Seattle City Council Briefing 4/10/23

Today is April 10th.

This is the council briefing meeting.

I will now call it to order.

The time is 2.01.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council President Juarez.

Present.

Six present.

Thank you.

Both Council Member Morales and Council Member Sawant are excused from today's meeting.

So I will move on to approval of the minutes.

If there's no objection, the minutes of April 3rd will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the amendments are indeed adopted.

Moving on to the President's Report.

On today's agenda, we will welcome again our OI Director Gail Tarlington and staff to provide a state legislative update.

I also believe we have a proclamation to consider today.

Council Member Mosqueda will be speaking to a proclamation recognizing April 17th as Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day.

and Council Member Mosqueda distributed this proclamation to your offices on Friday for your review.

I believe her plan is to present this proclamation on Tuesday, April 18th at our council meeting.

Following the proclamation, we'll have individual reports by each council member.

Let's see, please note, we also have three short executive sessions today.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes and of course the payment of the bills.

Moving on, there are seven items under committee reports on the agenda tomorrow.

The first is the appointment of Anthony Paul Diaz as superintendent of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation.

This appointment was recommended by the Public Assets and Homeless Committee and Council Member Lewis will speak to that recommendation.

Second item is an ordinance related to the Route 44 Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor Project.

Item three is an ordinance related to the Seattle Public Utilities and specifically an interlocal agreement with King County regarding residual waste disposal.

Item four is an ordinance related to the Department of Finance and Administrative Services regarding the acquisition of real property.

Item five is a resolution adopting Seattle 2022 solid waste plan update, moving upstream to zero waste.

Items two to five are all recommended to the full council by the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee, and that is Council Member Peterson, who will be introducing and speaking to those items.

Information on all of the items tomorrow is available online.

So before we get started with today's agenda, I would like to call to your attention the change in council briefing schedule this spring.

For the months of April, May, and June, instead of having a weekly council briefing, we will have a council briefing meeting every other Monday or twice a month.

This change in the schedule is to accommodate additional commitments, including the select housing levy committee and review of the council rules among them, among others.

You should have received a memo on Friday with a detailed list of when, a list of when, a list of dates when we will be holding council briefings and dates when council briefings will be canceled.

After today, our next council briefing will be Monday, April 24th.

In May, we will have council briefing on May 8th and May 22nd.

In June, we will have council briefing on June 5th and June 26th.

Please use this revised calendar to plan accordingly for proclamations or letters you would like signed by the entire body for any comments you would like to make.

Weekly full council meetings will continue to be every Tuesday at two.

If there is an item that is extremely time sensitive and you would like to include in a council agenda, please coordinate with our office so we can accommodate you.

So moving along on today's agenda, uh, we are going to go to and welcome director Charlton and her staff to provide a state legislative update.

And my understanding is that we anticipate the legislator will conclude its session at the end of April with the last day officially being April 23rd.

We have scheduled a final wrap up presentation by OIR for council briefing on Monday, May 22nd.

And with that, I will hand it over to director Charlton.

Hey, good afternoon, Council President.

It looks like Director Tarleton is not here this afternoon, probably due to a commitment, so I'm happy to start the breaking off for OIR.

My name is Ana Johnson.

I'm the State Legislative Liaison for OIR.

So today is the 92nd day of the 105 day legislative session.

Last Tuesday, bills had to be moved out of the opposite chamber fiscal committee in order to be considered on the floor.

So ever since last Tuesday, both chambers have been on the floor all day considering legislation that was moved through the fiscal committees.

Our next cutoff is this Wednesday, the 12th, and this is the opposite chamber floor cutoff.

When bills pass each chamber, the original chamber where the bill came from will have to concur with the changes, or if there is disagreement among the chambers, they'll send the bill to a conference committee to work out the details and bring it back to the floor for a final vote.

If bills did not change in the opposite chamber, they'll immediately be sent to the governor for signature into law.

Hey, Ana, just to be clear, you're kind of fading in and out.

Is anyone else getting, I'm getting some feedback.

Is anyone else getting that?

I'm having a little bit of a hard time.

I don't know if that's, yeah.

I'm so sorry about that.

I mean, it's just like you're underwater, but we're just trying to make sure your computer audio is synced.

How about this?

Testing again?

Okay, so I'll just start with a quick update for bills that are in the climate environment section of your council bulletin.

Starting with the priority bill for Seattle Public Utilities.

This is House or Senate Bill 5144. This creates a producer responsibility program for batteries.

And this bill passed the House last Thursday.

A couple of priority bills for Seattle City Light are on energy siting and transmission.

These are both bipartisan bills and they have passed through the opposite chamber.

This is House Bill 1216 from Representative Dolio and Senate Bill 5165 from Senator Nguyen.

Two other major environmental priorities that have passed through the opposite chambers so far is House Bill 1047 from Representative Mena.

This bill restricts the manufacturer sale and distribution of cosmetic products starting in 2025, or restricts the manufacturer's sale of cosmetic products with certain chemicals or classes of chemicals starting in 2025. And then House Bill 1181 from Representative Dewar improves the state's response to climate change by adding a climate change element to the GMA planning process that passed last Friday.

And I'll pass it to Samir.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Sameer Junaidjo, State Relations Director for OIR.

Moving on to general government.

Last Friday night, the House passed Senate Bill 5082, repealing the requirement that all legislative tax increases be subject to an advisory vote.

That bill passed the House 5443 and now heads to the governor's desk.

Another bill that the city has been monitoring is House Bill 1326, by Representative Cortez, related to utility connection charges.

This bill allows municipal utilities to waive connection charges for properties that are owned by a non-profit, housing authority, or local agency that is providing affordable housing.

The Senate passed this bill 45-1 and now heads back to the House for a final concurrence.

An update on reproductive health.

As you may have heard, last week a Texas judge invalidated the FDA's approval of Mifepristone, an abortion medication.

In anticipation of that decision, Governor James Lee announced last week that Washington was purchasing a three-year supply of Mifepristone for $1.3 million.

The governor directed the State Department of Corrections using its pharmacy license to purchase the drug.

And the legislators then introduced Senate Bill 5768, sponsored by Senator Kaiser, and House Bill 1854 by Representative Bateman, authorizing the Department of Corrections to distribute or sell the medication to licensed health care providers across the state.

The Senate just had a hearing on that bill today and is scheduled for a vote at a committee on Wednesday.

The Senate also passed the My Health, My Data Act.

