Good morning, the December 6th, 2021 council briefing meeting will come to order.
It is 9.32 a.m.
Council President Gonzalez is excused from today's meeting and I'm serving as Council President Pro Tem.
Council Members Morales and Sawant are excused for this meeting.
And I know Council Member Lewis is going to be joining us, but he's a little bit later in the agenda.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Here.
Lewis.
Mosqueda.
Present.
Peterson.
Here.
Strauss.
Present.
And Council President Pro Tem Herbold.
Here.
I present.
Thank you so much.
If there is no objection, minutes of November 29th, 2021 will be adopted.
Hearing no aggression, the minutes are adopted.
Moving on to the second item in the agenda, the President's Report.
I will hold my comments and deliver them with my report later on in the agenda.
And moving into the preview of today's City Council Actions, Council and Regional Committees.
The discussion will be a preview of today's City Council Actions.
the council and regional committees that are coming up this week.
I will call on council members as established by the rotated roll call for City Council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by name and with Council President Pro Tem called last.
This week's roll call rotation begins with Council Member Juarez, followed by Council Member Lewis, Mosqueda, Peterson, Strauss, and then I will conclude the agenda discussion.
And as mentioned, I received a note from Council Member Lewis.
He is second in the roll call rotation.
If we get to the end of Council Member Juarez's presentation, we'll move directly into Council Member Mosqueda's presentation if in fact Council Member Lewis is not back in time.
So with that, Council Member Juarez, you are invited to please give your report.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning, Council President Pro Tem and colleagues.
Say I don't see Mr. Strauss isn't on here with his new tie.
So let's see.
I have a very short.
Oh, there you are.
I have a very short update today going over.
I think I have three items, four items.
So there's one item of the Public Asset and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's introduction and referral calendar.
The item is a resolution authorized the Superintendent of Parks to accept grant funding from the Recreation Conservation Office.
This item will also be on the Public Assets Committee agenda for Tuesday, which is tomorrow.
Our next public asset, Native Communities Community, is tomorrow at two o'clock.
We will consider three pieces of legislation.
The first one, which you've all been hearing me talk about for a while, is the Woodland Park Zoo.
That is the operations agreement renewal is scheduled for discussion and possible vote.
Brian Goodnight received amendments from committee members which were due November 30th.
Thank you, colleagues.
This is a standard process for creating contracts between the city and major public assets like the aquarium, the waterfront, and now the zoo.
Amendments need to be agreed upon by both parties for it to be meaningfully forward, so I want to thank staff to who worked and coordinated in this matter because I think we got like 15 amendments.
So thank you very much.
Second item is the resolution I just referred to on the IRC calendar regarding the Recreation and Conservation Office grant application.
The third and last item is a bill that would create, finally, the Indigenous Advisory Council, or the IAC, that we passed almost two years ago.
We'll have a short briefing, discussion, and possible vote.
As I said, it's been two years in the working.
We've been working really closely with tribes, urban Indian organizations, Seattle Attorney's Office, and central staff.
Good job with central staff.
They really came through on this one.
So I believe once this council gets seated, then we can talk, they can talk about it and refer to us more indigenous issues with other indigenous groups.
That was the whole reason why we created Indigenous Advisory Council.
So we would have some subject matter experts and community experts that would advise not only the executive, but the legislative branch and central staff on the things that we need to get done.
For parks, I don't know if some of you know this.
Some of you who were born and raised here may remember this, but the Argosy Christmas ships are coming back.
This is an annual Seattle tradition.
The holiday cruises were canceled last year due to the pandemic.
This year, the festivities return.
There will be the parade of brightly lighted boats that will cruise from Puget Sound to Lake Union and out to Lake Washington.
Second, construction starts on a new Lake City Park.
Construction has begun for the new Lake City Park at 12510 33rd Avenue NE.
We've been working on this probably since I've been elected.
Seattle Parks and Recreation recently hired Ohano Construction to do the work.
Construction began last week.
in Seattle Parks and Rec anticipates the park to open next summer.
So this is a long time coming for a neighborhood in a community that has been wanting this area, this green space area to be activated.
So thank you parks.
Seattle Public Library.
The library will return to pre-pandemic levels of operation in 20 of the 27 branches starting today, December 6th.
