Economic Development, Technology & City Light Committee 12/14/22

We are recording.

Good morning, everyone.

The December 14th, 2022 meeting of the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee will come to order.

It is 9.31.

I'm Sarah Nelson, chair of the committee.

And this is our last committee of the year.

President Juarez, Council President Juarez and Council Member Herbold are excused from today's committee.

And with that, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Chair Nelson.

Present.

There are three present.

All right, on today's agenda, there are nine items.

We have two appointments to the Music Commission, four reappointments to the Music Commission, two council bills on easements over Seattle City Light property, and those two items will also have a public hearing in advance.

And then finally, we'll have a briefing discussion and possible vote on the 10 year franchise agreement with King County.

So before we dive into oh, let me just first take a moment to approve the agenda.

So that is the agenda.

Absent any objection, the items will be heard in the order I just relayed.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

All right, so before diving in, I want to take a moment to review the accomplishments of the committee over the course of 2022, which was my first year in office, of course, and just summarize what we did.

So we had 11 informational briefings on various topics, and some of these were not associated with actual legislation, but they are important to inform the public on important work that's being done in departments.

there were let's see a total of 14 appointments or reappointments which also include hopefully the ones that we'll be hearing today.

I also sponsored five resolutions and hopefully by meeting's end 15 ordinances and in addition Council Member Peterson and I sponsored two council bills that did not go through committee.

They went directly to full council and they expanded emergency bill assistance to Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities customers.

And this committee also advanced a council bill sponsored by Council Member Peterson and Council Member Strauss, which made permanent the 15% cap on restaurant service delivery fees.

So thank you very much for that.

And bookending all of this work were 2 items that I would like to to note in particular, and the 1st was the small business roundtable discussion in my 2nd committee meeting.

And that was a discussion on.

the impacts of rising crime on small businesses, their customers and their staff members.

And this wasn't just an opportunity for these business owners and representatives of neighborhood business districts to just air their grievances.

It was an opportunity to surface things that the city could actually do to help these small businesses.

And two great things came out of that discussion.

One is the Storefront Repair Fund, which I push for, and it was launched in October.

And this provides grants of up to $2,000 to small businesses to help reimburse the cost of repairing damaged windows and doors.

And then the second was case conferencing.

This is a process that it's a collaborative process which includes members of the mayor's office, the Seattle Police Department, the coordinators of the lead and co-lead programs, and community members to basically highlight what's going on with high-impact individuals, hook these individuals up with services, and hopefully mitigate some of the harm in the community.

And I have to thank Councilmember Strauss for advancing that through the budget.

So thank you very much.

So those are a couple of the things that came directly from the recommendations put forward by those business owners and representatives in that committee.

And it also informed my thinking on really the urgency to do something about the situation that not just businesses but also residences were pleading for help on.

And so I I went on to put forward a resolution calling for a staffing incentives program to incentivize and accelerate the hiring of new Seattle police officers in the wake of the staffing shortage that was happening.

And that legislation was heard and advanced in the Public Safety Committee.

So those were a couple of things that happened in the first part of the year.

And at the very last meeting, the committee meeting, was something that I'd been working on for a long time that I am really proud to be able to say we accomplished together, committee members, and that is the establishment of the Seattle Film Commission.

And this is so important because the film industry is a driver of economic growth in Seattle.

And members of the film community here had been advocating for years for the establishment of a film commission to support our existing film community and also attract more production to Seattle.

So that was a long time in coming.

And I have to thank my staff member, chief of staff, Jeremy Moan, who really led on this effort, and also Chris Swenson in the Office of Economic Development, who has deep roots in the film community and really got this off the ground.

So that was something that was That was the end of the committee work, and in the middle of all of that we also confirmed a new director Markham McIntyre as the new director of the Office of Economic Development and I can't say enough how.

how important it is to have such a strong advocate, someone who knows what small, large businesses need to thrive in Seattle at the helm of the Office of Economic Development.

And under his leadership, the city, added, well, got the storefront, not the storefront repair fund, I've already mentioned that, Seattle restored off the ground.

The capital access program was launched, and this provides small businesses with very low interest loans, because that is one of the things that is the hardest, especially for BIPOC business owners, is access to capital.

And so that's a very important program that was launched under Mayor Harrell and carried forward under Markham's leadership.

And then finally, the Tenant Improvement Program was a pre-existing program that helps small businesses, that provides access to capital for small businesses to expand their businesses or make essential repairs, upgrades to their businesses to basically expand or keep their operations going.

And this program was increased with federal dollars and was able to help more more small businesses stay in Seattle.

I see that program as an essential anti-displacement tool because it enabled businesses, many of whom could have been displaced when their storefronts were closed for some reason.

And so these programs, all of these initiatives, I have to say, get cash into the hands of the people that need it most.

And they're available to all but targeted at BIPOC entrepreneurs.

And it's these kinds of initiatives where opportunities to build generational wealth are born.

And that's fundamentally important.

And I thank the executive for all of your leadership and Director McIntyre's shop as well.

So that is a bit of what happened in committee this year and I have some thank yous.

First of all, I thank my fellow committee members because we're all in this together and in your engagement and support on these pieces of legislation, all of which went to full council and passed.

means a great deal to me in my first year of office especially.

I also of course have to thank central staff.