This past week, this legislation was requested by the Attorney General and provides the consumer the right to access, delete, and withdraw consent from the collection, sharing, or selling of their consumer health data.

Additionally, consumer health data may not be collected or shared without prior consent.

The number of opposition amendments were voted down and the bill passed 27 to 21. Lastly, the Senate also took up House Bill 1340, which is a bill that establishes that healthcare providers participation in reproductive healthcare or gender affirming treatment does not constitute unprofessional conduct under the Uniform Disciplinary Act, and may not serve as a basis for professional discipline.

It also establishes that a conviction or a disciplinary action based on a health care provider's violation of another state's laws prohibiting participation in reproductive health care or gender-affirming treatment does not constitute unprofessional conduct under the UDA and may not serve as the basis for professional discipline.

The Senate did adopt an amendment adding an emergency clause which prevents the referendum, so now it heads back to the House for concurrence.

Quickly on housing and homelessness quick list of bills that have now passed both chambers and are headed to the governor's desk, that's a hospital 1042 which is a use of existing buildings converting commercial buildings for residential use that bill is now passed both chambers and has the governor's desk.

House Bill 1474 on the Covenant home ownership account is also passed both chambers.

And then also House Bill 1337, which is an ADU bill requiring all cities to allow ADUs has now passed both chambers as well.

The two high profile land use bills, the first one is House Bill 1110, middle housing.

That bill is now awaiting a vote on the Senate floor, which can happen at any time.

The bill was amended in Senate Ways and Means to make the bill essentially a duplex requirement for cities with a population between 25,000 and 75,000, and then retaining the four-plex requirement for cities with a population above 75,000.

Senate Bill 5466 is a transit oriented development bill, which is, which is now on on the floor in the house at the moment awaiting action by the house the bill requires up zoning, half a mile from light rail and a quarter mile from bus rapid transit.

The current bill, as it came out of committee also requires.

Now that 20% of units.

in the development resulting from the up zones in the bill must be affordable.

And that provision has caused a lot of concern amongst the bill's advocates, like developers and builders.

And we'll see more changes to that, I'm sure, as it moves to the next step of the process.

Moving on to some labor bills.

The Senate passed House Bill 1106 on Thursday.

This bill tests an extension of unemployment insurance for when an individual voluntarily leaves work under circumstances that includes loss of child care or the need to care for a vulnerable adult.

A bill now heading back to the House for concurrence.

The House passed the long-negotiated hospital staffing bill, Senate Bill 5236, which makes numerous changes to nurse staffing committees and staffing plan requirements, including requiring hospitals to report noncompliance and requiring the Department of Health and Labor Industries to establish formal agreements on oversight and enforcement rules.

The bill passed 92-6 and now heads to the governor's desk.

And then lastly, on labor bills, this past Friday night, the House passed Senate Bill 5217, which allows the Department of Labor and Industries to adopt rules related to ergonomics and certain musculoskeletal disorders.

The House vote was 51 to 46, and also now heads to the governor's desk to be signed into law.

Right, and moving to the public safety section of your Council Bulletin.

Over the weekend, the Senate passed two historic gun violence prevention bills.

So on Friday, the Senate passed on a party line vote House Bill 1143 from Representative Berry.

This bill adds a safety training requirement and a 10 day waiting period for all firearms.

This was a provision for semi-automatic rifles and they're extending the same requirements for all firearms.

And then on Saturday, after getting through 22 amendments that were mostly defeated or withdrawn, the Senate passed House Bill 1240 from Representative Peterson.

This bill is the Assault Weapons Restrictions Bill.

This is also a party-line vote with one Democrat voting no.

Washington now joins nine other states who have enacted laws that also ban the sale, manufacture, or transfer of assault weapons.

and a couple bills under social programs and education that have moved through the process, starting with House Bill 1784 from Representative Gregerson.

This bill provides funding for food security programs to help supplant funding that's no longer coming from the federal government.

Senate Bill 5582 also passed through the House.

This is passed unanimously, and this bill helps reduce barriers and expands educational opportunities to increase the supply of nurses in Washington.

Those are the bills we have updates for today.

The House will continue, both chambers will be continuing their floor action until Wednesday, and we're happy to answer any questions for any of you.

I have a question for you on the public safety, and I know, Director Tarleton, we've been in contact about this for a lot of constituents of the ACLU and the Seattle Clemency Project regarding House Bill 1324. which will prevent juvenile adjudications from being used to increase the sentences of people charged in adult court.

And the second bill is Senate Bill 5046, which would allow the Office of Public Defense to appoint lawyers to a limited number of people to assist them with post-conviction relief petitions.

So can we get an update on what's going on?

I know there's a retroactive issue with House Bill 1324. So if you can give me some idea about what's going on with those two bills.

Sure thing.

1324. This bill concerns the scoring of juvenile offenses.

This bill is on second reading in the Senate, so it could come up for a vote on the floor anytime.

The Senate did remove the retroactivity component, which means prior sentences would no longer be considered.

However, there is amendment on the floor to add the retroactivity back in.

And so we're awaiting for action on the bill right now.

Okay, and can you can you explain to my colleagues who maybe aren't following this course why the retro activity is so important, or do I need to do that.

I, you're welcome to I'll just say, I'd rather you do.

For retroactivity allows the resentencing of juveniles that had offenses on their record when they were 18 or younger.

And what this bill is trying to combat is use of the scoring basically of those offenses when they were younger to be included in any offenses that they were charged with as adults.

And this comes after some Supreme Court cases that talks a lot about the youth development of brain science and decision-making and not being able to kind of double charge or double consider offenses that juveniles had when they were under 18. So the retroactivity allows the resentencing of offenses prior to a certain date.

But otherwise, if that retroactivity is not added back in, the new process will just start with cases and offenses from that effective date on out.

Right, and I think our concern that we're hearing from constituents and the public defense bar is that these points that are scored when someone has a crime under 18 are going to carry over into their adult record.

And now that we have new science and cases from the United States Supreme Court and the Washington State Supreme Court about youth development in their brains, without going into too much detail, that we really need to have that retroactivity.

Why was it removed and who removed it on the Senate side?

Not quite sure, I can't recall who initiated the removal of the retroactivity, but I know there's a lot of opposition from prosecutors and the concern for the sentencing that occurred and victims that the sentences were considering during the time when the juvenile had the offense.

I would also say it does cause some workload for the counties to go back and resentence, and so there may be concerns about that as well.

