Council Briefing 8/1/22

This is Council Briefing.

Will the meeting please come to order and Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Present.

Council Member Strauss?

Council Member Strauss?

Okay, it looks like you're here.

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Strauss is present.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Thank you.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council President, Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council President Juarez.

Here.

Six present.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, the minutes of July 25th, 2022 will be adopted.

not seeing or hearing any objection, the minutes are adopted.

Moving on to the President's Report.

On today's agenda, we have an opportunity to sign two proclamations, one regarding former U.S.

Congressman Marion Zianchek's legacy, which will be presented by Councilmember Lewis, followed by another recognizing Seattle's farmers' markets presented by Councilmember Nelson.

Both are distributed to your offices last week for your review and comments.

There will be no other letters, proclamations, presentations or executive session here today.

On tomorrow's agenda, we will open with a presentation of the Seattle's Farmers Market Week proclamation.

The consent calendar will include the minutes and the payment of the bills, as well as 10 appointments recommended by the Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee.

We'll take a vote on all items on the consent calendar, unless again, any council member requests that particular item be removed for consideration separately.

Following the consent calendar tomorrow, we'll be considering five items, including one item referred directly to council and one item recommended by the Finance and Housing Committee both of which were on last week's agenda and were held for one week.

We will then consider three items recommended by the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee.

As a reminder, the first two items on tomorrow's agenda held from last week are Council Bill 120372, which repeals the ordinance establishing hazard pay during the height of the pandemic.

If you need any additional information on this ordinance before tomorrow's meeting, Karina Bull on central staff is prepared to answer questions.

Second, Council Bill 120366 regarding the 2022 budget, including the capital improvement program.

This bill requires seven votes to pass.

We will be considering the recommendation of the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee to confirm Markham McIntyre as the Director of the Office of Economic Development.

And finally, the Economic Development Committee has also recommended a City Light Operations and Maintenance Agreement and a bill which sets a cap on service delivery fees.

Information on these items are available on the online agenda.

Moving on in our agenda, item number three, signings of letters and proclamations.

Council Member Lewis has a proclamation for signatures today honoring the former U.S.

Congressman, Marianne Zianchek, for service to Seattle and his lifelong work for working people.

Council Member Lewis, the floor is yours.

Thank you so much, Council President Juarez, and I'm very proud to bring this proclamation today.

I want to thank my Chief of Staff, Jacob Thorpe, at the front for his work in putting this together.

this resolution declaring the upcoming August 7th to be Marian Zayinchuk Day in remembrance of Congressman Marian Zayinchuk, who represented what would have been now the 7th Congressional District back in the 1930s, and was a very active local leader in student government and also in our local politics, student government at UW, also in our local politics after his graduation.

Just to highlight a couple of things about Congressman Zeincheck's legacy, he was an important voice for marginalized people in the elite institutions in which he served that historically not been very popular, like the United States Congress and the University of Washington.

In particular, the University of Washington was a victim of extensive bullying from well-established campus organizations that did not want to share power or access to that institution with people from other backgrounds and organizing that led to the creation of an accessible student union building that is still the same Husky Union building that is today the centerpiece of the University of Washington campus, was a very active leader on local issues who fought to maintain our public utilities that we today as a Seattle City Council oversee.

under the threat of, at that time, Mayor Frank Edwards and his bid to privatize our utilities in the laissez-faire 1920s, and going on to finally serve in the United States Congress as a leader of New Deal policies and the Works Progress Administration, which built a lot of the community centers and comfort stations that have remained on updated to this day, as we have in many cases as we've learned through our work with the Metropolitan Park District so far.

So Congressman Zionscheck's legacy as a leader, as a student leader, a leader in local politics, a leader in the United States Congress, is a big part of our national or of our identity on the national stage as a place reputed for progressive politics.

86 years ago, this coming August 7th, he did tragically take his own life right here close to Seattle City Hall at the Arctic Club across the street.

And today we take this opportunity to circulate this proclamation in memory of Congressman Zioncheck and to declare August 7th Mary and Zion check day in his memory.

I do want to indicate at the beginning here before the clerk circulates for signatures and Madam President circulates for signatures, Council Member Sawant did contact my office indicating that she would want to be added as a signatory to this, but was unable to attend today's briefing.

I'm not exactly sure how to accommodate that, but I did want to mention that at the front.

if for nothing else, for the public to know that Council Member Sawant did indicate support for this proclamation and wanting to affix her signature.

But otherwise, Madam President, I have no additional comments and appreciate the opportunity to bring this before the Council.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Colleagues, is there anyone that would like to say a few words before we move forward on the vote on affixing a signature?

Okay, and Council Member Lewis, I also had, we also had heard from Council Member Sawant's office as well, so thank you.

Okay, seeing that there is no further discussion on the letter, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which Council Members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation honoring former Congressman Marion Zianchek and proclaiming August 7th, 2022 as Marion Zianchek Day.

Madam Clerk?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss.

He's saying yes.

I can see him saying yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

And Council President Juarez.

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

I don't think I said yes.

Thank you.

Six signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Excuse me, seven, and we include Council Member Sawant.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, we can hear you now.

How about now?

Can you still hear me?

