Good morning, and thank you very much for joining the Seattle City Council Finance and Housing Committee.
Today is Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. The time is 9.33 a.m.
I'm Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the committee.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Councilmember Herbold?
Here.
Councilmember Peterson?
Here.
Councilmember Lewis?
Present.
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Mayor Mosqueda.
Present.
Thank you very much, madam clerk.
And again, welcome to Melanie Cray, who is our in-person clerk for the upcoming meetings here.
And thanks again to Farideh Cuevas, who is our clerk from afar running things electronically.
And as always, Emilia, who is helping us coordinate as the official clerk for the city's proceedings.
Thank you for helping getting us up and running today as well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have an opportunity to hear from folks both in person and remotely, but I do encourage folks to continue to remain vigilant about the public health crisis that's in front of us.
As NPR reported just yesterday, while we continue to hear people talk about the pandemic being over.
Excuse me, son, what was that?
I'm sorry.
You can hear me OK.
We're good.
Okay.
As we continue to talk about the public health crisis of the pandemic, I want to make sure that we remind ourselves that it's not over.
It is just evolving.
As NPR noted in their coverage this week, there are still 500 people across the nation dying every day from COVID.
And so as we think about the compounding effects of COVID, the flu, other communicable diseases, and as Council Member Herbold and I talk about often, the public health crisis of the shadow pandemic and the crisis of depression and isolation.
We want folks to make sure to take care of their health, and that is why we continue to have these hybrid meetings.
We will have public comment to hear from folks both in person and remotely today, and the two items that we have on our agenda include the 2023 capital improvement projects quarterly monitoring watch list, and the sugary sweetened beverage community advisory board update where we will hear how they are spending those tax dollars from the sugary sweetened beverage tax.
and deploying those for public health use.
I do have one modification for our colleagues to consider.
No additions to the agenda.
I'd just like to change the order of the agenda to allow for our community advisory board members from the sugary sweetened beverage tax board to be able to present first.
So we would hear sugary sweetened beverage tax update first, and then we would do the 2023 capital improvements watch list.
If there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted and reordered.
Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted and reordered.
Let's go on to public comment.
Madam Clerk, could you let me know if we have anybody in the room or remotely signed up for public comment?
We do not.
Okay, great.
And just confirming the electronic, there's nobody signed up electronically either?
Correct.
Okay, thank you so much.
There are no registered remote public commenters.
Thank you both so much.
Okay, wonderful.
Well, if you do have any public comment, you're welcome to go ahead and send those to us at council at seattle.gov and the full council will receive those in real time.
With that, the public comment period has been opened and seeing no one signed up for public comment, the public comment period is now closed.
Madam Clerk, let's go ahead and move on to items on our agenda.
We have first with us the reordered agenda would include the sugary sweetened beverage tax update.
Madam Clerk, could you please read item number two into the record?
agenda item two, sugary beverage tax update for briefing and discussion.
Thank you so much, and I see with us our friends from the Community Advisory Board.
I want to welcome to the dais here Jennifer Moss.
Hello, Jen.
Good to see you, co-chair of the Sugary Sweetened Beverage Tax Advisory Board.
Tanika Thompson, BIRD, also co-chair of the Sugary Sweetened Beverage Tax Advisory Board.
And Bridget Igole?
Bridget, our friend and my neighbor who works here at the city of Seattle from the office of sustainability and the environment.
Did I miss anybody who is joining us to present today?
Nope, that's it.
Okay, wonderful.
Well, I hear Bridget and I see Tanika off mute as well and I see Jen.
So with that, I just want to say thank you.
It's been a pleasure to work with all of you.
As we crafted the 2023 and 2024 biannual budget, the community advisory board always sends to our team a list of their priorities early.
They send it to the full council and the mayor as well.
And it was, It was a true privilege and honor to be able to work with you in these really tough times to make sure that we could continue the commitments that we have made to the community to ensure that public health and the community's health was paramount in these times.
And while the sugary sweetened beverage tax revenues were down, we were able to supplement some of the We were able to do that in a short period of time.
but we also at the same time recognize that the sugary sweetened beverage tax was never intended to buoy the total amount of revenue.
It was a public health approach to try to get folks to consume less sugary sweetened beverages.
So looking forward to talking with you about the investments that we're making and of course also talking about how we continue to sustain investments in these core public health programs while we hopefully see fewer people consuming sugary, sweetened beverages so that we can improve their health, individual health, as well as improve the population's health through greater program investment and resources.
So with that, I'll turn it over to you all, Brigitte, Tanika, and Jen.
Welcome again.
And I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to Farideh Cuevas from our staff who has been staffing us on all things health and food security for the last five years and for her work on the budget and cab connection as well.
So thanks so much.
I'll turn it over to you.
Thank you so much.
Good morning, council members.
Can everyone hear me?
We can hear you, and you are great to do just audio if you prefer.
I just wanted to make sure you knew your video was off as well.
Yes, my camera's not working, unfortunately.
No problem.
We see your lovely logo, so that is great.
Thank you.
And the beautiful slides.
Okay.
Thank you Councilmember Mosqueda for the invitation to be here today and for being such an amazing champion of community priorities.
My name is Tanika Thompson-Byrd.
I am a co-chair of the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board or what we call the CAP for short.
I am a food access organizer with Scott Green, and I serve in a council-appointed community seat on the CAB.
We're grateful for your time and consideration today, so we can brief you on SBT program investments and raise some important policy issues.
Jen and I prepared a slide deck that will take about 25 minutes to go through.
And then we'll open it up to questions.
Jen, I'll turn it to you to introduce yourself and get the presentation started.
Thanks, Tanika.
And thank you again, council members, for having us join your committee meeting today.
My name is Jen Moss, and I am co-chair of the CAB with Tanika, and I work with WSU Extension, SNAP-Ed, and serve in a mayor-appointed public health seat.