Seattle Public Libraries is reintroducing, which is a good one, the Reserve a Computer service.
So now patrons can reserve a computer on our app, seattlepubliclibraries.org.
However, on January 1st, 2022, Seattle Public Libraries will retire the free printing and copying services, which we used to do, can no longer do.
Good news on the housing front.
Good job for all you folks who've been working on housing and of course Council Member Lewis for chairing our select committee.
The Friendship Heights Tiny House Village, last Monday the 29th the new Friendship Heights Tiny House Village officially opened.
It's in District 5 on Aurora right off on 125th I believe.
This is a tremendous step forward to move folks into safe and welcoming environment where they can get the services they need.
The Friendship Heights Village has an emphasis on the residents already in the area.
And of course, this will transform the lives of those experiencing homelessness, and at the same time, help restore the neighborhood's public parks and green spaces.
So thank you, Sharon Lee and Lehi, and all the folks who did all that hard work.
I'm glad it's done.
It's open.
And hopefully, we'll be moving our neighbors in there soon.
Sound Transit.
Last week, I attended a Sound Transit Rider Experience and Operations Committee meeting where we learned more about the security measures in response to the recent events near the U District and the Mount Baker stations.
Council Member Morales has brought this up a few times, which is important, and we've addressed it.
So I know that she is working hard, as are we, to make sure that the Mount Baker and Rainier Valley area is safe while using light rail.
We have made it a priority to share sound transit updates with her office and would be happy to do the same for anyone else interested.
Let me just add a little bit more about what happened at the Rider Experience and Operations Committee presentation and briefing from Ken Cummins.
who does the security and did a security program update about Mount Baker.
And the focus was on Mount Baker and Rainier Valley.
There was a PowerPoint about sound transit stations and crime so we could see crime in relation to other sound transit stations.
So for Mount Baker, they have increased the security patrols.
They're working with the community.
They're working with council members, as well as SPD, the sheriff's office in King County Metro.
I know you guys are all aware of this, but let me just, for this morning's discussion, I think it's important.
We had three shootings in that area.
One on June 22nd, one on October 22nd, and one on November 21st.
And two of those incidents resulted in death with firearms.
But these incidents did not involve those using the light rail.
And I say that because that is where Sound Transit has to work with SPD, the sheriff in King County Metro, about the outlying areas and the landscaping and the lighting.
So where they are increasing the lighting, as I said, in the landscaping, the lighting is going to take a little bit longer because right now they are experiencing some supply chain issues.
But Mount Baker is their number one priority.
And our office did share with Council Member Morales' office a memo updating what happened in the meeting, the PowerPoint that showed where incidents of crime are in relationship to other sound transit stations.
And I think we should point out that With the sound transit stations.
So we did it.
We did a countywide King County, Snohomish County, Pierce County, and Mount Baker does have the lowest crime rate.
Actually, the highest crime rate for a light rail station is Northgate.
They've been in existence 51 days.
we've had over 160 incidents on the property itself like crime.
So what I'm trying to do and what we've requested from Sound Transit is to focus on where we actually have shootings and deaths, not just a misdemeanor or somebody didn't pay the fee or they went in the bathroom and broke something.
So that's what we're going to get back from Sound Transit and we'll be sharing that with you folks.
And then I had a really good opportunity to talk to former council member Abel Pacheco, as you know, he's at Sound Transit now.
So working with Abel, working with Council Member Morales, working with Council Member Issa Hale, so we can like really narrow down the safety issues, not only at the station, but the areas surrounding the station.
That's it, thank you.
Thank you so much, Council Member Juarez.
Are there any questions about Council Member Juarez's report before we move on?
for a raised hand, not seeing any raised hand.
Thank you again, Council Member Juarez.
Moving on, it looks like Council Member Lewis is back in the queue.
Council Member Lewis, you're up next, but seeing that you're just back, do you want us to move forward or are you ready to take the ball and run here?
It'd be good to have one report in the middle.
Thank you.
Very good.
Council Member Mosqueda, can we get over to you?
I don't know what's going on.
Councilmember Gonzalez?
Councilmember Mosqueda?
Okay.
Colleagues, I do have three reports here today.
I'll do mine first and then I'll do Council President Gonzalez's and then Council Member Morales.