Okay.

Sorry to do this on.

How about now?

Great.

Thank you.

Sorry.

I'll do this.

We start next time.

That's all right.

Don't worry about it.

So moving on on our agenda, my understanding is that council member Nelson has a proclamation for signature honoring Seattle Farmers Markets.

Councilor Nelson, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

The next week, August 7th to August 13th is National Farmers Market Week.

And as a big fan of farmers markets, I'm happy to sponsor this proclamation honoring next week as Seattle Farmers Market Week.

And I thank Jennifer Antos, Executive Director of Seattle Farmers Markets for reaching out to our office.

So Seattle has more than 17 farmers markets from Columbia City to Pike Place to Capitol Hill to Ballard and Lake City.

And these farmers markets assist with the distribution of local fresh produce throughout Seattle, generate income that supports the sustainability of small farms and the vitality of both urban and rural communities.

and they contributed more than $18.5 million to the local economy last year.

And I will go into more detail about our Farmers Market Network tomorrow when Jennifer appears and provides some comments at our meeting.

But for right now, I would just urge my colleagues to ask me any questions and also sign on to this proclamation, thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

Is there any questions that anyone has for Council Member Nelson and her proclamation?

All right, I'm not seeing any.

Okay, with that, I see that there's no further discussion.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation proclaiming August 7th to the 13th, 2022 as Seattle Farmers Market Week.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Six signatures will be affixed.

Thank you.

Moving on into our agenda, we will go to the preview of City Council Actions, Council and Regional Committees.

Today, the lineup is Councilmember Peterson, Councilmember Strauss, Lewis, Morales, Nelson, and then myself.

And with that, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, Council President.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's full city council agenda, there are no items from our Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Our next Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 2nd at 9.30 a.m.

As shown on our committee agenda published last Friday, we have two council bills to vote on, as well as 21 appointments to advisory boards, including 14 appointments to the various transportation boards and seven appointments to the customer review panel for Seattle Public Utilities.

I want to thank our committee clerk, Hannah Thorsen, for assembling this robust agenda.

Regarding the two council bills, we'll have a discussion and vote on ESTA's proposed bill 120364. As we heard a committee two weeks ago, that bill would add a new section to the traffic code establishing authority to designate parking for truck tractors in the public right-of-way and would amend another section of the Seattle Municipal Code to allow for enforcement of that designated truck parking.

While SDOT's presentation was clear about four locations where it would initially designate this temporary truck parking, including Harbor Island, Georgetown, and Soto, the legislation as transmitted would provide blanket authority to SDOT throughout the city.

So to address concerns that we heard from the general public about that blanket authority, I had central staff draft an amendment to SDOT's bill to require a quick director's rule so the department can specify the principles that we use for designating future truck parking, and most importantly, its process for future public engagement on such locations.

Our committee will also vote on Council Bill 120373, which would enable Seattle Public Utilities to accept easements for installation, operation, and maintenance of hydrants, water mains, domestic meter faults, fire service meters, and other equipment necessary for water utility purposes at various locations in Seattle.

I want to thank Chair Nelson and our Economic Development Committee for unanimously recommending Council Bill 120379 last week, that's the small business legislation I'm co-sponsoring with Council Member Strauss, to make permanent the 15% cap on fees that delivery corporations charge to Seattle restaurants.

That bill has a standard 30-day implementation delay before it becomes effective.

If you have any questions, please contact Karina Bull on Central Staff.

In District 4, Seattle Police reported that approximately 300 teenagers were after hours at Magnuson Park when an 18-year-old was injured.

allegedly from a gunshot wound after someone fired a weapon into the air.

Thankfully, the injury was not life-threatening.

I want to thank the Police Department for responding to the 911 calls they received.

I have been meeting with constituents and Public Safety Director Andrew Meyerberg and Seattle Parks officials for weeks about how to prevent and reduce crime from people who visit Magnuson Park after hours, including a lot of drag racing that's been going on.

And we expect a plan from the Executive Department shortly.

which could include moving some of the entrance gates and closing them earlier in the evening.

I also attended a gathering at Murphy's Pub in Wallingford, which was hosted by the popular neighborhood blog Wallyhood.

I got to meet several of the writers and editors of the blog.

which keeps everyone informed of issues impacting Wallingford, which don't often get covered in citywide media outlets.

We discuss public safety, homelessness, the city budget, real estate developments, pedestrian safety, and other topics impacting the neighborhood.

Wallyhood continues to seek writers to add content to their blog, which they can find at wallyhood.org.

In District 4 last week, I met Mayor Harrell's nominee to be the next director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, Gregory Spotts, and I met on the 100-year-old University Bridge, which connects Roosevelt, the U District, Mallingford, and several other North Seattle neighborhoods to Eastlake, Southlake Union, and downtown.

The University Bridge received the worst ranking from the bridge audit we conducted two years ago due to its deteriorating physical condition.

Our transportation committee will consider the nomination at our August 16 and September 6 meetings, and we'll follow the vetting process for all executive nominees as outlined in Resolution 31868. I want to thank Mayor Harrell and his team for delivering a strong candidate for our consideration.

