Seattle City Council Briefing 2122024

Good afternoon, everybody.

Today is February 12th, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2 o'clock p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Nine present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of February 5th, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

All right, on to the president's report.

Today, we have one proclamation to sign, our weekly report from OIR and our usual preview of city council actions, council and regional committees.

Tomorrow at full council, we'll have two items on the IRC as legislation starts to come down from the mayor's office.

And one of those will also be on the consent calendar, which is our usual weekly claims payment ordinance.

We'll also be presenting one proclamation that will be up for signature later today.

And then finally, there is one time-sensitive item up for a vote tomorrow, Council Bill 120738, related to floodplains and flood insurance, sponsored by Land Use Chair Council Member Morales.

And she'll be speaking to that, if I'm not mistaken.

And we'll also be holding a public hearing in connection with that bill.

So for members of the public...

If you plan to make comment on that legislation, please sign up to speak on the public hearing sign-up sheet for that bill, not on the regular public comment sign-up sheet.

And then looking forward later on this week to committees, we've got four holding their first meetings of the year with Public Safety on Tuesday at 9.30, Housing and Human Services on Wednesday at 9.30, Parks, Public Utilities and Technology on Wednesday at 2, and Sustainability, City Light, Arts and Culture on Friday at 9.30.

Now, I won't do this every week.

I'm just flagging for the public the commencement of these committees, and I think that I made an error because I believe that Councilmember Hollingsworth's committee has already had its first meeting, but is that correct?

No, our first meeting is the 14th.

Okay.

Yes, I was correct.

Okay.

And then pro tip, you can sign up, the public can sign up for committee agendas at the following website, www.seattle.gov, count slash council slash committee slash agenda dash sign up.

That's where you can stay abreast of what's going on in your favorite committees, sign up for them all.

Okay, moving right along to the state legislative session update.

OIR distributed a bulletin of the bills they'll cover today and their presentation this morning.

And both will be available to the public attached to the agenda after this meeting.

Again, these briefings are for council members to ask questions about or weigh in on live bills and ask OIR any other questions about opportunities for voicing their opinion pro or con on them.

So with that, Director Tarleton and your team, you're free to begin your presentation.

Thank you very much.

Please introduce yourselves, and thank you again for making time for us this week.

Thank you Council President Nelson.

I'm Gail Tarleton, the Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the City of Seattle.

And with me today are my state team who have been going nonstop for about 72 hours now.

Samir Junejo, the State Relations Director, and Anna Johnson, State Legislative Liaison.

They have a very substantial presentation for you today as things were happening on the House and Senate floors all weekend and going into tomorrow as well.

So I'll hand it off and I think Samir is going to start the presentation today.

Hi everybody.

Samir Junaid, state relations director at OIR.

Currently we're now in the second half of the state legislative session There are bills being passed on the House and Senate floors now.

The chambers have until Tuesday, tomorrow afternoon, for the bills to get passed out of their respective chambers and into the other chamber.

So that will be happening until Tuesday, and then after Tuesday, we'll start seeing bill hearings again in the opposite chambers.

I'm going to start.

So most of this presentation is going to be bills that actually passed the floor in the past week.

However, I'm going to start with a bill that did not pass, which is Senate Bill 5770, in which it agrees to the property tax revenue limit for local property taxes, a bill that we've talked about to you all over the last few weeks.

It's a bill that you may have read in the media.

It's not going to be passing this year due to insufficient support, and it's not the bill that the city had supported.

House Bill 2348, also a bill that I mentioned before by Representative Street.

This is in relation to Harborview and ensuring that Harborview's finances are up to par and allowing the county to use, to have more flexible vending under Harborview levy.

This is the bill that passed this House for 56 to 41 and the city supported that bill.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm on.

I'm the state legislative liaison for the city of Seattle.

Some climate and environment bills that have passed off their respective chamber floors are listed here, starting with House Bill 1433. This bill essentially authorizes cities and counties to require that An owner of a single family residence obtain and make available a home energy performance report before they publicly advertise their home for sale.

This bill passed the House 55 to 42. We are in support of this bill.

House Bill 1391 directs the Department of Commerce to create a statewide building energy upgrade navigator program, or for shorthand, a navigator program.

This program will help homeowners and building owners navigate both federal incentives and state incentives to decarbonize their buildings and also obtain rebates for their energy bills.

This one passed 5839, and the city supports this bill as well.

Over the weekend, the House passed House Bill 1185. This bill phases out most mercury-containing light bulbs and also extends a current stewardship program for mercury-containing lights that was set to sunset in 2025, and it extends it to 2039. This one passed 52 to 45, and we also support this one.

Moving on to general government, House Bill 1932, which allows cities to hold their elections in even-numbered years, passed the House 52 to 45. And then House Bill 1510 is the bill that was introduced last year.

It requires 30% of the sales tax revenue at facilities at Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park specifically to be deposited into the Community Preservation Development Authority account, which funds two CDDAs both located in the City of Seattle.

Moving on to health care and behavioral health.

House Bill 1929 establishes a post-inpatient housing program for young adults to support transitional housing for behavioral health support for people aged 18 to 24 who are exiting an inpatient behavioral health treatment.

House Bill 1939 enacts a social work licensure compact to make it easier for social workers from other states to come and work in the state of Washington.

And Senate Bill 5241, this is a bill that also was introduced last session.

It relates to hospital system mergers and acquisitions when there's a detrimental impact on accessible and affordable health care.

And this bill passed 28 to 21. The city supported it.

And Senate Bill 1695 provides authority to the Secretary of Health to issue a prescription or a standing order for a drug for the purpose of controlling a threat to public health.

And the city supports that bill as well.

Housing and Homelessness, we saw a Workforce House Bill 1892, which creates a workforce housing accelerator revolving loan program within the Department of Commerce to administer loans to organizations to assist with development of housing for workforce housing.

House Bill 2270, it starts the process to study a transition of all the housing programs that are located in the Department of Commerce and to create a new Department of Housing.

