Awesome.
Good afternoon, everyone.
The date is May 8th, 2024. Meeting of Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology.
Committee will come to order.
It is 2.03 p.m.
I am Joy Hollingsworth, chair of the committee.
Will our clerk please call the roll?
Councilmember Kettle?
Here.
Councilmember Rivera?
Present.
Councilmember Strauss?
Present.
Council President Nelson?
Present.
Five council members are present.
Thank you.
And I'm here as well.
We have 10 items on the agenda.
First, we have a presentation from Moss Adams, audit of Seattle Public Utilities.
Then we'll also discuss Council Bill 120780. It's an ordinance authorizing SPU to acquire seven parcels of land next to Duwamish for a stormwater quality facility.
We will also have six appointments to the board of Parks and Recreation Commission.
And then finally, we have two appointments to the Community Surveillance Work Group.
We will now consider the agenda.
If there are no objections, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objections, which is my favorite when we don't have objections, the agenda will be adopted.
With that, we'll now open up the hybrid public comment.
Public comments should be related to items on today's agenda or be within the purview of the committee.
Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?
Currently, we have two in-person speakers signed up and there are one remote speakers.
Awesome.
All right, we have three speakers total.
Each speaker will get two minutes.
Clerk, will you please read the instructions for the public comment?
The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.
I will call on speakers by name in the order in which they are registered, both on the council's website or from the sign-up sheet available here in council chambers.
We will start with in-person speakers first.
If you have not registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period.
Just go to the council's website or by signing up on the sign-up sheet near the public comment microphone.
The online link is listed on today's agenda.
When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.
Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.
If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time period, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person.
The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.
The first speaker for in-person public comment is Christopher Stephan.
One second, we'll turn on your mic, Christopher, one second.
Should it be on?
You're live.
Hello.
Good afternoon, council members.
My name is Christopher Stapleton, and I'm here to talk about business item 2, CB 120780. I'm the owner of Gypsum to Gypsum and the tenant of the property located at 816 South Kenyon Street, owned by Silver Bay Logging.
I wish to address the committee today about this business item, Seattle Public Utilities acquisition of property for the South Park Water Quality Facility Project.
My company will be...
I'd like the committee to understand the impact that our company has on the recycling community and the challenges we face in being displaced.
Gypsum to Gypsum is a drywall recycling company that serves the construction and demolition of C&D recycling industry located in King County.
Our company's primary purpose is to divert large volumes of new construction drywall materials from landfills in King County.
We collect drywall materials from manufacturers, contractors, distributors who make, sell, and install drywall all over Seattle and the King County area.
In roughly 2016 to 2017, an ordinance was passed banning C&D materials from going to landfills.
Gypsum drywall was included among those materials to be banned from these landfills.
Drywall is an inert material and safe when it is diverted from landfill.
However, when placed in a landfill, it combines with organic materials and heat, creates a toxic gas called hydrogen sulfide.
In 2019, our company came to King County to assist in supporting this ordinance and to enhance the circular economy initiatives and recycling promoted by local municipalities.
Our company needed to operate on a site that was industrially zoned and in close proximity to buy land or water to distribute usable gypsum to our clients.
We established a business at South Kenyon Street with the idea that we'd be able to operate for a long period of time to continue to grow this infrastructure in the county.
To date, our company is 250,000 tons, and we've garnered a lot of support from the county in regards to this diversion.
Over the next five years...
Okay.
Thank you, sir.
Our next in-person speaker is Alex Zimmerman.
My name is Alex Zimmerman.
I want to speak about audit.
For 30 years, I see many audits, and I never understand, is nobody guilty?
For 30 years, government doing a billion and billion dollars, and everything so good?
and nobody fired, how is this possible?
Why?
Keeps up the time, please.
Because you're acting like a hunter, like a bandito, you know what I mean?
Mr. Zimmerman.
Mr. Zimmerman, can you address something that's on the item, anything on the agenda?
I'm not trying to interrupt you.
I talk about the audit.
Audit is not only page, it's philosophy, it's principle.
Please continue the timer.
Okay, go ahead.
Go right ahead.
Exactly.
I went to class action.
Why I went to class action?
Because I would it not so good.
Is this class action bring to people $100 million?
Why?
Because I would it can fix this problem.
Never did this.
You never will be doing this because you control everything.
Democrat, mafia, I want party fascism.
It's exactly what is we have.
Why?
Because you don't give chance speak.
Look, you all time what is I speak to you interrupt me.
Is this doing many people?
You're not alone.
I understand this.
So where is the problem?
Why?
Because you don't give chance people speak for this I talking.
Open a better room one time per week so we can go and speak for three minute about everything without limitation.
It's important.
You cut people's throat right now.
You don't give people a chance to speak right now openly.
No one newspaper go against Democrat mafia.
No one.
And I go for, speak like this many time.
So I ask you again, why for 10 years I talking about open better room and no one from you support this simple, don't cost a penny problem.
A free speech what is for everybody.
One minute, 30 second, 50 second, you can doing this.
Give people chance, be open.
Need bring Seattle back to normal life.
You understand about talking like we have before?
For the record, as you leave, because you will do that, you come and talk for two minutes.
The Nazi slogan is definitely a Nazi slogan.
It might be legal, but it's definitely hate speech in this committee.
And I will like that to mark that for the record.
OK, so thank you.
And now let's move on to our online commenter.
Thank you.
We will now move to the remote public comment.
Once I call a remote speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue.
That is their turn to speak.
And then the speaker must press star six to begin speaking.
Our first remote speaker is Cynthia Space.
Hi, I'm Cynthia Steeves, a District 6 resident.
My comment today is regarding Agenda Item 9, Appointment 02871, the appointment of Alex Maestretti to the Community Surveillance Working Group.
Thank you for your work in trying to fill out the seats on the Community Surveillance Working Group.
However, as I also shared in my email to Council, I don't think the appointment of Alex to the Community Surveillance Working Group would be legal under the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance.
Specifically, SMC 14.18.080A.3 states, quote, at least five members of the working group shall represent equity-focused organizations serving or protecting the rights of communities and groups historically subject to disproportionate surveillance, including Seattle's diverse communities of color, immigrant communities, religious minorities, and groups concerned with privacy and protest, end quote.
The mayor has already appointed two at-large members, Haley McNeil and Wendy Novotny, and their status as at-large members was validated at the March 7th Community Surveillance Working Group meeting.
This means that all three seats appointed by City Council must represent equity-focused organizations serving or protecting the rights of communities and groups historically subject to disproportionate surveillance.
The appointment packet for Alex does not state what equity-focused organization they represent, so I assume there is none.
Thus, it would not be legal under the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance to appoint them to the working group.
If Alex does represent an equity-focused organization, then that organization should be included in the appointment packet, given how critical it is within the wording of SMC14.18.