Central staff are the people that do all the research, all the analytics, write the legislation that keeps the city running and I recognize that it's no small task to break in a new a new council member, so special thanks to Yolanda Ho, who was the committee coordinator, Lisa Kay, who is the central staffer in charge of all things having to do with Seattle IT, and Jasmine Marwaha, who is lead on economic development right now, and of course, Eric McConaughey, who is an expert on all things City Light, and that's, extremely complex and technical legislation.

And your help, Eric, really gave me the confidence to take on a lot of that legislation, which keeps the lights on in Seattle.

So thank you very much.

And then finally, sitting here in chambers are my committee clerks, Stephen Ellis and Taemin Um, who, who do all the back end work.

And I went through the trainings to figure out how to how does one load legislation onto the onto the system so that it can appear on the agenda.

And it is harder than one might think.

So thank you very much for all of your work and also to Jeremy Milne, my chief of staff.

So with all of that, we will move forward.

Thank you very much, everyone, for hearing that summary.

And we'll move now on to public comment.

We will play the video and begin.

Thank you.

It's been three months since we've been here in committee, so warming back up.

Hello, Seattle.

We are the Emerald City, the City of Flowers and the City of Goodwill, built on indigenous land, the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples.

The Seattle City Council welcomes remote public comment and is eager to hear from residents of our city.

If you would like to be a speaker and provide a verbal public comment, you may register two hours prior to the meeting via the Seattle City Council website.

Here's some information about the public comment proceedings.

Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered on the Council's website.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number provided when they registered online and used the meeting ID and passcode that was emailed upon confirmation.

If you did not receive an email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.

A reminder, the speaker meeting ID is different from the general listen line meeting ID provided on the agenda.

Once a speaker's name is called, the speaker's microphone will be unmuted and an automatic prompt will say, the host would like you to unmute your microphone.

That is your cue that it's your turn to speak.

At that time, you must press star six.

You will then hear a prompt of, you are unmuted.

Be sure your phone is unmuted on your end so that you will be heard.

As a speaker, you should begin by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

A chime will sound when 10 seconds are left in your allotted time as a gentle reminder to wrap up your public comments.

At the end of the allotted time, your microphone will be muted, and the next speaker registered will be called.

Once speakers have completed providing public comment, please disconnect from the public comment line and join us by following the meeting via Seattle Channel Broadcast or through the listening line option listed on the agenda.

The council reserves the right to eliminate public comment if the system is being abused or if the process impedes the council's ability to conduct its business on behalf of residents of the city.

Any offensive language that is disruptive to these proceedings or that is not focused on an appropriate topic as specified in Council rules may lead to the speaker being muted by the presiding officer.

Our hope is to provide an opportunity for productive discussions that will assist our orderly consideration of issues before the Council.

The public comment period is now open.

and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Please remember to press star six after you hear the prompt of, you have been unmuted.

Thank you, Seattle.

All right, we'll now move on to public comment, and there are no people signed up for remote public comment, so we will begin and end with in-person commenters.

Please state your name and the item to which you are speaking, and please be respectful, and you will have two minutes to speak.

And we've got one speaker here, Alex Zimmerman.

Please come to the podium.

Sieg Heil, my dirty damn Nazi, Gestapo, democracy, fascist, mafia, cartel, and psychopath.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I'm president of Stand Up America.

Consul, you make very good speech.

You know what I mean?

I don't know to who you speak to this 750,000 people.

Slavin, idiot.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah.

So, but I'm support you.

Good speech.

So right now I want to speak about people.

What is your point?

A musician.

So try and understand for the last few months, your appointment, a hundred people, you know, one from this musician come here and ask very simple question.

Why don't show faces when somebody play a Violin, you know what it means?

It's very nice when you see this artist's faces, you know what it means?

Nobody here.

So right now, because I like music for all my life, I want to give hello to this musician.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, la, la, la.

Where is your musician?

Why you don't come here?

And don't ask or tell.

Why you don't show faces of people, of United States people?

Hello, hello, hello.

Again, again, again.

Musician, musician, musician.

Come to this place and ask every concert why they don't show faces.

Ah, you see how I'm good.

Guys, I'm sick from idiot what is in this chamber for many years and I come to this place for 20 years every day.

When 750,000 cretina will be doing same, this group will be suck blood and money from us for another 20 or 30 years.

Stand up America, cleanse this chamber from this cretina and idiot.

Thank you very much.

All right.

If there are no other people who signed up to speak online or in public, going once, going twice, We'll now proceed to our items of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, appointment 02423, appointment of Andrea M. Friedman as member of the Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2024. Briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Right, why don't you come on up to the table?

We'll have all the, yeah.

Good morning, Chair Nelson and committee members.

My name is Scott Pluskalec.

I am the nightlife business advocate for the city in the Department of Economic Development and the staff person for the Seattle Music Commission.

I'm also joined online by Deputy Director Preeti Sridhar of Office of Economic Development as well, and our two appointees.

Quickly, before we start, I just wanted to give an overview of the Seattle Music Commission.

The Seattle music commission was created in 2010 and ratified by council ordinance in 2014. The Seattle music commission is made up of 20 members, 21 members, 10 that are appointed by council and 11 by the mayor's office.

The commission is a group of industry and community volunteer stakeholders assembled to advise the office of economic development in its advocacy for and policy related to the city of Seattle's support and growth of the local music industry and community.

The commission strives to enhance the growth and development of Seattle's music sector and convey the city's commitment to the industry, musicians, and live music audience that comprise the city's local music economy.

