City Council Briefing 5/10/2024

Music.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Happy Monday.

I hope folks were able to see the northern lights on Friday at least.

Today is May 13th, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order, and the time is 2 o'clock.

Councilmember Hollingsworth is excused today.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Wu?

Present.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of May 6th, 2024 will be adopted.

Seeing none, the minutes are adopted.

All right, we have two proclamations today, but no presentations or executive session.

At tomorrow's council meeting, we'll have four items on the introduction and referral calendar, and they are the weekly payment ordinance and Council Bill 120788 on the transportation levy, Council Bills 120786 and 120787, allowing Seattle City Light to accept some easements.

The consent agenda will include the biweekly payment ordinance and 23 other items, including a resolution approving City Lights adoption of a biennial energy conservation target and 10-year conservation potential.

a 10-year conservation potential, three appointments to the Seattle King County Advisory Council on Aging and Disability Services, one appointment to the Seattle Women's Commission, one appointment to the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, three appointments to the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority, six appointments to the Board of Parks and Recreation Commission, and two appointments to the Community Surveillance Working Group.

And finally, there are six appointments to the Seattle Arts Commission.

So that's on deck for tomorrow.

In addition, there are six pieces of legislation we'll be probably voting out.

Council Bill 120783, authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city and the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Council Bill 120784, authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city and Local 21, representing employees at Seattle Public Utilities.

Council Bill 120749, from the Land Use Committee.

providing a height limit exception in part of Georgetown, Council Bill 120780 from Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee, authorizing Seattle Public Utilities to acquire properties for the South Park Water Quality Facility Project, and Council Bills 120764 and 120765 from the Transportation Committee, granting Fred Hutch Cancer Care continuing permission for a skybridge and a tunnel, respectively.

So that's what tomorrow's meeting is all about.

Moving right along to our proclamations.

Council Member Strauss has a, just a second here.

All right.

I had to get my pronunciation right.

Okay.

Councilmember Strauss has a proclamation recognizing Friday, May 17th, 2024 to be suitenda my day.

Councilmember Strauss, you are recognized to lead the discussion on the proclamation, correct my pronunciation, and seek additional feedback before I request signatures.

Council President, I have to say, in Norway, there are so many different dialects of the same language that there are different pronunciations in northern Norway than there are in southern Norway, despite the population of the entire country being similar to Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties.

So don't worry.

However you said it, it's right somewhere.

All right.

Like a clock being right twice.

All right.

Thank you.

So I pronounce it Sittendamai.

You can say Sittendamai.

There's many different ways to say it.

What it is is it's Norwegian Constitution Day.

It's not Independence Day.

It is Constitution Day.

Norway is the second longest standing constitution in the world, second behind only...

Anyone?

The US.

America, exactly.

Council President, right.

Only behind America.

And so it is with great honor that we get to celebrate Satentamai, Satentamai in Ballard.

We are the third largest celebration in the world.

We are the largest celebration outside of the country in Norway.

And so Oslo and Bergen have larger celebrations than ours.

So it's with great honor that we celebrate this day.

We regularly have the ambassador to the United States from Norway attending the parade.

She gets to only choose one parade in the entire country, and sometimes Minnesota gives us a run for our money, but I'm happy that we are the largest parade outside of the country in Norway.

With that, do you want me to pass down the proc?

Sure.

So it's going to be physical.

All right, so people sign where you're supposed to.

And will this be presented at the parade?

We'll present it twice, actually, on Friday.

Once at the Sit in My Luncheon.

We actually have a delegation from...

Association of Washington Cities.

The mayor of Cle Elum has connections to the museum, as well the mayor from Marysville has connections to the museum, as well as council member Jeannie Cole-Wells.

She always plays an important role, and so we're going to have a lot of folks there at noon, the lunchtime hour, and then again at Bergen Place ahead of the parade.

The parade gets going at, I believe, 6 p.m., so if you haven't been before, I recommend getting there early because Parking is, it's the worst day for parking in Ballard.

And it's not because people went to the Ballard School of Driving.

All right.

Thank you very much for that.

While we're signing this physically, could you please call the roll so that the public knows?

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Wu?

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Moore?

Aye.

Councilmember Morales?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Eight signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you very much.

No further comments?

Okay.

Moving on to the next proclamation.

Let's see.

Councilmember Moore has a proclamation recognizing May 13th to the 17th to be Affordable Housing Week.

Councilmember Moore, you are recognized to lead the discussion before I request signatures to be affixed.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Colleagues, we have before us today a proclamation for this week, May 13th through May 17th, to be Affordable Housing Week.

And all week long, they're going to be hosting affordable housing seminars and discussions.

and exploration of how we are able to, how we will be able to reach that goal.

Just note that the Growth Management Planning Council has outlined the need for 7,986 new permanent housing units in Seattle by 2044 for households between 50 and 80% of area median income.

and a little over 19,000 new permanent housing units in Seattle by 2044 for households between 30% and 50% area median income.

So there is very much a great need for affordable housing throughout our great city.

Affordable Housing Week is an opportunity to unite with other cities, organizations, and communities throughout King County in celebration of our shared goal to create momentum for investments and policies to build affordable, thriving, and equitable communities here in Seattle.

So with that, I would ask for my colleagues to join me in signing this proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Are there any comments, questions, or feedback?

No?

Okay.

Would the clerk please call the roll on who will provide their signatures?

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Wu?

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Eight signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Council Member Moore, for bringing this forward.

Okay, moving on to the next agenda item, which is basically a rundown on what happened and what will happen at City Council.