In Senate Bill 6175, which allows the city to establish a sales and use tax deferral program for conversion of underutilized commercial property to affordable housing and also creates a new definition of conversion under the multifamily tax exemption, also known as MFT.

And the city supports that bill.

In labor and commerce, we saw House Bill 2022, which relates to construction crane safety.

This was in large part due to a construction crane incident that happened in 2019 on Mercer Street in the city of Seattle.

requires a prime contractor to obtain a permit before performing any work involving the operation of a tower crane.

Senate Bill 6007, which concerns grocery worker employment standards and retention after mergers or acquisitions.

And then Senate Bill 5291, also a bill that was introduced last session, requires the LCD to issue a decision on an application for certain liquor licenses, renewal, or endorsements within 45 days where the application is approved by default.

In the public safety and criminal justice category, a number of bills have passed in the last couple days, starting with House Bill 1579. This is a bill from last year that establishes an independent prosecution office within the Attorney General Office for criminal conduct that arises from police use of deadly force.

This passed the House 53 to 44, and the city is in support of this bill.

Senate bill 5444 this bill restricts firearms and a number of sensitive locations, including libraries transit centers aquariums and zoos this bill passed the Senate.

29 to 20 and we're in support of this bill this bill did originally include firearm restrictions in public parks or municipal parks, as well as public buildings, but those were removed in the Senate ways and means committee.

House Bill 2021 authorizes local government and law enforcement, like State Patrol, to dispose of forfeited firearms or transfer them to a museum or historical society.

This bill passed bipartisanly 68 to 29 off the House floor, and the city is in support of this bill.

And then finally, House Bill 1903 requires a person who loses their firearm or has their firearms stolen to report the theft of that to local law enforcement within 24 hours.

This passed 57 to 40, and the city supports this bill.

For social programs and education, a couple of bills have passed their chambers.

So first off, we have Senate Bill 5774. This bill requires Department of Children, Youth, and Families to maintain the capacity for fingerprint for the purpose of background checks, especially for child care.

So this bill is helping to maintain the child care workforce and expedite the background check process.

This passed unanimously, and the city supports this bill.

House Bill 1652 allows 100% of child support payments to be passed through to the children.

Under current law, if a child receives TANF and child support is paid by a non-custodial parent, the state collects and withholds almost all of their child support payments.

So this bill ensures that child support payments make it all the way through to the children.

This passed 93-3, and the city supports this bill.

Moving on to transportation, a bill from last session Senate Bill 5722 allows photographs and records collected from automated traffic safety cameras to be made available to law enforcement pursuant to lawfully issued search warrants this past 34 to 16 and then House Bill 1953, which requires that license plates must be uncovered also past 59 to 38.

All right.

So this gives you a little summary of what's ahead this week.

We just gave you a presentation on not an exhaustive list of all the bills that have passed each chamber, but they have till tomorrow at 5 p.m.

to pass out of their original houses.

So tomorrow is known as the House of Origin cutoff, and then we'll resume policy hearings both in the House and Senate starting on Wednesday.

So this is a few bills here for Wednesday and Thursday and Friday of this week that are coming up.

And as bills pass off the floor, they'll continue updating the schedule for hearings for later this week.

And then we'll also get to see the schedule for hearings next week.

And the next cutoff would be the following Wednesday.

So next Wednesday is policy committee cutoff of the opposite chamber.

And so bills need to make it out of their policy committee by next Wednesday.

And I think that concludes our briefing, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Samir and Ana.

It was really great to see you last week, and thanks for all of your assistance down there in Olympia.

My question today is on the traffic camera bill.

I know that we heard great things last week, seemed as if it was moving smoothly, but I know a lot goes on over the weekend when you're in a House of Origin cutoff looming in less than 24 hours.

Can you give us a status update on that traffic cameras bill?

Certainly.

Yes.

So far, no action has been taken on it, but it's been pulled from rules.

It's now sitting on the floor calendar and there's a few amendments on it.

We've also said we're hopeful that it will move today or tomorrow.

Great.

So it's still in the Senate.

We were not anticipating that.

The House.

It's in the House.

So we're not anticipating any roadblocks right now to these traffic cameras.

Yeah, I'm not at the moment, but we're keeping a close eye on it.

That's great.

Well, thank you both.

Thank you for going down there and lobbying on behalf of the city, by the way.

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you, Director Tarleton, Samir, Ana, for another insightful presentation here.

Just curious, so I have two questions, one related to, let's see, HB 1510 that requires the 30% of sales tax revenue from our stadiums.

Just curious to hear and better understand.

It sounds like the city supports that.

We'd love to better understand the anticipated impact that that might have from the city's perspective.

And the second question I have is around public safety, one of the public safety bills, more specifically HB 1903, which requires a person who suffers a loss or theft of a firearm to report within 24 hours.

What are the consequences of non-reporting?

Are there any penalties associated with that?

Yeah, we'd just love to better understand both of those.

Yeah, I'll take 1510 first.

1510 only diverts the state sales tax at Lumen and T-Mobile Park, so it would have no impact on city revenues.

I can take the next one.

Yeah, House Bill 1903 does include a civil infraction penalty if you failed to report.

The concept of reporting lost and stolen firearms is meant to help understand the supply of firearms that are in our communities and encourage folks that have a firearm and it was lost or stolen to report it to law enforcement for better understanding.

It is also modeled slightly off of a city of Seattle policy.

Thank you.

I have a couple of specific questions.

Could you give us an update on how things are looking for Senate Bill 1994?

I see that it's got its second reading.

I don't know when that is or had its second reading.

But what do you think its chances are?

And then I had a question about Senate Bill 6007. I don't remember you talking about that one before.

Did I just forget about that or did I not hear?

that the details discussed.

And then finally, when it, what facilities are referred to in, let's see.

Never mind, I got that.

That's the stadium tax.