Okay, so for my perspective, and I will not speak for my colleagues, they can speak to it themselves.

My concern is, of course, there's the disparate impact on low-income minority children that committed crimes that didn't have the advantage of the science that we have, the brain science that we have now.

And so I don't think it's, and this is just me speaking from what I believe, To rescore shouldn't be that big of a lift, but again, I'm hoping that we can get that back up.

What are the chances are of it getting putting getting put back in on the floor on the Senate side?

Or is it the Senate side?

Hard to say at this point.

I couldn't speculate.

I just know there's an opportunity for it to get put back in by that amendment.

Additionally, if the Senate passes it, it will be a version that's different than what the House passes.

So the House has the opportunity to not concur with the changes and send it to a conference committee for them to further negotiate the details of the bill.

I guess my concern is if we don't push hard on this and it doesn't get in and we try to take another run at it next year, whether or not there would be the votes or the sensibilities there that we're concerned about right now while it's still a topic.

Can I have you answer the second question on Senate Bill 5046 and then Council Member Nelson has a question.

Yeah, so 5046, this concerns post-conviction access to council.

This bill is on second reading in the Senate, so it could come up for a vote anytime as well.

And that's kind of all the information I have on this bill, and I'm happy to get back with more details on what it does after the briefing.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

Could you please explain what happened to Senate Bill 5740, catalytic converter theft?

Yeah, that was on your list of bills that died on the list.

I do not have much context for why this bill did not move forward, but I'm happy to circle back if I find out anything.

OK, it appeared that it did have some bipartisan support, so thanks.

And thanks for that list that I don't know if you guys are putting in your newsletter but we're putting it in ours and our constituents are very glad to see what gets forward and what doesn't.

So thank you for that list.

I see customer herbal has their hand up.

Thanks so much.

This is, I think, a slightly different issue than the specific bills that move forward or did not, and appreciate folks at OIR engaging with my office on this issue.

And I don't know if it's something that is going to be addressed within the context of the state budget.

But I think, as you know, my office is very concerned about our state's efforts to help folks retain their health insurance.

Now that the public health emergency is ending, and many people on Medicaid, Apple, Apple Health are at risk of losing their coverage.

A large number of people were able to retain their coverage through the pandemic.

And there's a lot of concern nationally that millions of people are going to be coming off the rolls without a lot of alternatives.

And so appreciate understanding whether or not there's funding or bills this session that have an impact on this, or whether or not you have any information about what the state is intending to do to minimize the very negative impact on low-income folks who desperately need to retain their health insurance.

That's an important issue.

And I think I haven't seen any bills on that topic, but I'm happy to come to the budget to see if there's any budget, any extra funding for HCA.

I imagine there must be, because a lot of what health care authority will have to do is increase your communications to all those people who are no longer eligible for Medicaid and may be eligible for other things like the health benefit exchange and also very likely eligible for subsidies there.

And so just process of getting folks off one onto another you know they're still very likely to make people just make people just may not may not make it to the next step and so I understand there's a number of uh communications materials the health care authority is doing but I can come to the budget to see if there's any extra funding that they are getting as well this session.

I can imagine it would be a very resource intensive exercise to make sure that people are getting off of, who are being bumped off of one, get onto the other and would hope the state is finding funding to make that transition as seamless as possible.

Thank you.

All right.

Are there any other, I see Director Turlington is with us.

Is there anything you want to share before we wrap up or for any of my colleagues?

Is there anything you need to share first, Director, before we go to?

Thank you, Council President.

I really apologize for being late arrival to this really important meeting, and I just want to thank all of you for helping Ana and Samir get through this very intense period in a lot of budgets rolled out a lot of floor action happen, a lot of really important policies were addressed over this past weekend and Friday and Saturday were really intense for everybody and.

And the next week with the floor cut off for both chambers coming up on Wednesday of this week, things will become even more intense as the budgets get reconciled so really appreciate all of your patience and tenacity at the same time.

And we'll look forward to sharing more information and we'll work on following up on the questions that have been raised about very specific pieces of legislation this morning or this afternoon.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Are there any other, I guess, Director Johnson I know we talked about the 1324 bill and all that stuff.

So if you could follow up and I also should be sending out to my clients are my clients I'm sorry to to my colleagues.

The Seattle clemency project, I think I just said that.

And we've been, I've been following it.

So it's, it's, you know, and Gail, thank you so much for talking to me offline about it too.

I really appreciate it.

And Anna, thank you.

I know I put you on the spot there real fast to get up to speed, but thank you very much.

With that, I see Catherine has her hand up.

Thank you very much, Madam President, and thanks to everybody at the Intergovernmental Relations Team.

I just wanted to follow up and echo our appreciation for all that you're doing.

As Director Chappelle noted, it's been a rough weekend and a long few weeks, and just the end is in sight.

And we thank you so much for all that you're doing.

I thank you especially for keeping us in the loop on the discussions around housing.

I'm very excited to hear and see email communications from a broad set of stakeholders that everybody's feeling very happy now moving forward.

So hopefully some of the earlier rhetoric that came from others outside the city of Seattle has tempered down a little bit and we all see a path forward recognizing you have to have a house.

to be healthy and people need homes in order to have a good, healthy local economy.

So lots of common ground there and thank you for helping to broker and find that common ground.

But just overall, thanks for everything.

Truly, and I think we've said this the last two or three years in a row, but historic movements in the state of Washington on, I would say, progressive, sound, collaborative, and long awaited policies, everything from housing to public safety, gun safety.

So excited about that.

And thanks for lifting up the food security investments as well.

And I'm thrilled to see the end in sight for all of you and for all of us.

Thanks so much for all you do.

OK, well, I'm thrilled and excited to direct to Tarleton.

So is there anything you want to say before we close out?

Are we good?

We're good.

We are good.

Thank you, everybody.

See you next time.

Thank you, Samir.

Thank you, Hannah.

Appreciate it.

All right, so let's move on in our agenda, folks.

We have the proclamation recognizing April 17th as Cambodia in Genocide Remembrance Day and Council Member Mosqueda distributed draft to all of you.

And I'm going to hand it over to Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you very much Madam President and thanks to you and your team especially Brenda Swift in your office for her swift action on this in partnership with Melanie Cray who has been working in partnership with members of the community to bring forward for your consideration today a proclamation recognizing April 17th 2023 as Cambodian genocide remembrance day.