Today, the roll call begins with Council Member Saka.

Please take it away.

Yeah, awesome.

Well, thank you, Madam Council President.

So from my perspective, top of mind, colleagues, members of the public, is the transportation levy and the select committee.

First off, the council just received, I think late on Thursday to be exact, the formal mayor proposed legislation.

And that will be, as you aptly noted, council president on the IR calendar for tomorrow.

And then, again, we're going to continue our review and immediately following, which our next meeting will be next Tuesday.

Colleagues, I want to thank you all for your robust and engaging conversation at our very first Select Transportation Committee meeting last week.

great conversation.

We kicked it off and it was a most deliberative process that we kicked off.

So a few more of those meetings coming, but I want to thank you all for your engagement so far.

This week and going forward, I hope to meet offline individually with each and every one of you.

to discuss your top priorities for the levy.

And I look forward to some of those conversations.

Colleagues, please also be sure to directly engage and meet with our central staff experts on the transportation levy and take their requests for meetings and briefings.

And we will have those conversations in parallel.

Next up at our second Select Transportation Committee meeting, it will be next Tuesday, May 21st.

And the proposed agenda that we're still finalizing is central staff zone analysis and issue identification.

And that same day at 4.30 p.m.

will be our very first public hearing and opportunity to hear directly from members of the public in a focused, dedicated conversation.

Our public hearing, again, next Tuesday at 4.30 p.m.

So excited for that.

And even though we have a very solidly packed schedule and calendar for this levy renewal process coming up, I look forward to a very deliberative and collaborative process individually with each of you all, and as well as hearing the concerns from many of the members of the public.

And I appreciate the ones that have shared their feedback with us so far.

I welcome colleagues, your questions, comments throughout this process as well.

So more to come.

After May 21st, so after next week, there will be three more select committee meetings and one more additional public hearing before the final action is taken by the committee in early July.

And that early July timeframe is pegged specifically to the deadlines that we are required to submit This kind of proposal to King County elections and so everything is on a word back calendar.

It's it's pegged to that That finals sort of drop-dead date if you will from King County elections And so that is the levy in other news well I share a number of announcements regularly in my various newsletters.

I read all your wonderful newsletters.

I hope you take the time to read mine.

But the only thing I'll sort of highlight that didn't necessarily appear in those letters, first off, last week, Immediately following our meeting on Thursday, so Thursday evening, I had a wonderful time hosting emerging leaders directly in these council chamber from members of the People's Academy for Community Engagement.

It's an excellent program sponsored by our own Department of Neighborhoods and the participants and the cohort that I sort of hosted here.

Just coincidentally, we're all Spanish, native Spanish speakers, but they were very engaged and some were my own constituents from District 1 and South Park.

And they were all excited to learn about how local government works and serves and should be working.

And so we had a great conversation.

And so I want to thank members from that community who took the time to show up.

I want to thank the folks from Department of Neighborhoods who kind of led the tour from the city's perspective.

And apologies in advance, I don't know if some of my rather corny and horrible jokes were sufficiently translated, but I assure you all that they were probably more corny and definitely more dad jokey than they could have been conveyed in translation.

So anyway, fun event, honored to be able to participate in that.

And then finally, I'll note and emphasize that tomorrow I will be joining the Mayor's Public Safety Forum, It's one of the five public safety forms sponsored by the mayor.

It is for all Southwest area folks and will be held in District 1's Concord International School in South Park.

So, colleagues, I welcome any comments, questions, feedback on any of this.

If not, I will pass the...

I have a question.

Yeah.

So for the transportation levy, if council members have a question about, you mentioned who internally in legislative department will be supporting this effort.

If council members have a question about the proposal that is best directed at the executive, how should that happen?

Should they write to Bill Laborde, our council liaison?

What is the process?

Because otherwise there are going to be a lot of questions coming from different directions maybe.

Yeah, great question.

So if you have a question related to anything from the executive side, I think that would be a good starting point.

Bill LaBoard directly in SDOT, maybe Dan Nolte as well, I don't know, depending on the nature of the issue.

on the on the council with with respect to the legislative process and and you know the legislative analysis our own central staff experts are going to be a good starting point and then you know again we'll i've already been meeting with you all like throughout this whole process but now that we have a fully baked final proposal package in front of us um we'll want to you know, have more refined conversations about sharing priorities.

And so that is what we'll do.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council Member Saka.

This is, I have a long update today.

So my advanced warning, sometimes I'm able to be short.

I feel like this one might not be.

I want to start off by discussing last week, we were discussing audits and I personally, as one of your colleagues reacted to the conversation rather than being responsive.

And that's not helpful.

I want to apologize to each of you for reacting and not being responsive, especially to council and directly to council member Rivera.

because in the conversation around audits, I read a long list of definitions and we do do audits in our city.

In particular, and this came up in Councilmember Hollingsworth's committee as well, we have two annual audits that are performed, one by the state auditor and one by the federal government.

We then have another audit performed by the state auditor once every three years, or it has to happen at least every three years.

And just reading from the audit this last year, concluding on last June 23rd, the Secretary of State, conducted the audit under RCW, which requires the auditor to examine the financial affairs of all local governments.

The audit involved obtaining evidence about the city's use of public resources, compliance with state laws and regulations and policies, internal controls over such matters.

The procedures performed were based on the assessment of risks in the areas examined.

And last year in particular, the state auditor or the secretary of state and state auditor, this is quoting from their document, based on risk assessment for the year ended June 30th, 2023, the areas examined were those representing highest risk And they examined the following areas, the police department, the payroll, the self-insurance for property and liability, health and welfare unemployment, accounts payable, procurement, tracking and monitoring of fuel cards and fleet vehicle usage, accounts receivable, the treasury department, parks department, open public meetings, and the financial condition.