Colleagues, in the next Finance and Housing Committee meeting, we have a discussion on the appointments to the Seattle Housing Authority, appointments to the Domestic Worker Standards Board, and appointments and reappointments to the Community Roots Housing PDA.
We also have a public hearing on next year's annual action plan, which is related to Office of Housing, 2021 annual action plan report, the street vacation legislation, and the race and social justice presentation from Finance and Administrative Services.
From updates from FAS, I do have five updates.
I want to thank FAS and all of the committee, all of the departments that report to our committee.
From FAS, they're reporting first, there is a Teamsters strike.
Teamsters Local 174 is striking Merlino Construction.
The Teamsters notified Merlino that they would dispatch workers to the waterfront project per the CWA.
FAS is purchasing and contracting staff will continue to monitor the project and provide administrative support to Merlino.
And we do wish that everybody has a good outcome from the strike.
We know that strikes as workers make that tough decision are not the first line of action.
And so I appreciate that they have taken this decision to strike and respect that very much.
Number two, Senator Cantwell has provided a request for information to FAS on the potential benefits of having the newly passed local hire policy instituted in the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act, which allows FAS to use priority hire for future USDOT-funded projects.
FAS's purchasing and contracting department is working with SDOT to gather information to respond to Senator Cantwell's request.
Payroll items include FAS's citywide accounting and payroll department has worked with SDHR to calculate new leave types for eligible employees, including construction instructions to departments for earned code setup for new leaves.
FAS developed additional frequently asked questions document for long-term care insurance exemption process and assisted departments with resolving payroll and manual checks issued to ensure timely processing during the reduced payroll timeline due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Regarding JumpStart, FAS's License and Tax Administration Department held the next JumpStart tax training webinar on Wednesday, December 1st.
125 customers registered for the webinar training.
We want to thank FAS for all the work that they're doing to get information out to those who are payors for JumpStart and really helped to navigate these last few months so that folks are ready to pay next year as the legislation requires.
And also FAS's ongoing feedback from the rulemaking has helped us make improvements to the policy earlier this year.
So again, thanks to them.
And lastly, the City Council voted to authorize FAS's director to sign the renewed lease with the U.S.
Army for Fort Lawton property.
Our next steps is to have the mayor sign this for the legislation and we look forward to continuing the work to turn that Fort Lawton property into the public asset and affordable housing that we all are envisioning.
Next, from the Council President, there are two items on the City Council agenda.
This includes Council Bill 120231, which relates to labor agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Fire Chiefs Association, International Association of Firefighters, IAFF Local 2898. This legislation would authorize additional pay for eligible frontline employees represented by Local 2898. This benefit is consistent with additional pay for other city workers, including those in the Coalition for City Unions that was adopted by ordinance in October by this council.
Council Bill 120237 is the fourth quarter 2021 employment ordinance.
This is routine employment related legislation that would designate certain positions as exempt from the civil service system and return some positions to the civil service system.
The Seattle Department of Human Resources transmitted this legislation, which would return two positions to civil service and exempt 12 positions from civil service.
There are also four items on the introduction and referral calendar from the Council President's Office.
This includes Council Bills 120242, 120243, and 120244. All stem from the Labor Relations Policy Committee and relate to the 2022 wages for represented and non-represented city employees.
This includes 120242, which would authorize the exclusion of a memorandum of understanding between the City of Seattle and certain city unions, including the Coalition of City Unions, related to adjusted wage increase of 4%, adjusted wage increase for eligible represented workers.
This also includes 120243, which would require an adjusted wage increase of 4% for most non-represented job titles.
And finally, 120244 would adjust the pay bans for discretionary paid job titles to reflect a 4% increase, which would make wage increases possible for employees in those positions.
All three of these council bills are being referred directly to City Council, as is typical for labor relations legislation, and they will be on the Seattle City Council agenda for final action on Monday, December 13th.
And finally, from the Council President, Resolution 320, 3.2 would adopt the 2022 state legislative agenda, which we got a briefing on last week for the City of Seattle.
Intergovernmental Relations Office briefed us on the proposed changes to the legislative agenda on November 29th.
This resolution is also being referred directly to Seattle City Council and will be up for final action on December 13th.
And colleagues, one more report out from Councilmember Morales this morning.