We were asked by members of the community to bring this forward for the council's consideration and are very pleased to report that the mayor's office has confirmed as well that they will be signing on to this proclamation to ensure that we, in partnership with our Cambodian community, remember and recognize this important day in history.

Because of our council briefing schedule, we wanted to make sure to bring this in front of you today for your consideration.

We sent it around last week and I mentioned it in Council briefing last Monday.

I hope that you will consider adding your name to this proclamation so that we can actually present it to members of the Cambodian community in full Council on April 18th.

For background, April 17th is the 48th anniversary of the date of the Cambodian genocide start date, during which approximately 2 million people nearly a quarter of the entire Cambodian population lost their lives.

In our home here in Seattle and in King County, we are home to the third largest population of Cambodian Americans in the United States.

And I think it's really appropriate for us to be considering this proclamation, remembering this day, and honoring the Cambodian community.

I want to thank Sam MacMill, who is the Director of Partners in Change, which is a BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving coalition housed at Equity and Education Coalition, Sam reached out to our office and asked about bringing forth this proclamation to remember this important day.

And he did so in partnership with the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington, Kumari, excuse me, Khmer Language Arts Academy, Khmer Anti-Disport Education Advocacy Group, Equity and Education Partners and Change Program, and the Khmer Buddhist Society and Spian Ranjana.

I hope I pronounced some of those correctly.

We will have a handful of folks on site on April 18 to receive this proclamation to help provide additional context to the importance for our community.

And thanks for signing on today.

And again, to the incredible staff within our offices at the Council President's Office, and Melanie Cree in my office for helping to shepherd this through for your consideration today.

Thank you, Councilor Mosqueda.

Big shout out to Melanie and Brindell.

They got it done.

So And thank you for getting us all the material customer mosquito.

So with that, are there any comments from my colleagues about the April 17 as the Cambodian genocide Remembrance Day before we go to a vote.

Okay, I'm not seeing any hands.

All right.

With that, seeing that there is no further discussion, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation?

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council President Oros.

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So moving forward to the preview of City Council actions, this is the lineup for today.

We will start with Council Member Nelson, Council Member Peterson, Council Member Strauss, glad you're here, Council Member Herbold, Council Member Lewis, Council Member Mosqueda, and then myself.

With that, Council Member Nelson, the floor is yours.

Well, thank you very much, everyone.

Hello.

There are no items on the agenda tomorrow from the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee, but we do have a meeting this Wednesday at 9.30.

And I'm thrilled to announce that among the 11 items on the agenda are the 10 appointments to the Seattle Film Commission.

The 11th one will be chosen by the commissioners themselves.

So just for background, OEDs, portal received 131 nominations and 179 completed applications.

And that just demonstrates the breadth of the enthusiasm for a commission and also the depth of talent in our region.

It was difficult to choose, of course, but my chief of staff, Jeremy Moen, and Chris Swinson of OED worked really well to develop a very disciplined selection process.

And after weeks of close collaboration with the executive with OED and the mayor's office, we chose and came to agreement on the 10 final people.

So the Oscar goes to Lowell Dio for position one, which is on screen talent or their representatives.

Lowell is a local actor who has starred in Northwest productions such as Grimm, The Librarians and The Three Busy Debris.

For position to film industry labor unions, of course, Melissa Purcell business agent of IOC local for 88 and she's been a leader of this whole effort from the get go in a champion of the of the film task force from its very beginning.

For position three, we've got Advertising and Creative Agencies, and the nominee is Michael Huang, who brings over 15 years of experience in the arts and advertising industries, as well as eight-plus years owning his own firm, which is the Millie Creative Agency in Seattle.

Proposition 4, which is commercial producers or production companies, Tom Florino, who leads worldwide economic development teams for Amazon Studios and the global media and entertainment division.

including location management for Amazon Prime's Lord of the Rings television series.

For position five, which is film schools, film programs or film educators, Laura Cronin is known for her work as production manager on the Emmy Award winning PBS show Biz Kids.

And she is currently the lead producer at Real Girls Productions, which is now known as Remove the Gap Productions, a nonprofit that provides the on-the-job training for young women and non-binary gendered youth.

For position six, we've got production, which is for production, post-production companies and personnel, such as editors, composers and post supervisors.

Champ Isinger, who has a wide perspective on the film industry, ranging from directing short films to working in pretty much every single aspect of them from his native Thailand.

And right now he is very active in the Northwest Film Forum and the South Asian American Film Festival.

So he is fairly well-known on the scene.

For position seven, we have Kat Ogden.

And this position is, probably got the most applications because it covers film production crew, not limited to props, sets, wardrobe, makeup, hair, camera grip and electric.

So that was a very large category.

And Kat has worked in the Seattle film market since 2007 in many of those roles.

And she is Currently, she has been even an assistant director in not just film but television, industrial art, and reality TV shows, music videos, etc.

For position eight, which is film festivals or film content distribution companies, Beth Barrett was also a member of the Seattle Film Task Force and has been with CIFF since 2003, where she's responsible for managing the artistic vision and also all aspects of programming for CIFF.

So she will be a tremendous resource.

And she also serves on the board of the Film Festival Alliance, which is a national organization.

So that is a great opportunity to elevate what's going on in Seattle in film as well.

And then position nine, Film Location Managers is Mark Freed.

I met Mark on the set of Sex Lives of College Girls last year, where they were filming at UW.

And he knows the details of all the nuances, what has to happen to pull off a film in the location.

He knows how many trucks can fit on a driveway in front of a certain building, et cetera.

So we're lucky to have such a great veteran.

He has also worked in major films, including Fifty Shades of Grey, Transformers, Rampart, and many national commercial advertising campaigns.

Finally, for position 10, we've got Anthony Tackett, and he was co-chair of the Seattle Film Task Force.

He's been part of this campaign and this movement to elevate film and strengthen the local industry and advance equity.

for as long as anyone can remember, and we're really lucky that he's willing to step up and serve in this position.

He did film his first feature documentary called Black June, which is a film following the Black Lives Matter protests, and is currently operations manager at Seattle Film Institute.

So that's the lineup.

And you can learn more about these amazing professionals by reading their bios, which are included in the packets for CLRP files 02510 through 02519. And that also includes a matrix showing the demographics of the appointees.

And you'll notice that About five of the 10 nominees are people of color and four of the 10 are women.

So learn more about them there or better yet, you can tune into the actual meeting on Wednesday because I believe eight, perhaps nine of the appointees will be in chambers in person.

and shout out to ArcheLodge Cinemas for supplying the popcorn bags because we're going to make it kind of fun.