Next slide.
The last time the CAB presented to a council committee was in 2018, and this was the first year of SBT implementation and when the CAB developed its first budget recommendations.
Since it has been five years, we wanted to take this opportunity to present on the following topics.
Some quick background on the SBT, role of the CAB, highlights from programs supported by SBT revenue, and some important policy considerations and recommendations about the SBT fund.
We welcome your questions at the end and Bridgette Igoe, OSU Food Policy Advisor, is here to help us field your questions and all things that she helps us with.
A quick note on the topic we won't be addressing today, and that is the SBT evaluation, which is addressing, assessing the health and economic impacts of the tax itself.
And the 5 year evaluation is managed by the city auditor in partnership with public health.
Department and you were aware that there are some reports coming soon in the meantime.
We direct you to the cab web page, which has lots of details and information on past evaluation reports.
So, 1st, some background on the sweetened beverage tax.
The started in 2018, making this the 5th year of implementation.
The tax was designed to improve the health.
of Seattle residents by reducing the sales and consumption of sugary drinks.
Sugary drinks are the largest source of sugar in the American diet and a major contributor to poor health outcomes.
The tax is levied on distributors of sugary beverages within Seattle city limits.
The SBT is not a sales tax and that is by design.
Sales taxes are paid by consumers at the register.
This tax is paid by the distributors of the sugary drinks.
The thinking behind this type of Tax is the distributors will pass the cost on, cost of the tax on to the consumers in the form of higher shelf prices, and that that sticker shock will deter people from buying the product.
Also, SBT raises revenue from these programs that increase food security, access to healthy food, and supports children's health and early learning.
In addition to the nuts and bolts of the tax, I want to take a moment to remind us all of the influential community advocacy that shaped the design and implementation of the SBT.
In 2017, when the city started to consider a new tax on sugary beverages, community organizing, especially in South Seattle, help turn what could otherwise be a regressive tax into one that benefits low-income communities and communities of color.
We fought hard to make sure that if SBT was passed, it would include spending guidance so that revenue would be equitably reinvested in communities most impacted by the tax and most burdened by food and nutrition insecurity and disparities in educational opportunities.
We also worked hard to ensure that SBT spending was used to expand food security and prenatal to three programs and services and protect the revenue from being swapped for other uses.
Now, that was a promise that I personally went out and made to the community.
with other people from my organization, Got Green, and by policy makers at the time.
This legacy, the CAB continues to uphold.
I'm sorry, this is the legacy.
The CAB continues to uphold, and I'm thankful for the support we've had from current city council and leaders like Council Member Mosqueda.
Let's talk about the role of the CAB.
For five years and counting, the CAB has had a significant role in SBT implementation.
Our official role as defined in the ordinance that created the SBT is to advise and make recommendations to the mayor and city council on the programs and services supported by the SBT revenues.
Since 2017, we've issued 24 letters of recommendations on SBT spending, SBT budget legislation, city grant-making guidelines, and program implementation.
We take our role seriously, and through community engagement and our own experiences, we aim to be a voice of community priorities, centering those most impacted by health and education inequities.
So this is an overview of the current CAB roster.
The CAB consists of 11 members who all care deeply about race and justice, social justice.
Members are appointed by the mayor or city council into one of four position types, food access, community, public health, and early learning.
While we are appointed to specific areas, the beauty of the CAB is that we are highly interdisciplinary and understand how food security, health, and child development are all interrelated topics and that the disparities are rooted in racism, socioeconomic, and environmental injustices.
While we are all different in our experiences and expertise, as a CAB, we aim to speak with one voice.
Our process and approach to developing recommendations together is grounded in a set of shared values, decision-making criteria, and budget principles.
These are all publicly available like our monthly meetings.
We intentionally designed these tools to affirm our focus of racial justice, social equity, and community-identified priorities.
We also maintain effective relationships with department staff and city budget office who regularly provide updates, help us navigate the city budget process, and are responsive to our information requests.
As Tanika said, we take our role seriously and work from a solid foundation and framework to advise the mayor and city council.
Never have we transmitted recommendations that weren't carefully considered against our values and principles and broader community context.
Okay.
The CAB Solid Foundation has been critical because we have definitely weathered some volatile times with the SBT.
Later in the presentation, we're going to talk more about SBT revenue forecasts.
But first, let's take a quick look at the history of actual revenues.
In its first year, The SBT collected nearly $23 million, even though the city's original forecast was about $15 million.
In 2019, revenues remained largely stable, but when 2020 saw a large dip in revenues due to COVID, data available on our annual report show that during 2020, reported ounces of syrups and concentrates fell approximately 52%.
This is definitely linked to COVID-related lockdown measures and business closures.
Syrups and concentrates are used in soda fountains at restaurants.
Revenues are recovering, but it has been gradual, likely due to downtown being slow to return to pre-pandemic activity.
In 2021, the SBT collected just under 19 million and the November projection for 2022 was 20.4 million.
SBT collections for 2022 are not available yet.
Tax filers have until April 30th to report their 2022 taxes.
So let's talk about SBT spending plan.
Meanwhile, this is an overview of the current SBT spending plan.
Add up these expected expenditures and you get about $21.8 million in planned spending, more than the most recent revenue projection.
We will address the implications of this later in our presentation.
But first, let's look at what exactly SBT is paying for.
So by design, and now according to the Seattle Municipal Code, SBT revenues must be used to expand food security and prenatal history programs and services.
These are incredibly important programs.
There's a famous quote that goes something like, the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.
That's what we're talking about here.
Our city's investment in programs that serve Seattle's low-income babies, toddlers, families with young children, people with disabilities, elders, and even more.
It's hard to overstate the importance of food security and prenatal to three programs.