In terms of committee updates, the Community Economic Development Committee will meet this Friday, December 10th at 9.30 a.m.
There will be 12 appointments and one piece of legislation.
In terms of regional committee updates, the Central Puget Sound Regional Economic Development District Board unanimously adopted the 2022-2027 Regional Economic Strategy with the recommended changes in response to public comments as the official comprehensive economic development strategy and will submit the plan to the U.S.
Economic Development Administration for approval.
The strategy is used as a framework for establishing the EDD's economic development work plan and includes a background of the economic conditions in the region that builds upon other local economic development efforts and is implemented by many partners.
The strategy qualifies regional organizations for economic development administration assistance.
In terms of the 2022 economic focus areas, the EDD also adopted 19 focus areas for 2022, which centered on the analysis and development of strategies for emerging industries such as space, artificial intelligence, cloud computing.
The focus areas are directed that are directing the board and staff to analyze the regional impacts of COVID-19 on women in the workforce, as well as support the rollout of the Forward Together framework for building more equitable and inclusive economy.
The board also identified a need to amplify regional efforts throughout the state to promote tourism efforts to expand broadband and child care capacity in the region.
And finally, in terms of district updates, Last week in Council Member Morales' office, they met with constituents in the Mount Baker neighborhood to organize around some of the action steps.
These include introductions with the Tenants Union and Transit Riders Union, convening a meeting with Sound Transit Board members to discuss activating space, and continuing discussions with neighboring property owners about allowing for temporary community use that can activate the space.
Finally, Council Member Morales' staff and her met with SPU Together, they visited the Pearl Street Drainage Improvement Project in Beacon Hill.
This was an important project that will return storm-related backups and flooding in the area, excuse me, that will reduce storm-related backups and flooding in the area, protect public health and the environment.
And Council Member Morales wants to thank members of the SPU for helping them understand some of the technical aspects of how these systems work together to protect the neighborhood.
Thank you very much, Council President Pro Tem.
Thank you so much, Council Member Mosqueda, for delivering not one, not two, but three reports.
I appreciate it.
Do other council members have questions for Council Member Mosqueda about her report?
Okay, seeing no questions, we'll move back to Council Member Lewis.
Council Member Lewis, I invite you to give your report.
Thank you, President Pro Tem Herbold.
Just a couple of matters here this morning.
There, of course, are no items to report from the Spike Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments.
My office does have an item that is on introduction and referral today, which I believe will be heard in Council Member Herbold's Public Safety Committee meeting later this week.
That is Council Bill 120247. This is an ordinance relating to certain reporting requirements related to the Seattle City Attorney's Office in terms of some of the data that we typically collect just regarding filings and disposition of cases, but also extending to formally having a standing data request for information related to the diversion programs that this council has funded and supported over the course of the last couple of budget cycles.
And of course, in this last budget cycle, made a particularly large investment in to expand diversion opportunities for folks who are 25 years of age or older.
Whereas to date, the diversion programs operated by the city attorney's office have been limited to 18 to 24 year olds, The Choose 180 program, which is that particular program for 18 to 24-year-olds, has been very successful in preventing recidivism from program participants.
As demonstrated in the data and information we've collected from the Seattle City Attorney's Office over the last three years, data that I myself have experienced in compiling on the responding end when I was an assistant city attorney.
So this legislation will help to I look forward to a broader discussion of this legislation.
I do want to thank Council President Gonzalez for co-sponsoring this legislation with my office.
Additionally, I had a really good discussion last week in Councilmember Strauss's Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee to discuss Council Bill 120239, an ordinance making changes to the Seattle Construction Code to apply certain heat water pump regulations to commercial new build.
As folks will remember, This is an extension of similar legislation affecting hotels and residential construction that the Council considered in Pasadena Spring.
Councilmember Strauss, the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections, and my office have worked together in the interim to put this proposal together to fill a gap left from that conversation, which was applying similar regulations to commercial build.
And we know this will have a big impact in mitigating the role of fossil fuels in the heating of new commercial buildings, and look forward to a vote on this legislation in Councilmember Strauss' committee later this week, and appreciate the chance to have a long and in-depth briefing on this legislation last Friday.
I will flag that out of that conversation there was an interest in putting a date certain for this ordinance taking full effect and for that date certain to be in early April.