And then finally, a little bit more detail on Senate Bill 5770, please.

Thanks.

Sure.

I can start with House Bill 1994. This bill essentially creates an option for dismissal of misdemeanors if an individual follows court-ordered conditions.

This bill has been pulled from rules and is on the second reading calendar.

There are amendments for the floor.

They haven't taken it up for floor action.

I don't know.

I can't speculate the possible chances, but since it has been pulled from rules, it is eligible to run on the floor if the legislature wants to take it up.

DIRECTOR RIVERA- Thank you.

DIRECTOR DEWOLF.

In Senate Bill 6007 the context from as far as I know is relates to the act of murder that have been happening in the state between big grocery stores like Kroger, Safeway, and to ensure that those grocery workers who, especially in life store clothing, are able to have a chance to still have their jobs at the successor grocery store.

So there's a list of kind of, retention policies in the bill that are meant to just help ensure those workers still have access to employment.

So is this a later breaking piece of legislation?

It was introduced earlier this session and then I think we may have talked about it at one of the briefings but yeah it was it's been making its way slowly but it has been making its way Okay, thank you.

And then on 5770, I think the only additional context we have is just that it just didn't have the vote.

So they voted counted in the Senate.

A couple of members who were original co-sponsors on the bill decided that they did not support it anymore.

And then certainly there was a lot of media attention and activity on it from the Senate Republicans as well.

And so from what we understand, they just didn't have the votes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Madam President.

I was about to ask a question.

I have a question, but then I was toggling the Zoom button, the mute button.

I was like, I don't need to press the mute button.

Anyways, I thought that was kind of funny.

I had a quick question about going back to Senate Bill 6007, protecting the grocery worker.

Does that count for, there are 17 Safeways in Seattle, they're getting acquired by Kroger, Albertson Safeway is.

If Safeway has identified in the whole country that most of the stores that are closing that they have identified are gonna be in Washington State, Does that count for if Safeway decides to close a store?

Does that bill require them to look for employment in other stores that Kroger would have open?

I'll have to look back at the bill, but I believe that's the kind of situation that the bill is meant to address, but I'll look back at the specifics and get back to you.

Okay, no worries.

Thank you.

My understanding is it also requires the payment of an allowance for every week of employment based on an average cost.

I don't know how that is calculated specifically, but it also depends on the size of the store or the number of employees, et cetera.

Got it.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions for our esteemed team down there fighting the good fight?

I don't see any others.

Thank you very much for taking a break and meeting with us.

I hope your conversation with the speaker was positive and productive last week.

And we look forward to news next week and in between if necessary.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council President.

Next Monday is President's Day, I believe.

And so I think the city is not in...

You're in session.

Right.

You are correct.

And I mentioned that we would not be having this briefing next week, but I just plain old forgot.

But as things develop over the course of this week, given how much is going to happen in a really short period of time, we'll make sure that Samir and Ana provide you and all of the council members information that is directly relevant to policies that you are tracking.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye bye, everyone.

Bye bye now.

OK, the next item is the signing of letters and proclamations.

Councilmembers Wu and Morales have a proclamation recognizing that February 7th, 2024 be known as a day of remembrance for the expulsion of Chinese from Seattle.

Councilmember Wu will begin the discussion on the proclamation and then Councilmember Morales will have a chance to speak to it as well.

And I understand that both council members will speak about the signed proclamation further tomorrow when it's presented.

But for today, when you're finished speaking to it, I will ask colleagues for additional feedback or if they have any questions before I request signatures to be affixed to it.

So you may begin the presentation, go ahead.

Great, thank you.

So I'm starting a little bit of history.

In July of 2015, a resolution was passed in Seattle City Council, Resolution 3165, a testament to our regret for the anti-Chinese legislation that the state of Washington and the Seattle City Council had passed.

But on February 7th, 1886, a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment erupted into violence.

An angry mob of about 1,500 people descended upon the Chinese quarters of Seattle.

Some 350 Chinese residents were forced out, removed, loaded onto wagons, and herded to the docks where they were expelled from their homes and forced onto steamers like the Queen of the Pacific.

And so this is important because this is a part of my family background, my family experience.

My family's been here since early, late 1800s.

And not entirely sure, but I believe, like, I had a family member who was involved and came back in late 1887, I believe.

And so I believe I'm a product of all these policies that had excluded, exposed Chinese people.

And I am first generation, so I am the first generation born in the US, even though my family's been here for this long.

And so that is why I am working with Council Member Morales to put together this proclamation for February 7th as a day of remembrance for the expulsion of the Chinese from Seattle.

And so this is not just a commemoration, but a call to action, a testament to our collective resolve to stand against discrimination in all its forms and to build a more inclusive and equitable society for generations to come.

And so there is an event on Saturday, February 17th at Hing Hay Park at 10 a.m.

to reflect on Chinese expulsion.

This event is hosted by a couple of organizations, which includes Native Hub, Organization of Chinese Americans, and Wing Luke Museum, and invite everyone to come.

And I will pass this to Council Member Morales for further comments.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

I don't have a whole lot to add except to say that I am excited that this project is beginning to bear fruit in terms of, obviously there's been a long history of organizing and demanding that the city acknowledge Last year, I was proud to be working with community members, with Wing Luke, to include $250,000 for an art project that will be at Alaska, at the site of the harbor expulsion.

And the idea here is really to create a lasting public artwork that recognizes and preserves the legacy of the Chinese community, and really, you know, reminds us, as Councilmember Wu said, that this is not part of our past, but is actually an active part of our present, and we have to constantly be vigilant about standing against discrimination and the sort of hate that was behind those sorts of policies.

So this project is intended to memorialize that historic injustice from the 1886 anti-Chinese riots, And really the primary goal of that art project is to create a permanent and substantial artwork that recognizes and preserves the legacy of the forced expulsion and serves as a constant reminder to us to stand against that kind of discrimination.