In the audits that are regularly performed, the city does very well.

We always perform very well.

And these types of audits fit more closely with a CPA audit or an IRS style audit, not a performance audit.

And this is what Council Member Rivera was talking to last week, which is very different.

And I had assumed over listening to the conversations over the last year that what many on this council wanted was a performance audit, which is not what these regularly occurring audits are.

So last week I made an assumption and that made an out of me.

So my apologies to you all for that because it's really important that we work together as a team Any of us individually cannot address the structural budget deficit and we can address it together as a team.

And so the city auditor does complete performance audits.

When I've spoken to them about this, their audits usually take between nine and 12 months and that's with a narrow scope.

So when I had my permit audit completed, that took nine to 12 months.

and there's still more work to do.

That said, I did talk to the auditor last week, and if you all have interest in specific areas within the city budget that you would like to have performance audits completed, there's probably room to do that.

Not likely before this fall budget session which is why I had asked central staff to create the deep review and examination which was presented at our last finance native communities and tribal governments.

We do not, we in this council or in previous councils do not rubber stamp budgets and it is central staff whom we rely on for our professional analysis to help us do our jobs to the best of our abilities.

I already mentioned that the auditor might have more time.

So I just wanted to address that.

My job as your budget chair is to facilitate the council's process of amending and passing a budget.

So I apologize to each of you because my goal is to be responsive.

I wanna be responsive to your questions, your comments, concerns, and your needs.

My door is literally always open.

And while I do spend time at my district six district office, my phone's always on, my staff are always here at city hall, and I'm always here to be available to you.

As I said, budgeting is a team sport, and we all have an important role to play.

If you do have these questions, comments, concerns, or needs that you're not having met, please do let me know.

The more you bring me in, the earlier you let me know, the more I can help you.

And even if our ideologies don't align, I'm going to be here to help you because it's important that we are all showing up well in this space.

And that's because we can't individually solve this structural problem.

And together, I believe that we can.

So using the audit as another good example, Council Member Hollingsworth had the SPU section of the overall ACRF make sure I got this acronym a CFR budget in her committee last week and yep a CFR and both Seattle Public Utilities and City Light have individual sections of this a CFR citywide audit because they use ratepayer funds and our large sections of the overall city budget it's helpful when each of you bring things to your committee that that you're reviewing and examining within your committee's purview.

If it is budget specific, I'll ask that it comes to select or to finance native communities.

And it just demonstrated last week the team sport aspect of this.

It was really helpful to have that section of the audit discussed because again, within that ACFR audit, it's a very dense document and breaking out the utilities is very helpful.

So I'll get to this week's select budget committee in just a minute, because first I realized I have not provided an overview of the entire select budget series.

So I'm gonna do that right now in brief In April, we received the updated economic forecast and started with our baseline budget overview.

This was the look back over the last 10 years and last five years, understanding our deficit and understanding what our tools were.

In May, we began the month in finance native communities and tribal governments with department budget overviews.

And we will continue this month with presentations about the general fund balancing analysis and understanding the jumpstart payroll expense tax.

The department budget reviews have not happened in the way that they're happening this year in the last 25 years at least.

Please do use this document to help ask more questions and identify places you want more information.

I'm using this document as a map throughout all of our conversations.

In June, the next month, we will review the work of the Revenue Stabilization Workgroup last year, examine our restricted revenue funds, and then review our select budget series, all of the information that's already been presented.

In July, we do have time held for a select budget committee as space for overflow as needed.

And we have the transportation, the select transportation levy in between here and there.

We have the comprehensive plan.

If we have overflow that can be addressed through one-on-one meetings, I think everyone might benefit from that.

But still, we hold it in case we need to use it.

In August, we have another revenue forecast and we have presentations that will prepare us for the fall budget process.

That sets us up for September.

We will this summer also have additional legislation including the mid-year supplemental that will be voted on in the select budget meetings.

This select budget series does not happen every year.

As we've said in the past, we're not sure that it's ever happened like this before.

And since, and so I just use this as the caveat to say, I'm not sure we're going to do this again next year.

We will if it is needed, absolutely.

I just want to set, because this is a lot of folks first year through it, I just want you to know that this is not standard.

This is a deviation from the typical process.

So in case we get to next year and you're asking where the select budget series is, this is a one-off this year.

I'm always happy to do it next year if we need to, that said.

Now let's get to this week's meeting.

In this week's select budget committee on Wednesday, May 15th, We have five items on the agenda.

We will be hearing and voting on three bills that were previously briefed in the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee.

That is a bill regarding museum bonds, the Carry Forward Bill, and the Exceptions Bill.

So please be prepared to vote on these three bills if you were not at Finance Native Communities They're all very straightforward.

Central Staff's Tom Mikesell will also be presenting on the general fund balancing analysis.

And then we will continue with a presentation regarding the Jumpstart Payroll Expense Tax and the tax fund.

So that's what's up this week.

We have three votes and two additional presentations.

I'm hoping we'll be able to keep it within two hours because we've given very little amount of time for discussion on the bills.

But if you do have discussion before voting, it's always welcome.

Moving on to full council this week.

We do have an international economic summit occurring in District 6 tomorrow.

It's also happening today.

So I will be attending full council remotely.

just as an awareness external committees i met on the sound transit system expansion committee last week we had a good presentation regarding the south lake union station placement it is still scheduled to be voted on next week out of the full sound transit board but i'm just awaiting to see we may push it back another week There were no staff recommendations.