Food security is essential to health and well-being.
When people don't have enough food, they must or must choose inexpensive foods that are not nutritious, there's a huge impact on their physical and mental health, including increased rates of depression, diabetes, and heart disease.
For children, food insecurity impacts their health behavior, health behavior, and readiness to learn in school.
Far too many Seattle residents experience food insecurity and hunger.
Even before the onset of the pandemic, almost 11% of Seattle adults experienced food insecurity.
And there are deep and persistent disparities by race, ethnicity, by income, and for households with children.
Due to structural racism, BIPOC households in Seattle are more than four times as likely to experience food insecurity than white and Asian households.
It's imperative that a city as wealthy as Seattle, that as a city as wealthy as Seattle, we invest in a range of strategies that not only provide direct services and meet immediate needs, but also policy, system and environmental changes that address root causes of poverty.
On the prenatal to three side, the first year of child's life are some of the most important in terms of their cognitive, social and physical development.
Early experiences, occurring when a child's brain and behavior are being shaped affect a child's ability to learn, to get along with others, and to develop an overall sense of well-being.
Unfortunately, not all children have the same positive experiences or opportunities, which can lead to disparities.
Social, economic, and environmental factors that have been closely linked to health disparities, Seattle's prenatal to three programs are working to change this.
So this is a snapshot of the prenatal to three program and services supported by SBT.
The outcomes from our 2021 annual report were where we encourage you to read more about all of these programs.
SBT supports a variety of prenatal to three investments managed by DEEL.
And you all know what that is, I guess I don't need to spell it out.
Going down this list, investments include a new grants program co-designed by the CAB that supports culturally relevant services delivered to grassroots organizations, the Child Care Assistance Program or CCAP subsidy program, critical life-changing supports for low-income children with disabilities and developmental delays, evidence-based home visiting programs, high-quality coaching for birth, To age providers and supports for home based child care providers.
This is the diverse constellation of community based organizations that deal and it's other institutional partners work with to deliver prenatal to 3 services to Seattle residents.
Again, this is based on 2021 programs or 2022 annual report will be available later this year.
This is a snapshot of the food security programs and services supported by SBT.
These outcomes are also from 2021. As you can see, SBT supports a variety of food programs managed by DAWN, OSC, and HSD.
These include the Popular Food Equity Fund, co-designed by the CAB, which invests in community-led work that contributes to an equitable and sustainable local food system.
Fresh Bucks, which provides $40 per month in electronic benefits that enrolled households can use to buy fruits and vegetables.
Expanding eligibility for Fresh Bucks was a major point of advocacy for the community coalitions as SBT was being passed.
food banks and meal programs.
I'm sorry, hold on one second.
Okay.
Food banks and meal programs which serve some of our most food insecure and vulnerable neighbors.
Farm to preschool, which brings sustainability, grown foods from local farmers to local preschools.
Healthy food in schools, which supplements the school meals program.
This is the incredible list of community-based organizations that were supported by SBT in 2021 to deliver these food programs.
I am so grateful to these organizations for all their work to deliver these food programs.
They are truly at the core of efforts to reach communities most impacted by food insecurity.
I also want to acknowledge the departments, Don, OSC, HSD, for their commitment to partnering with frontline communities in this work.
We have just a few slides left and we're going to transition now to some policy considerations and recommendations.
Earlier in the presentation, I mentioned that the SBT fund is facing a downturn.
Now we're going to get real about what this means for all of these wonderful programs.
So we already made the point that food security and prenatal to three programs and services are essential to a healthy, thriving and equitable Seattle.
Over the years, the CAB has identified needs and opportunities to enhance these programs.
For example, we know hunger relief programs are trying to increase their offerings of culturally responsive foods.
The developmental bridge program would benefit from more inclusive outreach.
The Food Equity Fund receives funding requests that are 4 to 5 times more than the ongoing annual allocation.
Fresh Bucks has a wait list and needs more customer service support.
An updated food action plan coming out later this year has identified new actions to foster an equitable and resilient local food system.
However, the SBT fund alone cannot meet the current and future needs.
So this is a slide from the city's November economic and revenue update.
Notice the 3-year shortfall in the SBT fund.
We've been told to generally expect a downturn in SBT from 2022 to 2026. Again, the revenue declines are largely driven by a reduction in syrup sales, which is an indication that return to work and restaurants have not bounced back as quickly as potentially expected.
In the last budget process, given the shortfall in the SBT fund, cuts to critical prenatal tertiary and food security programs were on the table.
We worked with departments to identify strategic reductions that would not impact direct services for residents in need.
But this means the current SBT spending plan is as bare bones as possible.
In other words, there's nowhere else to cut except direct services.
Thankfully, when city council received the dire economic and revenue forecast in November, instead of taking more cuts, council member Mosqueda and colleagues sponsored a council budget action and transferred 1.2 million jumpstart funds to the SBT fund in 2023 and 2024. Councilmember Mosqueda, you know what that meant to the CAB and community, and we continue to be grateful for your values-driven leadership.
But here's the thing.
If we face 2025 with the current forecast and the SBT's funds planning revenue is zero, and the 1.2 million jumpstart allocation ends, there will be another shortfall.
So we need to plan ahead.
We've already experienced that SBT revenue is down due to reductions in syrup sales and a sluggish activity downtown.
But there are some structural issues with SBT as well.
First, SBT does not adjust for inflation.
This is an issue during times like now when inflation is historically high.
In 2022, grocery costs were 11.4% higher than the year before, making it difficult for low-income households and for the food programs trying to serve them.
The second issue is that SBT, by design, could one day be a declining revenue source.
This isn't a bad thing when you consider the public health goal of SBT is to curb consumption of sugary drinks.
But it is problematic if the city's hallmark affordability programs like Fresh Bucks and CCAP are largely funded by SBT.