So I unfortunately will not be here next weekend, this coming weekend, but I am really excited about presenting tomorrow and really glad to know that particularly during Lunar New Year, we're able to acknowledge our past and make sure that that doesn't happen again.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I am looking at my screen to see if there are any colleagues that wish to make comments or ask questions.

I have a question based on what you just said.

When is the expected completion of that project?

That is a good question.

The project, we were not able to fully fund the request.

So we put $250,000 in.

That was about half of what they need.

So there is a capital campaign that continues.

And as soon as I have acknowledgement that that's done, I will let you know.

Okay.

I was wondering if it would coincide with the waterfront, you know, some of the opening festivities.

Yeah, I think that is the goal, so we will keep track of that.

Thank you.

And I want to admit my ignorance, and thank you very much for bringing this forward, because I am reading one of the recitals in here that says that whereas in the early 1990s, the first Seattle Chinatown located near the waterfront was forced to move to 2nd Avenue, Maybe it was 1890s.

Anyway, Second Avenue in South Washington to establish the second Seattle Chinatown.

Then Chinatown was again forced to move to its third location on King Street to where Seattle Chinatown International District is located today, which I did not realize that there was that concerted disruption over and over again in our history.

I did not realize.

I thought that there was a neighborhood that just simply grew, not that it was forced to move around.

So thank you very much for bringing that to our attention and for bringing this proclamation forward.

Okay, is there anybody else that would like to speak or make any other comment?

Okay, seeing that there is no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing that February 7th 2024 be known as a day of remembrance for the expulsion of Chinese from Seattle?

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Wu?

Yes.

Councilmember Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle?

Yes.

Councilmember Moore?

Yes.

Councilmember Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

Looking forward to the presentation tomorrow.

All right, we'll now move to the next agenda item.

We'll begin our next discussion on the preview of council actions and council and regional committee reports.

And the order of discussion is established by the new rotated roll call.

And today's order is council members Strauss, Wu, Hollingsworth, Kettle, Moore, Morales, Rivera, Saka, and then me bringing up the rear, the caboose.

I knew where that sentence was going before I could take it back.

All right.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Council President.

I'm happy to be the engine today.

We are going to be holding our first Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee next Wednesday, February 24th.

We're going to have a presentation from the CBO that might feel similar and more in-depth than what we had at Council Briefing last week with Director Ben Noble.

So we'll have the CBO there.

giving you a little bit more in-depth understanding.

And also, because the CBO represents all executive departments, the questions that might not have been able to be answered by Director Noble will be able to be answered by our CBO.

We will...

also start discussing at a high level, the cadence of meetings and setting the foundation for when select meetings occur versus the finance committee meetings occur.

I have a personally set rule that I have to amend to make this work, which is in my committees, I always have an item briefed two times before it's voted on.

And I recognize that the ability to have select committee meetings where we get full participation in finance meetings, it makes it a little clunky.

So I'm going to be working, I'm going to be ironing out that wrinkle to make sure that you all are briefed with information in a timely manner before having to make a vote.

And that you're able to participate all year long rather than just in the fall.

And so we're very excited for this.

On the March 6th meeting, that's the following meeting, we're going to be focusing on the Native Communities and Tribal Governance side of the committee, where we will have Francesca Murnon from Department of Neighborhoods, the Indigenous Advisory Council liaison join us, as well as Tim Raynon, the Director of Tribal Relations within the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And they'll be presenting on the work that they've been doing over the last few years because...

I feel like I'm a broken record here, but there's been so much that has been built in the last six years regarding Native communities and tribal governance interaction that it would be really easy for anyone who has just been sworn in this year to say, this is how it's always been.

And in fact, this is still a growing body of work.

And I'm excited to help grow that further.

I know some other members here also met with Councilmember Nick Lewis from the Lummi Nation last week.

Council President, I think you might have met with them.

They presented some very interesting information as part of their long campaign to elevate the crisis the phenomenal of fentanyl in our communities it is striking lummi nation even harder than many of our communities and we all feel it every day here so i would definitely say if you have the opportunity to meet with councilmember nick lewis from lummi it was very incredible.

I'm going to be helping support their work because I think that it is important that we put additional pressure to call this crisis the crisis it is, because I think that for elected leaders who are not, we're the lowest level of government, which puts us closest to the people that we serve.

And I think it's very easy for all of us to recognize this.

And in turn, I'm excited to make it something that no one can look away from.

In my regional committees, it was an absolute honor to represent the city of Seattle at the Association of Washington City's conference and board meeting and to the legislature.

I realize I didn't share this at briefing last week.

I was running for AWC secretary for next year.

It was a tie vote between me and my good friend, Mayor John Nehring of Marysville.

Mayor Nehring of Marysville ultimately won and I am very excited to For him to fill that role, he would have been termed off the board, and he's an immense source of knowledge and somebody that I do...

He is a good friend of mine.

So it's always hard to run against your friends.

And I'm very excited for Mayor Nehring.

I can tell you that the report that I...

just feeling everyone out in Olympia and across all the cities, everyone is looking at Seattle and everyone's looking at the council and it's kind of like DC local news is national news here in Seattle.

Local news is definitely regional news.

And so I'd say everyone is sending their best wishes and excited for, uh, every, uh, this new energy on city council.

Um, uh, I was really excited to be able to get to talk about how we're all here in person and that there's a new energy in the hallways here where we bump into each other and get to have a series of conversations rather than being stuck on the phone.

And I think one of the reasons that people look at Seattle is because we're the economic driver for our entire state, for our entire region.

And when you look at within our city, the economic driver for the city is downtown.

And when we look at the importance of the vibrancy of downtown and the success of the downtown activation project, it's not just for Seattleites.

It's for the entire state, the entire region.

And...

I'm seeing Councilmember Kettle giving me smiles, and I know he's doing hard work down here already.

But I guess what I'm saying, Councilmember, is it's not...

your responsibility on your own.

It's the responsibility of all of us to help you so that we can all have mutual success.