Greg Spatz appears to have an impressive resume of transportation leadership that includes performance management, project delivery, pedestrian safety, and extensive work to reduce harmful emissions.

Tomorrow evening, I'll be visiting several neighborhood block parties in District 4 as part of the annual national night out crime prevention gatherings.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we hear from Councilor Sawant?

It's not Sawant, it's Straus next.

Any questions before we hear from Councilor Straus?

As I shared at the top of the hour.

No, I don't think so.

Great, well then I'll take it away.

Council President, colleagues, great to see you.

Good afternoon.

The report from District 6 last Thursday, July 28th at 6 p.m., I hosted an in-person town hall at the Greenwood Branch Library.

I want to thank everyone for being ready, flexible, and able to pivot from our outdoor location at the Aqua Theater to the indoor, air-conditioned Greenwood Branch Library.

This was trying to balance the fact that we are still in a pandemic and with the heat advisor that was happening.

So it was really great to see all the D6ers in person.

We had about 40 people, it was standing room only in the room.

We had nine air filters going and we had a robust conversation.

D6 residents were able to ask questions directly about homelessness, police hiring incentives, tree protections, the Green Lake Outer Loop and their support for the Green Lake Community Center and the desire which I also hold for the inner loop of Green Lake to not allow adults riding bicycles, but kids with parents and skates being okay.

It's been on the record, just want to put it on the record again that that's my position on the interlude.

We were able to get through everyone's questions and we ran a bit over time.

I know that a couple of folks wanted to talk more and we've already followed up with a few folks to schedule more time and continue the conversations.

The town hall was during office hours.

We've got more office hours scheduled.

Last week, also in District 6, I received a Green Lake Outer Loop update with SDOT.

I met with neighbors directly after my town hall and then met with SDOT again to ensure that the work SDOT is doing implements fixes.

Fixes past mistakes, creates safe crossings of Winona Avenue, and minimizes externalities while creating a barrier between the highway and Green Lake, which is the most heavily used park in our city.

Specifically, I want to be seeing added safe crossings at Stone and 76th across Winona, ensuring curb bulbs don't block people's driveways, reducing the cut through traffic on Ashworth, putting the on-ramp to Aurora in the correct place, and ensuring the intersections of Winona Avenue and West Green Lakeway North is properly designed.

Additionally in Green Lake, I spoke at the Dockside Apartments Open House, which celebrated the opening of over 70 units of affordable housing in Green Lake, Low-income Housing Institute is striving to be a good neighbor and engaging with community members.

I know if anyone in the community wants to talk, they are more than willing to have the discussion.

This is the same building that Spud's Fish and Chips is in.

As you may know, Spud's will be reopening in that same place.

I am aware of some permitting hurdles and I've been reaching out to SDCI to find out more about what's taking the delay.

I also met to discuss the Leary Triangle activation, which is underway.

We are currently in the process of resoiling, seeding, and barking the space, as well as adding a water meter to help facilitate the next steps of activation.

I was also able to meet with members of Ballard and Fremont communities, as well as the North Seattle Industrial Association, to discuss Route 40 with King County Council Member Jeannie Cole-Wells.

We also had SDOT, Metro together, all together to understand the needs, impacts, and local input regarding the upcoming Route 40 improvements.

As part of my 22nd Avenue workgroup, I met with stakeholders individually, specifically meeting with St. Luke's, the Bauer Alliance, the Parks Department, Finance and Administrative Services, and I'll also be meeting with the library to continue our work on 22nd.

And lastly, I met with Ballard FC and United States Soccer League to discuss improving and expanding the inner bay soccer facility.

Ballard's just trying to creep south.

As you may have heard, Ballard FC ended their, all that to say is there's some improvements that need to be made to that soccer facility.

You may have heard Ballard FC ended their season in the playoffs in the USL two conference finals.

While I disagreed with the referee's call, I'm not a referee.

There you have it.

I will end on a high note.

It was inspiring to watch the inaugural season of Ballard FC with season tickets selling out in record-setting time for USL2.

And it was amazing to watch Ballard FC clinch their spot in the Western Conference Finals with a bicycle kick in the 109th minute during overtime.

I'm already looking forward to next season.

This week in District six I'm meeting to discuss the six parks as part of our metropolitan parks district spending plan.

I'm attending the Ballard Rotary lunch tomorrow at Piccolino's restaurant.

and tomorrow evening I'll be attending several neighborhood national night out events.

We have 42 district six night out streets that have requested me or any elected official to attend and so I'll do my best to get to all within two hours and time will be my only barrier.

So I look forward to seeing folks out there as well as my staff will be attending the Finney Ridge Neighborhood Council and the Longford Community Council meetings this week.

Last week around City Hall, I met with Seattle Police Department Chief Diaz with our regular check-in.

I attended the SPD Police Chief Search Community Conversation at North Seattle College alongside the general public.

The 90-minute conversation included a presentation about policing and best practices, followed by question and answer period, and then the rest of the time was spent on forums asking folks what their opinions were and putting that on the record.

I was also proud to see legislation capping food and beverage delivery fees that Councilmember Peterson and I co-sponsored was unanimously voted out of the Economic Development and Seattle City Light Committee.