Finally, the SBT tax rate cannot be changed, and this is due to an industry-backed initiative that passed in 2018. The new Washington law prohibits local governments from enacting sugary beverages and prohibits beverage taxes, sorry, and prohibits changes to our local SBT revenues or rates.
Given all this, here are our top line recommendations.
One, please start to identify identify alternative revenue sources to plug the 2025 SPT shortfall that we anticipate.
We know this is not easy, but at least there is some time to figure this out.
Further cuts to food security and prenatal to three services should not be an option.
Two, we are aware of the city's new revenue stabilization work group.
We ask that you please consider structural issues with SBT as you look across all our city revenue sources.
And three, food security and prenatal to three programs need diverse and progressive revenue streams to meet urgent need in communities.
If you are considering new revenue, please consider food and prenatal to three programming in the spending plans.
So in closing, we wanted to give you a sense of what the CAB will be working on in 2023. Here's a list of our top priorities for this year.
I'm going to name just a few.
We will likely develop a new framework to help guide CAB during times of SBTE budget volatility as we experienced this year.
We'll develop and transmit our annual budget recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.
Our recommendations may include some more on the structural issues that we've raised today.
And then we'll also produce our 2022 SBT annual report working together with the departments and our support from OSC.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today and for all of your support, Council Member Mosqueda.
We're happy to take questions or comments from the committee if your time allows.
And if there's anything we cannot address in this moment, Bridget is here to help us follow up.
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much for this comprehensive report back.
I can't believe it's been a full five years since you have been in this committee.
I remember that distinctly and that must have been within the first year that I was here.
So thank you for all of the work that you've done.
especially during COVID when we saw so many families struggling with economic security and making sure that housing, you know, and food security were paramount in those times was really critical and that couldn't have happened without the CABS leadership and that wonderful list of organizations that you provided on the screen.
I want to say thank you to all of the members of the community for all of the work you do.
So thanks again for the incredible work and dedication to this work.
And I really appreciate as well that you not only underscored, you know, the financial situation of the sugary sweetened beverage tax returns and the projection, the call for greater revenue to go into these services so that food security, early investments in child well-being and family food stabilization, all of those issues should not be on the cutting block, as well as we should be working to make sure that we are finding and filling the revenue needs for food security across our region.
And you really outlined the guiding principle, I guess, which is to eradicate the root causes of poverty.
And I think that that's so critical that we continue to remind folks how food security is one element of helping people have the basic necessities that they need so we can get away from generational poverty and create greater economic stability for all as we also invest in their health and the health of especially our youngest kiddos, zero to three.
So thanks for this comprehensive overview.
And I will turn it to my colleagues to see if they have any additional comments or questions.
Great, they do.
I see councilmember Peterson first and then councilmember Herbold.
Go ahead councilmember Peterson.
Thank you very much chair Mosqueda and thanks for this presentation this morning.
I support this this tax and the programming.
I do look forward to the evaluation.
Thank you for stating up front that that's not in hand yet.
And also would be interested in when we consider this going forward what to do with the declining revenues since that was sort of built into the model of what we're trying to achieve here to get people to wean them off of these sugary beverages, getting something from central, an analysis from central staff in terms of what their recommendations would be based on the original intent of the law, and I'm sure that this was envisioned, so what was originally thought in terms of what should happen, how we should, if we should backfill these, if we should be shifting more toward one time expenditures, what the sort of options might be from central staff.
Thank you.
Thanks.
And if you have any thoughts on that, to the presenters, please feel free, Tanika, Jen, feel free to jump in.
Bridget, any immediate thoughts or reaction?
We can also take that back to central staff who I see Brian and Allie on the line, as well as Eric McConaughey.
But we can follow up on that if there's no immediate response.
I say that the only thing that that comes to mind for me is that we continue to work with a lot of different departments in the departments that we fund to balance because it is it is difficult to balance one time investments with the ongoing programming because we know that ongoing programming tends to have more impact on the community and so that is a balance so I would say.
we hear you and want to continue to balance those two things and continue to work with city staff to identify where some of those can be picked up and it can be integrated into maybe other programs that are already happening.
Thank you.
And Bridget, did you have something you wanted to add?
I think that responded exactly how I was going to as well.
The CAB thinks very, very intentionally about one-time versus ongoing expenditures.
And it's a great point that you raised, Council Member Peterson, about sort of the long-term trajectory of these revenues.
And I think it would be great to get an analysis on how to move forward since we have time to be thinking about this.
Great.
Thank you.
Vice Chair Herbold, please go ahead.
Thanks.
I just really appreciate all the work that's gone into the report for us here today, but also all of the work in establishing such thorough support systems to address food needs in our community and echoing the Chair's comments of how inspiring this list of organizations is and just knowing the constituencies that each of these organizations have to serve and understanding that this is a visual manifestation of how many people you're reaching.
It's really quite impressive.
So just wanted to echo those comments from Madam Chair Mosqueda.
Just real quick question on your recommendations.
You referenced the city's revenue stabilization work group and the need for them to consider the structural issues with the sugary beverage tax.
Do we know at this point whether or not that is formally part of the task force mission?
Is that something that is that they're already integrated into their deliberations, or is that something that there should be an ask of that group?
Of course, again, Madam Chair is very, very active with the task force and could probably carry that message if she hasn't already, but just wondering where that is right now.
Ben and Tanika, I can try to field that because I actually asked this question just recently to the city budget analysts who work really closely and help the CAB.
And I asked, you know, is it possible for the CAB to get a briefing on where this work group is at and see if there are ways for the CAB to lift these recommendations up as well.
And the response I got was that someday, but that it's still sort of getting formed.
And I don't know if that's the case or not, but I don't believe that there's, A work plan yet, but I'm council member mosquito.