Thank you.
That's our final answer.
No additional people who signed up online to speak will now proceed to items in business, but I do want to address the small business owner from Gipsu, did I say that right?
What's your last name?
Staple, Christopher Stapleton.
Very nice to meet you.
I know that we have some presenters from SPU here to talk about this issue that's going on and so we'll ask questions and looking forward to hearing more about this issue.
So thank you for coming here today, appreciate it.
Will the clerk please read item agenda, agenda item one into the record, sorry.
Agenda item number one is the Moss Adams SPU audit presentation.
This is for briefing and discussion.
And our presenter is Lori Tisch from Moss Adams.
We are inviting Lori Tisch from Moss Adams about the audit.
This is actually an audit, the definition of an audit from SPU.
Thank you for coming today to help educate us on the financial health of Seattle Public Utilities.
Thank you for being here.
I know we're getting set up with your presentation.
We all love our public utilities and our drinking water, as I hear one of my colleagues pour their water.
And...
Would you go ahead and give your name for the record and you can just jump right into your presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
My name is Lori Tish.
I'm a partner with Moss Adams.
I'm here with my colleague, Nicole Siekmeyer-Janes, who is the manager for our audits.
So we're here today to give a background on our firm and our purpose and our scope of the audits, primarily because several of you we have not presented in front of.
So I am going to give a little background before we go into our audit report.
So first of all, our firm is Moss Adams.
We are headquartered here in Seattle.
We're the 11th largest firm in the nation and the largest firm in not only the greater Puget Sound area, but in the state of Washington.
We do specialize by industry groups.
So the team that serves Seattle Public Utilities is comprised of specialists that serve municipalities and specifically municipal utilities.
Now I want to talk a little bit about the scope and as I go through our scope and the purpose of our audits I'll try to give a little bit more background information as well, but please stop me if you do have any questions.
So we perform the financial statement audits for each of the three utilities, water, drainage and wastewater, and solid waste.
And while our responsibility is to actually express an opinion on the fairness of presentation of those financial statements, SPU management compiles the financial statements, prepares them, and ensures that they are complete and accurate even before we start work.
Now, Nicole, in a minute, is going to go into a little bit more detail on what an audit is comprised of, but I did want to stress that it is, in addition to looking at all the financial statement line items that you see in the financials, we also do a deep dive into certain systems within the internal controls, which, again, we'll provide a little bit more detail on that in a moment.
Now, again, the purpose of our audit is several fold.
And I do want to reassure this committee that there's no duplication of efforts.
The state auditor is responsible for auditing the city of Seattle.
The three utilities as funds roll up into that city of Seattle.
annual comprehensive financial report.
We work very closely with the state auditor to make sure there's no duplication of efforts.
For example, they audit the cash and investments of the city, which are then allocated out to the three funds.
We rely on their work.
And then at the end of our audits, they look at our audit work papers and look at our reports so that they don't duplicate or do anything, again, that we've already accomplished in the course of those three audits.
So we do work very much hand in hand with the state audit office.
I did want to mention again what these audit reports are used for.
They are for the benefit of all the citizens of the city, for the rate payers of the three utilities, and also specifically for the bondholders because each of these three utilities do issue bonds.
Now I want to talk a little bit about the reports that we issue.
There's two reports issued for each utility.
The first one is a financial statement opinion, which relates to the fact that those financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with US GAAP, which stands for, in the United States, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
So we make sure that all of the financial statement line items, The footnote disclosures, the management discussion analysis that precedes those financial statements are done properly in accordance with those standards.
Each of the reports that we issued were unmodified, which means a clean opinion.
So they all were fairly presented.
I will note that there was a paragraph added to our report this year noting that there was a new accounting standard implemented by the utilities.
So that's very routine.
Again, whenever there's a new substantive type of accounting standard, we do an emphasis of a matter which says we acknowledge that this new accounting standard was implemented properly and it's disclosed in the footnotes.
We finished our work in late April.
All three of the reports are dated April 26th and those financial statements along with our opinions have been issued to management.
Now, the next set of reports that we issue is really called an internal control and compliance report.
Government auditing standards require that we go in a pretty deep dive into the internal control structure.
And again, Nicole will provide a little bit more detail on exactly what accounts those are.
But I will say, again, another set of clean reports.
There were no material weaknesses noted.
No significant deficiencies were reported.
And those reports are also dated April 26th.
So this slide really covers what, as auditors, our responsibility is.
So again, I've covered that we're expressing our opinion on the fairness of presentation.
We're also required, when we do an audit, both under the AICPA standards, which is the American Institute of CPAs.
That's the entity that gives us our audit standards.
We also follow government auditing standards, which provides a few more requirements that we must follow when we conduct our audit.
And that is a pretty typical set of standards that are used for governmental entities across the United States.
And I just wanted to stress on this point that we designed the audit to obtain reasonable assurance, so we're not testing every single transaction that was ever entered into all year long.
We do a very much risk-based approach as far as which of the accounts would contain the most risk, where is our time best spent in auditing the systems, and auditing those complex accounts such as accounts that use estimation procedures when management is coming up with the dollar amounts.
So we do, again, we're giving reasonable assurance that these financial statements are fairly presented.
And again, as I mentioned earlier, we do consider internal controls and all the systems and processes that feed into those financial statements.
And lastly, number four, that is what we're doing today.
We're communicating those results to you, which we view you as the governance body that sits above management that oversees these financial statements.
Now, at this point, I want to turn it over to Nicole, who's going to talk a little bit more in detail about where do we spend our time and what are the accounts that we spend the most effort and time on.
Thank you.
As Lori mentioned earlier, we take a risk-based approach to the audit.
And so as we're doing our planning and based on our knowledge of the industry and Seattle Public Utilities, we identify key areas of emphasis and plan our procedures accordingly based on our assessment.
And this isn't a comprehensive list, but we wanted to highlight a few of those areas for you here today that we place particular emphasis on during our testing and our procedures.
Starting off with cash and investments, as Laurie mentioned earlier, we leverage work from the state auditor here, but we make sure that all of their findings and the numbers that they've tested agree to what's been reported to us.
For utility plant and related accounts, we do extensive work around the work order cycle including from an internal control perspective and detailed testing, which includes looking at what's been recorded to various projects under different buckets, talking with project managers for key projects that we've selected in a variety of other procedures around intangible right-to-use assets and leases, which are some of those new standards, which we'll talk a little bit more about, as well as depreciation and other overhead charges.
We perform procedures around accounts and other receivables which include confirmation with other city funds and subsequent cash receipts and a variety of other analysis around those receivables.
We do extensive testing around bonds and the related accounts, particularly when there's been issuances.
There was bond issuances from one of the funds, Drain Engine Wastewater, this year.