My office is in support of such an amendment and we'll be talking to the Straus office about the best way to bring that forward and incorporate that into the legislation.
Otherwise, looking forward to other potential questions or areas for potential amendments, and I'm happy to make myself available this week if colleagues have questions regarding this legislation.
My understanding is that the goal for this would be a final vote at full council on December 13th, our final full council meeting of the year.
And with that, Madam President Pro Tem, I do not have any additional remarks.
Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.
Do any Councilmembers have any comments or questions on Councilmember Lewis's report?
All right.
Seeing none, just want to mention the committee meeting that Councilmember Lewis mentioned, the Public Safety and Human Services Committee is a specially scheduled committee.
I'll talk more about that in my report, but it is not tomorrow.
It is on Thursday at 9.30.
With that, Council Member Peterson, I invite you to give your report, please.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Herbold.
Good morning, colleagues.
Our Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 a.m., so our next committee meeting will be Wednesday, December 15. On this afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are seven items that passed unanimously out of our Transportation Utilities Committee last week, so will be on today's agenda.
This includes Council Bill 120233, which is Seattle City Light's proactive policy to protect ratepayers from increased charges by adjusting its rate stabilization account.
We'll also vote on resolution 32031 to ratify the city's salmon habitat plan.
Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for your work on that important environmental plan.
We'll also vote on resolution 32030 to approve Seattle City Light's biennial energy conservation targets.
We will also approve four mayoral appointments to our Transportation Advisory Board, specifically for transit, bikes, and school traffic safety.
Again, all this legislation was approved unanimously by the committee.
If you have any questions about the Seattle City Light legislation, please contact City Council Central Staff Analyst Eric McConaughey before our 2 p.m.
Council meeting.
Today, we'll also vote on Council Bill 120236, which follows up on the resolution 32019 that we recently adopted unanimously to change a portion of Thomas Street to Lenny Wilkins Way after the legendary basketball star coach and philanthropist.
Following up with an ordinance rather than just keeping the resolution allows for a full legal name change of the street rather than just an honorary designation.
In District 4, this past week, my staff attended the North Precinct Advisory Council monthly meeting, which is open to the public and comprised of community leaders and small businesses who discuss public safety issues impacting Seattle's North Precinct, which is by far the largest of the five police precincts and comprises 40% of our city.
That concludes my report.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.
Are there any comments or questions about Councilmember Peterson's report?
Seeing none, I do want to just note for full council today on the WIRA 9 watershed resolution, recognizing the plan.
I do have one small amendment that will be an amendment to one of the recitals.
The plan itself recognizes the interest in funding an Area 9 steward.
That decision has been made, and so rather than going into the plan and updating the plan, which then would require us going to all the other jurisdictions that are updating the plan as well, we didn't want to go that route.
That would be far too complex and would result in delays.
And so instead, this is just a recital to reflect the current conditions, which are It's good news.
People have decided to move forward with funding the stewardship position for Area 9. So just wanting folks to get a quick preview of that amendment for today, too.
All right.
Thank you.
Moving on, we'll go on to the next report.
Council Member Krause, you are invited to give your report, please.
Thank you, President Pro Tem.
Over here in District 6 this last week, I did have shortened office hours due to the work that we needed to do on our Woodland Park Zoo amendments and deadline.
We are bringing forward a number of D6 amendment requests.
And so not only meeting with the zoo, the parks department, I also met with And with the again, will imparts you and.
And with the again, will imparts you and.
and the Parks Department itself.
During office hours, I was able to speak with a few folks, one from East Ballard and one from Crown Hill about homelessness and pedestrian safety.
Over here in D6, we also last week, I received a briefing on the Crown Hill Action Plan and had Office of Planning and Community Development and the Crown Hill Village Association join me in committee to present about the forthcoming crown hill neighborhood action plan resolution that will be coming to full council next week.
Very excited to have this work finally moving so that as development occurs in crown hill we're able to meet it with the pedestrian infrastructure and other infrastructure that is needed to accompany that growth.
Also on Wednesday, my staff attended the North Precinct Advisory Committee, and thank you to Captain Eric Mitchell and City Attorney's Office Megan Westphal for their presentations on DUI investigations.
Thursday, I was able to receive a briefing on Route 40, Route 44, and the Green Lake Outer Loop project by SDOT.