Sorry, that's the punchline.

There were no staff recommendations at the system expansion meeting.

In District 6, I host office hours every week.

This one's no different.

I mentioned attending the Nordic Innovation Summit tomorrow and the Sittin' in My Parade on Friday.

We also have in...

Good friendship with Council Member Moore's Affordable Housing Week.

We will be breaking ground on affordable housing in Ballard at the St. Luke's facility.

I will tell you, this was a project I started working on in my first week in office over four years ago.

And so sometimes when you meet a potential project or a potential place, do be patient and do have short timelines, because the overall project takes a really long time.

We met with them when they didn't necessarily know where to go, and so we connected them with Enterprise Services, we connected them with Bridge and Bellwether and many other housing providers, and now, and then we were able to secure them an Office of Housing Funding.

Fast forward all these different years, I'm excited to break ground this week.

I'll also be attending the One Seattle Day of Service on Saturday, And big news, if you've been having trouble getting on my calendar or my meetings start changing different which ways, it's because we've been operating without a full-time scheduler for quite some time.

I'm excited to have Megan Bartal, the newest member of the team, starting today.

And so please say hello when you see her in the hall.

With that, colleagues, that is my report.

Any questions?

You mentioned that you don't know that there was probably going to be a vote on the line or the station location, but it could be delayed until the next meeting.

Do you know when you're going to find out about that or when that will be decided?

I don't know.

Probably in the moment.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

Over to you, Council Member Wu.

Thank you.

I attended the Nordic Innovation Summit Energy Roundtable this morning and got to meet representatives from Lund and from Stockholm and learned a lot.

So it's exciting.

This past week, I met with Seattle Theater Group with Council Member Kettle to discuss current challenges and opportunities in the arts community in downtown.

I also met with Cascade Bicycle Club, learned about their priorities and how they center safety and accessibility.

I attended the Mayor's Public Safety Forum in Rainier Beach and Bitter Lake.

We have two more public safety forums.

Councilmember Saka talked about the one at Concord Elementary.

There's also one at Queen Anne Community Center on Thursday.

I was invited to speak at the Wallingford Community Council.

It was quite interesting because right before the meeting, they had sent questions regarding public safety, but ended up spending the entire hour talking about housing.

was at the Regional Policy Committee meeting with Councilmember Moore discussing possible amendments, ideas to the Crisis Care Center Levees Implementation Plan.

Thank you, Councilmember Moore, for your amendments, and thank you for being able to be at the meeting on Friday while I chair a committee.

Our office got a tour of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, or DESC.

Their executive director, Daniel Malone, was kind enough to show us around, and we learned about their services.

We also got a preview of their post-overdose recovery center in the Morrison Hotel, which will be opened in 2025. We also went to their crisis solution center, and hopped over to Hobson Place Supportive Housing and got to see their housing and clinic.

Friday, we visited the AIDS Memorial Pathway on Capitol Hill with former Councilmember Tom Rasmussen to better understand Seattle's legacy with the AIDS pandemic and how the AIDS Memorial Pathway on Capitol Hill is raising awareness about resilience and stories.

On Saturday, we presented a proclamation declaring May 11th Seattle Opera Day in celebration of Seattle Opera's 60th anniversary.

Thank you to my colleagues for helping me celebrate the opera and highlight arts in this way.

It was an amazing program.

They flew in amazing artists from all over the U.S. to perform.

This weekend, I also went to the Cambodian Ethnic...

Chinese Association of Washington State to celebrate Khmer New Year.

And so this week in committee, we had a few changes to our anticipated agenda.

So arts will be presenting on their youth core program.

We will vote on Seattle City Light's easement ordinances.

And of course, hear from our City Light GM slash CEO nominee, Dawn Lindell.

And so we circulated her response to our confirmation questions this morning.

We'll also find it and other materials on the agenda for this Friday.

And if there are no further questions, I will hand this over to Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

For this week, tomorrow we have a Public Safety Committee meeting, and it's focused, we have a briefing discussion.

There's a fire board nominations, but also we have our vacant building legislation in support of the firefighters.

For a briefing discussion and possible vote, prefer a vote tomorrow so we can press forward on our vacant building ordinance tomorrow.

Also, we'll be introducing our ALPR, automatic license plate reader legislation, but that's just going to be an introduction tomorrow.

That's it.

I should note before tomorrow, this afternoon, I'm actually in the public safety side of things, having a public safety walk in Belltown with King County Council Member Jorge Barron.

and be doing that this afternoon.

Back to tomorrow, Pacific Science Center, looking forward to being there midday luncheon and seeing what they're doing on the education front.

Pacific Science Center is fantastic for our community and particularly in the area of education.

I would be remiss not to mention, given it's located in D7, but our Seattle Storm will be kicking off their WNBA season tomorrow night with their game against the Minnesota Lynx.

Definitely looking forward to that.

On Wednesday, it's the National Peace Officers Memorial Day.

I'll be attending.

and with other meetings during the course of the day.

Thursday, the Emergency Operations Center tour is on our schedule, along with the Mayor's West Precinct Public Safety Forum.

That will be on Thursday.

And then Friday round, well, not rounding out the week because we have One Seattle on Saturday, but we have the West Precinct Treatment Plant tour on Friday, along with Council Member Saka, my fellow veteran, the Nisei Veterans Memorial Wall event on Friday.

And as I mentioned, One Seattle, One Day of Service.

Definitely recommend everybody participate in this.