And the 21 seats represent a broad range of music industry backgrounds from artists, venue, nonprofit, and label management to interactive media.

That's a brief overview of the commission.

Our first appointment, as stated, is Andrea Friedman.

They will be serving a term that has been started in September of 2021. So they are filling out the remainder of that term and will be eligible for reappointment in 2024. And I'd like to allow Andrea the opportunity to say a few words.

Yes, hello.

My name is Andrea Friedman.

I currently work at KEXP as a Community Engagement Manager.

I work on our education and youth programs as well as planning some events.

My roots are in DIY.

I did college radio when I went to UC Davis, and that's really where I found my people.

And when I moved to Seattle, I knew that to find my people, I needed to find my music communities.

So my first sort of industry job in Seattle was booking at the Vera Project, which was a great meeting of industry and DIY punk spirit.

And I have just sort of been growing in that space since.

I've worked on a number of community collectives, thrown events there.

I'm a member of Seattle's underground electronic music community.

I've also briefly worked at Kremwerk, which is an electronic music venue.

And I'm thrilled about this opportunity to be on the Music Commission to advocate for my communities.

coming from the electronic music space.

I'm really thinking about Seattle being a 24-hour city one day and what that would look like.

It would be incredible for further development in that area.

And I also want to make sure that young people here in Seattle see this as a space where they can thrive no matter what they want to do in music or art.

Thank you.

Thank you, Andrea.

First of all, I have to thank you for stepping up and being willing to serve on the Music Commission.

I have read your resume and your background in depth.

Actually, I was brought up in the town.

just to the east of you in Sacramento.

So, and I'm a fellow UC alumna.

So I noticed that you also, I believe, have, you have a BS, a Bachelor of Science in Community and Regional Development Policy and Planning, which was interesting to me because that is a science.

And so you have applied that knowledge well in your whole career.

Working at two of the most venerable music institutions in Seattle, the Vera Project, which I have some experience with way back when I was a staffer, ensuring that the Vera Project got funding and was able to stay in its space, a huge funnel for artists and door for youth to appreciate and also not just view music and consume it but learn how to make a career out of their art.

And then of course KEXP.

doesn't need any more words.

You're the community engagement manager and we're able to do so much, especially during the pandemic, you know, when a lot of engagement was shut down.

So thank you very, very much.

I will open the floor to questions from my colleagues, if you have any questions or comments.

All right, seeing none, if there are no further questions or comments, and would you like to have any final words?

Did I miss anything?

Thank you so much for having me here.

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah.

Okay, so I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 02423. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointment 02423. And will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to confirm this appointment.

Council member Sawant.

Yes.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Chair Nelson.

Aye.

Three in favor.

All right.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that appointment 02423 be confirmed uh, will be forwarded to the city council for final consideration on January 3rd.

Um, that will be before full council.

You are welcome to come, not necessary, but that's where the main action is.

So, um, you know, you can choose if that fits in with all your other duties.

So thank you so much for being willing to serve.

I'm really excited about this.

Thank you.

And thank you, Scott, for your work, shepherding this forward.

So the next appointment is Julius Caesar Robinson.

This is an appointment to a vacancy, which came open this September when the previous holder of the seat transitioned off, and he will be eligible for reappointment in 2025.

Thank you very much.

Before we continue, I have to move.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

It's okay.

Agenda item two.

Will the clerk please read agenda item two into the record?

Appointment 02424, appointment of Julius Caesar Robinson as member of the Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2025. Briefing discussion and possible vote.

Okay, continue.

Thank you.

I won't repeat myself, but I will allow Julius to have the floor.

I want to say thank you for allowing me to be here.

I practiced a whole speech last night in the mirror and I can't remember none of it.

I'm just thrilled to be here because I want to be on the commission because I am music.

I've been in the music business my entire life.

My father was a founding member, lead six saxophone player of Sam and Dave.

And first time I was on stage, I performed, I was six years old.

The first time I got paid for playing an instrument, I was eight.

I've been in the business ever since.

For the last 20 years, I've been a civilian, raising a family, but I still produce music.

I still write music.

My children are musicians.

And I'm out in the community a lot as far as building relationships in the community and really trying to uplift the sound that's in Seattle.

I'm an East Coast transplant.

And the thing that sold me about the commission was the people that I met on the commission.

And I looked at their vision, and it was refreshing to be around people that had the same vision that I had about what's going on in Seattle.

The need for music venues into this commission is in the right place right now because there's a new music revolution that's building underneath our feet right now that's going to explode within the next couple of years.

There is a sound out on the streets right now that is going to come up and it's going to be a good sound.

And I think that I want to be on the commission when that happens.

Also, I like the vision about, since we've all come from basically what we call learning how to trial by fire through the music business.

And we have a lot of knowledge to lend to younger musicians about how to navigate their way through the music business where they can be fully compensated.

That's basically where I would like to put a lot of energy in and with the help of the commission.

Because right now is the best time to be an independent musician, but you got to know what you're doing to get fully compensated.

Like I said, I'm sorry for babbling.

I had this great speech that I practiced in the mirror last night.

It sounded great and I can't remember a word of it.

So we're just going to be quiet right now.

Well, I have some things to say and if you, I always believe in second chances and I always think of what I should have said when the moments pass.

So we'll give you an opportunity to follow up.

But I met Cesar at a campaign event last year.