You may be able to comment and I don't want to speak out of turn here.
So.
that's great.
I'll turn it over to Ali Panucci, our Deputy Director from Central Staff who's also a part of those conversations and then I'll chime in with additional information and then we'll go to Councilmember Nelson.
If there's no additional follow-up from Councilmember Herbold.
Ali, is there any additional information you'd like to provide?
Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.
Good morning, Councilmembers.
For the record, I'm Ali Panucci of Central Staff.
I just wanted to add that the declining revenues is part of the conversation in the revenue stabilization work group mix.
So we are looking at where we're seeing revenue sources declining.
So nothing specifically focused on sweetened beverage tax yet, but that is on the list of revenues that are going in the wrong direction in terms of supporting the programs, maybe in the right direction for other reasons.
And just want to acknowledge also Council Member Peterson heard your ask.
I don't have a response right now, but noted it.
I'll also add to that, thanks for raising that, Vice Chair Herbold, and for the additional information from Bridget and Ali.
It is true that the Revenue Stabilization Task Force has begun meeting.
We had one meeting in October and then one meeting we're going to have a series of conversations over the next six months or so as we think about we're going to continue to work with the vice chair to make sure that we have a plan for the population growth and the projected growth that we see for community services and supportive services for the increased population.
So, the conversations are just getting underway, but I think it's really important what the vice chair has highlighted, also vice chair of public fully understand why some of those are declining.
And in this case, it's a good thing that there's a revenue declining from consumption of sugary sweetened beverages.
That is the goal.
It's one of actually the first public health policies I worked on well at the Washington State Department of Health with Vic Coleman, who I know continues to be involved in This effort across the nation to decrease consumption of sugary sweetened beverages in schools and in community.
So this is a good thing.
If sugary sweetened beverage consumption continues to decline, that will be a good thing for the public's health.
And yet, as you've heard from Tanika and Jen in their presentation, we have to make sure that we're stepping up and continuing to expand services that have already begun so we don't create a cliff for communities and programs, and that we expand upon the goal of making sure people get a good start in life, meaning that they never go into forming a habit of consuming as much sugary, sweetened beverages.
So both can be true, that we want it to decline and we have to increase the funding and stabilize the funding going forward.
I'm glad to see it's such a big priority amongst the council as well.
And Councilmember Peterson, I think good point, you know, going back to the original proposal, how do we create stability over the long haul from the origins of the tax proposal to begin with, going back to some of those and building on them.
Lots changed in the last few years, but we want to make sure that we are amplifying investments in we're going to be able to continue to do that.
And we're going to be able to
Thank you very much for the presentation and also for your work.
I was briefed by your various programs before budget and was really impressed with all that you're able to get done in community.
So to me, it seems like the biggest structural problem is that the tax, by design, was intended to reduce consumption, which thus reduces revenue.
And that's basically what Chair Mesquita just acknowledged.
Is there any thought about when the allocations were conceived, was there thought about overall declining revenue because the tax is working quite apart from the the revenue shortfall that we just were jolted from during budget.
That's one question.
And then some of these programs, I don't know, seem like there is a nexus with well, there's a lot of nexus with health.
So perhaps there are programs that Seattle King County Public Health or The county can take on that in the event that the tax continues to reduce for both of those reasons just because of overall declining consumption and.
and also revenue issues that are having to do with overall economic conditions.
So those are a couple questions.
When it comes to avoiding a cliff, is there consideration of allocating jumpstart permanently to backfill intended sweetened beverage tax revenue shortfalls?
Thanks.
So Bridget, I feel like some of those questions are definitely in terms of the connection to city and where that's happening.
We can start with you.
Yeah, do you want to say something about the early days of allocations and some of the work that you learned?
Definitely.
So on the community advocacy side, I think that Honestly, I was more focused on just making sure that the revenue went back to the community most impacted.
You just went on mute, Tanika.
Thank you.
Yeah, so that was what was most important to me.
That was my priority was just to make sure that the revenue went back to the community.
And I was not on the community advisory board in the early days.
I came on later.
So I have definitely been thinking about As we reach our goal of less consumption, I mean, yeah, it's a big issue.
Where is the funding going to come from?
Like there's a lot of these programs are really helpful to the community.
And I know I'm not answering your question, but yeah, we just have to find some funding someplace, but I wasn't thinking about that before.
I'll just add to it.
Someone else gonna go?
I will after you.
I was just going to add to what Tanika said.
And Tanika, please chime in if I'm misrepresenting anything.
But back in 2017, when SBT was being legislated, it was almost a foregone conclusion that this was going to be a new policy initiative.
And so some of the community work that Tanika and other community coalitions led were to make sure that if this revenue, if this policy initiative were going to be passed, recognizing that it is a regressive policy at its core, that it would be collecting a lot of revenue and that that revenue needed to be reinvested in ways that would go back into communities most impacted by the tax.
I will say though, that some of the food programs who are supported by SBT absolutely raised this alarm early and often because they said the point of this is to curb consumption.
This could be a declining revenue source.
So I think it's always been an issue and now it's here.
Whether or not this is some of the dips we're seeing is really consumption based versus COVID impacts.
I think it's still mixed results and you'll see that in the evaluation that's coming out.
With regard to, is there a nexus with health?
Absolutely there is.
Whether or not Public Health Seattle-King County can backfill all of this, I think is a question you could raise to them.
But as somebody who used to work in public health, public health is deeply underfunded.
And our county health departments largely rely on a lot of CDC or federal funding for their work.
And Public Health Seattle-King County is looking at needs across the entire county.
There was another question that I'm not capturing when it comes to a cliff.
Oh, you're talking about the allocation from Jumpstart, yeah.
Yeah, that I can't speak to.
Yeah, that is generating more than anticipated revenue.