I look forward to continuing to work with SDOT to improve these projects for District 6 residents.
And as always, I continue to hold operational coordination meetings with community leaders, government entities, and non-governmental entities to make meaningful interventions and impacts to address homelessness in specific places in District 6. These meetings will continue multiple times a week until the transfer to the Regional Homelessness Authority is complete.
and colleagues as many of you may have already heard the Ballard Commons Park will be closed this week and an encampment removal has been ongoing and in progress for the last several months.
This is a culmination of months of work of coordinated efforts with city department, the mayor's office, outreach providers, and the business community.
Our goal is to provide and has been to provide intensified outreach and engagement efforts and get everyone who was on the original census and residing on-site into long-term shelter options and pathways towards permanent housing.
In August, we created a census of everyone living in the park.
In September, we created a needs assessment to match people with the shelter that was the right fit for them.
In October, we began moving people inside.
and we continued moving people inside in November and December.
This is how we can remove an encampment without pushing people down the streets or into the neighborhood as displacement makes these issues worse.
Other news in District 6, on Tuesday I'm attending a meeting of the Whittier Heights Community Council.
My staff will be joining the Fitting Ridge Community Council and the King County Behavioral Health Legislative Forum, all occurring at the same time.
On Wednesday, I'll be attending the Ballard District Council, where the Regional Homelessness Authority CEO, Mark Doans, will be presenting.
And I'll be joining neighbors in Green Lake for a walk to look at a few intersections to address changes that need to be made.
As well, on Thursday, I'm excited to join the launch of Ballard FC, a part of the USL2, the region's first neighborhood-based semi-professional soccer or football team.
Ballard FC was started by two Ballard High School graduates, Sam Zazette and Chris Kamer, and former Seattle Sounder Lamar Nagel.
Their season begins in summer of 2022 and will be playing at Interbase Stadium.
Tryouts are starting in March 2022. And it's been a pleasure and privilege to get to join them on this journey.
My role has been to just make sure that the grinding gears of bureaucracy are working to make sure that we can get this team launched as fast as possible.
And I want to also say thanks to the Parks Department, as I know staff changes have occurred.
Regarding this project within the Parks Department, the Parks Department has been an amazing partner to work with.
Outside of District 6, last week, I attended the Growth Management and Planning Council.
And this week, I am planning to attend the meeting of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee as a guest, if I'm invited.
And I will be presenting five amendments that I'm bringing to the Woodland Park Zoo Operating Agreement, as I mentioned earlier in this briefing.
On Friday, I will be attending an all day board of directors meeting for the Association of Washington cities as we prepare for the 2022 legislative session in the land use and neighborhoods committee there are no items from the land use and neighborhoods committee on today's introduction and referral calendar.
There is one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on today's full council agenda, and that is a public hearing and vote on Council Bill 120213, which extends for six additional months the moratorium on the redevelopment of manufactured home parks in Seattle.
As I've shared before, this should be the final moratorium extension before we adopt the long-term protections for manufactured homes.
Last Friday, the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee held a briefing and discussion on the permanent legislation from Councilmember Juarez and I that would implement a manufactured home park overlay district in the land use code.
These long-term protections are scheduled for a public hearing and vote in the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee this coming Wednesday morning.
However, if we do not adopt this However, we're going to adopt the long-term changes.
And on the time schedule that they are on, we need to, there's about a one-week gap between the expiration of the current moratorium and the implementation of the long-term protections, which is why this final moratorium extension closes that gap and why we will be bringing it forward.
The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is this Wednesday, December 8th, starting at 9.30 a.m., and there are six items on the agenda.
A public hearing and vote on Council Bill 120206, the long-term protections for manufactured home parks.
A public hearing and vote on Council Bill 120215, which waives certain development standards for the West Point Treatment Facility.
A public hearing and vote on Council Bill 120214, which implements our earlier comprehensive plan amendment by changing the single family to neighborhood residential in the Seattle Municipal Code regarding names for zoning.
Again, no changes to what's allowed in those zoned areas, just the name of the zone.
a briefing and vote on Council Bill 120235, which enacts the landmark protections for a property at 80216th Avenue, a discussion and vote on Council Bill 120239, which amends the energy code to extend heat pump requirements to water heating in new commercial buildings, and a briefing from SDCI and LSE on their quarterly tree report.