I met him at, it's called The Great Debate, and he has, he created the, and has produced The Great Debate since 2013. It was an all-day campaign event with every single race on the ballot, all the candidates, this is right before the general election, with all the candidates on stage at some point, and hands down, it was the most, It was the best campaign event because it was well moderated and civil.

well orchestrated and organized.

And most importantly for the public, I believe that it was an opportunity to really surface and get into the issues.

It was a true debate format, back and forth, rebuttals, et cetera.

And I do believe that it was an opportunity for the voters to hear where the candidates were really coming from.

And you could not have pulled that off without the respect that you have in community.

You had to recruit very well informed moderators and musicians throughout the day.

And also just you could tell that you commanded respect because there was no funny business throughout the whole day also.

So that was my introduction to you.

And so that's what put you on my radar.

And over the course of the next few months and since I've been in office, I see you pretty much everywhere in community.

It's CD Panthers games.

at the groundbreaking for Africa Towns Plaza, which is a residential and commercial and arts center groundbreaking.

And one day you mentioned to me something that really caught my ear and that was that it's always a hustle to produce these kinds of events for you because of the barriers to black ownership.

of actual venues.

It's very difficult to showcase Black artists in town, especially in, well, all over town, but because the physical spaces don't exist and that that was something that you, so you're always trying to find a place and negotiate prices, et cetera, pay the artists well.

And so that is something that caught my attention.

I thought that that in that perspective could be valuable on this on the commission.

I have one question, which is how did you save the historic and iconic Arc Lodge Cinemas?

That was part of your resume in Columbia City.

Actually, that was a community effort.

The the plan was to reach out to the neighborhood that would benefit from the venue.

and to raise enough money to keep the buyers from snatching it.

I thought it was a very important venue for the neighborhood.

If you look at most communities, most communities, not so much now, but most communities are identified by the movie theater.

You can go to any movie theater and you can pretty much tell what the community is like.

that lodge had been around a long time.

And from the distances, there isn't another movie theater within five or 10 miles of that community.

I thought that they deserved it.

So we just reached out.

I reached out to the media.

We did a lot of high profile stuff in the media, television, print, raised the money.

And I think they're still in business right now.

And I have to say that there was some assistance too by Council Member Morales.

who also helped us get some eyeballs on that.

So I do want to acknowledge that.

Thank you, Council Member Morales, District Representative.

Yeah, and the Archaeological Cinemas is where I had my press conference right before the vote of the Seattle Film Commission.

So thank you very much for helping on that.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much for stepping up as well.

So with that, let's proceed to the, oh, excuse me.

Colleagues, do you have any questions or comments?

Oh, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

And is it Julius or is it Caesar?

I guess I didn't catch, which name do you prefer to go by, sir?

Either or.

My friends call me Julius, my closer friends call me Caesar, and those that fear me call me Julius Caesar.

Well, that's wonderful.

Well, I'll take the privilege and call you Caesar.

I'm just incredibly impressed by you, sir.

And, you know, the speech that you practiced in the mirror last night, I know it was probably very good.

And what I heard from you came straight from the heart.

And I can hear the passion that you have for our community and both you and Andrea having spent your life in music.

It's just an honor to have you sit on this commission, because I know that this is volunteer service.

This is you volunteering to make our city better and provide more access to resources and strategies and policymaking to improve the music scene in our community, a music scene that I've benefited my entire life from.

And so I just, wanted to say thank you to both of you and also to Scott Pluskalec for bringing you forward to us today.

Thank you.

Okay, if there are no further questions or comments, I move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointment 02424. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of adoption of 02424. All right, will the clerk please call the roll.

Council member Sawant.

Yes.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Chair Nelson.

Aye.

Three in favor.

Excellent.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that appointment 02424 will be confirmed, will be forwarded to the city council for final consideration on January 3rd.

And before you both leave, I again, thank you.

You both touched on something that I wanted to note, which was nightlife.

And next year, I do want to focus on the potential of expanding or extending service hours.

That is, not within the purview of the city, but that is something that I hear from artists and small businesses alike, that we need to provide more opportunities to enjoy music and also, well, generate revenue and keep the city alive and more vibrant.

So more on that next year.

Anyway, thank you very much.

All right, we'll move on to the reappointments now.

Let's see, we'll take items three, four, five, and six together.

Will the clerk please read them into the record?

Agenda item three, appointment 02384, reappointment of Jovino Santos Neto as member of the Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2025. Agenda item four, appointment 02385, reappointment of Jessica Toon as member of the Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2025. Agenda item five, appointment 02386, reappointment of Nick Verwick as a member of the Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2025. Agenda item six, appointment 02387, reappointment of Shannon Wells as a member of the Seattle Music Commission for a term to August 31st, 2025. Briefing, discussion, and possible vote on all four items.

Thank you, Steven.

Go ahead, Scott.

Thank you, Chair Nelson.

So all four of these reappointments were originally appointed in 2021, uh, to fulfill, um, uh, the remainder of those terms and will now be, uh, reappointed to a full three-year term.

Um, Jovino, just to give you a quick background on each of these, um, reappointments, Jovino Santos Nito is a three-time Latin Grammy award-winning pianist, flutist, composer, arranger, conductor, and educator.

He performs solo and with his quintetto, as well as lecturing on the connections between biology and music.

Jessica Toon, since 2019, has served as the Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy, also known as the Grammys.