So if you can, that'd be fun for you to watch, or you can tune in on the award-winning Seattle channel.

All right, so also on Wednesday, I'm not finished, but very quickly, the committee will have a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120537, reauthorizing the Metropolitan Improvement District, or MID.

And so, as you know, the MID is a business improvement area in downtown Seattle, managed by the Downtown Seattle Association, and it includes six downtown neighborhoods and 285 square blocks.

Well, the legislation, that authorizes it.

It began in 1999, was reauthorized in 2013, and that legislation expires this June.

And so we are hearing a presentation and a discussion this coming Wednesday.

I will note that some of the main changes in this reauthorization include the addition of 20 properties.

in the southern portion of the mid, which will be, and so that will entail moving the southern boundary slightly south to South Royal Brougham from just north of Lumen Field.

The total budget increases from $15.5 million annually to $18.3 million annually.

That is made possible by an increase in the assessments for hotels and residents.

This bigger budget will pay primarily the major changes are an increase in cleaning services and also an increase in the wages for the mid ambassadors.

It has the support of 66% of the rate payers.

And again, there's no vote this Wednesday, but there will be a public hearing so that people can voice their opinion on the the de-establishment and the re-establishment of the MID that is the groundwork for this reauthorization.

So that's all I've got for what's coming up this Wednesday.

I did want to mention that this past week I attended the Seattle Rep Theater Gala and a couple other meetings were included that I had my first monthly check-in with the acting director and one of the members of the Community Police Commission.

I met with Nick Bowman of Cairo Radio to talk about, he wanted to hear my opinion on the fact that HBO's Last of Us is not going to be produced in Seattle.

You can imagine what I said about that.

And then my policy director and I had lunch with central staff's new legislative counsel, Lauren Henry.

Welcome to the second floor, and I look forward to getting to know her more in the future.

So that's pretty much it.

This weekend, this coming week, we'll be consumed with getting ready for the commission, I mean, for the committee, but I will be meeting with the East African Community Services Organization to discuss their Family Empowerment Center project.

All right, any questions?

I don't see any, so I will pass it to Council Member Peterson.

Go ahead.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

There are four items from our transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee on the full council agenda tomorrow afternoon.

All of this legislation was recommended unanimously by our committee counts bill 120528 will authorize our Seattle Department of Transportation to acquire a small, but strategically located sliver of property to facilitate the route 44 bus corridor.

Council 120538 will authorize Seattle Public Utilities to enter into an interlocal agreement to finalize an agreement with King County over how to fairly allocate the work and revenue from the residual materials that are left over from the recycling process.

Council 120539 from Seattle Public Utilities will improve our climate Our city's climate resiliency by authorizing the acquisition of a small but strategically located plot of land in an area that often floods in Northeast Seattle.

The fourth and final item from our committee is resolution 32082, which will adopt updated plans from Seattle Public Utilities to reduce solid waste.

I want to thank Council Member Herbold for working to make SBU's legislation more specific and accountable with her amendment that we approved in committee last week.

Our next committee meeting of Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities is currently scheduled for Tuesday, April 18 at 9.30 a.m.

Regarding regional committees, last week I attended the regional Water Quality Control Committee, happy to report that King County's Wastewater Treatment Division, whose pass-through charges comprise at least a third of everyone's utility bills from Seattle Public Utilities, heard the call to keep rate increases to a minimum.

The wastewater treatment division of the county sharpen their pencils to better manage their costs and return to their 2024 rate projection to the original promise they had made last year.

So that in turn enables Seattle Public Utilities to maintain their overall rate path that this council already approved for all their lines of business for our constituents, which also, of course, includes the delivery of clean water and the removal of solid waste.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we move forward to Council Member Strauss?

That was riveting.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Thank you.

Good afternoon Council President colleagues, there are no items from the land use committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

This week's regularly scheduled land use committee on April 12 has been canceled.

We are currently hearing the tree protection ordinance in the committee, and the schedule for hearing this ordinance has changed the amendment deadline was scheduled for tomorrow, April 11, and we have heard the request from the urban forestry commission.

To add time to our schedule.

The next amendment.

So the new amendment deadline is now April 18 so next Tuesday we've added a week amendments must be sponsored by a council member, and any council member may request an amendment so you don't have to sit on the committee.

Please, if you don't sit on the committee work with me to make sure that your needs are met all council members are welcome to attend.

Our land use committee meetings regarding the tree ordinance.

We are requesting that no amendments at come to full council, other than technical cleanup amendments and we're still trying to, and we are working diligently to avoid even that.

This does change the overall schedule, and we're working to keep the schedule on track because we have many other large policy items in committee in May, which I'll get to in a second.

So we endeavor to still vote on some amendments on Friday, April 12th, special committee meeting, followed by the public hearing meeting on April 24th at 1030 AM, where no policy action will be taken.

Then April 26th, special committee meeting, we'll focus on voting on any remaining amendments.

If the bill is ready to vote, take a final vote, we will stay on schedule to vote the bill out of committee.

If we need additional time, we will utilize the May 4th special meeting that we've scheduled to make any final changes to the tree protection ordinance.

I want to make sure that staff, the law department, council members, stakeholders and the public understand the amendments before they're voted on, which is and Urban Forestry Commission made this request, which is why we've added more time.

Again, colleagues, if you don't sit on the Land Use Committee, please do get briefed on this legislation ASAP or attend meetings.

We're always welcoming you to join our Land Use Committees because we are looking to avoid amendments at full council.

In other Land Use Committee work, We are we will be getting we will begin hearing the maritime industrial land zoning changes in the land use committee.

This is what's going to be happening in May.

This is very technical and dense legislation.

I'm requesting all council members receive a briefing on this policy now today from OPCD to ensure your questions are fully answered, because we will be releasing the schedule for these meetings and hearing this bill in May.

We will begin working to ensure all amendment work occurs at the committee level, which means that If you don't sit on the committee, you are welcome to attend.

And if you don't sit on the committee and want to put forward an amendment, please work with my office.

We'll be scheduling special meetings of the Land Use Committee in May to attend to this work.

Again, all council members are invited to attend the Land Use Committee meetings for the tree protection ordinance and maritime industrial work.

I do see Council Member Herbold, do you have a question?

That is our report.

So I'm going to take questions.

Thank you so much.

I had a question about the tree legislation.