Last two years, I've led events from my time on the Queen Anne Community Council.

And this year I'll be looking forward to going to all the various D7 events that are scheduled for the One Seattle, One Day of Service.

So definitely recommend even at this late point to jump in and participate.

Last week, I just wanted to note, I met with the Cruise Line Association, the Cruise Line World.

Very important to engage with the cruise line community because they're such an economic driver for our city.

So that was fantastic conversations I had with them and Celebrity Cruises as well.

And Tuesday night, South Lake Union Community Council, very well-run meeting, focused on parks.

And I'd like to thank the parks employees that also participated, looking at the parks that they have, the South Lake Union Park, the Denny Park, and the Cascade Park, and really looking also to connect them to Seattle Center, that whole east-west, from the lake to the bay discussions, not just Washington, but also South Lake Union.

Wednesday, had a tour of Fred Hutch in Eastlake.

Fantastic operation there.

If you've not taken a tour of Fred Hutch, definitely recommend doing so.

It's a treasure for our city and for our region and really our nation.

Also last Wednesday, again, the veteran piece is connecting me with Council Member Saka and for our Amazon veteran fireside chat, which went very well.

I really appreciated that opportunity to be at Amazon to talk with their veterans and those that are interested in veterans' issues for their quote-unquote fireside chat.

There was no fire, there's no thing, but it was a quote-unquote fireside chat.

And then that night, we had our Belltown Community Council meeting.

It was always great to participate in those with our Belltown community.

And Friday, you know, Friday, I also want to mention I participated in a listening session for the Washington State's Public Defender Program.

It was really interesting to hear, not just from the Washington State side of things, but also from all the jurisdictions that participated from all over the state and their interests related to the public defender program.

piece of our, you know, criminal justice system, part of our public safety system.

And lastly, from last week, I just wanted to note, I had a very nice meeting with the Council General of Korea, Koryo Junso Inuji, and really appreciate these opportunities to engage in the diplomatic community, which I think is, if not exclusively, primarily centered in District 7. So I really appreciate those opportunities, particularly as a former naval diplomat.

So with that, thank you very much.

If there's no questions, I pass over to Council Member Moore.

Thank you very much, Council Member Kettle.

Let's see, a few highlights from last week.

I attended the Mayor's Public Safety Forum in District 5, which was very well attended.

I had to give up going to SIF opening night, but it was well worth being at the District 5 Public Safety Forum.

There was a lot of turnout, good discussion about the whole spectrum of addressing public safety.

lots of really dedicated people in the city really working hard to try to improve public safety, again, through the whole spectrum of approaches and services.

I also had the opportunity to attend the Housing Development Consortium's discussion relating to the challenges that the affordable housing providers are facing in our community these days, and continuing to be able to provide for affordable housing with skyrocketing costs in insurance, in building maintenance costs, maintaining staff because of the high level of acuity of so many of the residents in the affordable housing nonprofit buildings, and also a lot of the challenges.

the nonprofit housing providers are encountering in trying to maintain people in place who have, again, a high level of acuity and needs that aren't necessarily being dealt with through wraparound services, substance use treatment, behavioral health support.

So it's become quite a crisis, and a lot of people were there to talk about What are the ways that we can go forward to try to make sure that we are able to maintain and we are not losing affordable housing providers?

So that was an interesting day.

In terms of this week, I will be attending the one day of service, going to a number of events through District 5. And this...

Today, I am really looking forward to going to a tour of the UW Medical Center Northwest, which is going to be opening their Behavioral Health Center, which is going to have quite a number of beds for people who are in need of short-term care.

inpatient behavioral health treatment.

It's also a center for training the workforce to continue to do this work, which is there's a great need for that.

So I'm excited to have a tour of that facility.

And then on tomorrow's agenda, we just have a number of appointments to Housing and Super Services Committee, and our next meeting will be Wednesday the 22nd.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

No questions there?

Okay, looking again.

Councilmember Morales.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

I will start with the Land Use Committee.

The Committee met last on May 1st, where we discussed two items, one of which is on the full Council agenda for tomorrow.

So I'm going to take just a minute to walk through that.

Council Bill 120749 is the Georgetown Height Amendment Bill that passed unanimously out of the Land Use Committee.

This bill would allow additional 10 feet of height in the commercial zone along 4th Avenue in Georgetown.

Provisions are mandatory to the following provisions are mandatory in order for developers to take advantage of the height incentive.

So they have to commit to developing a green building include at least 5 residential floors.

They have to provide all residential units with sound insulating windows and air cooling and ventilation systems to improve internal air quality.

And they have to dedicate at least 20% of the street level street frontage use of the structure to neighborhood serving uses.

And the idea here is to increase street activation and attract and support pedestrian activity in these commercial areas.

So this is really also intended to create kind of maker space and artist space where folks can have their business and also provide about 900 units of affordable housing.

So as I said, it did pass out of the Land Use Committee unanimously.

It will be on the full council agenda for tomorrow.

So I look forward to that final vote.

We also in the May 1st committee had a report from OPCD and SDCI providing a briefing on their race and social justice initiative.

This was informational briefing, but it's important because it really helps improve our internal processes so that we have an ability to reflect on how we are using our race and social justice principles and values as a city to better serve our neighbors through these different departments.

The next Land Use Committee meeting will be this Wednesday, May 15th.

And we have just one item on the agenda.

It's an informational briefing from SDCI.

It's the unreinforced masonry policy update.

Unreinforced masonry buildings are brick buildings typically built prior to 1945. Many of the buildings in the CID and Pioneer Square are brick buildings.