She's a former co-owner and operator of the Made in Mexico record label, and served as Director of Marketing and Audience Engagement at EMP, now known as MoPOP.

Nick Berowick is Vice President of Programming at Climate Pledge Arena and is responsible for the strategic content programming of all concerts, family shows, and special events, as well as facilitating the NHL hockey and WNBA basketball schedules at the new facility.

And Shannon Wells is a lifelong music lover and brings deep passion to her more than 20 years of work in the live music industry.

She holds an MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University and is the founder of Friends of the Showbox, a community coalition to landmark and save Seattle's iconic music venue, and was formerly in a management position there.

I have some other fun facts, sort of professional things of note.

Jovina was a member of the legendary Emeto Pascual group for 15 years, Brazilian, but world renowned.

Jessica also was, she focuses on big projects where it says everything, where art and technology meet.

And this is a really important thing because so often I believe that We forget that technology is such an integral part of music and film.

So I appreciate that connection that she brings.

Let's see, before Climate Pledge Arena, Nick was also, let's see, he was the director of events bookings at US Airways Center, also where the Phoenix Suns play.

And he was vice president of programming at NASA Coliseum.

for several years before becoming VP of Programming at Climate Pledge.

And then one thing you didn't notice that Shannon was a huge leader of the collective effort to keep music alive during the pandemic.

This was a philanthropic endeavor to raise money and give it directly to music venues, which was extremely important.

Yeah, she was a major driving force with that.

Yep, so I just want to say that I am humbled by the depth and breadth of the talent that's represented on the commission.

So thank you very much to everyone.

These people are heroes to me for keeping music alive during the pandemic.

And I just want to thank everyone that we just sort of introduced to the committee.

And with that, I move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointments 02384, 385, 386, and 387. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues?

All right, hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Nelson?

Aye.

There are three votes in favor of the four appointments.

Thank you very much.

The motion is carried and the committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be forwarded to the city council for final consideration on January 3rd.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to item seven.

Will the clerk please read item seven into the record?

Agenda Item 7, Council Bill 120461, an ordinance relating to the City Light Department declaring certain real property rights surplus to utility needs, authorizing the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer to execute an agreement for the city to grant an easement over a portion of the city's fee-owned transmission corridor near 19541 Stone Avenue North in Shoreline, Washington, Accepting payment for the true and full value of the easement being granted from Ann and Paul Michael, wife and husband, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Public hearing, briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

So just briefly, we will have a public hearing after the presentation, but just a note of introduction.

In recent years, City Light has been conducting a program to resolve encroachments on its fee-owned right-of-way.

And this ordinance would authorize City Light to grant this easement to the owners of a house with a portion of a structure that's encroaching upon City Light property.

in exchange for about or almost $63,000.

So with that, presenters, please introduce yourselves and you may begin the presentation.

I'm on.

Great.

Thank you.

Good morning.

And thank you, Council Member, for having us.

It does look like we're a crowd here, but we all have huge roles to play and I the least of all.

So I think what I'll do quickly is just ask the team to introduce themselves.

And then Greg Sandswich is going to be lead for us.

And again, so I'm Debra Smith, general manager, CEO of Seattle City Light.

And to my left.

Tim Kroll from City Light Environment Land and Licensing.

Good morning.

I'm Mike Haynes, assistant general manager at Seattle City Light.

Greg Sandswich, manager for Seattle City Light.

And Stephen Karbowsky, assistant city attorney.

and Eric.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Eric McConaughey.

I'm the Council of Central Staff.

It's good to see you all.

And with that, we'll go ahead and get started.

And Tim, actually, we'll lead this first one.

OK.

Thanks, Greg.

So next slide, then, please.

So as Committee Chair Nelson mentioned, City Light owns a lot of right-of-way, over 100 miles between here and the Skagit and also sections in around town as well.

And over the years, and this is a common in the industry, encroachments appear, fences appear on our property, sometimes even structures.

City Light has a requirement to keep the right of way free and clear and accessible in case of emergency and for electric safety.

And also there's the issue of private use of public property without compensation that needs to be addressed.

So starting in 2018 City Light, started a program to resolve these encroachments.

Now the one we're talking about today is on the Michelle property was identified early in the program.

In that case, the fence had been in the fence on, on city light property had been there really for decades.

Um, sometimes it had been under permit other and not other times.

Um, so starting in our program, we approached the owner and said, well, we need to have the fence moved, uh, back to your property line to our boundary.

The owner had security concerns about moving the fence because of campers in the area.

And long story short, despite our best efforts to resolve it, it led to litigation in 2018. Next slide, please.

So there's the location.

It's on the east side of Echo Lake and Shoreline, south of Aurora Village.

east of Aurora Avenue, and it's along the inner urban trail, the section of the inner urban trail that goes through Shoreline.

Next slide, please.

So if you can probably online, you can see this better than you can on the screen here, but the orange diagonal lines are the the boundaries of the city lights right away there.

It's 100 foot wide.

And you can see in the photo that the carport for the neighboring property is on city light property.

And then in pretty much in the middle of the property is a black line there.

That's the fence that's been in place for some time, almost halfway across the property.

So it's quite extensive.

On the right hand side of the diagram, skipping to the punchline here a little bit, part of the resolution of this is us offering an easement for a fee.

To the property owner and the black dark line is the size of the easement it's quite a bit smaller than the present encroachment.