Looking forward to the final vote tomorrow.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson, for allowing me to join you in this important work, which is a small business protection bill protecting foodies and restauranteurs alike.

In the land-use committee, the next meeting of the land-use committee will be on September 14th.

We will not be having an August 10th committee meeting.

There's one item on the official agenda and six items on our draft agenda.

For the September 14th committee, we will be hearing the comprehensive plan docketing that we heard in the committee last week.

And the six items on our draft agenda are possibly hearing the omnibus bill, a public hearing and briefing, a townhouse density limit, public hearing and briefing, comprehensive plan docketing, which I just discussed, and the OPCD director confirmation, as well as the Crown Hill design guidelines and the virtual design review bill, public hearing and briefing on many of those.

There are no items on the introduction referral calendar from land use today.

I think you, Council President, colleagues, that is my report.

questions?

Seeing none, I will pass it over to Councilmember Lewis.

Councilmember Lewis, welcome.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Strauss.

Let's jump into the rest of our reports.

There are no items on this afternoon's agenda from the Public I do have some updates from some of the departments overseen by that committee that I'll go through at this time.

From the Seattle Public Library, the library has been working closely with the Office of Emergency Management this week in response to the heat wave we are experiencing.

The library has shifted staff to ensure that air-conditioned branches are open throughout the weekend.

These branch locations serve a well-needed respite from the heat for members of the public and offer a chance to peruse the collections and materials of the Seattle Library.

The library reports that they are thankful for the funds that the City Council approved in our last budget to add air conditioning to the southwest and northeast branches of the Seattle Public Library to help make this a viable strategy during times of extreme heat.

And with Green Lakes renovation starting later this year, we will just continue to enhance and expand the opportunity for our libraries to be used as cooling centers during these extreme weather events that we, looking forward to, or looking forward, are probably going to be having, unfortunately, every summer season going forward.

you know, again, really underscores the need for us to lean into this work as part of the Metropolitan Park District renewal.

But it is good to know that our partners at the Seattle Public Library are continuing to work on those renovations and operate these branches for this important service.

I'm excited to announce today that the partnership between the Seattle Public Library and I want to worry to advance racial equity and American archives as part of the digital public library of America.

Digital equity project is is going forward funded by the Mellon Foundation.

In June, the Digital Public Library of America announced $850,000 in new funding for this initiative to support its efforts to advance racial justice and American archiving.

The Seattle Public Library is part of the initial cohort of three libraries that have been selected for the Digital Equity Project.

And we look forward to seeing how that is implemented by the Seattle Public Libraries.

And I know that Chief Librarian Faye is very excited about that work.

The latest weekend date closures for the Central Library Branch parking garage are August 12th through 14th and August 19th through 21st.

The garage will close on both Fridays at 6pm and will reopen at its normally scheduled time on the following Monday mornings.

So just note that members of public, if you are relying on driving and parking at the Seattle Central Library, those weekend library closures.

pivoting now to parks, I had a great time meeting with community members last Thursday, July 28th at the Queen Anne Community Center for the first of three in-district town halls regarding the renewal of the Metropolitan Park District.

We heard from at least 30 community members who came in attendance and talked about a number of different concerns that I don't think are going to be foreign to any of us here on the council regarding the cleanliness and maintenance of bathrooms, the hours of operation for community centers, the accessibility of off-leash areas, and just the general maintenance of our public parks.

I really appreciated getting that feedback.

I really want to thank my team here in the office for their work along with council comms and getting that together.

I want to thank Malik, Jacob and Parker in particular for really making sure that was a flawlessly run event and that there were no technical issues and we were able to solicit and synthesize a lot of feedback to help with our deliberations on priorities from the DePaul Park District.

Just as a reminder to members of the public, on Monday, August 8th, we will have our next in-district town hall on the Metropolitan Park District.

That will be at Block 41 in the Belltown neighborhood.

That is at 115 Bell Street in the Belltown neighborhood.

And that'll run from 5.30 to 7.30 PM.

We will also have a community meeting in Magnolia at the Magnolia Community Center.

at 2550 34th Avenue West, and that will similarly be from 530 to 730 p.m.

on August 11th.

So definitely encourage members of the public to turn out.

It was a great initial event on Queen Anne, and looking forward to keep the dialogue going here over the next few weeks as we continue to deliberate on priorities for the Metropolitan Park District.

And with that, colleagues, I do not have any other updates.

And I will pass it on to Council Member Morales.

Oh, apologies.

Sorry, apologies, Madam President.

I did tell Council Member Mosqueda that I would relay on her brief updates as well.

So having finished my report, Councilmember Mosqueda is of course out this week attending the National Local Progress Conference.

And in addition to joining this national convening, Councilmember Mosqueda is on the Board of Local Progress and wanted to just make sure that it was clear for members of the public where she is this week.

She wanted to also relay that the Finance and Housing Committee meeting on the mid-year supplemental ordinance, which is Council Bill 120366, is going to be, that ordinance is going to be on tomorrow.

We did delay that ordinance for lack of a quorum from voting on it last week.