And because they are not built using modern building codes, They're much more susceptible to damage or collapse during an earthquake.

So for the last three years, SDC has been working on creating a voluntary retrofit program for the 1100 or so buildings that are currently unreinforced.

This is a briefing where they will SDC.

I will present on that work and we anticipate having legislation later this year or maybe early next year.

And again, this is an informational briefing.

There will be no vote on that.

Regarding other legislation before council, I did want to take an opportunity to thank Councilmember Kettle.

I will be attending the Public Safety Committee tomorrow to speak about Council Bill 120777, the dangerous building ordinance legislation that I'm co-sponsoring with Councilmember Kettle.

As he mentioned, this will amend the fire code to clarify that the fire chief's authority to demolish or otherwise remedy unsafe building conditions.

It also allows the fire department to place a lien against property titles to ensure that Seattle taxpayers are reimbursed for the city's building abatement costs.

So I want to thank Councilmember Kettle for your partnership on this bill and for shepherding it through your committee.

Council Bill 120766, the SPD recruitment and retention legislation.

I want to thank Councilmember Saka for sponsoring my amendment.

Since I don't sit on the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, the amendment that sounds like passed unanimously last week, thank you colleagues, is about creating a safe work environment for police officers and really uplifts the 30 by 30 report.

It really is intended the amendment to require much more specific and detailed reporting on SPD's efforts to implement the 30 by 30 initiative and increase representation of women in law enforcement.

The language reflects lots of different recommendations that are in that legislation.

I do want to say a few words about the app based worker minimum wage again I don't sit on that committee but I have long been a champion for workers rights, and I think it's important that we consider this very carefully so that we do not reduce the minimum wage that was.

hard fought over the last few years i do plan to bring amendments to full council colleagues so if your office would like to work on any of these with me please let me know we are working on restoring rights to address retaliation to address the fees to ensure bikers and cars have adequate time to review and order and to decide whether or not they want to take that order we and a few other things.

So if you're interested in any of that, please let me know.

In meeting with workers over the last several weeks, I know that the city has had low orders in the beginning of this year, but has had low orders in the early part of the year going back to 2021. And so I think it's important that we really think carefully about the legislation and about the kind of data that's being presented by companies.

Workers have overwhelmingly expressed support for keeping the minimum wage, and it's important that their voices don't be drowned out in this conversation.

Regarding Council Bill 120783, the SPOG contract, I do want to share that I have asked Council President Nelson to delay a vote on this bill that's supposed to happen tomorrow.

We haven't had a single public hearing on this contract.

And this contract with SPOG is a really important vote about the future of police accountability in the city and civilian public safety alternatives in the city and i really think that the community deserves a chance to make their voice heard before we vote on it this is absolutely not something that should be rushed so we haven't received an answer yet but i just do want to share that i have made the request And then finally getting to district updates.

Last week I was in Vienna.

I went with a state delegation with state representatives Macri and Gregersen and with state Senator Saldana.

We met with a Vienna member of parliament, Jan Kriner, and with the Vienna City Council to learn about their city planning and about their social housing developments.

It is a world renowned program in Vienna.

It is also over 100 years old, but they have 220,000 units of social housing in the city that provide permanent affordability for people where they can even pass their unit on to the next generation.

So I do think that this is an important thing for us to start understanding better in this country because we all know about the crisis that we have here.

So I was glad to have the opportunity to do that.

In district last week, my team also attended the Mayor's Public Safety Forum at the Rainier Community Center and attended a tour of John Muir Elementary School with students at the Seattle Asian Art Museum as part of the Eyes on Asia curriculum.

They also had some ongoing constituent office hours meetings, so I want to thank my team for holding down the fort while I was gone.

This week, my team and I will be attending an event with Governor Inslee in South Seattle regarding an update on the Washington Cares funding.

That is our state's long-term care benefit program for those who have pre-existing conditions, who are near retirement, and for those who may have to move out of state someday.

This week I will be attending the Legislative Priorities Committee of the Association of Washington Cities.

I want to thank Councilmember Strauss for carrying that weight the last couple of years.

I'll be participating in that now.

Some other events that we'll be attending are Yesler Terrace Community Council meeting.

I'll be getting a tour by Friends of the Waterfront, as well as a tour of an office to residential conversion site downtown.

We have that downtown air activation plan legislation, but I want to make sure that I understand on the ground what that will look like.

And finally, my team will be attending a vigil tomorrow night for Lilia G., who was a sex worker who lived in District 2, whose life was taken by the type of violence that has ended the lives of countless other sex workers in the city.

So I want to extend my condolences to her family and friends and to the community of sex workers who've been shaken by her murder and hope that she rests in peace.

Um, colleagues, that is all I have unless there are questions.

Not seeing any, so I'll pass it to council member.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

My updates.

Last week, I chaired the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee, where the Department of Neighborhoods gave a presentation on its strategic partnerships program that includes the Neighborhood Matching Fund, the Food Equity Fund, the Equity and Engagement Advisors, and the Community Liaisons Programs.

That evening I also attended the Mayor's Public Safety Forum at Bitter Lake Community Center along with Council Member Moore.

It was our community safety forum on the north end.

So we had constituents from both the D4 and the D5 there.

It was well attended, as my colleague pointed out earlier.

I was glad to see constituents being engaged and sharing their public safety priorities and concerns.

One thing that stood out to me is there is not enough outreach to our young people.

They are also burdened with concerns about public safety, and we're not hearing their voices in a robust manner.

There were a few young people there, but the one young person I did see there made some excellent points about the lack of representation.