And I have voiced concern in the past about planning for just planning ongoing expenses by paying for them with a new tax because of the instability of our overall economy.
Can I add just one other thing that comes to mind, too, is that as the CAB was very intentional in its in the formation and the establishment of the criteria that we use for budget recommendations and the comparison, the equity that's always part of all the decisions that we make.
We've also had an opportunity to help form some of these grant programs and the way that these grant programs are distributed within the Food Equity Fund.
And what we, including low barrier application processes and really taking the community-based organizations into account, So if these efforts are picked up by a different fund, I think it would be really important to continue with that same approach of being low barrier to the community and really getting that money into the hands of the community-based organizations that are on the ground doing the work.
So I just, that's another piece of the work that the CAB has done that I think has been really important.
And Jen, what I think you might be getting at, since I mentioned that public health is receives a lot of federal funding is that federal funds generally are not low barrier and are more difficult for some of our community based organizations to be able to to manage.
And we experienced that during coven when we were redeploying a lot of federal release through grant programs.
Well, thank you all so very much for those answers.
And I think we'll continue the conversation about revenue for sure.
I think what's that we can't take revenue from one source to backfill for another source given the compounding effects of instability whether it's housing instability, food instability, economic opportunity.
And so as we see the growing need for food security, we need to immediately ensure that there's services.
We need to continue to make sure that we're investing in housing and economic stability and green new deal investments.
All of which food stability.
We were able to make over a half a billion dollar investment in affordable housing in this last year's budget thanks to JumpStart in large part for the largest investment to that.
And so that housing stability yields greater opportunity for families to then have more flexibility to spend funds on healthy food and If we think about it holistically, we need to just continue to think about the both end approach and the fact that, you know, jumpstart spend plan is codified in statute, which I think is a good thing in order to ensure.
that foundational support for families and our economy going forward.
So more to come on the revenue conversation.
Thank you very much for sharing this presentation with us today.
I think that this is a great presentation to come back to for the why we do public service.
This is the foundation for what we should be centering all of our policies on.
Does it make people healthier?
Does it give kiddos a good start in life?
Does it help create greater economic stability for our region and our families?
and the work that you and the coalition have done does that.
It helps to create greater stability, but we know much more is needed.
So thanks for all the work you're doing.
And I think this is a huge public health accomplishment that our nation continues to look at for how to create a tax on sugary sweetened beverages and how those revenues can be used for upstream investments to create healthier communities and better choices for families.
So thanks so much for all the work that you've done, and we will take you up on evaluating those recommendations with seriousness as the year progresses and as we head into budget as well.
And we look forward to continuing to get your direction early, which you have been providing over the last five years, both to the executive and to the council early in advance.
That's been very helpful.
So thanks for all that hard work.
Please pass on our appreciation to the whole CAB and to your broad coalition.
Great.
Thanks, everyone.
Thank you.
We'll see you soon.
Madam Clerk, could you please read item number one into the record since we reversed the order?
Item number one, 2023 Capital Improvement Projects Quarterly Monitoring Watchlist for Briefing and Discussion.
Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.
And today we have with us Eden Cicic from Central Staff.
Hello, Eden.
It's great to see you again.
I want to recognize that the resolution that we usually have in front of us for council's consideration to consider the annual project watch list has not been introduced, but we wanted to make sure that the committee had a chance to hear the analysis of what is to come early.
So today we have with us Eden Cicic from Central Staff.
to present on the resolution and the capital projects watch list.
As a reminder, in 2018, the council passed resolution 31853, co-sponsored by councilmembers Bagshot and Herbold.
Councilmember Herbold as vice chair of the committee here today and as the original sponsor of that resolution, I'll turn it to you to see if you have anything else to say after these opening remarks.
As folks know, this requires a small list of capital projects to require an enhanced we're going to hear about what's in the proposed list from Mayor Harold after the council provides its additions.
We will then pass the resolution which will become the
The opportunity, I just want to express my appreciation for the fact that the executive under this new administration continues to work with the Council on enhanced financial accountability and oversight of these large capital projects.
And look forward to not only hearing what's on the list for this year, but also engaging with my colleagues on projects that might potentially be worthy of adding.
And then also talking internally among council central staff about how we can sort of facilitate the other side of this process, which is our oversight of projects that we have collectively flagged for more enhanced financial reporting and sort of what we as a council do with that information when we receive it.
Thank you.
I'll turn it over to Councilmember Herbold.
Councilmember Herbold.
And by way of reminder, the enhanced reporting is a workload increase for departments and our city budgets.
So we want to keep the watch list pretty condensed to be cognizant of the existing workload that colleagues from our departments already have and to make sure that we are targeted in what we have.
I know that there are a number of departments that have a lot of oversight in their purview that they might want to have additional oversight or scrutiny over.
But I look forward to hearing more about any particular project for this broader watch list that you would want to make sure is included under the macro umbrella to maintain a really comprehensive oversight and greater transparency over these projects.
I also want to flag that if any non-committee members are watching, hello, colleagues, we would want to make sure that you have additional opportunity to provide feedback to the watch list as well.
So we'll make sure that they know about our February 6th deadline, and we will be inviting them to the February 15th meeting as well in case they would like to sponsor any amendments to this.
Again, with the hope that people will be cognizant of the existing workload that's already within those departments.
Thanks again, Eden, for being here.
I'll turn it over to you to walk us through what is included in the 2023 Capital Projects Watch List.
Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Eden Sessich with Council Central staff, and today I will go over the 2023 Capital Project Watch List, starting with a quick background and summary.
Then we'll go through the list of currently proposed Watch List projects, followed by a quick next steps reminder.
So with that, let's start with a quick summary and a related background.
So in 2018, council established expectations for enhanced quarterly reporting for a watch list of capital improvement projects via a resolution.