But otherwise, we're doing testing over interest expense and covenant compliance and all of the other aspects around those bond-related accounts.
We perform testing over the regulatory assets and liabilities, which include the credit and deferred accounts.
This is largely made up of pension-related items and other specific areas related to post-employment benefits and things of that nature.
The internal control work that we do spans all of the significant and applicable business cycles.
For certain of those, we take control reliance and perform additional testing to test the operating effectiveness of those.
But we've got a list here of some of the key areas, being the cash receipts and disbursements, payroll, financial close and reporting, and most of the other areas, including IT.
We have a team of specialists that are very well trained and specialists in information technology that handle that part of the audit for us.
So we work very closely hand in hand.
They do the work usually in the fall so that we can rely on anything that they have noted within the system.
There's a lot of integration in the internal controls testing with automated general computer controls or automated controls within the system.
And then the things that we test through sampling.
So it seems like every year more and more of our audit hours are spent with our IT team doing that work as things get more technology related.
And continuing with our list on this slide, accrued liabilities is a significant area for us, particularly around the environmental remediation and obligations around the landfill closure and post closure.
We meet with the city attorney and with project managers that are knowledgeable on the activities so that we can test the sufficiency of the liabilities as they've been recorded.
General operations, including revenue and expenses, which includes both the retail, wholesale, sales, as well as contributions and grant income.
We test the classification of net position between the various restrictions, the capital assets and unrestricted, and then the management discussion and analysis.
We review all of the items that are included before the financial statements to make sure that they're consistent with the information that we've audited and the footnote disclosures.
So before we move into what we call our required discussion communication with this body, are there any questions on audit scope, purpose, or the accounts that we dive into?
Okay.
Oh, I see.
I want to recognize Councilmember Strauss.
Thank you.
Coming live to you from District 6 office.
Apologies for not being in person with you in chambers.
When you mentioned that this was rolled up into the other city budget audits, I know the city budget has three audits, two done by the state and one done by the federal.
Were you saying that this rolls up into the ACFR audit or into the accountability audit?
Yes, that rolls up into the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the ACFR for short.
So their financial statements is what this rolls up into.
And then that is the audit that I was referring to that the state auditor, the financial statement auditor that the state auditor performs.
Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Well, as previously noted, under our auditing standards, we have required matters that we communicate to you as governance for the utility.
And the first of those is the significant accounting practices and our views on what those are, which includes accounting policies, accounting estimates, and financial statement disclosures.
Based on our audit, we believe that these are sufficiently disclosed and applied.
The disclosures are note one to the financial statements for each of the utilities.
And we wanted to call it a few of those key estimates here that we are again disclosed in note one and that we pay particular attention to.
some of which include the unbilled revenue, allowance for doubtful accounts, some bond-related estimates, depreciable lives of capital assets, those environmental liabilities and other types of contingencies, the landfill closure and postclosure costs, and other post-employment benefits and compensated absences.
We're happy to report that there were no significant difficulties that we encountered during our audit or disagreements with management.
So not much to talk about there.
Next, we report to you if there are any uncorrected misstatements or material misstatements that were corrected.
Again, there was nothing that we identified as a result of our audit that were either uncorrected or corrected.
I want to comment, too, that that's a bit unusual.
We typically do find some, if not material adjustments, we often find small amounts that we would pass on just because they're so small.
But we're here to tell you there were none, no adjustments, no past adjustments at all.
Management makes certain representations to us through their representation letters for each fund, which we communicate to you that there are certain things they're asserting to as part of the audit on the information that's been provided to us for our testing purposes.
And then lastly, this general bucket of other findings, this is where we wanted to note there was a new accounting standard that was applicable during the current year, which is Gatsby 96, which is around subscription-based information technology arrangements.
This is similar to a standard that was effective last year that brought leases onto the balance sheet.
And this is a similar situation bringing IT arrangements onto the balance sheet where you have an asset that's called a right to use asset and a corresponding liability for the future payments for that right to use asset.
There was an immaterial impact for all of the utility, each of the three funds.
And so because of that, the prior year 2022 numbers were not restated for this new GASB 96 because of the immaterial impact.
There were no consultations by management with other accountants.
And then lastly, these couple items, there are certain exposures that SPU has in the ordinary course of business, which are disclosed in the financial statements.
And then we as a firm are independent of Seattle Public Utilities and wanted to affirm that.
Before we close, I just wanted to spend a few moments because this audit went extraordinarily very, very well.
Everything was early with respect to getting us the schedules that we needed and the financial statement drafts.
We felt that we had very strong communication between our team and between management's team.
We had weekly meetings that actually started last fall when we started our interim work and our planning work that continued all the way up until the end of April when we issued our reports.
I also wanted to comment, audits are very intrusive.
We're not just in the accounting department.
We're out with, Nicole mentioned the city attorney and the environmental specialists.
We are talking to project managers.
We do a really deep dive into capital projects and work orders.
And so we're talking to project managers out in the field that have nothing to do with accounting and just getting more evidence for how the projects are being accounted for.
So we're out and about throughout the entirety.
of the operations of Seattle Public Utilities.
And I have to say, everybody is very nice to us and welcomes us with open arms.
And we know we're being intrusive.
They have their normal day job and they have to take time out to prepare things for us and talk to us and answer our questions.
And without exception, very professional conduct.
We note a very strong tone at the top is what we call it when we look at the top down, not only from this governance group, but from senior management.
and that attitude of openness and candor and being willing to open the books and open the records and be audited.
And that goes a long ways towards a positive experience, certainly for us, but for just able to get reliance on your internal control structure and understand where all the accounts come from.
And I think that that goes along, that tone and that environment is why We had no audit adjustments.
We have no material weaknesses or control deficiencies to bring to your attention.
So again, everything went on time.
The result was very, very positive.
And I just wanted to say a big thank you to SPU management at every level and their staff.
It was just a very good experience and it could not have gone better.
Thank you so much for the presentation.
It was great to hear that the audit went really, really well and couldn't agree with you more about from the top down and well-ran.
Just the experience I've had has been phenomenal.
So would love to open it up to my colleagues if they have any questions.
And I see Councilmember Rivera, you are recognized.
Thank you, Chair.
I echo your gratitude.
Director Lee and his team have done a great job partnering with the firm, and thank you for all you're doing.
This is a great example of financial audit, and it's really an exercise in making sure that our books are in great shape, and so that is really something that's great to hear and inspires confidence, and so really appreciate all the great work that you do.
And I also want to underscore, it just so happens that I had a conversation with Director, Interim Director Jamie Carnell with the Office of the City Finance, with the City Finance Office, who was talking about the IT and how more and more, you know, the finance teams have to work with IT because so much of this used to be done manually.
And now we're reliant on computers to do the work.