And I will be reaching out to both the mayor's office and others in community to ensure these voices are being robustly heard as we're continuing to have these conversations.

I think most of you know how deeply I care about public safety in the schools and public safety amongst young people in general.

And I want to make sure that as we are engaging in this public safety conversation, They are very much at the forefront of our conversations.

I also attended, along with Council President Nelson, the Jewish Family Services Community of Caring Luncheon.

As Council President mentioned last week, the organization is a great resourcing community.

It provides assistance amongst other things to domestic violence survivors.

It also runs a food bank, which is very necessary in our community.

and I was pleased to be a part of that event.

Also, I was pleased to see that the Office of Planning and Community Development extended the public comment period on the draft comprehensive plan.

I would love to see more clarity and explanation given to the public.

on how the comp plan aligns with the state law, HB 1110. I've heard a lot of confusion from constituents on the D4 as to what these changes would look like in their neighborhoods.

So I've given feedback to the director of the Department of, excuse me, the Office of Planning and Community Development so that they, and then they tell me, excuse me, they tell me they're gonna be updating their maps to reflect some of these zoning changes.

that are part of, you know, to exemplify what it might look like and so that folks on the ground have a deeper understanding of what density in their particular areas in the neighborhoods would actually look like.

My staff and I got a briefing from the Office of Sustainability and Environment and the Seattle Department of Construction and Permitting on the One Seattle approach to tree preservation.

along with Council Member Moore and her team.

Maintaining our tree canopy is a very important topic to me and those in my district, and this is something that I'm going to be continuing to focus on and to dig deeper on.

How we help support tree canopy not only in the D4 but across the city is of paramount importance as we're looking toward climate change and the impacts of and how we really address heat, in the communities, in the neighborhoods.

This week, I will be speaking at the Maple Leaf Community Council along with my colleague, Council Member Moore, who'll also be there.

I share a small part of the Maple Leaf neighborhood with Council Member Moore, and we will be listening to constituents there as to their concerns in the neighborhood.

I will also be a panelist on the Downtown Seattle Association's Virtual Access Forum this week, The panel will be a discussion on the issues impacting downtown, including public safety, the fentanyl crisis, homelessness, and the importance of a vibrant downtown for all of Seattle.

As I've said in the past, downtown is for all residents, and we need to ensure it is safe and vibrant so that our residents across all our districts enjoy all of the amenities available downtown and the surrounding area.

Also this week, I will be holding in-district office hours at the Magnuson Park Community Center.

This weekend, I too will be participating in the One Seattle Day of Service and will be sending out our newsletter this week.

And as part of the newsletter, we'll be including the list of events that the mayor's office has put together.

But that is just only a part of the list.

Constituents, as you know, can create their own day of public service event and I am going to be encouraging our constituents in the district to participate with us on that day.

We'll also be helping out or excuse me attending the University District Street Fair which is an annual event.

It will be taking place on Saturday and Sunday on the Ave this year.

There will be live music and performances over 40 food trucks and booths and all sorts of arts and crafts on offer this weekend.

And I encourage all my colleagues to come out and visit the U District Street Fair this weekend with me.

Any questions?

All right.

Council President.

All right.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Let's see.

Before getting into what I was going to say, I do want to respond to Councilmember Morales' comment about her plan to ask for a delay of the approval of the SPOG contract.

And I just...

My office received a request from your staff at around 1.30, so that is why we have not responded yet.

But I will note that there is nothing really irregular about the timing here.

The legislation was transmitted by the executive on April 24th.

It got on the introduction referral calendar on May 7th, and It's up for a vote this week.

And so that's very regular timeline here.

So I just wanted to make sure that I mentioned there was nothing irregular going on here.

Okay, there are no items on tomorrow's agenda from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee tomorrow.

And our next meeting will be on Thursday, May 23rd at 2 p.m.

The agenda is still being finalized, but a preview of the items on it so far include four appointments to the Seattle Film Commission, a presentation from the Seattle Film Commission in partnership with the Office of Economic Development on their accomplishments so far and some of their plans going forward.

And then I believe we've got another item, which is, I'll get back to you on that.

So that was only two clumps of things on the agenda right now.

So moving on a report for last week.

Last Thursday, my chief of staff and I did attend the opening night of the Seattle Independent Film Festival at the Paramount.

That was, it's also, they were calling it Sifty in celebration of 50 years of the organization.

I do want to note there was already comment about what a great event it was, et cetera.

I want to note and congratulate Donna James for receiving the Mayor's Film Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film.

And that was presented by Mayor Harrell at the event.

Donna James served as the first director of the former Seattle Office of Film and Music.

And her foundational work while leading the film office for decades included creating a one-stop shop permit coordination process for film production here and a low-cost $25 a day permit fee.

And that policy, which is still in effect, attracts and retains film production, business, and film crews in Seattle.

So I just want to thank Mayor Harrell for choosing Donna to be the recipient this year.

So congratulations again to SIF.

And PS, everyone, if you have a chance to see the movie that was shown that night, Thelma, You should do it.

It was really good.

Okay, moving along.

Let's see.

This week, today I met with Representatives Liz Berry and Julia Reed from the 36th Legislative District to discuss issues of mutual interest, including housing affordability and substance use disorder treatment.

And I was really glad to make their acquaintance in person and discuss issues of policy import.

both for the city and the state.

On Wednesday, I'll be addressing, I'll be attending the Peace Officers Memorial Day event.

And on Wednesday, I will be meeting with the OSC director, Jesson Farrell, to discuss items of import coming up in 2024 with the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

The King County Board of Health meets also this week, colleagues, this coming Thursday.

