specificity about how we expand the inclusion of stakeholders in that process to make sure that neighborhood commercial businesses are also represented.

and to clarify the intent that will also correct two drafting errors.

And we will talk about that more tomorrow.

Today, I met with residents of Nicholsville to get an update on their progress establishing a third site in District 2. We'll be following up with SPU to understand how Nicholsville can get some clarity soon on whether they will be eligible for water availability certificate and for a sewer line connection.

They have been waiting some time to understand if that is possible so they can move forward with this site that they've acquired or secured.

So we will try to make sure things get moving there.

Tomorrow, I'll be participating on a panel for local progress.

We are hosting a policy snack event.

brief introduction to the idea of social housing, what the strengths of it are, how it came to be here in the city of Seattle.

They typically have about 30 electeds from across the country who sign up to participate in these Zoom meetings.

There are over 90 people signed up for tomorrow.

So it's really exciting to know that so many folks across the country are really acknowledging the limitations of the way that we do affordable housing in the country now and are looking for new models.

So once again, Seattle is in the lead on providing some innovative ideas for what we can do to make sure that we are exploring all options for addressing our affordability crisis in the city.

So looking forward to that conversation.

I'm excited to announce that the second annual CID Resource Guide is being finalized by my office in collaboration with Department of Neighborhoods.

It'll be ready for distribution early in the new year.

This guide was developed to support unhoused individuals in the CID, as well as people on low and fixed incomes, and really is a centralized list of resources such as food banks, transportation resources, available shelter so that neighbors in the community who want to know how to support somebody, where to guide somebody, have access to all that information in one place.

It is also translated into, I believe, six uh different Asian languages um and we distributed these last year and I think we distributed five or six hundred of them they were gone pretty quickly so I'm glad that we're able to do that again and and provide updated information to folks in the neighborhood Finally, I don't know if we're going to be doing this tomorrow or not, but I do want to acknowledge my colleagues who are leaving the council next year.

I will say we served this last term during a historic global pandemic.

a racial uprising, a global economic crisis.

We were charged with governing during a time of tremendous fear and uncertainty.

And I think we all have the scars from particularly 2020 and 2021. I will say I personally broke out in full body psoriasis in 2020. because it was such a stressful time for all of us.

And and so I really want to appreciate all of you.

We worked hard to find common ground so that we could serve the people of Seattle and really want to thank you.

It's been an honor to serve with all of you, and I'm wishing you all well in whatever your next chapter looks like.

With that, I will hand it off to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Customer Morales.

Appreciate that.

And the same to you.

I look forward to working with you in a new capacity as well in the upcoming year and to all of my colleagues as well.

I also would love to see a copy of the amendment that's being drafted.

I think you're talking about amending the amendment that I brought forward to bring in more stakeholders, which we worked on.

with a handful of folks.

So if that could get shared with me, that would be appreciated.

And we'd love to just check in on that before tomorrow as well.

We do have a handful of items coming to tomorrow's full council meeting.

There are three substitute bills that synchronize the city's for hire legislation.

This is legislation that we worked on prior to the budget committee convening.

We passed it out of our Finance and Housing Committee meeting with the intent to hold it before it got put to the full council for a vote so that the King County Council could finalize their legislation that is complementary to the city's legislation.

We wanted to make sure that the county passed our legislation first so that any additional enhancements or tweaks necessary to align with the county in full were able to be accomplished at full council.

And now that we've received the county's companion legislation, it has been voted on early or late last week or excuse me, early last week.

There are legislation components that have been sent around by Carina Bull.

These are three pieces of legislation that modernize and update the city's policies related to for hire and taxicab industry.

and allow for drivers to more successfully complete and increase their earnings.

The legislation was voted out of the Finance and Housing Committee after robust discussion, and we had the final passage on that on September 20th, in case anyone wants to go back and review their notes or Seattle Channel.

Seattle and King County have been working on this legislation for over the past few years.

This helps to align and streamline the taxi industry regulations, and I'm excited that the city's department and the hard work that they've done in partnership with stakeholders is now accomplished in the suite of legislation we will consider.

The legislation anticipates the impacts of technology on taxi dispatch services and provides guardrails to protect consumers and drivers through those transitions, including regulating and capping excessive fees.

Following the Finance and Housing Committee meeting again, as I noted, we held it for full vote to ensure that there was consistency with what King County passed.

And that is why Carina has sent around the updated materials that were sent to the floor, summarizing the small tweaks that are necessary for our vote tomorrow.

I am excited about that legislation.

Looking forward to getting it past the finish line.

And Council Member Morales led by example, but I will be sharing some additional comments to close out the year tomorrow.

Seeing no questions, I'm going to turn it back to the Council President.

Oh, excuse me.

I'll turn it back to Council Member Nelson.

Thank you very much.

Hi, everybody.

We have the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee has nothing on the agenda tomorrow.

So I'll just go into what I did and what I'm going to do this week.

So last week of note, I attended the Seattle Building and Construction Trades Council's annual holiday party.

And I know that many of you were there and I just missed you in passing.

So sorry about that.

That's always a great party.

I suggest that folks go next year.

This week, I have a meeting with the All of Us Alliance, which is made up of members of the Latino Civic Alliance, Northwest Minority Builders Alliance, Tabor 100, Associated General Contractors of Washington, the Washington Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, and the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington.

I don't know anything about this organization, so this will be a first meeting.

Jeremy, my chief of staff, and I will be attending the grand reopening and ribbon-cutting celebration at the CIFF Cinerama on Thursday.

I'll be attending for the second year in a row, actually the third year in a row, the Tabor 100 Holiday Party.

That's also on Thursday.

Lots going on on that day.