And so, you know, it's something that seems well, obvious and yet I hadn't really thought about how much you all have to do in that space.
So thank you for, it's applicable what I just talked to her about with what you're saying.
So really appreciate you flagging that though, because this is an important piece.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Rivera.
Council Member Kettle, I see you have your hands up.
Not hands, but your hand.
Sorry.
Okay.
Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.
I just wanted to pass a thank you.
And so this is my baseline.
This is my first audit briefing.
And so as I look at other departments that may be out in the audience, well, there's your benchmark and hopefully they all match up.
And so for all the other heads of departments, there's their standard.
Not that I'm looking at any others right now in the audience, but, you know, it's like, yeah.
But thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Kettle.
Council President Nelson.
Well, I'll simply say that if I'm ever audited, I want an extraordinarily very, very well grade on my report card.
That's what you noted.
That sounds above average to me.
So thank you very much for your diligence and shout out to the leadership and everybody who participated in this, in the audit at SPU.
Thank you very much.
ultimately this does, it gets to public trust in government.
And so that's why it's important.
Thanks.
No, absolutely.
I can echo that.
It's huge.
So the health of SPU is good.
So free water next year is what I hear.
No?
Okay.
Director Lee?
No.
Okay.
Just playing.
Okay.
Thank you all for that.
Really appreciate you all coming here.
And if there's no further questions, we'll move to agenda item number two.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
uh will the clerk please read agenda item number two into the record agenda item number two is an ordinance relating to seattle public utilities authorizing the acquisition of real property by negotiation or eminent domain condemnation of seven separate parcels of land properties or eminent domain condemnation of leases located at 7760 8th avenue south 803 South Chicago Street, 811 South Chicago Street, 7814 8th Avenue South, 7808 8th Avenue South, 836 South Kenyon Street, and 850 South Kenyon Street, authorizing the general manager and chief executive offer of Seattle Public Utilities to execute all documents and take other necessary actions to complete the property's acquisition, including acceptance and recording of the deeds, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
This is for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.
Presenting today are Jerry Caruso and Christina Capoy from Seattle Public Utilities.
Awesome, thank you all for being here.
I'm looking forward to the presentation.
I'd also like to note that we have our council staff, one of my favorite, Brian Goodnight here, and there's probably council essential staff watching.
All of you are my favorite, so I just wanted to throw that out there.
So please introduce yourself for the record and you can begin your presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Good afternoon and welcome chairperson, committee members and members of the public.
My name is Jerry Caruso and I'm the real property manager for Seattle Public Utilities.
And I'm here with Christina Kapoi, who's the manager for the South Park Water Quality Project.
And we're here to present an ordinance on the purchase of property in the South Park area of Seattle.
Just generally, we are purchasing these parcels to construct the South Park water quality facility to filter stormwater.
I'm sorry, where's the next...
Do I hit...
How do I do it?
What do I hit?
I don't know.
Oh.
Can I hit an arrow?
Yes.
Sorry.
No worries.
This legislation authorizes SPU to acquire seven parcels located in the Duwamish Waterway in South Park to construct this water quality facility.
Christina will provide you with the project background and the need and functionality of the project, but first I want to give you just a brief review of some of the project milestones.
In 2013, there was a consent decree for combined sewer overflows and this purchase of this property and the building of this water quality facility will help the city fulfill its obligations under that consent decree by allowing for an integrated plan to implement stormwater controls projects.
And in line with the city's policy on the acquisition of city policy should be conducted in the context of long-range vision, responsible stewardship, and taking into account the current and future generations.
The project team conducted an extensive site analysis and evaluation prior to selecting the site for the project.
This siting evaluation consisted of a site analysis between 2018 and 2021, where we viewed other properties to evaluate the suitability for the project.
Some of the critical areas in this site analysis included the site size, its location adjacent to the Duwamish, its proximity to the South Park Pump Station, which this project will work in conjunction with, and the availability of the site on the market.
The city did not want to condemn and preferred a site that was on the market as opposed to those that...
or a site where the owner was willing to sell.
The project gained approval to move forward with its internal Stage Gate 1 approval from the Drainage and Wastewater Department, allowing for the line of business to move forward with options analysis in 2021. A letter of intent was sent to Silver Bay in 2021 as well.
And approval from the Real Estate Steering Committee initially came in 2021, and then with a revised strategy plan, there was an updated approval in August of 23. There was a phase one environmental assessment conducted, and the mayor's office was briefed last October by the projects team on the site evaluation, the options analysis, the funding, and the environmental review.
Appraisals were also completed last fall and this spring, and grant funding was recently approved through the state legislative budget in March of 24. The actual parcels, the acquisition involves purchasing property from several different property owners.
Silver Bay Logging owns four parcels depicted on the plan, and we have a signed purchase and sale agreement for the purchase of those parcels.
Stanley Mosher and JAMA LLC.
Only two other parcels shown on the plan here.
The JAMA LLC parcel consists of a warehouse and storage yard, and the small triangular parcel on the bottom right of the screen is owned by Stanley Mosher individually, and that's a residential dwelling.
And just a note is that Stan Mosher is the principal of both JAMA LLC and obviously the owner individually.
And so we are in negotiations with Stan for both his individually owned property and his LLC owned property.
And the last parcel is owned by RJ and BA LLC.
We are in negotiations with this property owner as well.
And please note that the owners of Silver Bay are the principal owners of RJ and BA.
So for clarity, there are four separate property owners and there are seven parcels, but they are all owned by two principals, the owner of Silver Bay and Stan Mosher.
And now I'm gonna turn the mic over to Christina and she could tell us a little bit more about the project background.
Thank you, Jerry.
The South Park Water Quality Facility Project is a regional stormwater quality treatment facility that will treat stormwater from the Seventh Avenue South Drainage Basin, which is approximately 238 acres.
It is important to note, however, that the Water Quality Facility will not be treating all of the stormwater from this basin.
The facility will treat approximately 85 million gallons per year of stormwater.
And to help put this in perspective, because that's kind of hard to imagine, this is approximately equal to 130 Olympic-size swimming pools.
and this is approximately 35% of the estimated annual stormwater runoff within this basin.
The water quality facility will remove pollutants from stormwater runoff from this primarily heavily industrial area.
Even though the water quality facility is not designed to treat all of the stormwater, it will treat what is called the first flush, which happens during the first rain event of the wet season, which is where we see a significant portion of the sediments and pollutants within the stormwater itself.
The water quality facility is estimated to remove between 21 to 27 tons of solid material or sediment within this basin per year.
And again, just to kind of help put this in perspective, a good frame of reference is this is approximately equal to four elephants or a fully loaded garbage truck.
So it's a significant amount of sediment and pollutants that would be removed within this basin.