And that was something that I think that the state is recognizing.

I met with a lot of members of the Seattle delegation and there was also good collaboration between the 281 cities and towns.

As you heard council president ask during briefing, it sounds like the property tax lid is dead.

A couple original co-sponsors had pulled their names off.

It is necessary to implement the budget, which means that it could be resurrected.

It does look like it's dead.

And it's good to hear that traffic cameras are still alive because I was a little worried that something might have happened over the weekend since I hadn't seen it move.

I think what was really apparent to me at AWC is that no matter how big or small a city is, how red or blue it is, or if the city is east of the Cascades or west of the Cascades, we're all experiencing very similar issues, just on different scales and in different ways.

And that really helped with the collaboration because we got to trade ideas ideas, what was working, what isn't working.

And being able to do that in person really meant a lot, like getting to meet the mayor of Bothell, whom I've read in the newspaper a whole lot about what they're doing up there, and it's something different to meet them in person.

And so with that, I'll give you the plug.

These conferences that happen twice a year are not just reserved for Council Member Morales and myself who are members of the board.

They are open to the entire city council.

And some cities do send as many delegates as possible without violating OPMA.

So I invite you, I'll send a follow-up email with dates in the middle of June.

It'll be in Vancouver.

It's a really great opportunity.

And something that I've noticed over the years is that we here at the city, if you just look at our committee calendar, we're in committee like half of our life here.

And so it feels like it is hard for us to break away from that.

And for many different cities and towns, they are part-time, which means that it feels odd to them when the city of Seattle doesn't show up.

even though we're not living their life and they're not living our life.

And so that's why I put in the additional plug, because it would be great to have you down in Vancouver with us this June.

Council President, that is my report.

Colleagues, any questions?

Thank you for that perspective.

I hadn't thought of it that way, that for folks that are doing this part-time, they make the time to get down there and focus on municipal issues.

And sometimes folks say, well, why isn't Seattle here?

And so that was part of why I really made that extra effort to stay through the entire conference, to be present with them the whole way through, because as board members, it's also incumbent upon us to create an open, welcoming environment.

Thank you for that.

With that, I'll pass over to Council Member Wu.

Council Member Wu.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

And yes, I've heard amazing things about this organization.

I'd love to learn more.

So my first committee meeting is this Friday, the 16th at 9.30 a.m.

Committee for Sustainability, Seattle City Lights, and Arts and Culture.

This first meeting, we're gonna go through the introduction to each department, and we're gonna try to fit it all in one meeting for all three.

because you want to get right to work and start working on those appointments in the next meetings in March.

And so this past week was Lunar New Year, and I attended several events in the city and in neighboring cities, but...

I want to give a shout out to the Minh Duc Vietnamese Language School.

They invited me to their Lunar New Year performance at the Thai temple and got to see the young kids perform and dance.

And that was a lot of fun.

And I'm going to pass this to Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Our first meeting for PUT, Parks, Utilities, Technology, will be February 14th.

That will be at 2 p.m.

We're actually going to have Director Marshall Fuller Foster join us for the meeting, who's gonna give us a little brief overview of the waterfront, the timeline for that.

I know that was a big investment, so excited to kind of hear about some of the updates going on there.

Also, some Seattle Center investments had a chance to do a great walking tour with their staff, just to go around and some of the things that they're investing in and getting ready for, you know, like the...

the spring and the summer, which was great, and then they'll also talk about Memorial Stadium as well, and that agreement with Seattle Public Schools, the Climate Pledge Arena, their nonprofit arm, and the City of Seattle, as they are in some of the final stages of figuring out a MOU to determine what that partnership looks like.

Memorial Stadium's owned by Seattle Public Schools.

It's used for graduations, for any type of sports.

Interesting fact is the first place where I did my internship in college for grad school, down at the Seattle Public Schools building, which is right next to Memorial Stadium in that parking lot, there's a little trailer that's there.

So that's where I did my first internship.

and I used to work at Memorial Stadium.

So talking about the renovation of Memorial Stadium, creating it so it's this open area connected to the Seattle Center.

So it's, you know, all the design work that's going on there, Marshall, Director Marshall Foster will be giving us that update.

Regional committees sat on the regional water quality committee with council member kettle, which was really fun We talked about infrastructure also talked about upgrades and new projects for our city Also found out it takes and this is wastewater Every time you flush the toilet it takes 30 minutes to an hour from district 3 to get to the West Point treatment facility Which is kind of cool And then we also talked about rates So all of the rates that unfortunately that are obviously that are going up to deal with a lot of the growth and investment and infrastructure, because a lot of our infrastructure that we have in the city of Seattle is aging.

So we talked about that on a regional level and all the cities involved with that as well.

And with that finished, I will pass it off to Council Member Kettle.

Good afternoon, Council President and fellow council members.

So, yes, first order of business in the past week on the regional committee side.

I attended with my esteemed colleague with the Regional Water Quality Committee.

Very enlightening in terms of, you know, the various challenges that exist in this area.

And long-term and even shorter term is, you know, the rate pieces and the due diligence to make sure that that's done right is immense.

and something not to be taken lightly.

Last week, you know, in terms of neighborhoods, I will just add I attended the Queen Anne Community Council board meeting, which was enlightening in terms of the issues for Queen Anne and the surrounding area, much like we did the month before with my my colleague over in D6 for the Magnolia Community Council.

Great opportunities to learn what's happening in District 7, and we're doing that with others, particularly once we get stand-up of our informal District 7 Neighborhood Council, really to reach out to the various parts of the district and to hear what's happening and know.

So attending board meetings like the Queen Anne Community Council and the Magnolia one before that are very helpful.

In terms of coming up tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13th at 930 in the morning, we have our first public safety committee meeting, and we're going to have the three chiefs.

We're going to have Chiefs Diaz, Scoggins, and Smith representing SPD, FF, Fire Department, and CARE.

We'll be looking to start this process for the new public safety committee, which we're very excited about.