But it shows you the relationship of things there again clarify that we are offering an easement we're not selling this property will maintain ownership next slide please.

So the outcome of the litigation was the Washington State Court of Appeals confirmed in 2021, our property rights in this particular case, and more broadly clarified certain claims against publicly held property.

Basically, it reaffirmed that any government property held for a public purpose is immune from adverse possession under property law.

So when with that ruling the city attorney's office negotiated a settlement agreement to resolve the remaining issues and close out the litigation.

that has a couple of components.

One is that we agreed to provide an easement for a much smaller area than is presently within their fence line for $62,780 and 80 cents.

Don't forget the 80 cents.

And that allows their carport to continue and a relocated fence and addresses their security concerns in a much smaller footprint.

We also agreed to provide a reasonable time for the construction of their new fence on the easement area before the old fence had to be removed.

So the purpose of this ordinance is simply to declare surplus to city lights exclusive use the easement area and to authorize the easement and the acceptance of the payment.

Thank you.

So as presiding officer, I'm now opening the public hearing on Council Bill 120461. The online registration to sign up to speak at this public hearing opened two hours before a committee meeting today for remote speakers and sign up for in-person speakers was opened 15 minutes prior to this meeting.

And we, I will call on speakers in the order of registration and the rules applied to this, that apply to this public hearing are the same as to general public comment, except that we will have one minute to speak and there will be a 10 second warning to wrap up comments.

So I, are there any, is there anyone signed up to speak remotely?

No, Council Member.

Thank you very much.

All right, we'll proceed to our in-person.

Alex Zimmerman, please.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I love you.

I see a big progress.

You know what I mean?

You see, it's good, and I need 35 years, you see.

But for the last 10 years, I see huge problems.

In three ways, what is happening to the economy.

Progress, more crooks in TV accounts, number one.

More progress we have, like for now, for everybody.

It's a huge progress what we have.

It's a good progress, and the value is good.

Yeah, quality is good.

And another progress what we have is salary, what we pay, for example, $400,000.

So this very progressive way, what the Seattle doing for last probably 10, 15 years.

I support this progression.

More, more, and more.

This is very important for everybody.

Stand up America.

We need more idiots who work for us government.

Okay, that was our last speaker to speak at this public hearing.

And the public hearing on Council Bill 120461 is now closed.

So let's see now, presenters, do you have anything else to add?

Or Eric, would you like to add anything?

Just if any of the council committee members have any questions, of course.

Okay.

Eric?

I have nothing to add.

Thank you for asking.

I appreciate it.

All right.

So just a question that I have.

Are we selling any public property?

No, we are not.

We are retaining the fee ownership.

We're not selling any property.

Thank you for that clarification.

Wanted to make sure that we that that is clear to to folks.

Now, I have a question.

How many more in easement negotiations are in the pipeline?

Well, we have many, many cases of encroachments still to work on.

Many have been resolved, over 100. Usually, most often, people move a fence and then it's done.

In some cases, we found with a survey that what we thought was encroachment is not, so it's resolved that way.

In other cases, we've issued a permit where they are allowed to use a certain area of right away, but because it's for a term less than a year, that doesn't require council approval.

It's not a permanent thing.

It's a year-to-year permit.

And in this case, it was more appropriate to do it as a permanent easement.

So those are rare, but there may be others.

Okay, that's what I was wondering is what triggers legislative action.

Right.

And it's when it's a permanent.

When it's a permanent easement, right.

This is something they can sell if they sell their property in the future.

we can't revoke that.

Okay, got it.

Chair Nelson, this is kind of one of many that were taken.

When I took over this team, I asked them to kind of focus on the highest and most kind of invasive, the ones that had the biggest impact on our operations.

So that this is one of those, and there's several others in the work.

Some of those, as Tim mentioned, just resolve themselves with direct contact with the property owners.

So I suspect this won't be the last one of these that you'll see over the next year or so.

But I just acknowledge the great work of Greg and his team and Tim in particular and working through these processes and the city attorney's office has been super helpful in getting us here.

Well, thank you.

Are there any questions from my colleagues?

All right, seeing no questions, let's see.

I move that the, oh, excuse me, I have to do this, I know.

So if there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow the committee to vote on the bill on the same day as the public hearing was held.

All right, seeing no objections, I move that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120461. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the Council Bill.

Are there any further comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Sawant.

Yes.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Chair Nelson.

Aye.

There are three votes in favor.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that council bill 120461 pass will be forwarded to the city council for final consideration on January 3rd.

Okay, moving on.

Will the clerk please read item eight into the record.

Agenda item eight.

I thought you all were sticking around.

Hold on a second.

Thank you very much.

I thought that you would be here for the next one.

So thank you for coming.

Okay, go ahead.

Oh, excuse me.

Agenda Item 8, Council Bill 120430, an ordinance relating to the City Light Department, authorizing the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer to convey an easement to the City of Shoreline and accepting the payment of fair market value for the easement.

Public hearing, briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

All right, well, the title is self-explanatory and the presentation is worth a thousand of my words.

So I will ask the presenters to please introduce yourselves and then begin.

Go.

Okay, Greg Sanswich, Manager for Real Estate Services at Seattle City Light.

We've already met Mike Haynes and Deborah Smith for Seattle City Light as well.

This ordinance requests authorization to convey an easement to the city of Shoreline for roadway purposes.

It accommodates not only non-vehicular traffic across the area, but also facilitates local development to the south and to the east of the property.