Currently stormwater within this basin is directly discharged to the Lower Duwamish Waterway, which is a federal Superfund cleanup site.
The water quality facility would remove pollutants from the stormwater before it is discharged to the river, which would reduce the potential for recontaminating the river after it has been cleaned up.
As Jerry mentioned, this project is one of three stormwater projects that were selected from the city's integrated plan in 2015, which was approved by the EPA and Ecology under the city's combined sewer overflow consent decree.
The main objective of this project is to improve water quality by removing pollutants from the stormwater.
In addition to this benefit, the project is also balancing a number of other additional goals, including providing safe and accessible facility that can be effectively operated and maintained, as well as integrating a number of community benefits that align with the Duwamish Valley Action Plan, which was developed in close coordination with the South Park community, such as providing additional accessible river access neighborhood connectivity, and green space.
This project has been developing technical options for treating the stormwater over the last few years, and we anticipate completing this evaluation and selecting an option to move forward into design this summer.
This facility will consist of a robust multi-stage treatment process that entails conveying the stormwater or the influent as depicted on this slide from the South Park Pump Station to the water quality facility site where it will pass through a screen to remove a lot of the larger materials before the water flows through the primary treatment element where the bulk of the sediment and pollutants are removed.
The last step provides additional filtration and removal of sediment and pollutants before the cleaner water is then discharged into the Duwamish.
So in summation, SPU has completed a robust due diligence process to select the site for the water quality facility and has determined that these seven parcels are best suited for the location of this project in part due to the proximity to the South Park Pump Station and the Duwamish as an outfall.
And also, as Jerry mentioned, it is sized appropriately to construct the water quality facility.
In addition, all of the property owners are willing sellers.
And this is a multi-benefit project that will not only provide source control to the Duwamish River by treating and cleaning the stormwater before it is discharged, but also providing additional community benefits such as expanding waterfront access and habitat restoration.
It also allows us to move forward with the design and eventual construction of this project to ensure that we meet the combined sewer overflow consent decree deadline.
Thank you.
That concludes our presentation.
Thank you.
That concludes our presentation and open to questions.
Awesome.
No, I want to open up to my colleagues before I ask some questions and I will pause there and wait for anyone to raise their hand.
Okay, well, oh, there, Councilmember Strauss, you are recognized.
You got me, you got me, Chair.
And while Councilmember Kettle's favorite, oh, look, now Councilmember Kettle's coming up, his favorite presenter might be Megan Shepard, but Jerry Caruso, you are up there in my book for being one of my faves.
Great presentation today.
This makes good sense to me.
I also wanted to tag onto the chairs comments to the public commenter.
Depend on your business to ensure that.
Drywall doesn't go to our plan fills for all the reasons you mentioned.
I'll take this moment to put a pitch in for you.
that we've got a lot of great land up here in the Ballard Interbay Manufacturing and Industrial Center here both in District 6 and 7. We'd love to keep your business in Seattle and we've got a lot of opportunities up here if you'd ever like to reach out, happy to talk to you.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you.
Council Member Kettle.
Thank you, Chair.
I just had a quick question.
You know, I've been more the Northern part of Seattle and I've read stories, but in terms of like putting into context, like this project to the overall need and in terms of the lower Duwamish, where are we to get to that consent decree?
How far along the path and some context in that respect.
I'll let you go.
Okay.
In regards to this project and the consent decree requirements, we're currently in options analysis and would need to move through design and construction.
I know that there are recent negotiations regarding the deadline for the consent decree, and I believe that it is going to be extended until 2030. And so that is our deadline that we are working towards having the facility operational and online.
And so once this is done, would any additional work that needs to be completed related to the lower Duwamish overall?
There are a number of other projects listed within the consent decree, and I don't know what they are offhand.
The Superfund site has...
several, two different projects right now at various stages.
The Upper Reach project is being led by King County, and they are in the construction process, which is called the cleanup, actual cleanup of the Duwamish.
That just started this, or is just starting next, fall, sometime in the next year.
I'm not on that project.
The middle reach of the Duwamish is led by the city, and that is currently in the design stage.
They are right now, testing the sediment bottoms.
This is the second year where they're testing.
And after they evaluate those tests and those sediments, they then make a decision on how to move forward with construction and cleanup.
So the middle reach is still in design.
I don't know the expectation of, you know, I don't have the timeline for that, but so there are several other projects in the area That and and then the South Park pump station is a recently completed project that this will be connecting to And I know there are other street projects in the in the area that are dealing with some drainage as well director council member if I may Andrew Lee again general manager for SPU We actually are in the process of negotiating the consent decree for the lower Duwamish cleanup so we don't have a consent decree yet and
We are hopeful that there may be a consent decree that will actually be presented to this body sometime this year.
We imagine that the work for the actual cleanup will probably be between 15 to 20 years of actual cleanup work.
And so it will likely not conclude for quite a while.
The consent decree that Christina was talking about is our CSO consent decree, our combined sewage overflow consent decree.
So our ship canal water quality project in the Ballard and Fremont area, that's part of that consent decree.
That one we did sign in 2013, and we are actually in the process of negotiating an amendment to that, which will give us a little bit more time to complete those projects.
The amendment will most likely give us through the 2030s, actually, and we'll be actually coming back to this body, I believe, sometime this summer even, maybe even late spring to discuss that with this body in terms of what that amendment is.
Thank you, because like the ship canal, we get briefings in our 130 days that we've been on council.
But then you also read the news articles, the pump station, and just kind of framing it with a broader context.
So thank you for the combined answer, because that gives that context, and I appreciate it.
Sure.
And then can you also give us, I was reading about the gentleman's business, Gypsum.
I didn't realize that you all put, that's for soil, into farmers.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Understood.
Yeah, I thought it was cool.
I was reading the story about how your family got started and the blueberries, how they grew bigger.
Could you walk us through the mitigation for their business?
I know they're here, but just so we as a council know what that looks like for relocation and all that stuff.
We are currently in the process of evaluating the relocation services that were required.
There's a state statute and a city statute ordinance on relocation requiring that public projects, you know, if a...
if a tenant or owner is forced to move from a public project, the city will pay for the relocation.
There are certain limits and restrictions on that.
And there's certain definitions that we are evaluating to make a determination.
So we're getting professional relocation advisory services and in discussions with the law department and moving forward.
So that is under evaluation.
American Gypsum will get all the relocation benefits that they're entitled to from the city.
We're making an internal evaluation and we're in discussions with them.
I don't mean to put you on the spot.
Thank you for that.
Potentially a D7 business.
I don't want to have the D6 plug only.
Or 6, 7.
I said 7 too.
D6.
I know this is tough because I'm just a small business owner myself and having that and knowing that this is needed for our waterways and how challenging this is.
And I would...
I am hoping that you continue to stay in Seattle and we will roll out the red carpet and for that to be able to happen.