She indicates that for any questions on the ordinance, please feel free to contact Sejal Parikh in her office or Ali Panuji on Council Central staff.

with that, I will pass it on to Councilmember Morales.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Let's see, beginning with my committee, there are no items from the Neighborhood, Education, Culture, and Sport Rights Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

Our next committee will be next Friday, August 12th at 9.30.

On tomorrow's agenda, I do have an amendment to Council Bill 120379, Councilmember Peterson and Straus' bill that would permanently cap food delivery platform fees for delivery services.

That was circulated by Karina Bull this morning.

by noon as required.

The amendments would prohibit food delivery platforms from reducing compensation of food delivery platform workers in order to comply with the ordinance.

And under existing language in the remedy section of the ordinance, food delivery workers would have a right to file a civil action to enforce the requirements.

Colleagues, you will recall that in early 2020, My office worked with and Council President Gonzalez to ensure that this worker protection was included in the original civil emergency bill.

I know there may be some concern about possible risk, but the city does have clear authority to regulate wages.

We just did that with pay up legislation.

And I also know that the industry, the platform delivery, platform industry supported similar fee cap legislation in Minneapolis.

And that legislation does include a provision that prevents deduction from workers' compensation.

So I do think it's important that we include this provision as we had in the emergency ordinance and that we make a clear statement.

that platform companies can't reduce the pay of workers in order to comply with the new ordinance.

So that is what that amendment is.

Carina Bull is available if you have questions.

Otherwise, we will take that up tomorrow.

Moving on, my office met with OPCD, it was a couple weeks ago, to discuss our proposed comp plan amendments and the very close alignment with the goals of my proposed amendments and the work of OPCD as it relates to equitable community development.

I do want to share my appreciation for OPCD's remarks at last week's land use meeting.

sharing the support from the department and the Planning Commission for the vision coming from the Seattle Within Reach Coalition that my office has been working with since January to really bring essential services closer to people in Seattle.

I want to thank Council Member Strauss for his support during this concept, for this concept at that meeting as well.

As our Seattle Within Reach coalition continues to develop policy ideas, we'll be working with OPCD to share what we're hearing from the 35 advocacy and community organizations that are involved in our deliberations around how we can create 15-minute cities, a 15-minute city that really meets the needs of all Seattleites, particularly as it relates to culturally appropriate and affordable essential resources nearby.

So that we have an abundance of affordable nonprofit and social housing mobility investments that really make multimodal connections between neighborhoods and my office will continue to support the notion that the city of Seattle must act with a sense of urgency.

that our housing and our climate crises demand.

Just last week, there was reporting about the enrollment in Seattle Public Schools dramatically declining.

At least one of the reasons given for the dramatic decline was the extremely high cost of living here in the city.

We know that rents are still skyrocketing.

It's virtually impossible to find a three or four bedroom apartment in the city, let alone one that's affordable for working class family with kids.

So as we're deliberating on how best to serve Seattle families, we have to be intentional about creating as many housing options as possible.

So you can pick your food metaphor, cowboy cookie or blueberry waffle or whatever.

I've seen a lot of postings.

whatever we do, we need to be bold in the action that we take and we need to address the decades long backlog of housing and prepare for the expected growth that the city will be experiencing.

While we also ensure that every Seattleite has essential goods and services within reach.

So I do wanna thank Council Member Strauss and all of the folks at OPCD for their support and in working with us as we're talking through these comp plan amendments and the work that we're launching there.

Moving on to regional committee updates, I do have since councilmember her bold and I both sit on the board of health, if it's okay I do have some reports from councilmember her bold about the board of health.

and asking what our community response is.

We currently have 122 confirmed cases in King County.

Monkeypox causes flu-like symptoms, and most people also develop a painful rash, and it does spread from person to person in several ways.

Those include direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, or body fluids.

Respiratory secretions during prolonged face-to-face contact or during intimate physical contact such as kissing, cuddling, or sex.

Touching items such as clothing or linens that previously touched the infectious rash or bodily fluids.

Pregnant people can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta.

So this is serious.

It is easily spread, and locally we know that people at highest risk of recent exposure to monkeypox are men who have had sex with men and people who have had physical contact with multiple partners.

King County has so far been allocated 4,720 vaccine doses.

And that's for an estimated 20,000 people at highest risk of monkeypox locally.

So clearly we do not have enough vaccine for the folks who are potentially at risk of exposure.

The CDC makes decisions about how to distribute vaccine, not our local public health department, and they make that decision based on the number of cases and estimated size of the population at risk.

So our public health department is in conversation with CDC to figure out how we get more vaccine.

In developing its vaccine distribution strategy, public health will be getting input and has been getting input from providers and community members, as well as organizations that are in close contact with folks who are most at risk.

And with the very limited supply, we know that as we saw with COVID, the first come first serve strategy is not effective and not equitable.

So they will be working to make sure that those vaccines get distributed appropriately.

Public health does have a very helpful webpage that provides updated information about monkeypox and that is at kingcounty.gov slash monkeypox.

If you think you've been exposed or have symptoms, please contact your health care provider right away.

Or you can call public health's access and outreach outline access and outreach helpline at 1-800-756-5437 to be connected to a provider.

Council Member Herbold has also requested that public health provide a briefing about monkeypox at the next council briefing.