With that, Council President Pro Tem, colleagues, that is my report.
Thanks for sticking with me on that longer one.
Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.
Are there any questions from Councilmembers on Councilmember Strauss's report?
Seeing no hands.
Thank you again Council Member Strauss.
I'll move on to my report.
Final report of the morning and first off on the introduction referral calendar today.
We'll have three items on that bill that will go to the Public Safety and Human Services Committee following the introduction referral calendar.
The first is a permit and service cleanup bill for the Seattle Fire Department.
The second bill is one that will create a new compensation program for the fire chief.
It is retroactively effective to July of 2020. And then the third is a revolution that creates quarterly reporting on a prospective development of the unreinforced masonry retrofit program.
and a presentation by the Office of Emergency Management on their coordination of that effort and the Office of Seattle Construction and Inspections.
Items on the full council agenda, there are no items from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on today's full council agenda.
mentioned the amendment to Councilmember Peterson's resolution already.
As it relates to our upcoming meeting, the Public Safety and Human Services Committee is having a special meeting on Thursday, the 9th of December at 9.30 a.m.
There are three items on the agenda.
The first is a presentation from the Human Services Department on their efforts to strengthen financial reporting measures and internal accounting practices and policies.
There'll be, as mentioned earlier, the discussion of the resolution that creates a quarterly reporting on the development of an unreinforced masonry retrofit program.
And then the third will be the bill that adds data collection and reporting requirements on pre-filing and pre-booking programs through the duties of the Seattle City Attorney's Office as referenced by Councilmember Lewis earlier in the meeting.
There are items from the department that I report out on the Human Services Department.
Wanted me to share with you and the viewing public the good news that the Bennu Community Home is going to be or has opened in the Central District.
This is a new shelter.
operated by Africatown Community Land Trust.
It's located in the former Hero Rehabilitation and Care Center.
It will serve up to 150 male-identifying adults when it is at full capacity.
And the program is intended to address the over-representation people identifying as Black or African American in the homelessness service system.
So again, that is Bennu Community Home opening in the Central District.
Also, the Human Services Department has issued a 2022 NOFA.
The investments that are included in this NOFA, for our listening audience, is notice of funding availability.
The investments are farm-to-table services, youth and young adult behavioral health, gender-based violence victim services, batter intervention services, and gender-based violence legal services.
This notice of funding availability provides an overview of the Human Services Department's impending funding opportunities for 2022, the anticipated funding amounts for those opportunities, release dates and contract start dates.
You can find out more at Seattle.gov forward slash human services.
On the public health front, I know folks have all heard that the Omicron variant was found in King County over the weekend as well as cases in Thurston and Pierce counties as well.
Here in King County, the case of note is a woman in her 20s.
She was vaccinated.
She likely received a booster shot after her exposure.
The investigation is in early stages.
No information is yet known about her health status, travel history or her contacts.
Public health does expect to see more cases confirmed locally in the next few days.
and weeks and will continue to provide updated information about this variant and local trends.
Dr. Duchin, King County's health officer, did share this.
We're not going back to square one of the pandemic.
Omicron may pose new challenges, but compared to the early days of the pandemic, we're much better prepared for it.
He also reminded us that we know what works against these viruses, Again, wearing high quality masks, improving indoor air quality through ventilation and filtration, avoiding crowded indoor spaces, distancing, testing, and staying home.
And for us now, today, in this moment, another important factor to add is the need to get vaccinated or boosted.
We're experiencing some booster scarcity right now, so the best advice is to be persistent, Keep checking back at local drug stores, groceries with pharmacies, and the city and county-run vaccination sites.
You can learn more at kingcounty.gov vaccine.
As far as regional committees that I have coming up this week, I do have on Thursday the Lead Policy Coordinating Group quarterly meeting that I will be attending and representing the Seattle City Council there.
On Thursday at 4 p.m.
we'll be having another West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force meeting.
And I will be holding office hours on Friday from 2 p.m.
until 6 p.m.
this week.
Are there any questions about my report?
All right.
Seeing no questions, and if there's nothing further, this will conclude the Council Briefings Meeting.
Our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is this afternoon.
at 2 p.m.
We'll see you then.
It is 1016 a.m.
and we are adjourned.