And I would love for that to happen for small businesses.
And I know, oh, Council Member Nelson has a question.
Oh, no, finish your sentence.
That was it.
It was a rumble-jumble mess.
Councilmember, Council President.
First of all, thank you very much for representing small business.
I do share your comments about the particular business that addressed us today.
And I do have a question about the fiscal note, if you may.
I'm looking at the appraised value.
and the funding amount that is allocated for the acquisition of some of these properties.
And so I'm noticing that just for the Silver Bay logging, which is four parcels, for example, the appraised value is $9.7 million.
And the funding from the city is $150,000.
And so how do you bridge that gap?
And also, I also must note that the appraised value has an asterisk that basically says that the values assume that the properties are free of contamination.
And then it goes on to say that, however, previous investigations have identified the presence of contaminants on site.
So I guess that lowers the value.
But to what?
I don't know.
We have done an environmental assessment and review of the liabilities and obligations that will come with purchasing this property.
And Silver Bay, it was appraised for the nine plus million dollars, and they are donating the property, so that is why the appraised value is high, but the SPU funding for that purchase is much lower.
Our funding is just going to a certain segment.
So they're good with that?
Yeah.
Okay.
It's being donated.
And the same would be, and then I'll note the other, the RJ and BA property is the appraised value and the funding value is the same amount.
So, okay.
That's correct.
Thank you.
I understand.
Are there any additional questions from my wonderful colleagues?
I see your hand up, Council President.
That must be an old hand.
Yep.
Okay.
Awesome.
I echo Council President Nelson's comments about our small businesses and just I want to thank SPU for bringing this forward as well for this bill.
And I'm moving that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120780. Second.
I'll have a second.
Did I hear a second?
Second.
Okay.
Thank you.
Will the clerk, it's been moved and seconded, recommend passage of the bill.
Are there any comments right now?
I do.
I just have one thing to say.
This is important work.
I mean, we are talking about the health of our waters in and around the city.
And so thank you very much.
I recognize that we can't not do this.
And above and beyond that, we very much should.
So thank you.
And I wanted to add that this purchase, we have a utility nexus right with this purchase and in this area, and there's a real need for this facility.
And that if we weren't able to purchase this property, the future nexus might not be utility oriented and maybe general funds.
Understood.
Councilmember Rivera.
Thank you, Chair.
And also, I just want to underscore, we are under a consent decree to clean up our waterways from the federal government.
So this really much, I mean, this addresses that.
We have to address that.
But I also very much appreciate the experiences of our small businesses and the impacts this has.
So I appreciate the mitigation efforts that will go toward addressing that because that is important as well.
We have to do these things and we have to make sure that we're mitigating for the unintended consequences that happen for things that we still have to do.
So thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Rivera and Council President Nelson for those comments.
Will the clerk please call the roll on Committee Recommendation, Council Bill 120780. Council Member Rivera?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Kettle.
Aye.
Council President Nelson.
Aye.
Chair Hollingsworth.
Aye.
The motion carries.
Oh, sorry, you're going to read how many, my apologies.
Five in favor, none opposed.
I'm not on my game today, I'm sorry.
The motion carries and the committee recommends the bill passes as amended and will be sent to our city council meeting, not next week, but the following week.
So thank you all so much.
Thank you.
Council Member Rivera.
Sorry, I should have mentioned this earlier, but is it possible to get an update on the mitigation efforts to help the small business that is impacted?
just for our awareness since it has come up here today.
Just keep us updated.
Yeah, I think, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
No, absolutely.
Just, yeah, a follow-up updated with Director Lee.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
We have a number of appointments before us.
I know you all have been waiting.
Thank you all.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Christopher.
I know that we have a number of appointments before us and you all have been patiently waiting.
So wait no further.
I'm going to have consider all the appointments for each committee at one.
Clerk, please read agenda item three, three through eight into the record.
Agenda items number three through number eight are the appointments of Ryan Baum, Tricia Diamond, Steve Lehrer, Whitney Nakamura, John A. Flynn, as members of the Board of Park and Recreation Commissions for terms to March 31st, 2027, and the reappointment of Justin P. Umagat as a member of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissions for a term to end March 31st, 2027. This is for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.
Speaking today is AP Diaz, Superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation.
With that, we'll invite AP Diaz and Paula Hoff to the table.
Superintendent Diaz, since Director Lee is out there, you're my favorite head of the department.
He's out there.
He won't see this until later.
I'm just playing.
Both of y'all are my favorite.
Anyways, thank you all for being here.
Superintendent Diaz is going to give us a quick briefing about comments about the appointees.
We're always grateful for the appointees because they are volunteers and we're grateful for their service to our city.
And I don't know if there's a presentation involved, but I also want to take this moment to recognize our phenomenal Parks Department staff.
We've been having, obviously, a lot of...
We had asylum seekers at Powell Barnett Park, and you all have been phenomenal on the ground every day, making sure things are facilitated correctly.
And I just wanted to thank you all and your staff for just being on the front line to a lot of those things.
So thank you.
Thank you, Council Chair Hollingsworth, and good afternoon, members of the committee.
Before you today are five nominees for the Parks Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners.
As you all know, at Parks, we work really closely with communities and groups throughout the entire city of Seattle, and so it's important for us to have a board that reflects the diversity and breadth of our city, and which can help shape and advise the department on how to best provide programs and services for the public.
Our Parks and Recreation Commissioner consists of 15 board members.
Positions consist of three at-large members who can come from any part of the city.
One member from the Mayor's Get Engaged program, which is usually a...
a younger emerging leader in the city and provides great experience.
Three commissioner seats who are members who are also serving on another board or commission.
And then one member from each councilmatic district is on the board.
So there will be a representative from at least one of your council districts and all nine, including the at-large members.
Board members are community volunteers who use their life experience and connections to community to advise and make recommendations to the superintendent on parks and recreation topics that come before the BPRC.
This includes park development projects, recreational programs and services, including those funded by the Seattle Park District.
We seek to appoint members with a diversity of expertise, experience, and perspectives, including but not limited to parks management, youth development, public financing, social and human services, economic development, land use, anti-displacement, urban horticulture, art, climate resiliency, landscape architecture, contract management, and the interest of our BIPOC community members and other historically underserved communities.
Just reading that reminds me of the breadth of work of the Parks and Recreation Department, which is why I love it so much and feel so blessed to be the director of this amazing organization.
as i know you all are in the work that we do for the city so these are dedicated volunteers who serve for three-year terms with an option to be reappointed for an additional term we are confident these volunteers will be a great addition to the board you have their bios and background information but happy to answer any further questions and thank you for your consideration and several of them are here today in the audience so i want to thank them for coming to council and as well as members online.
Awesome.