So we do want to, she does want to thank Council President Juarez for making time on the agenda for that purpose.

Okay, last things from me, my district updates on Wednesday I will be at the Columbia City farmers market to meet with constituents.

I also have my monthly meeting with the Mount Baker community work group, and my staff will be meeting with a little Saigon work group to review their neighborhood safety plan that they are seeking support for.

I was disappointed to see that the $75,000 requests that we had did not pass out of the Finance and Housing Committee.

We've been working closely with the Little Saigon community, and they are asking for support from city, county, and federal representatives.

So we will continue to work with them there and hope to get that neighborhood safety plan funded for them.

And finally, later this week, I'll be attending the Local Progress National Convening in Denver.

I'll be out of the office Thursday and Friday.

At the convention, I'll be hosting a panel with LA City Council member Mike Bonin on building equitable multimodal connections between neighborhoods.

My staff and I will also be attending work groups on how to win rent control.

How to Promote More Community Ownership of Land.

There will be a panel on abortion access, federal funding, and we will tour Denver's affordable and permanent supportive housing landscape, outdoor spaces, and their STAR program.

And my staff and I will also be meeting with legislative offices from Washington, D.C.

and other cities on our shared goal of building social housing.

Colleagues, that is all I have for today.

If there are questions, happy to take them.

I don't see any Oh, Council Member Nelson, please.

Thank you very much for highlighting Monkeypox.

I raised the alarm last week in briefings and followed up with my colleagues with an email basically saying that, acknowledging that we've received emails from constituents and in response to one person, I did ask Public Health what's happening and received information about their efforts so far.

And you and Council Member Herbold, and I think Council Member Mosqueda, I'm not sure who the third person is, but you all serve on the board.

And so I'm just wondering if there is a, if there is or going to be a coordinated city response with the executive on actions that we think should be accelerated or highlighted or just worked on more.

than what is currently happening.

And maybe this will come up in briefings next week for a public education campaign or to accelerate distribution of preventative vaccines, et cetera.

So I'm just wondering, is there any work going on behind the scenes that are positioning as well to advocate for what could be the next steps?

Yeah, well, I will be interested as well to hear from the public health department next week.

We are, you know, as we worked closely with public health for COVID, a lot of the priority was around connecting with, you know, community based organizations, folks who are on the ground who have the close relationships with folks, particularly who are kind of furthest from health care access.

That was a big push from the public health department.

And I think each of us as council members and as a city, we're also very interested in making sure that we reached out to the Somali health board, for example, and particular health boards that focus on immigrant and refugee populations.

So our role, I think, will be making sure that those connections can persist and that the infrastructure that we began to build up during the COVID epidemic is still there.

I think that was a big focus for us as a city and for King County Public Health as the coronavirus started to take hold.

Those systems are all still in place, and I think they're going to be a really important part of how we share this information.

The communities most impacted might be a little bit different in this case, given how the disease is transmitted, but the infrastructure and the way in which we ensure that the folks who are most at risk get access first is going to be really important.

Got it.

I think maybe Lifelong AIDS Foundation might be a good one or other organizations serving men who have sex with men.

Yeah.

Thanks.

I don't see any other questions.

Council Member Mosqueda is not here, so I'll pass it to Council Member Nelson.

Thank you very much.

There are three items on tomorrow's agenda from the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee.

And Council Member Peterson and Strauss have already spoken to Council Bill 120390, which passed unanimously out of our committee.

So looking forward to that vote.

We'll also have appointment 02279, confirming Markin McIntyre as Director of the Office of Economic Development.

The committee recommended unanimously that the City Council confirm that appointment.

Council Bill 120378 is on the agenda.

It authorizes City Light to execute an operations and maintenance agreement and a telecommunications agreement with Snohomish County PUD, and this passed unanimously as well.

And also at last week's meeting, we had a public hearing and our first discussion of resolution 32061, which would approve City Light's 2022 integrated resource plan.

and we'll have our next discussion and possible vote on that on August 10th.

Okay, report from last week.

I met with OED Interim Director Markham McIntyre to discuss short, medium, and long-term actions that we both agree would be priority for advancing downtown recovery.

I met with DESC Executive Director Daniel Malone to just begin a conversation on how to better match people who are experiencing chronic homelessness and who suffer from substance abuse issues with treatment, which is one of my top priorities.

I met with representatives of American Medical Response, the ambulance, we see circulating throughout the city to better understand the challenges they face in transporting individuals to or between hospitals.

And there are a whole bunch of challenges that I did not know about, including the fact that because of short staffing in our hospitals, it's ambulances need to wait a long time to actually deliver patients to emergency rooms.

And so this is impacting care that people receive, but that is something that is currently, well, it's outside of our control because of staffing shortages in pretty much all sectors of our economy here.

I met with representatives of, I met with the Seattle Hearing Examiner for a presentation on and discussion of the Office of Hearing Examiners 2021 Annual Report.

And an external or off-site meeting I'll highlight was attending the Woodland Park Zoo's Hoot in the Hood, which is an event for neighbors adjacent to or nearby Woodland Park.

they're able to come to the zoo for free and meet each other.