And I think you covered it, but I just want to confirm that what I saw in writing recently is accurate.

Is it true that amendments are due tomorrow?

I just mentioned we have changed that deadline to May to April 18th.

So we have another week for amendments.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

It does change the schedule by meaning that we will need to work with the law department and central staff quickly to attend to everyone's amendments.

I've seen a lot of requests from the public for many different amendments.

So if you have even if it's just an idea that you might be doing something, please let Yolanda know ASAP.

we'd still like to stay on schedule so that we can address the maritime industrial work in May.

If the schedule continues to slip, there's going to be some major implications for the Land Use Committee.

Thank you.

Always great to see you all.

With no further questions, I will pass it to Council Member Hurdle.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

So there are no items on tomorrow's full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

The Public Safety and Human Service Committee meets tomorrow morning at 930 a.m.

Items on the agenda include three appointments to the Community Police Commission.

Two of those appointments are from the mayor and one is from the Community Police Commission itself.

We are also going to be hearing the nomination of interim director time.

You can, uh, as permanent director of the human services department.

And hopefully we'll be voting that item out of committee.

We're also going to be hearing another update on the reinforced masonry program.

As a reminder, at the end of 2023, council passed a resolution outlining the work of the Office of Emergency Management and SDCI working with the group called ASAP on developing an unreinforced masonry program.

That resolution identified quarterly updates to come to the Committee with Oversight of Emergency Management Issues and so we'll be hearing that tomorrow morning as well.

And then lastly, we'll be getting a presentation from the Office of the Inspector General on the ongoing assessments in the proposed consent decree agreement on sustained compliance.

As a reminder, the proposed agreement that was filed, I believe, on the 28th of March includes city commitments for work anticipated to be completed throughout the year this year and anticipates that the city or the city and DOJ jointly might petition the court after the completion of all these items to end the consent decree upon not only completion but demonstration of compliance.

We are focusing tomorrow not on all of the items within the proposed agreement.

All of the items are use of force, crowd management practices, accountability, strengthening and continuing practices, and ongoing assessments.

In tomorrow's committee meeting, we're specifically discussing only the ongoing assessments element.

We're doing that because Inspector General Judge is going to be doing that work, that the agreement proposes that that work transition to the Inspector General.

And so we're going to hear more from the Inspector General on how they intend to do that work, how that work has been integrated into their work plan and how they are funded with an increase in staffing sufficient to do the significant additional work.

Other public safety updates unrelated to my committee agenda tomorrow.

For general awareness, this week is National Public Safety Telecommuters Week Telecommunicators Week.

I'm not going to be proposing a proclamation, but I would still like to offer my heartfelt thank you to the 911 dispatchers and other staff at the Community Safety and Communication Center and the Seattle Fire Alarm Center.

These workers take calls from Seattle residents in their toughest moments and on their worst day.

and working with expediency and compassion to get them vital services that they need.

We're really grateful to all of you doing that work and your dedication to public safety.

I want to uplift that last week I met with a representative of one of the Seattle Police Department's demographic advisory councils.

There are about a dozen different demographic advisory councils, and these councils were formed in the 90s to help SPD reach out to develop relationships with specific communities in Seattle and offer community members opportunities to guide the department's engagement and practices across the city.

In this meeting with a representative from one of the demographic advisory councils and joined by representatives from Seattle Neighborhood Group, I was disheartened to learn that some members of specifically the East African Advisory Council have felt that their work and advice are not being prioritized by the department.

I'm trying to look into whether or not This is focused on one particular demographic advisory council or whether or not there is an issue with adequate staffing to allow those demographic advisory councils work according to their mission.

And maybe that because of the staffing issues at SPD, maybe that is more broadly felt than just this particular advisory council.

On the public health areas, just want to lift up that public health reports in a new study that the number of families who have trouble affording food in King County has continued to increase over the past year.

In October twenty twenty two, public health heard from over 80 food assistant providers that food donations are down, food costs are high.

and the number of people seeking assistance is increasing.

All of the providers told public health that they need additional food, volunteers, and equipment.

And you can help by volunteering, donating nutritious foods, and giving money to your community food bank and meal program.

If you need assistance, you can go to publichealthinsider.com and click on the food insecurity post.

As far as regional committees, last Monday, I attended the regional policy committee as an alternate.

I'm not a regular member of that meeting, but I was asked to serve as an alternate.

And in doing so, I had the opportunity to vote on some amendments.

to the proposed Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services levy renewal package proposed by Executive Constantine.

At that meeting, I did voice my support for considering a modest increase to the levy rate.

There were four different amendments that would have increased the levy rate by a very small amount.

After discussion among committee members, it was not clear that any increase would be supported by a majority of the members.

And so the chair declined to move any of the amendments that called for an increase.

I do appreciate that County Council Member Rod Dabowski sponsored those amendments for the modest increase and appreciate that he has proposed to continue the conversation with County Council colleagues who will also consider amendments to the package later this month.

As far as items coming up, well, first, I wanted to just lift up that last week I attended a town hall on youth and substance use, substance misuse, and substance abuse at Denny International Middle School.

It was held at Denny, but it was for the youth, supporters, teachers, families, and youth at each Denny South.

West Seattle High and Madison Middle School.

The group was called the West Side Healthy Empowered Youth Coalition, also known as the HAY Coalition.

And I had the opportunity to share with folks attending the good work that this council has done lifting up behavioral and mental health supports at our public schools, shared with them the pilot use of $500,000 at five schools, including Denny and South, and how that particular pilot will inform the allocation of the $4 million that council approved in the 2023-2024 budget.

As far as items coming up this week, I just want to.

Get the word out that.

Friday, I'm really excited to participate on a Roxhill bog tour.

This is a project that community members in West Seattle have been working on for a number of years to rehydrate the the bog.

to encourage environmental outcomes and discourage less desired uses of the area there.

Also tomorrow I will be, as well as Councilmember Lewis and the Mayor's Office and a number of departments, attending the dual dispatch work group.

And Thursday morning we'll be meeting with Southwest Precinct Captain Rivera, my regular meeting with the Southwest Precinct.

And I think that's all I've got.

Anybody have any questions or comments before I pass it on?

Seeing none, I'll pass it on to Council Member Lewis.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Herbold.

Hello, colleagues.

At full Council tomorrow, we will be bringing forward a confirmation for Acting Park Superintendent A.P. Diaz, who was recommended by the Homelessness and Public Assets Committee with a unanimous 4-0 vote to serve permanently as Superintendent of Parks.