I want to thank them for being here.
Are the...
So we have...
Is Ryan Bam here?
Awesome.
Trisha Diamond?
No.
Steve Lehrer?
I'm going to butcher names.
I'm sorry.
Did I say it right?
Okay, awesome.
Steve Lehrer.
Whitney Nakamura.
And John Flynn.
John Flynn.
John.
Okay.
Awesome.
And then the reappointment of Justin.
Oh my God.
Correct.
Awesome.
Thank you all so much for your service.
I know it's a volunteer, but it's so grateful.
We need a lot of these committees to help us formulate what's going on on parks and helping us continue the civil service.
So thank you all for being here and for waiting one hour and eight minutes for this agenda item.
Really appreciate y'all.
So now, do any of my colleagues have any questions?
No.
Okay.
No questions.
I move that the committee recommend these appointments to the Seattle Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.
It has been moved and seconded to recommend appointment of these six individuals.
Are there any comments?
Seeing none, okay.
Yes, Chair.
Oh, Councilmember Strauss.
Sorry, we're rolling so fast I didn't realize this was our opportunity to speak to the candidates who are before us right now.
Chair, in your time here at City Council, I have been impressed with how many people in the city you know on a first-name basis who are in our chambers.
This is my opportunity to call out Whitney Nakamura, who I got to go to high school with.
And I can tell you that she's been a committed person to our parks family for a very long time.
and I'm having trouble seeing on the council chambers.
Is she with us today?
She may be remote, but not in person.
Okay.
I'm not seeing her on zoom.
So I'll save my questions for the next time I see her, but just want to raise her up as being a committed Seattleite through and through.
Thank you, Council Member Strauss.
Council President Nelson.
I just want to note, I always say thank you for your service and donating your expertise.
So thank you very much.
In 2022, I believe it was, yes.
The council, but as acting as the park district, renewed the spending plan for the parks levy.
And I will have to say that I took advantage of the expertise and knowledge of the people that sat on the committee that sit on this board.
I called them to ask for their expertise and their thinking about why this much money here and not here, et cetera, et cetera.
So this really is an important board to sit on when it comes to stewarding the resources of our property owners and pretty much everybody in the town.
So it comes with a lot of responsibility because I'm sure that in a very short time you're going to start studying and analyzing the re-renewal or the next renewal.
It takes a long time.
So I just want to note that the body of work that you take on really is important.
Parks are commons and you're talking about people's resources.
So thank you very much.
And before we take a vote, I'm so rude.
I apologize.
Would anyone like to say a comment at all who are on the committee?
If not, it's okay.
I just wanted to offer that as an opportunity if you wanted to say anything.
No?
Okay.
All right.
Yes?
Awesome.
Thank you.
It's the last chance to get out because Councilmember Nelson said there will be a lot of work with Park District Levy.
We're about to take this vote.
You're about to be official.
No, it's a lot of work.
Okay, Clerk, will you please call the roll on the committee recommendation to appoint?
Councilmember Rivera?
Aye.
Councilmember Strauss?
Yes.
Councilmember Kettle?
Aye.
Council President Nelson?
Aye.
Chair Hollingsworth?
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
Motion carries and the committee recommendation that the appointments of Ryan Bam, Tricia Diamond, Steve Lehrer, Whitney Nakamura, and John Flynn and the reappointment of John Umagat, and I don't know if I said his name correct, be sent to the May 14th City Council.
Two appointments.
The next piece is the Community Surveillance Work Group.
And I'm going to have us consider...
Oh, excuse me.
Yes.
Since it doesn't relate to this, I just wanted to say a thank you to Parks.
I was at Southlake Union Community Council meeting last night regarding Parks.
Two representatives, very knowledgeable.
And I just wanted to say thank you for their participation in last night's Southlake Union Community Council meeting.
Very helpful, because, you know, the three parks and connecting them to Seattle Center and other, you know, it's part of the system.
Very important to have that knowledge on base.
Thank you, sir.
And I'll take a shout out to say thank you for your future support for District 7 parks.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Members.
Thank you, Superintendent Diaz, my fav.
Appreciate you.
Okay, we have two appointments to the Community Surveillance Work Group, and I'm gonna have us consider both appointments to the committee at once.
Will the clerk please read Agenda Items 9 and 10 into the record?
Agenda items number nine and number 10 are the appointments of Alex Mastretti and Carolyn Riley Payne as members of the Community Surveillance Working Group for terms ending December 31st, 2026. This is for briefing discussion and possible vote.
And speaking today is Ginger Armbruster, Chief Privacy Officer of Seattle Information Technology Department and Vin Tang from Seattle Information Technology Department.
Well, thank you all.
I know it's the last item agenda.
You've waited this whole piece.
So I just want to thank you all for being here today.
Would you mind giving us some comments regarding the appointees before us today?
Yes, hello.
I would just like to, for the record, state I am not Ginger Armbruster.
She wishes she could be here today.
She is my boss, chief privacy officer, but I am Sarah Carrier, privacy program manager for the city.
So I just wanted to state for the record I am not her.
Thank you.
Hello, council members.
We are pleased to introduce two new council appointments to the Community Surveillance Working Group today.
But before we ask them to introduce themselves and offer a few remarks about why they're interested in joining the working group and also on their background, I wanted to give you a quick background on the working group itself.
So the working group was created in 2018 through Council Bill 119218, and they are responsible for advising council and the executive on matters of surveillance technology from a community perspective.
The working group consists of seven members appointed by the mayor and council, four by the mayor, and three by council to be specific.
At least five members represent equity-focused organizations serving or protecting the rights of communities and groups historically subject to disproportionate surveillance, including diverse communities of color, immigrant communities, religious minorities, and groups concerned with privacy.
The working group's main responsibility is during kind of stage four of the surveillance process, where they're asked to provide a privacy and civil liberties impact assessment for each surveillance technology in each CERT.
The impact assessment shall include a description of the potential impact of the surveillance technology on civil rights and liberties and potential disparate impacts on communities of color and other marginalized communities.
The working group provides its impact assessment in writing for inclusion in the SUR report within six weeks of receiving the final proposed surveillance impact report.
With these two council appointments, the working group will have six out of the seven positions filled.
So, any questions so far?
Awesome.
And I know that we have Mrs. Carolyn Riley-Payne in the audience.
Would you like to come up and say a few words?
Council Member Strauss, I know Ms. Riley-Payne.
I just want to let you know that.
Former president of NAACP.
Absolutely.
Great work in the community.
So I just wanted to throw that out there.
Council Member Strauss, we're one for one today.
We're just, Chair, just for today.
I think you have me beat in the overall long run by a hundred.
I love it.
Miss Riley Payne.
Good afternoon.
My name is Carolyn Riley Payne.
As you heard, I am a member of the immediate past president of the Seattle King County NAACP.