And the process calls for the executive to propose a list of projects for inclusion on the annual watch list by January 15th of every year.
And the council typically adopts the watch list via resolution.
As Chair Mosqueda mentioned, and you may have noticed that today's agenda doesn't include the resolution yet.
And that's just an issue of timing.
It has been drafted and it will be ready for your consideration at the committee's next meeting, which is on February 15th.
The drafted resolution includes the executive's proposed list of enhanced oversight projects for 2023, which is a starting place for the council's consideration.
Next slide, please.
So on January 13th, the executive did submit a proposed 2023 list of projects by the watch list, and it contains 18 projects.
The proposed changes from the adopted 2022 watch list include the removal of three SDOT projects.
Delridge Way Southwest, the city has completed its portion of Rapid Ride H Line and we're waiting for King County Metro to finish their portion before it becomes operational.
Route 7 transit plus multimodal corridor project, which is expected to reach substantial completion before the end of this month.
And similarly, West Seattle Bridge immediate response, which is substantially completed and there won't be any additional scope, schedule or budget changes prior to close out.
So, unless there's questions for this portion, I'll go straight into the list of proposed projects and I'll cover these fairly quickly.
So, please stop me if you have questions about any of these.
So, first we have FAS and they have two projects.
Fire station 31 replacement, the $54 million, their funds a new fire station 31 to replace the existing facility.
and the other project is the human capital management system, which is the replacement of our current human resource information system.
So, IT has one project, which is the criminal justice information systems project, and that's intended to replace an outdated case management system.
Then we have Seattle City Lights, which is the overhead equipment replacements or the pole replacement program, which includes the accelerated pole replacements.
And there's an asterisk there because unlike the other projects on this list, this isn't a discrete project and doesn't have a specific body of work that will at some point be finished.
but rather this program will extend beyond 2028. So the $551 million that you see there includes actuals through 2022 and the 2023-2028 adopted budget.
And the second project is related to utility relocations project related to the work on the waterfront.
The next are SDOT projects, which represent almost half of the total projects on the proposed watch list.
And I'll just list these as they're presented on the screen.
We have Rapid Ride, J Line, Center City, Streetcar Connector, Madison BRT, G Line, SPU Drainage Partnership, South Park, Alaskan Way Main Corridor, Overlook Walk and East-West Connections Project, Georgetown to South Park Trail, and North Lake retaining wall.
Um, notice that the North Lake retaining wall has a range and that's just because the project is still in design phase.
Hence the range and not a concrete number.
Um.
Just for context project budgets are typically established once the project has reached a 30 project.
30% design milestone.
Okay, next we have.
Parks, and that's Smith Cove Park Development, Park Central Waterfront Piers Rehab Project, and the Lake City Community Center Redevelopment.
Last but not least, Seattle Public Utilities, well, more like most given the project cost of this one, is the Ship Canal Water Quality Project and the South Park Stormwater Program.
And for the final slide, I just wanted to quickly restate what Chair Mosqueda already touched on.
If you have amendments to the proposed list, please let us know next week by February 6th, and we'll have a resolution before you at the next meeting, which is on February 15th again for a possible vote.
So that's all I have for this.
Thanks.
I'm sorry, I mispronounced your name, Eden.
Is that right?
Eden, thanks for being here with us.
Colleagues, do you have any questions that you would like to ask about the list that has been provided?
Thank you.
Councilmember Herbold, please go ahead.
Certainly, a good candidate for a watch this project would be project with a significantly large or complex scope and financial impact projects that are at risk of overspending their budget or schedule milestones or project whose delivery is particularly important to the council.
Anyone has anything else to add please feel free, but that's sort of the broad.
Yeah, I was just, as you were talking, I was pulling up the resolution, which I think identifies sort of the criteria that we're using, but I think, I think you pretty much captured it.
So thank you.
And because this, the need for the resolution arose because of some projects that Council felt weren't getting sufficient oversight.
I'm wondering, I totally appreciate the desire to keep the list manageable because there is a reporting requirement associated with the projects on the list by design.
We don't want the list to go too large.
but what are we doing, we being the council, aside from, I appreciate the opportunity to offer our own recommendations as council members, but on the side of analysis from our wonderful Council Central staff, what are we doing to go through the departmental CIPs to help us flag projects that maybe should be added.
I just don't want this to be sort of like a passive exercise where we just accept what the mayor's office offers for projects for the watch list.
And as things get taken off, which are great, we love it when things are getting taken off the rapid ride age.
whether or not there should be other projects that are added.
So just again, wanting to do a little bit more on our side of things to think about what projects we might want to be looking at adding, if any.
Yeah, I think that's a great point.
And I want to underscore that desire as well, that commitment.
So don't hold back, colleagues, if there's items that you want to make sure are included in the list.
A great reminder to us that this is about, you know, checks and balances.
we're going to move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the co-equal branches of government.
The executive is showing us what their list is.
It's our responsibility to make sure that the list is complete and that we're providing oversight and transparency.
So I'm going to turn it to Allie who popped on screen just to see if you had any additional thoughts about what other analysis, what
Thank you, Chairman Skeda.
So the team of central staff analysts that staff the various departments that run our capital projects have reviewed the list and are taking another look to see if they would recommend any additional projects be added and would reach out to the relevant committee chair if there's like a transportation project or something that they think we think should be added to the list or removed from the list.
I also think the other piece that comes up throughout the year is that sometimes there are projects that may or may not be on this list where something is ongoing.
And working with the committee chair and the departments to schedule additional briefings and committee Councilmember Peterson did that.
Last year on the ship canal project, I think, I believe, and so also looking for opportunities to bring additional information and greater oversight on projects that maybe.
in advance of getting updates on the watch list or this list so we're trying to do both but we will have the analysts I'll double check with all of them that they don't have any additions and if they do they'll be reaching out to council members to offer ideas.