We do have a slide up here if we can get the slideshow going, show location.

Okay, go ahead.

So on the second slide, we can see the location of the proposed easement.

It's just north of 155th Street and shoreline.

The image on the left shows the area for the easement and City Lights transmission corridor, which runs north-south and is also coincident with the inter-urban trail that runs through shoreline.

This particular piece of property is on the west side of Aurora Avenue and allows a drive-through.

On the next slide, we'll see the proposed easement area.

The roadway easements approximately 820 square feet with a remnant piece to the north, which is that triangle cross hatched up there.

And so, as part of the transaction, city light and city of shoreline had negotiated and quite length to navigate what was amenable and how to protect city lights interest, but also preserve the pedestrian and non vehicular access through the area while also having a driveway that connected between Westminster way on the West and Aurora Avenue on the East.

The easement itself preserves City Lights interests.

It grants compatible use with City Lights existing transmission corridor and also the Interurban Trail.

And the ordinance itself requests the conveyance document to be conveyed over to City of Shoreline and accept payment for the easement thereof.

Thank you.

Okay, so for the record, that is $33,000.

Okay, so this, from my understanding, this easement will allow for better access to development.

I believe that there might be affordable housing that is produced in the future.

Correct.

Correct to the south of the Eastman area as part of the roadway access, they're putting in affordable apartments up there.

I think it's close, just over 330 units in the building.

Okay.

And it allows for multimodal transportation because, you know, access to and from and over, I believe.

Is that the case?

Does the easement provide for, does it go over the...

Yeah, so it provides access across City Lights property, but it ties into the Interurban Trail, which provides non-vehicular access over Aurora Avenue, which is a multi-lane road and can have a lot of safety concerns if you're cycling or walking.

Got it.

All right, so housing, multimodal transportation, and generates $33,000 for this city.

So thank you very much for that.

Are there any questions from my colleagues?

All right, seeing none.

Let's see.

I think I had a question.

Oh, yes.

Well, I'll hold that one until later.

So I will now open it to the public hearing.

Same thing that I said before.

As presiding officer, I am now opening the public hearing on Council Bill 120430. And the same rules apply.

Speakers will have one minute to speak.

I believe there is no one listed on the online registration.

That's correct, Council Member.

And we have nobody present to make comment.

So, there is not a member of the public remotely or in person to present for this public hearing on Council Bill 120430. This public hearing is now closed.

And there doesn't appear to be any question from my colleagues.

So, Will the, if there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow the committee to vote on the bill on the same day as a public hearing.

Seeing no objection, I move that the committee recommend passage of council bill 120430. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the council bill.

There don't appear to be any further questions or comments.

So will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Sawant.

Yes.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Chair Nelson.

Aye.

There are three votes in favor.

Okay, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that council bill 120430 pass will be forwarded to the city council for final consideration on January 3rd.

Thank you, council member.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now I'm gonna stay here while we do a switch.

Okay.

And while that is happening, will the clerk please read item nine into the record.

Agenda item nine, council bill 120481, an ordinance relating to the city light department, approving a 10 year franchise to construct, operate, maintain, replace, and repair an electrical light and power system in, across, over, along, under, through, and below certain designated public rights of way in unincorporated King County, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

briefing, discussion and possible vote.

Thank you very much.

So in essence, this agreement allows City Light to use the right of way to serve customers in two areas of unincorporated King County, which are Skyway and White Center, if I have that correct.

So thank you.

Yeah.

All right.

So presenters, please introduce yourselves and begin.

Okay, let's just start with introductions again.

I'm Deborah Smith, General Manager, CEO of Seattle City Light.

And to my left, Maura Brugger, Director of Government and Legislative Affairs at Seattle City Light.

And Maura's going to be leading the presentation, but let's introduce the rest of the team.

Sandra Ball, Manager of Business Customer Services at Seattle City Light.

Karsten Kroff, Manager of Financial Planning and Rates, City Light.

And Stephen Karbowsky, Assistant City Attorney.

And before Maura begins, I just want to say this was a big deal.

This was a big piece of work.

And so huge kudos to staff.

It took a long time, partly because of COVID and staffing changes at King County.

But getting this behind us will be very important to the county and very important to us.

So with that, Maura.

Yeah, OK.

Make sure all your mics are on, please.

Thank you, Council Member Chair and committee members.

On behalf of the negotiating team, we are very pleased to be here.

This has been a long haul, as Deborah mentioned.

Last week, the King County Council did adopt the agreement on their consent agenda.

But I just want to also call out the law department and Steve Karbowsky, who is the one member of the negotiating team who's been with us from the very beginning.

And so we're pleased to have him today to be a part of this being adopted.

So little background, in 2016, King County adopted an ordinance to authorize the county to receive compensation for the use of the county's right-of-way.

The county is unable to collect utility taxes in unincorporated King County, and they also were not eligible for the forbearance fee that our other franchise cities are able to charge in order to generate revenue for, local revenue for them.

Um, several water districts sued the county, um, after they passed the ordinance.

Um, but the, uh, the Washington state Supreme court upheld the county's authority to collect, um, revenue, um, for use of the right away from utilities.

Um, and so we began, um, negotiations in 2017, um, city light was always willing, um, to provide compensation to King County.

It was just a matter of what that con what that, uh, compensation would look like.

And also we needed a new franchise agreement.

Next slide.