And I was really thrilled with the opportunity to get up close with Buddy, who is a pharaoh eagle owl and learn about their habits in the wild and just find out more about some of the upcoming issues going on with the Woodland Park Zoo and talk with my neighbors as well.

So this week, a big thing tomorrow is that I will be joining Mayor Harrell and Interim OED Director Mark McIntyre at a press event at Simply Soulful to announce the recipients of the next round of tenant improvement grants and The event will also have an announcement that this pilot program will be expanded using $1.9 million of federal recovery dollars.

And what this program does is it helps small businesses with improvements to their spaces, and they will be given information on how they can apply for grants of up to $100,000 to build out commercial spaces.

And just to note that Simply Soulful is a previous Tenant Improvement Grant recipient that was awarded funding next year.

And the event will be at their new location that used TI funding to complete their project.

I'll also be meeting with Seattle 350 to discuss the Parks Levy and the Healthy Through Heat and Smoke campaign.

I'll be meeting with Pete Manning and Mike Asai of Black Excellence in Cannabis to discuss incoming legislation on cannabis equity, and I'll also be meeting with members of the mayor's office to discuss that legislation as well.

I'll be meeting with friends of Dead Horse Canyon, located in South Seattle, regarding a community project they would like some help on, and there's more information coming on that.

And I will be taking a tour and meeting with leadership of the Nordic Heritage Museum that is later on next week.

So are there any questions about any of these items I just mentioned?

Seeing none, I will pass the baton to, I believe it is Council President Juarez.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

And again, thank you to Council Member Morales and Council Member Nelson for bringing up the whole monkeypox issue.

In fact, we are going to have a presentation from Public Health on August 8th.

I'm guessing we'll have material beforehand on their presentation and we can tee up some questions and find out more.

And I'm guessing it'll be like it was with COVID.

We have the same institutions in place that will be activated and will probably be quicker this time than we were with COVID.

and also getting that vaccine and information to the right community organizations so we have the right organizations that can administer whatever medication or vaccine comes from the federal government to state government, to King County Board of Health, and eventually to us.

So thank you for that.

Folks, the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governance Committee met last Thursday for a special meeting to recommend the inaugural members of the Indigenous Advisory Council the Department of Neighborhoods presented on the history and the formation of the IAC.

I want to thank you.

A big thank you to Director Interim Greg Wong for leading the presentation.

I also want to give a shout out to the IAC liaison, Francesca Murnan, who should should hear all the great praises for the good work that they did in Department of Neighborhoods to get this done.

My understanding is that I think that they had of the nine people that were selected for those members are actually elected tribal council members, sitting council members as we speak.

And my understanding is that they had well over, I believe, 48 applications and 30 30 of them were completed in numerous interviews and many rounds.

And finally, they were seated.

If you get a chance to look at what we posted on their resumes and their appointment packets are actually very, very impressive.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of wonderfully qualified people, but there were only nine seats.

But my understanding is in 2023, they'll be looking to have, I think, two more seats open.

So there's more to come on that.

And again, this is just the first time the Indigenous Advisory Committee was put together.

I think we may be the first or the second city to do it.

I think Portland has done it, but ours is a bit different.

And it was structured, working with indigenous-led organizations and tribes on the interview and moving it forward.

And again, I cannot thank Francesca Merman at Department of Neighborhoods, formerly from the Seattle Indian Health Board, who worked with us on missing murdered indigenous women and girls.

So we had some phenomenal people from Indian country doing the interviews, and I want to thank them.

Tim Raynon from the Executive, Tribal Relations at OIR, who advises the Mayor's Office and OIR.

And Asha Venkatraman.

Asha was great.

She's been shepherding and providing out of central staff, providing all of us with the policy and the background information and observing and working on the interviews and the process to make sure we did the process in conjunction and in line with the ordinance and the budget request that actually came in and then the ordinance and the creation and the formation of the Indigenous Advisory Council.

Also a thank you to members of the election committee, the selection committee, the mayor mayoral and legislative staff for selecting these nine very impressive native and tribal leaders to the council which this body obviously created by ordinance so thank you colleagues.

We hope it will be successful in its mission and that will become a model for other cities to follow and just a short note that a lot of tribal leaders and tribal councils were watching our committee meeting on Thursday So I was getting in real-time texts from tribal leaders who were incredibly impressed and proud that our city has done this.

And I just want to say this really quickly.

Of the nine members, the four that are elected city council members, we had Donnie Stevenson, who is the vice chair at Muckleshoot.

We have Luther J. Mills, who sits on the Suquamish Tribal Council.

Jeremy Talaka from Yakima, which was pretty amazing.

And Suzanne Salido, Salado from Snoqualmie, a dear friend of mine as well, also a city council member.

And that has never happened in any city's history.

So with that, I'm very proud that we got this done.

It took a couple of years, but we got it done.

OK, these appointments will be on our consent calendar tomorrow for your approval.

The calendar will also include a new appointment for the Labor Standards Advisory Commission, which was recommended by our committee last week.

Regarding Native communities, I know I've been talking about this for well over a year, but I want to kind of give an update.

The Department of the Interior is collecting written and oral testimony on the experiences of Native people in boarding schools in the United States.

It is called their Road to Healing Tour.