And one of the agenda items is the second briefing of the county's opioid crisis response.

And I encourage council members Hollingsworth and Kettle to take a look at that presentation because you're also welcome.

members of that committee and to just give that a look in advance of the meeting and come with any questions you may have.

As a reminder, I ask that the 2024 work plan of Seattle King County Public Health include actions the agency will be taking to address the number one health crisis issue of our day.

And these two briefings, the one about a month or so ago and this one this week, are responsive to that.

So it's my hope and expectation that this second briefing will include specific action items that reflect the urgency of the moment and the steps that the agency is taking to meet it.

So just a plug for that, and I'll be reading and listening to the presentation with that lens.

Okay, I'm an alternate on the King County Regional Policy Committee, and I'll be attending this special meeting this Friday in Councilmember Wu's stead because the meeting is scheduled at the same time that her council committee meets.

Unfortunately, RPC will be voting on, I believe, or it's planned to vote on the crisis care levy implementation plan.

And as I understand it, and I think that there are several amendments that I will be bringing myself up to speed on in advance of the meeting.

And this is extremely important because this is a billion dollar levy that the voters approved.

And as always, the details matter and will determine its success.

So I will be planning to also meet with my fellow, with Council Member Moore as well before the meeting.

All right, one more thing here.

Let's see.

I'm, hold on a second, I'm reading a late breaking note.

I'll just hold off on that.

Finally, I do want to draw everybody's attention to the fact that on Wednesday, May 8th at 3.47 p.m., we all received an email from Central Staff Director Ben Noble alerting us to the fact that there are essentially 12 weeks remaining in the year to advance new legislation or to process executive-generated legislation before formal budget deliberations begin in the last week of September.

And don't count on those last meetings or that one last meeting in December to be the Hail Mary date when you can just wrap everything up.

because that always ends up being a pretty full meeting.

So central staff issues this friendly reminder every year at about this time, and I'm just drawing attention to it because they really mean it.

And even though we're still in the first half of this year, time flies.

So just wanting to make sure that you read that because there are some, there's a rough schedule of dates when things have to happen before we dive deep into budget.

And with that, that concludes my comments.

And I see your hand, so go ahead.

Council Member Straps.

Thank you, Council President.

I was just going to double down on what you were just saying, that email from Director Noble, because summer goes quick.

We have recess in there.

There is the July 4th holiday as well as the June 19th, Juneteenth holiday.

And with nicer weather, a lot of people take vacation.

And so it sometimes gets harder to get this legislation in front of us and before us.

I have always been very firm with the departments that report to my committee that June is their deadline because then they will be late and get it to me before June.

budget.

It's also why in my budget calendar, you see that I've held September dates without content because I worry that there will be a late breaking, absolutely necessary, has to pass right now type of bill.

And we're not going to be able to take up typical legislation during the fall budget process at all.

And so I'm just doubling down on your point because it's a real good one.

And thank you, Central Staff Director Nobult.

for putting it to our attention.

Okay, Council Member Saca.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Just a couple other quick things wanted to flag for my portion here.

One is a fairly minor but important scheduling change that we made for our select committee.

So I've made the decision, colleagues, to after this next Wednesday, to cancel for the duration of the Select Committee process our regular Tuesday Transportation Committee meetings beforehand.

So after this coming Tuesday, we'll cancel those at 9.30.

And so what that means is that The very, not next Tuesday, but the following regular select committee meeting, which will be Tuesday, June 4th, we will start our meetings at 9.30 a.m.

rather than 10.30 on a going forward basis.

Hopefully, at least we'll have flexibility to keep the meetings.

We need to end by 1 p.m.

regardless on those days to accommodate our regular Tuesday council meetings.

But if we're able to grant time back, great.

But I just want to note that important but minor scheduling change, again, for select committees starting on Tuesday, June 4th.

And then finally, I'll also note that I am chair of the Transportation Committee, and I strongly support all modes and cars and foot and biking and freight.

and the like, but today, this week is, colleagues, National Bike to Work Week, and so I am, this week, I have two, I think, Bike to Work engagements that I'm really looking forward to, jumping on the good old iron horse, polishing that baby off, and not getting into work that way.

And I'm gonna be making sure my safety equipment is all squared away later tonight, and my tires are properly inflated.

And if not, my avid cyclist neighbor, Doug, I'm gonna be bugging him.

So apologies in advance, Doug.

But really important, I support all modes.

And so this, by biking to work, is one way I can support the biking.

I think the next thing I'll need to do is get a CDL so I can truly live up to freight and cargo.

But in any event, thank you.

Council President Mayer?

Yes.

Council Member Saka, I thought you were going to tell us that you were going to site a new airport in our city.

All modes, sorry.

I was just gonna- Seaport too, expanding the new terminal maybe one day.

Just gonna tag onto that to say at all customer service centers, Seattle residents can pick up a free helmet.

They are provided free of charge at all customer service centers throughout the city.

Great feedback, thank you.

Bob Kellett, you have something?

No?

Well, perhaps you were gonna say something along this line.

Just kidding, I won't put this in your mouth.

But I do wanna comment on my comments that, Another note about the timing of the SPOG vote is that I have been informed that if we delay a week due to the implementation of a new HR software system, it will mean the retro pay for SPOG will be delayed until fall, and that could be grounds for SPOG to file a ULP, and that could cost the city some money and also create some other problems.

So I am just including this information that I just received.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

So if there is no additional business before us today, I will close this meeting.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned, and it is 3.08 p.m.

Thank you, everybody.