We had a really robust hearing with the nominee to talk about some of the pending issues in front of parks.

the investment package from last year's Metropolitan Park District confirmation, as well as upcoming plans to scale up the park ranger service among other assets under the direction of the Parks Department.

And we look forward to continuing that work with Superintendent Diaz in a permanent capacity instead of the current interim one.

So we look forward to that consideration tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, another episode.

Sorry, there was another episode in the Seattle times of about the 3rd Avenue project which I, we have been discussing among.

Some colleagues over the course of the last couple of months and looking forward to bringing this to the full Council in a bigger way.

In the coming weeks, just as a little bit of a summary, the story from Greg Kim summarized.

the activity that we have been engaging in, in collaboration with multiple entities, including the West Precinct Police Department, the Public Defender Association, which oversees the LEAD program, along with We Deliver Care, which does outreach and has been building a by-name list in the Third Avenue corridor.

This coordination and Project aims to keep a constant presence on Third Avenue to connect people who are on Third Avenue on a regular basis with services and access to better pathways to exit homelessness or addiction or other barriers that might be keeping people in the streets.

There were some interesting findings from the initial report back that Greg Kim reported on, including that 92% of the folks who we are engaging with in the 3rd Avenue corridor have reported experiencing homelessness.

And it's about a little over 400 people in the cohort who are regularly on 3rd Avenue in a state of public health distress, and other associated challenges.

We are going to have the Third Avenue Project representatives come and give a briefing on this work during the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee that we'll be meeting on Wednesday, April 19 at 2pm.

So, very much looking forward to hearing about that and having a more in-depth check-in and open session.

And hopefully we'll have some updates of that collaborative work between the city council members Harold and several other stakeholders to continue to move forward on that critical work.

The Capitol Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library will be closed this week due to an ongoing construction project book returns will be closed and holds will be extended so don't worry if you're in a position where your usual book return at that branch location is not currently open.

It is being closed for a week to take care of some ongoing construction work.

And also starting this month libraries are beginning the rollout of youth programming.

As we start moving into the summer season I know it doesn't seem that way outside right now but we are starting to get a little closer.

The most.

Updated information on this program and schedule can be found at www.spl.org slash early learning.

So highly recommend folks reaching out to look at that youth programming and enroll accordingly if there is something of interest.

Clean City update.

Between March 27th and March 31st, 668 needles were recovered by the Clean City Initiative at 118 different locations, and 47,880 pounds of garbage were removed.

And with that, Council President, I don't have any additional updates.

I'm happy to hand it over to the next person in line, which I believe is Council Member Mesquita today.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Lewis, I'm not seeing anybody raise any hands, so I will go ahead and jump in.

Colleagues, I wanted to remind you that our Select Housing Committee is going to continue to convene April, May and June.

We had our 1st select housing levy committee on April 5th, where we had an opportunity to hear about the current and future housing needs and the workforce stabilization needs across our city.

We also had a chance to start diving into the 2016 housing levy programs and production report.

Thanks for your discussion, your participation, and the questions that you teed up.

I know Tracy Rascal from central staff has been very busy trying to respond to some of the questions that have come in, and we will have a chance to do an overview of some of those responses at our April 19th meeting.

Our next meeting is April 19th at 930 a.m., where we will have a presentation from Director Winkler-Chin, from the Office of Housing, Kelly Larson from the Office of Housing, along with Tracy Ratzcliff and Jennifer Labreck from Central Staff.

We will start diving into the Mayor's Proposed 2023 Housing Levy Renewal Package.

We will also have our first public hearing that day.

It's going to be a long day on April 19th.

The public hearing starts at 4 p.m.

You can sign up online to participate beginning two hours prior to the meeting, just like we do for our other Council meetings.

The web link will go live at 2 p.m.

We will also have the opportunity to hear from folks in person if you choose to come in, but you are not required to do so, and encourage remote participation, especially if you feel sick.

Stay home, please.

We want to make sure that we give a chance for everybody to be heard, so we will adjust the time accordingly and provide at least two hours to make sure that we hear from everybody who dials in.

We will have another public hearing.

This will not be your last chance.

Another opportunity the following month to hear from folks about the proposed housing levy and to discuss what you might want to see from council.

And this is in addition to our public comment that is offered at the top of every meeting that we have for the Select Housing Committee meeting.

Thanks so much for participating on April 19th, starting at 9.30 a.m.

And if you are able to listen in to the public comment as well at 4 p.m., that'd be great, colleagues.

If you have any questions about our April 5th discussion, please make sure to send those questions to Tracy Raskliff on central staff, if you haven't already, so we can make sure to get those questions answered prior to our April 19th meeting, and they can be built into the materials.

Madam President, the second thing is I just wanted to give a chance for folks to draw their attention to the email that Ali Panucci sent around this morning as a primer on the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast materials that they provided to the Forecast Council.

Our Forecast Council did meet this morning.

This is a meeting that is available to the public, transmitted on Seattle Channel, includes myself and the Council President, along with the Finance Director and the Senior Deputy Mayor.

A four-member forecast council receives information from the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts on a quarterly basis so that we can have a transparent way to provide members of this council and the public information about the revenue forecast.

That information is all presented on their website, so if you didn't have a chance to listen in to our two-hour meeting, you're welcome to go back and take a look at any of those materials on the forecast council website or listen at Seattle Channel.

There were some important changes that were noted in the revenue assumptions this morning, and I want to make sure that you all know that we are working closely with central staff and the city budgets office to do an analysis of the information that we received this morning.

both the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecast, along with the City Budget's Office, and central staff will be present in our Finance and Housing Committee, the only Finance and Housing Committee meeting that we have over the next three months, because every other time is taken with the Select Levy Housing Committee.

Our Select Committee on Housing is taking our other Finance and Housing time, so please note in mid-May, CBO, Office of Economic Revenue Forecast, and central staff will be providing an analysis of the information that was presented this morning.

As a reminder, the Office of Economic Revenue Forecast has a slice, a large slice, purview over providing an analysis on revenue streams for the council and the executive's consideration, but they do not have every revenue projection in their portfolio.

So that's why it's important for us to have these quarterly report outs in the Finance Committee so you get a fuller picture of the revenue forecast.

I'll start with the good news.

The good news is that the general fund revenue projections are up.

We are up $66.8 million excluding grant revenues.