I'm an activist.
I am a mother, an ex-teacher, and you might be wondering why would somebody that has no technical, trust me, ability would want to be on this committee.
I think it's important for a couple of reasons, and the first being that when you're doing technical work, sometimes that's all your mind is on and that's the way you go.
And those of us that are in the public don't always get a chance to.
We don't understand it.
Sometimes it's confusing, etc.
And I think what I will bring to this committee is a balance.
to help us understand and be able to go to the community and get some buy-in because they understand what they're reading and seeing.
So I'm hoping that that would be one of the qualities that I can bring to this committee.
And the other one is that perhaps I will learn something about technology.
So I'm excited about working and being on the committee.
So thank you so very much.
Thank you.
Do any of my colleagues have any questions?
No, I don't.
We are so grateful for you, Ms. Riley-Payne.
We know you've been in the community a long time doing service and work for us and NAACP, and you have served as well.
And looking forward to working with you and hearing a lot of your recommendations.
And we really appreciate your willingness to bring your knowledge to the committee.
But most importantly, creating transparent access for our community so they can be connected to government.
That's probably the most important piece.
So thank you.
Thank you.
With that, do any of my colleagues have any questions about this?
Are we talking about both appointments?
We are.
I apologize.
That and the appointment of Alex Mestari?
Yeah.
Are they online?
Are they here?
I believe Alex is.
I could kick it over to my colleague, Vin, who is joining online to provide a little bit more detail about the appointees themselves.
Please.
Sorry.
I just kind of just went out of order.
Please, Vin.
Hi.
Again, my name is Vin Teng.
I am the technology advisor for the mayor's office.
Just kind of In addition to the introduction that Sarah provided, this is Chair Hong's Board of Members of the Committee.
In partnership with the City Council, we're making two recommendations here.
Obviously, we introduced Carolyn, and then the second recommendation is Alex Nostredi.
He has an extensive background in IT security and fills the Council at PARG position.
Alex has a decade of experience working with the U.S. federal government, working on operational and policy implications around surveillance technology.
And just to kind of address the public comment that was provided at the beginning, Alex's position is at-large.
So the council has one at-large position.
The mayor has one at-large position.
So it's four, three.
So because the group is only seven members, we tried to appoint applicants that would bring a balanced mix of experience, expertise, and kind of representation to the group.
And I think we have two excellent candidates.
Alex is ready, and if it's okay with the chair, I think we can ask Alex to provide some brief remarks here if you want to unmute Alex.
I think you're on mute, Alex.
Can you hear me?
I can hear you on Zoom, but you're very low.
Try and speak up and do the best we can.
It is Zoom after all.
It wouldn't be Zoom without asking, can you hear me now?
Thank you for having me here today.
I'm excited to offer my services to the council.
So as was mentioned, I have a background in IT security.
I currently I work for Remitly, which is a local Seattle company that helps people send money overseas.
I have been their chief information security officer for the last four and a half years, although I'm currently transitioning out of that role.
Curious about it works in Silicon Valley at Apple and Netflix and security roles as well.
And then the first 10 years of my career were with the federal government working in intelligence.
And so I have experience sort of with the operational side of surveillance technology through to the national level.
I got that job as part of a scholarship program.
So I was a, In order to pay for grad school, the DoD picked up my tab.
I was at school in Baltimore, but I grew up here in Seattle.
So I grew up here in the north end.
My parents were high school teachers.
So it took me a while to get back home.
But now that I'm here, I'm looking for ways to give back in the sort of third decade of my career to causes that I care about.
And I think balancing the needs of the government and individuals is an interesting area.
So I'd love to be able to support.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alex.
Really appreciate you being here and donating your service to this work group.
And you have a great hat on, which is one of my favorite Mariners hats.
It's like my favorite logo.
It's when they were kind of good.
Just playing.
Does anyone else have any questions for Council President Nelson?
I have to say we're getting really lucky here with these two nominees.
I was having staffed this issue for my first two years in office.
I do know that the work group has had a difficult time finding people to fill these vacancies for as long as I can remember.
I looked at the minutes, and I only saw four meeting minutes posted for the past couple years.
They're supposed to have, I think, quarterly meetings, so perhaps some of those minutes, have not yet been posted on the website.
But in each one, they're talking about difficulty filling vacancies.
And so we're not taking just anybody that comes along out of desperation here.
Somehow, we happen to land two people that We waited until the right people showed up, and I just have to express my appreciation that they are bringing extremely applicable knowledge and expertise to this body of work.
It's been difficult to find folks to step up, and here we are, and so I think that we should definitely take advantage and wholeheartedly approve this nomination.
Thank you, Council President.
Council Member Kettle.
Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.
And obviously, this is falling within the technology, and there's clearly overlap with the Public Safety Committee as well.
But I just wanted to note that I appreciate this, and I say this as a career Naval Intelligence officer.
who's been working these kinds of issues in a much broader national sense, but have very similar parallels at the more local level.
And I appreciate and support the idea that we need to be protecting the civil liberties as one who was bound by the executive order, presidential executive order 12333 regarding intelligence oversight.
It's very important.
And as someone whose last tour in the Navy was responsible for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance programs working with Congress, again, I see that part in terms of the oversight of a legislative body.
And so I will bring that experience, and I support the nominations and the work that the working group is doing.
So thank you very much.
Thank you, Council Member Kettle.
Thank you, Sarah.
It's Sarah, right?
Thank you, Sarah.
Not Ginger.
Thank you, Sarah.
And thank you, Vin, for recommending these phenomenal people to this body of work.
I now move that the committee recommend these appointments to the committee surveillance work group.
Is there a second?
Second.
Second.
It's been moved and seconded.
Seconded.
sorry, to recommend appointment of these two individuals.
Are there any further comments?
Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Rivera?
Aye.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Kettle?
Aye.
Council President Nelson?
Aye.
Chair Hollingsworth?
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
Awesome, the motion carries the committee recommendation that the appointments of Alex Mistetti, I'm sorry, Alex, I apologize.
The gentleman with the phenomenal blue Mariners hat and Carolyn Riley Payne to the community surveillance work group be sent to the May 14th, 2024 city council meeting.
Really appreciate you all and congratulations and thank you again.
And go Mariners.
With that, we have no other agenda items today.
Do any of my colleagues have any more items of business for the committee?
Seeing none, this concludes our May 8th meeting, 2024 of Parks, Public Utilities, Technology.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 22nd at 2 p.m.
If there are no further business, this meeting is adjourned.
But happy Mother's Day to my mom because it's going to be Mother's Day coming up before May 22nd.
So I just wanted to give you that because I know you're watching with the seven other people on the Seattle channel.
Hearing no for the business, it is 3.26 p.m.
This meeting is adjourned.