Okay great and Council Member Herbold please go ahead.
Thanks.
Ali I heard you say that Council Central staff will review the watch list and check with Council members on whether or not additional projects should be added.
That's very helpful.
I appreciate that, but I don't think that will...
We don't...
Each committee chair doesn't know every project that is in the CIP that corresponds to their committee.
And so we sometimes don't know what we don't know, right?
And so just looking at the list, the existing list and talking to us, I'm just really hoping that the central staff by issue area, like actually go to the CIP.
Yeah, sorry.
I didn't mean they were, they're just reviewing what the executive proposed.
They look at what the executive proposed, look at what's in the CIP for that department.
And then last year, in fact, central staff did recommend a couple of projects and Council did add those projects to the watch list.
And I totally agree with you, Director Panucci, that, and I mentioned that in my opening remarks, I think part of this process is also what Council does on the back end.
after the watch list is created and after the reports are developed or before the reports are developed based on need, is that we work using our committee times, particularly council members who have committees with large CIPs in them, like Council Member Peterson.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
But we also work to elevate the oversight of these projects once the watch list is created.
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
And I'll also underscore your appreciation for this administration as well being a collaborative partner with us to fulfill the intent of the original ordinance.
I understand that they have been open to adding additional items here and I think we appreciate that and I get the sense that we the next steps once the list is finalized.
the next step after the list is finalized.
Thank you very much we just passed last September, a spending plan for the next six year cycle of parks projects, and that's where a lot of our capital projects live, and I put forward a resolution, I mean an amendment that added some accountability measures to make sure that those projects get out the door so.
There is one parks project on this list, Lake City, and I'm just, should I just assume that there is the level of accountability and oversight of those projects that are not on this list?
So, because it seems, I don't wanna add all of those parks projects to this list, but I'm just wanting to make sure that there is a parallel process of, well, as you said, checks and balances there.
Great, I see Brian Goodnight from Central Staff pop in.
Brian, do you have thoughts about that?
Yeah, thank you, Chairman Skeda.
Again, Brian Goodnight, Council Central staff, for the record.
Tracy Ratzliff's on vacation this week, so I'm kind of pinch-hitting for her, but I will say that, right, for the projects, Council Member Nelson, that are part of the MPD process and that oversight and reporting structure, that would be handled separately from the CIP.
So both of the, I believe there's three parks projects on the list right now.
Two of them were funded in the MPD, the Smith Cove project and the Lake City Community Center project.
But right, so if they have separate reporting requirements through the NPD process, then that would occur separately from the CIP watch list.
So I think you're correct in assuming that you don't need to add all of those projects to this watch list to receive that reporting.
Thank you.
Great.
I see some wheels turning.
Are there additional questions from my colleagues?
That's a no.
Okay.
Okay, excellent.
And Ali, Brian, anything additional to add to this conversation?
So I'm going to move on to the next item on the agenda.
we're going to have to wait until the next meeting to see if there are any amendments that are agreed upon by the executive.
So we'll look forward to additional conversations about this at our next meeting.
Again, a reminder that amendments will be due to the resolution, which is not technically introduced, but it is linked on our agenda.
We'll send out a note to all of our colleagues that they need to provide us with any amendments they'd like to see by February 6th, next Monday, and then the full council is invited to come to our February 15th meeting if they would like to provide any additional context to any amendment that they would like to sponsor, and that is true for our not seeing any additional comments on this, so thanks so much for joining us, Ed and the central staff team, and I'll turn it to Deputy Director Panucci for additional comments on this before we wrap.
Thank you.
Sorry for jumping in here.
I just was double-checking the agenda.
I'm not sure that we did post the draft agenda.
I'm not certain that we posted the draft resolution, but we can send it to the clerks and have it added after the fact as a draft.
It has been distributed to council members.
we will get that added to the record.
Okay.
Apologies for that.
So we will make sure that it is part of the committee materials after the fact and will circulate to, um, to, uh, it's been already circulated to the committee, uh, and to the full council as well.
Okay.
We'll double check on all of those things.
Uh, again, thanks in advance for any feedback that you have and any ideas for continuing to make this an actionable list over the next year.
Okay.
That brings us to the end of our agenda.
Colleagues, we do have another committee meeting coming up on February 15th.
As I noted, that will be at 9.30 a.m.
We are still finalizing our agenda.
So far, this will include the follow-up from this discussion and the final vote on the 2023 Capital Projects Watch List quarterly monitoring report.
And we may have an update for you as well.
There was a proviso that was included in last year's budget regarding the jail negotiations and the contract with the county.
That report is due back here soon, so we will possibly have that on our agenda if there's time to analyze it and provide an update to the committee on what is included in that report back.
We will possibly have a piece of legislation that deals with weights and measures.
Be still my heart.
Very exciting.
If you don't know what that is, we'll send an overview and summary in advance of that committee meeting so that you can see that legislation.
And I mentioned before at our last committee meeting that we were really interested in following up on the conversation we had with the housing connector folks.
I think that's a really good point.
And I think that's a really good point.
It is not a requirement that there be a government form of issued identification.
So we're working with folks in the region, including at the county who have the health through housing policies to try to harmonize what the requirements are for when you rent out a housing unit.
So there's greater clarification both for landlords and for renters, so we may have an update for you on some of that effort we're trying to put forward for greater clarity for our community, and that could be part of our agenda as well.
So four items, jail negotiation, weights and measures, housing identification, but we will start our discussion with the quarterly capital projects improvement watch list vote.
Is there any additional questions or comments for the go-to-the-order?
Seeing none, it is before 11 a.m., so we will give you back 40 minutes of your time.
Thanks, colleagues, for joining us today at the Finance and Housing Committee meeting.
Our meeting is adjourned.