And one thing I was wanting to add, I just wanna do in advance a thank you to my colleagues, because there's definitely overlap between the Public Safety Committee and the various committees that we each chair.

And so I look forward to working with you in those areas of overlap.

There's at least five committees in my mind that we'll be doing that with.

And so thank you in advance for the collaboration of the various committee chairs.

And that is it from District 7.

Oh, thank you very much, Council Member Kendall, and thank you, President Nelson and my colleagues.

So let's see, Wednesday will be the first meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee at 9.30.

We will be having three presentations for the Office of Housing, the Human Services Department, and the Office of Civil Rights.

Basically, it'll be an introduction to the work of each of those departments.

So I'm really looking forward.

We did a...

a pre-briefing run-through, and they're very solid, very informative presentations, so I'm looking forward to our first committee meeting.

As to last week, I do serve on the King County Regional Homelessness Authorities Governing Board, and the board unanimously passed a resolution naming Darryl Powell to be the next interim chief executive officer for the RHA.

Mr. Powell is a senior level executive with over 30 years of experience in financial management, strategic planning, and business development.

He has deep, deep connections to the community, highly regarded, is willing to step in and take on a very difficult role.

So I'm really excited, actually, to see the work that he's going to do in this new role.

He will be working alongside Helen, current CEO Helen Howell, until her last day at the end of the month.

And I did want to take this opportunity to thank Helen Howell for her service and for the work that she's done keeping the regional homelessness authority functioning during these very difficult times.

She's really been, truly been a public servant in her role.

And then lastly, I will be attending the Regional Policy Committee this week, where we will be getting an introduction to the King County Crisis Care Center Levy Implementation Plan.

That's kind of a mouthful, but we will be learning what the next steps are for bringing the Crisis Care Center Levy on board and looking at what we're going to need to what's going to be needed from the council perhaps a relationship with the mayor's office to make sure that we Have a crisis care center cited in Seattle and also looking at where there might be citing for a youth crisis care center.

So That's it for now.

Thank you very much.

I'll turn it over to council member Morales

That's me.

Thank you, colleagues.

Good afternoon.

Let's see.

I'll start with my committee.

At last week's land use committee, we heard an initial briefing on the connected communities legislation that we've been working on in my office in partnership with I wanna thank my colleagues for a really good discussion and for your questions.

We'll continue that discussion at our meeting on the 21st.

We do have a public hearing on the bill.

And just to clarify, we will not be voting on the bill this month.

It's a technical bill.

Folks had a lot of questions about it, and we are in fact still waiting to get the final version back from law so that we can put it on the IRC.

Nevertheless, we can have a public hearing on it, which we will do, and then we will continue the discussion.

There is one item, as Council President mentioned, from land use on tomorrow's full council agenda.

So we will hold a public hearing tomorrow and may vote on Council Bill 120738. I'm going to walk you through a little bit about what this bill is so you're not surprised tomorrow.

This would extend for an additional six months interim regulations for the development of our mapped floodplains in the city.

So, these regulations were initially proposed by Mayor Durkan and approved by Council in July of 2020, and they do two things.

The regulations adopt maps showing the location of federally mapped flood hazard areas, and they require that new development be built to withstand flood events, including the requirement that habitable floors be above the mapped base flood elevation.

So for a map of flood hazard areas and a memo from SDCI on the extension, you can refer to an email that you all received from Ketel Freeman on our central staff.

That was sent on January 29th.

And Ketel's also happy to answer any questions you have.

But council consideration of permanent regulations has been forestalled by a prolonged appeal by the Port of Seattle to the city's State Environmental Policy Act review.

So there've been ongoing negotiations with the port to resolve concerns about the implementation of these floodplain changes.

State law allows the city to adopt interim regulations, but those regulations after the initial one year period can only be effective for six months at a time.

And so we have for some time now been extending them for six months.

That renewal also requires a public hearing, which is why we will be having a public hearing tomorrow.

So, Council Bill 120738 would be the sixth extension of the regulations.

SDCI does anticipate that a bill with proposed permanent regulations will be forthcoming this summer, but in the meantime, we have to do this six-month extension.

So, interim regulations are required to ensure continued participation in the national flood insurance program.

So that's what we'll be doing tomorrow.

And again, if you've got additional questions, you did receive a memo about this in late January.

Okay, so moving on.

Last week, I met with the city attorney.

I met with the mayor for sort of our 2024 kickoff meetings.

This week, I'll be meeting with SDCI to get ready for our work calendar for the year with SDCI in the Land Use Committee.

I'll also be meeting with our South Precinct Captain, Captain Brown.

We do have a monthly meeting to talk about issues happening in District 2. and with our planning commission just to get myself ready for the work in the committee that I chair and vice chair this year.

On Thursday, my staff and I will be attending the free clinic that Seattle King County Public Health holds at the Seattle Center.

I would encourage folks to go check it out.

It's very incredible.

It's just a logistical wonder what they're able to do to make sure that folks in our community have access to dental care, to healthcare, to vaccines, to eyewear, they get free eyeglasses.

So if you have folks in your community who need access to free care, and people come from all over the state to take part in this, It's really incredible and just an amazing feat that they're able to accomplish.

There is also translation services available.

So they have these really cool iPads on a stick that they roll around.

And if a patient needs translation services, they're able to, just like that, get a physician or a medical professional or whoever the right person is on Access It, so it's a real-time translation for whatever health clinic need you may have.

So anyway, we will be going on Thursday to check that out, and I'm very excited about that.

This week, I'll be meeting with Columbia City constituents in district to discuss some challenges that they're having with getting repairs done to their rental units.

I also attended several Lunar New Year celebrations.

This weekend, I was at the Colón Pagoda to celebrate the Year of the Dragon with them.

Last weekend, I was in the CID at the Wing Luke celebration, so happy Lunar New Year.

And then yesterday, no, Saturday, I attended the celebration of the life of Ware Harmon, who was the former executive director of Town Hall Seattle.