As Council Chair mentioned, the franchise area is on the west side of I-5.

It's between West Seattle and Burien.

And then on the east side, it's between Seattle and Renton.

There are 1,800, 600 customers, 17,000, 1,000 are residential customers.

King County provides the local government services to both these communities, and the revenue from the franchise compensation will go to the King County Department of Local Services.

Next slide.

The key components of the agreement were revolved around the issue of compensation.

And so we are going to be collecting an additional 8% on retail revenue that's going to be billed to the customers in the franchise area.

This is similar to what we collect from our city franchises as well.

They receive, we collect 8%, they receive 6% and then 2% goes to, is retained by City Light for administrative costs.

In order for us to address the back due compensation to King County, we are going to be allowing them to retain the full 8% of the revenue for five years to compensate them for the five years back to 2018. The other key part of the agreement was there are new King County road standards.

And so we have a process in place by which we will be taking a look at where our infrastructure is located and how we can meet these new road standards.

And we have already done some preliminary work on that, that analysis, and we hope to get that underway in 2023 and perhaps even complete our plan in 2023. Another important provision was that we were able to indemnify, we were able to ensure that we had no indemnification of King County from county cause releases.

And so that was an important thing.

And again, look to the law department helping us get through that complicated part of the agreement.

And then it's a 10 year agreement with a five year extension allowed.

Next slide.

So the new rates were included in the 2023 and 2024 rate ordinance.

So they've already been adopted and will go into effect along with the rest of the rates in January 1st at 2023. In this area, about 15% of the customers are enrolled in utility discount programs.

So we're sensitive to the impact of the rate increase.

And so we're gonna be working closely with King County and community-based organizations to do outreach for the UDP program.

availability of the low income heating energy assistance program, which is a federal program, emergency bill assistance, weatherization program.

And then also, as you know, we did receive funding from the state of Washington to help with arrearages, back to balances for our customers from COVID.

And in fact, we've reached, we've received 9.8 million from the state, which is being applied as we speak to our customers' bills who are income eligible.

And then we will be doing a language access program.

This is a very diverse part of our service territory, and we want to make sure that we reach all of the customers who are eligible for assistance programs.

And if there's any questions, we're happy to answer them.

And interesting fact, we just this morning, while I was sitting here, signed an agreement for an additional million dollars that we just got from the state that we will be getting, and we will still apply it on the back end before year end.

So with the City of Seattle COVID funding and the state, we will have applied $11 million to our customers' bills to help them with the arrearages due to COVID.

Congratulations for that extra support.

So are there other jurisdictions in which these franchise agreements exist?

Yeah, we have seven franchise communities, six cities, and then unincorporated King County.

And do the agreements all go through a committee?

All of the agreements come to the council for approval, but they're, as we mentioned, they're fairly long-term agreements.

I think we have the city of Tukwila coming up next.

Yeah.

We have the city of Tukwila that'll be coming up, I believe in 2023, maybe.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So they're usually 10 to 15 year agreements, so you won't see them often.

All right, well, thank you.

I appreciate that.

It didn't occur to me that I always, I suppose I just assumed that one public utility can use the right of way to serve its customers.

And of course, it's more complicated than that.

And the details, they're laughing at the table.

Yes, it is more complicated.

I learned something about this.

It's not as easy to negotiate the public property of two jurisdictions, even when it's about serving the same customers.

All right, colleagues, do you have any questions or comments?

Okay.

Then I will, hold on a second.

I move that committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120481. Is there a second?

Second.

I believe you need to suspend the rules first.

Okay.

If it's okay, Steven, Council Member, I'll just jump in.

For this one, because there wasn't a public hearing, you don't need to suspend the rules, but I do believe there's a verbal, a vocal amendment to add in the King County ordinance number in the recital.

Okay, just a second here.

All right.

I move that the amendment be, where is, oh, there it is.

Where is the committee, the bill number from, okay.

I move to amend.

We need to make a technical amendment to add the King County Council number to the text of this bill.

I move to amend Council Bill 120481, fourth recital to fill in the blank with the adopted King County Council ordinance number 19551.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment to fill in the blank with the adopted King council ordinance number 19551.

Council member Sawant.

Yes.

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Chair Nelson.

Aye.

There are three votes in favor of the amendment.

The motion carries and the bill is amended.

Are there any further comments on the amended bill?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation that the bill pass as amended?

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Nelson?

Aye.

There are three votes in favor.

All right, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill passes amended will be sent to the January 3rd, 2023 city council meeting for final consideration.

Thank you very much for saving that from the job.

Wouldn't that be terrible if it all failed, all the work failed because of that amendment.

Anyway, thank you very much for catching that.

And thank you so much for your work on this.

I appreciate it.

And while everybody is leaving, I just want to say that I so appreciate working with your team.

It has been a joy.

I have learned a tremendous amount about something that a lot of people don't think about, which is what is the system that keeps the lights going?

And it's incredibly important.

And thank you very much for being such good sports, working with a new council member.

We appreciate the time that you give us and the opportunity to go deeper on some of these issues and look forward to bringing you some really meaty stuff here in 2023. So thank you.

I love the meaty stuff.

Thanks.

Bye bye.

All right, folks.

If there's no other business, this concludes the December 14th meeting of the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee.

Our next meeting is scheduled for January 11th, 2023 at 9.30 a.m.

And if there's no further business, this meeting will adjourn.

It is 10.45.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all.