That is $44.6 million up in 2023 and $22.2 million up in 2024. And a lot of that is offset by the jumpstart payroll tax being down as we anticipated, $30.9 million down in 2023 and $31.7 million down in 2024, given the changes specifically and notably in the tech sector.

We are up in sugary sweetened beverage tax, about 1.1 million over the biennium, but we are down again in the real estate excise tax, down 13 million in 23 and down 8.7 million in 2024. Some of the other areas include the transportation benefit revenues up a combined of 9.3 million dollars over the biennium and the school safety traffic and pedestrian improvement fund.

These are our cameras for speeding around school zone.

In all, I just want to reiterate to our Council colleagues, we are well prepared to deal with this.

The Council and the Mayor have worked collaboratively to balance the 2023-2024 budget in November, knowing that any shortfalls in some funds should and could be balanced with revenues from other funds.

Now it's our job to rebalance the budget in a way that keeps our commitments that we made to communities, to partners, and to frontline service providers in the remaining months of 2023. We will have time to incorporate the information that we receive.

First, the executive will incorporate that with any changes that they see needed to be made to the supplemental before that is transmitted down.

And I'm saying supplemental because we are treating 2024 as a supplemental budget, given it was a biennial balanced budget.

So they will have time to incorporate any additional information before the 2024 budget is transmitted to council for our deliberations this fall.

I believe we are fully capable of doing what we need to do to address our ongoing commitments to community and avoid reductions or austerity budgeting practices.

Because as we know, many of these funds were shared across the board.

Jumpstart helped offset the downturn that we saw in the general fund.

$185 million of higher than anticipated revenue that we expected to come in over the general fund for the entire budget.

So while it's not ideal, I think we can manage this, and I want to thank again City Budget Office, the Mayor's team, and all of you for your ongoing participation and patience as we seek to address this.

It's not ideal, but it's $6.7 million overall shortfall in a 7.4 billion dollar budget.

I think $6.7 million is manageable, given the scheme of everything else that we have.

And I'm hopeful that we can keep our commitments on track.

So much more to come on May 17th in the Housing and Finance Committee.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'm not seeing any hands.

So I'm going to turn to the Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

So folks, just in, Justin Jones reappointed to the Tennessee House seat after GOP expulsion.

Tennessee State Rep Justin Jones has been reinstated to the State House after he was expelled last week for participating in a gun violence protest.

I'm sure you all saw it in the news.

On Monday afternoon, the Nashville Metropolitan Council voted to reinstate Jones just days after the GOP-controlled House voted to expel him and his colleague, Representative Justin Pearson.

So hopefully they will also reinstate Representative Justin Pearson as well.

And I will leave it at that.

All right, so I will be brief.

There are no items from the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Government Committee on tomorrow's council agenda.

The next Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee meeting will be Thursday, April 20th.

But I do have two exciting items coming out of Native Communities.

First, as we mentioned last week, the City of Seattle and the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, thank you, Tim and Gail, have distributed invitations for the first ever inaugural Tribal Nations Summit to be held Tuesday, May 2nd at City Hall.

Very exciting.

This has never happened in our city.

Please mark your calendars and join us.

I plan on being there all day.

A little background.

The city of Seattle is now doing what the state of Washington has done since 1989, that is for 34 years, when President Clinton issued an executive order that the federal government should have a government-to-government relationship with tribes.

What you saw in the last 25, 30 years is cities and states adopting that same accord.

Washington State calls it the Centennial Accord, and they do it every year with the governor meeting with the tribal leadership from the 29 recognized tribes.

So the focus on May 2nd, in which I will be there all day, will be on housing and homelessness, natural and cultural resources, and public safety.

So I'm really glad that we are going to have tribal leadership attending.

Big shout out and thank you to Tim Rennon.

Tim is the the tribal liaison in the mayor's office and works, obviously, for OIG and Francesca Murnan.

She is at Department of Neighborhoods and was the staffer that also worked with us.

She came from the Seattle Indian Health Board to put together the Indigenous Advisory Council.

And a huge thank you to our own Sarah Mays for being the liaison with OIR, the mayor's office, Department of Neighborhoods and the tribes.

So you will be getting invitations.

Like I said, I will be there all day, but I'm hoping those of you and those three issues, housing and homelessness, natural cultural resources and public safety when you want to step in and hear what tribal leadership is saying about those three very important issues.

So this is very exciting for our city.

Second, it's finally happened.

Department of Interior Secretary Holland heard us.

We are going to have they are going to host on.

Let me see if I want to get this date right.

The Road to Healing Tour will be coming to the Pacific Northwest later this month.

The Road to Healing provides survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system an opportunity to share their experiences.

The shared experiences and stories will help the department to develop the next volume of their investigative report regarding boarding schools.

Volume one of the report was issued or reported on last year, was released last year.

The road to healing tour event will take place on Sunday, April 23rd at 10 a.m.

Thank you to Laila tribe for hosting this very, very, very important long time coming public comment time for our elders.

and those affected by boarding schools to come forward and share their stories, and it will be in the Federal Register and Federal Record.

So I will be there for that as well.

And then again, another big shout out to our own Sarah Mays working with Indian Country and Francesca and Tim.

to make sure that this happened and our friends at Department of Interior.

So moving on, last week on Thursday afternoon, the Sound Transit Rider Experience and Operations Committee voted to authorize a contract to repair the entire portfolio of Sound Transit vertical conveyance assets, which are basically escalators and elevators.

The committee also heard reports regarding upcoming Sound Transit repair and maintenance projects.

Coming up this week, I will be attending, of course, the Sound Transit North King sub area, and we will be meeting on Wednesday.

And let's see, before I go to executive session, let me just do a little sports reporting here.

Seattle Kraken made it to the playoffs.

They clinched Is that the right word, or cinched?

A wild card for the Stanley Cup.

This is their second season.

Apparently, this is historic.

Only two other teams have ever accomplished this feat since the NFL had their expansion program, which began in 1967. So apparently, that's a really big deal.

So I thought I'd share that with you.

Are there any questions regarding my report before we go into executive session?

All right.

My understanding is let me go ahead and read what I need to read and then you guys stay online.

Stay.

There's not a separate number.

That's my understanding.

All right.

If there's no further business, we will move into our three executive sessions.

Hearing no further business, we will now move into executive sessions.

As presiding officer, I am announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential and actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure that council reserves questions of policy for open session.

Madam clerk, we have, I believe, one hour.