If you don't know, Ware was an incredible community leader.

He committed his whole self to being a connector of our arts and culture scenes.

He was a promoter of the need for all of us to be civically engaged.

He was a firm believer that the only way for us to advance as a community is for us to be in community with one another.

My children and his children went to elementary school together, which is why we were there, my family was there, but there were hundreds of people at Town Hall this weekend celebrating all that Wear brings brought to the Seattle community.

So it was a really special event.

I am working with his family to develop a proclamation honoring Wear and we'll be bringing that to council when the time is right.

Oh, and then we already did the Chinese Exclusion Act proclamation.

So that is my report.

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Last week at the committee meeting that I chaired the library's education and neighborhood committee, we had a presentation by the Department of Neighborhoods.

It was very comprehensive and really great to hear all the great work, including the popular programs that they have with the pea patches and the neighborhood matching fund.

So that was a really great presentation.

I look forward to their continued a continued partnership with them.

I also met with the captain of the North Precinct, Captain Agard, to discuss public safety in District 4, just broadly and generally, but we will be working with them.

I hope to attend a roll call coming up soon, and we also discussed doing neighborhood walks with the small districts in the various commercial corridors of the district, to talk about their public safety needs.

I did meet with a small business owner in the Sandpoint Corridor who has gotten broken into five times.

One interesting fact is that between 2006 and 2020, they only had one break-in because an employee accidentally left a window open, but from 2020 to 2023, they've had over 20 break-ins.

So it really, in the last few years, has exacerbated, which really just goes to the, you know, the staffing issues at SPD that I know we're all working through together.

But I will be continued to, you know, give emphasis to the small businesses in the area.

in the district as well as working with the community councils in the district because crime is being felt not just by the small businesses as we know but by our residents across the city.

So in that vein, I am attending neighborhood council committee meetings throughout the year, hoping to attend at least one a month.

I've already been to the University District and this week I'll be meeting with the Laurelhurst and View Ridge Community Councils.

My staff also attended the North Precinct Advisory Committee this week as well.

So having those conversations.

Also starting district hours this week.

We're booked already, and so I'm looking forward to meeting with constituents.

This week, we're gonna be meeting in Wallingford.

So really trying to get across the district as widely as possible.

Also, last week, I sat on the first committee of the Governance and Economic Development Committee, chaired by Council President Nelson, where OED spoke and gave an overview.

I did have a follow-up meeting with OED to talk about the downtown activation plan as I had more questions.

Downtown is for everyone, and as I was talking to constituents in the in my district, we talked about the need for folks to, or the want really for folks to have a downtown that is safe and vibrant for them to come down to.

And so we had this conversation had a really great conversation, a follow-up conversation with Director Markham.

And we're going to be, you know, partnering because as I said at that committee meeting, and I will continue to say, we all are interested, I know, in working together and working with OED to make sure that we have a vibrant downtown and whatever we can do to generate ideas or bring ideas to fruition.

I know we all want to do our part in that.

So more to come on that.

And that is...

my report for this week.

There's plenty more, but I will cede it over to Council Member Saka for his report.

All right.

Well, thank you so much, Council Member Rivera.

First, first internal committees.

So city committees last week, I am proud and honored that we were able to lead the way and pioneer and launch, you know, the very first Seattle committee this year and this, with this new council.

And we did that with the transportation committee meeting last Tuesday morning and went very well.

Really appreciate it.

Director, SDOT Director Spatz and his leadership team, they came and gave us some very relevant and thoughtful overview presentations that kind of set the table for the type of things that we're going to be engaging with and learning more about and supporting and overseeing on the committee.

And so great committee meeting last week there.

On a going forward basis, well, at least, This next meeting that we have on the calendar for transportation is a week from tomorrow.

So again, every two weeks.

Week from tomorrow, we're gonna be having another informative, relevant, topical briefing this time on the move Seattle levy.

And so in addition to that, we'll also be considering two to three more substantive items of, of business.

But we're going to get that really important move Seattle levy orientation and briefing hugely important because there is a, there is a potential renewal levy coming up later this year.

And that might be a good pivot to talking momentarily about just the, some of the regional committee and external committee assignments, if you will.

Last week, I also attended my very first, so as the chair of the Seattle Transportation Committee on the council level, I am a de facto member of the Seattle Move Levy Oversight Committee.

And so I attended my first meeting last week.

Amazing group of dedicated volunteers.

doing the work to make sure that Seattle's tax dollars, in this case with respect to our move levy, are wisely invested.

And they play a very pivotal oversight role.

And so it was my very first meeting there, learned and heard the status of various things.

I've also just, as an aside, I've invited members from that specific committee to come and brief us during one of our, I believe March, one of our meetings, transportation committee meetings in March to learn more about how the oversight levy is going and, or the Seattle move levy is going from the oversight committee's perspective.

But again, I can't emphasize enough how impressed I was by the level of engagement and, and like, just how much people care.

And we need people like that to volunteer and show up to play these really critical, important roles for our city.

And so...

So that was a good regional committee for me last week.

Another one is the Transportation Policy Board.

So I sit on a few committees that are subservient to the, or subordinate rather to the Puget Sound Regional Council.

And so I sit on the exec board for PSRC and then a number of committees that essentially roll up to that, including the Transportation Policy Board.

On the Transportation Policy Board, Front last week, we had a meeting And amongst other things, we kind of discussed high-level strategic planning, a lot of new members, but strategic planning and just getting ideas shared and heard and perspectives shared and heard to inform the strategic planning efforts for the TPB on a going-forward basis.

I heard one theme that I heard that I was pleased to hear, and I echoed it during the meeting for what it's worth, but there seems to be a really, strong recognition amongst the members that were present at this meeting that the relationship between transportation policy planning and land use is really, really, really important.

You know, they're both kind of separate constructs worthy of having like their own independent kind of voices and perspectives, but there is a lot of overlay, and the work, especially on the policy planning front, is inextricably tied together in many material respects.