And on Friday, staff and I will be heading down to District 1 to, I think still, to tour the Nucor Steel Facility for a tour and meeting with members of the Nucor Facility team.

Looking forward to that.

And then finally, on Sunday, December 17th, I'll be doing some holiday shopping at the United Business Connection Black Vendors Market at the Rainier Beach Community Center.

And that's located at 8825 Rainier Avenue South.

And this is open from 1 to 5. In the words of the organizer, this event aims to bring together entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses to the community, fostering connections and opportunities for growth.

This unique gathering will not only highlight the diverse range of businesses within our community, but also provide a platform for nonprofit organizations offering life-changing opportunities.

We believe in the power of collaboration and the positive impact it can have on both businesses and the community alike.

To add to the vibrant atmosphere, we have arranged performances by talented R&B and hip-hop artists showcasing their original tracks.

It promises to be an engaging and inspiring event, creating an opportunity for networking, entertainment, and community building.

and I can circulate that uh that invitation to others as well I always like to get my um holiday gifts at um you know local businesses preferably brick and mortar if not at a festival such as this that's it for me thank you I will if there are no questions I will pass it to Councilmember Peterson

Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

This year's final meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee was held last Tuesday.

And from that meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee, there will be 10 items on tomorrow's full City Council agenda.

Six of the 10 items are on tomorrow's consent calendar because they are routine property easements, acceptances, indemnifications, and they were approved unanimously by the committee.

two additional items are on the consent calendar because they are reappointments and were also approved unanimously the remaining two items from our committee were also approved unanimously by the committee but are less routine so they appear with the count committee reports for a separate vote those two items were already mentioned council 120658 and resolution 32119 both sponsored by councilman morales i'm happy to support those bills too uh regarding regional committees i appreciated the recognition that seattle public utilities and my office received last week from claudia balducci who serves in many leadership roles including the chair of the regional water quality control advisory committee the rwqc leadership commended our teams not only for our active participation in this regional body that handles wastewater treatment which is so important to Puget Sound, but also for our North Star goal of keeping rates to our customers as low as possible.

Nearly half of everyone's bill from Seattle Public Utilities is for wastewater charges, and those expenses are determined completely by King County officials.

our primary voice on this issue as the city of seattle is through the rwqc therefore i'm hopeful the next chair of the city council committee that includes seattle public utilities continues to advocate on the rwqc and along with the customer review panel to keep rates as low as possible across all lines of spu's business because we know that utility bills are regressive and we can do something about it because we literally own these utilities That concludes my report.

Any questions before we move back to Council President Juarez?

That was very riveting.

Thank you, Council Member Pearson.

All right.

All right.

So I'm going to be brief.

As I mentioned earlier, tomorrow's December 12th council meeting has a very long agenda.

This is because it is the final meeting of the year, and our committees have been, of course, very productive.

I want to thank you, Councillor Nelson, for chairing last week's council briefing and council meeting.

Thank you for stepping up and being council president pro tem.

Regarding committee, the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee will not be meeting again this year.

The Indigenous Advisory Council will continue to serve elected leadership, including both the Council and the Mayor, on issues relating to our Native communities and tribal relations.

I want to thank Tim Reynon.

He will continue to serve as the Outstanding Tribal Relations Director in OIR.

And Francesca Mermin is our Outstanding Staff to the Indigenous Advisory Council.

Thank you, Francesca.

I had the opportunity to meet with them Friday in which they did an honoring and it was very kind and it was very nice to be appreciated by the Indigenous Advisory Council.

I appreciate their expertise and the talent they offer to the City of Seattle along with the leadership of the members.

As you know, it's a nine-member committee, four of which are elected from tribal governments.

So them to take time out of their day as elected leaders to sit on this council and advise us is is amazing, and I'm really glad that we have them as part of the Indigenous Advisory Council.

Last week on Wednesday, members of our staff, as we usually do, met with the United Care Team to discuss the impacts of encampments and housing, not just citywide, but also in District 5. We have appreciated the opportunity to meet with the United Care Team every two weeks for the last two years to ensure that concerns about the impacts of encampments are addressed and people facing homelessness are offered services.

This week, we will be saying farewell to outgoing council members, including myself, and welcoming newly elected council members.

Very exciting.

It's been a pleasure to work with all of you on projects ranging from the Climate Pledge Arena, the Northgate Training Facility for the Kraken Community Iceplex, the Waterfront Local Improvement District, the light rail station that we got on 130th, And of course, very proud of the work that my staff put into, including Layla and Dean, who was in our office, the John Lewis Memorial Bridge and the funding for the new Lake City Community Center.

All of these projects, brick and mortar, all happened in different committees.

And I couldn't have done any of this work, obviously, without the help of my colleagues, their staff.

their intellectual work product to help me be a better council member and understand how the process works.

A big thank you to you, Council Member Herbolt.

I learned a lot from you and you shared a lot for me on committees and all kinds of stuff.

I could go on and on, but I just want you to know I really benefited from your experience and your wisdom.

And I want to thank you for that.

Together, we were able to pass the housing levy twice to create affordable housing, to create the Seattle Promise Program for students, which has been successful, as far as I understand.

Increased funding for preschool, which we worked with Rewa, and we now have our second pre-K center coming up in D5, and two other new ones, including one in Rainier, and I believe one on Beacon Hill.

None of that was here eight years ago.

It's here now.

And also to create the Regional Homeless Authority, which I work with now Mayor Harrell on back in 2019. I'm hoping we get a great director and we get back on track with the hard work that all of you have put into addressing our unsheltered neighbors.

So with that, I want to thank you for allowing me to serve as your council president.

And that concludes my report for today.

We good, everybody?

We're good.

All right, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.