It isn't scheduled to visit the Pacific Northwest, but additional locations will be announced for 2023. We want to make sure that tribes, Indigenous communities, and elders have an opportunity to share their stories.

So our office is now working with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, NABS, the City Office of Intergovernmental Relations, OIR, and Department of Neighborhoods to collaborate with local tribes and urban Indian organizations to bring a listening session to this part of the country.

So on the Road to Healing Tour, we again are going to help facilitate working with tribes and indigenous-led organizations, secure a facility or a place, and it could include Seattle City Hall, for elders and other folks to come forward to speak to their experience in Indian boarding schools and also how the inter trauma of like my parents were in boarding schools, my grandparents were in boarding schools, my aunties and uncles were all in boarding schools.

So this is an opportunity to see how that type of intergenerational trauma has not only affected the generations that were born in the 30s and 40s, but from then on.

So I look forward to that.

And I really want to thank DOA, Department of Neighborhoods and Francesca again, and OIR, and particularly Tim Raynon, who's been working with me closely on this.

And that will be a first time happening here.

Boarding school survivors and ancestors wishing to provide written comments are encouraged to write info at nabshc.org.

Again, it's info at nabshc.org.

But if you just Google the, Native American boarding school, you will see where we're at with the interior and Secretary Deb Haaland on moving these important talks forward.

It's part of the healing process and I'm glad for the first time in our country's history, we're actually acknowledging And I believe, as much as I hate to say this, but I believe yesterday the Pope announced that, in fact, indeed, Indian boarding schools in the United States and in Canada were a form of genocide.

So hopefully we can move forward on that and have some healing.

Moving forward, last Thursday, I joined the Sound Transit Board of Directors to adopt Motion 222-57.

This is a critical milestone for the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extension.

This motion selected a preferred route and station locations for portions of the WSBLE project and requested additional studies to inform future board decisions.

The board also adopted Resolution R2-2022-20, which will provide free youth fares on all transit services starting September 1st of this year.

Councilor Pierson passed a resolution out of his committee, and I want to thank Council Member or Board Member Balducci and other members of Sound Transit in that when we compared the resolution that came out of Seattle City Council with Board Member Balducci's amendment, which was the 2257. They linked up at certain places, but there wasn't any, obviously, conflicts.

So this has actually provided a good a good place for us to start discussions about particularly the China International District.

And so we will keep some of those decisions have been moved over six to nine months for more studies.

And so I want to thank Council Member Peterson for moving that forward and Council Member Strauss for providing some background comment for me and giving me an update on what was going on down in Ballard and Interbay.

So thank you for that.

More to come on that, obviously.

So I also had a chance to meet with Dr. Crawford, the president of North Sale College Friday, regarding community development, their housing project is moving forward.

And I was really happy to hear that as she looks out her window every day that the John Lewis Bridge is used continuously.

Runners, moms with strollers, walkers, dog walkers, She told me if anyone has any idea of thinking that that bridge is not being used, they will be incredibly surprised that how much that bridge has connected District 5 from the North Seattle College over to the Kraken Community Iceplex and Northgate Mall.

And as you know, that's still under development.

In addition, my office has had three recent meetings with staff to discuss public safety and encampment concerns along the Aurora Avenue corridor.

D5.

Thank you HSD and Public Safety Director Myerberg for providing your updates and assistance.

I've also had some really good discussions with the chief on some of the hot spots in the city including D5 and of course some discussions with the folks at the firefighters, Kenny Stewart, as you know, you all received a letter from him regarding some of the dangerous conditions that we're finding in our firefighters.

And I think we also got another letter today in our inbox.

So I've been in contact with Mr. Stewart about that and some of my colleagues.

So we'll move more to come on that one.

Last week, there was a series of community meetings to collect public comment on what qualities and type of leadership they would like in our next chief of police.

If anyone missed these meetings, there's also an online survey available to anyone who would like to comment.

The public should also feel free to contact any of the elected representatives with their comments.

As you know, myself and Council Member Herbold are on the search, the national search for our next Chief of police and we actually have a meeting today at three, which I will be late for.

Coming up this week, as I shared, there'll be another chief of police search committee meeting today.

This week, I'll be participating in a sound transit ridership experience and operations meeting on Thursday.

As a reminder, our last council meeting before a two week recess will be August 16th.

There will be no council briefing or council meeting from August 22nd on August 22nd or August 29th.

The first council meeting after recess will be September 6th.

After the seafair torchlight parade last Saturday, numerous seafair activities continue this week, including the airfield show featuring the Blue Angels on Friday and hydro races this weekend.

And I'm pleased to report on Saturday, Seattle Storm Clinch, a spot in the playoffs.

with an 82-77 win over the Washington Mystics.

Reminder, the Seattle Storm will be playing its final regular season home game at noon this Sunday, August 7th, against the Las Vegas Aces.

This game will honor Storm veteran Sue Bird, and it's been sold out for weeks.

It can be watched on ESPN, or as I like to call it, ESPN, or streaming on video.

And with that, that concludes my report.

Are there any comments before I adjourn us, folks?

Okay, I do not see any comments regarding my report.

So colleagues, this concludes the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 8th at two and we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Recording stopped.