And so I was heartened to see that kind of recognition, again, which is going to inform our planning on a going-forward basis.

And with that, I will take any comments or questions from you all.

If there are none, Madam President, I will.

Oh, Council Member Saga.

I was listening into your committee as I was driving to AWC.

I had the council listen line plugged right into the hands-free of my car.

Great to listen to the meeting.

And I know I said this to you in private.

I'm saying it in public.

Any of your site visits, I'm excited to go with you.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Got some coming up, so stay tuned.

Well, fantastic.

And shout out to the award-winning Seattle channel for making that available to us to listen to in transit or in wherever we are.

All right, I guess I'm last but not least.

And the one good thing about that is that many of you have mentioned items on my script that I would have talked about.

So I'll first note that we have the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee has nothing on the agenda tomorrow.

And our next meeting will not be until, let's see, the...

February 22nd at 2 o'clock, and we're still finalizing the agenda, but we anticipate a piece of legislation from OED, which is an ordinance accepting a grant from the State Department of Commerce to help fund repairs at the Wing Luke Museum in the Chinatown International District.

And as many of you know, in September, the museum sustained significant property damage in an act of vandalism.

that was an apparent hate crime.

This ordinance accepts $50,000 from the state, which will be combined with $50,000 from the city to reimburse the museum for up to 100,000 in repairs.

So that is forthcoming.

And that's it for my committee in the following committee, but we did have a great discussion with OED, as you mentioned.

learning about OED's work plan and also the future of Seattle economy investment agenda.

That was very productive.

And if you happen to miss that discussion, tune into the video online.

We also had a briefing from Wayne Barnett on the work that Ethics in Election does in Seattle.

And I'll probably be following up with some more questions for him on the enforcement of the lobby law, which I have some more questions about, because that's how we ensure that the decisions that are made by elected officials are not clouded by conflict of interest from interested parties from outside.

So I'll be following up on that, but you're welcome to funnel any questions that you have to him as well through me or just call him up on the phone.

Finally, I'll just note briefly a couple of the external committees.

Tomorrow, no, on Thursday, as noted, the Board of Health meets and will discuss many things, but I'm particularly excited about the discussion of the 2024 work plan for public health.

We will be discussing that piece of legislation.

It will be a resolution, but we will not be voting on it until the following week.

So that will be interesting.

And then last week, as noted, the King County Regional Homeless Authority Governing Committee held a special meeting to approve the appointment of interim CEO Daryl Powell.

You already noted his qualifications.

And I just want to also express my confidence that he's the right person to step in at this point to lead while the permanent search continues.

I also contribute my gratitude and thanks publicly to Helen Howell, who stepped up and has been leading the organization in a pinch since the departure of Mark Doan.

So, Helen, thank you very, very much for your service.

All right.

Moving on, I want to note that, as mentioned by Councilmember Strauss, I joined OIR Tribal Relations Director Tim Reynon to meet with Lummi Nation Councilmember Nick Lewis, who is a leader in tribal, local, state, and national public policy and currently serves as chair of the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and executive secretary of the National Congress of American Indians and representatives of the Lummi And so that's just a fragment of his body of work.

And also joining us at that meeting were representatives from the Lummi Youth Council.

And we discussed the devastating impact of fentanyl on their community and the need to break down barriers to develop greater coordinated response at all levels of government.

And I'm really grateful to Councilmember Lewis and the representatives of the Youth Council for sharing their stories with me and their resolve to do more to address this nationwide problem.

And I have to say, we discussed the drug crisis, the fentanyl crisis, but this meeting really did...

It had...

It had a greater emotional valence for me for some reason, just hearing directly from folks that are impacted over and over again, and they brought home the point that they're trying very hard to have an impact on Lummi Island, but as soon as folks leave Lummi Island and come to the mainland, the...

The drug crisis takes on a greater level of severity.

And so that's why it is so important that we work together.

And basically, at the end of this meeting, I just said, just tell me what to do.

I mean, my understanding is that the big ask is to get the governor and also the president of the United States to declare fentanyl a national and state emergency.

And then whatever resources flow from that, I will learn more about later.

Suffice it to say, I don't know whether or not anything will be coming through your committee, Councilmember, but I just basically said, just tell me what to do, because it's good that we're all working in concert together on this issue.

Okay.

Earlier today, I met with Congressman Adam Smith of the 9th District to discuss ways we can work together on issues our constituents have identified as top concerns, namely public safety and the drug crisis, and I understand he met with you as well.

Chair of Public Safety, Council Member Kettle.

So when our representatives are home during breaks, it's a great opportunity to meet and learn how we can work together on our shared priorities.

So that was interesting.

And also this morning, my staff met with representatives of Cascade Bike Club and Washington Bikes to hear about their priorities in 2024, specifically as that relates to the city's transportation plan and renewal of the transportation levy.

I'm sure that we'll be discussing further.

So before we adjourn, I want to extend a thank you to Mayor Harrell for organizing a gathering for people in the mayor's office and for council members and their staff last Thursday at Homesteam in Pioneer Square.

It was a reception that was well attended.

And we want to make sure that it was the we, council members attended it in a staggered fashion so as not to run afoul of the Open Public Meetings Act.

But why am I mentioning this?

Because I think it's really important for the public to know that we really are trying to We really are trying to have a functional and workable relationship with the executive.

That's all the public wants to hear about.

They want to see both branches of government working together.

And a long time ago, there used to be more regular social gatherings or attempts to find common ground and see each other as human beings between the legislative and executive branches.

And I just have to say thank you very much for springing for the apps, Mayor Harrell, and it's on us next time.

So with that, if there are no questions for council, and because it's a budget issue, we will not be spending public funds on that, don't worry.

Okay, is there any further business before we adjourn?

All right, seeing no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

It is 311. Thank you very much, everybody.

I look forward to seeing you in committees.