Seattle City Council Sustainability & Transportation Committee 7/30/19

Good afternoon, everybody.

Can everybody hear me?

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for being here this afternoon.

It is 2.05 p.m.

on July 30th, 2019. My name is Mike O'Brien.

I'm chair of the Sustainability and Transportation Committee, staffed by Kelly today.

I expect to have at least one other colleague joining us at some point this afternoon.

We have a packed agenda and a ton of folks here today.

It's great to have you all in the audience.

We have Well, first of all, for those that are planning for time, I expect this meeting will probably run three hours instead of two hours.

So depending on where your items are on the agenda, let's just plan for that.

We have close to 50 people signed up to offer public comment.

And so in an effort to get through as much of the public comment as possible and the items that are on the agenda today, I'm going to start with public comment at one minute each.

So for folks that are planning to come forward, do that.

If you're in a group of two or more and maybe want to consolidate your message, I can give you two minutes collectively.

That would help us get through more people.

If folks are just going to say the same thing over and over again, it'd be great to hear from you all at once.

But everyone has that right.

And then we'll check in again after 30 minutes to see where we are on public comment and if we can extend that a little longer.

We normally just do it for 20 minutes.

I'll start with 30 minutes just because there's so many folks.

Really quickly on the agenda today, we're going to have a discussion about the Green New Deal.

We're going to take up a couple items around Seattle Children's Hospital.

We have RSJI annual report from Seattle Department of Transportation.

We're going to get an annual streetcar operations report from SDOT.

We're going to also consider an ordinance related to commuter production.

And finally, a resolution about naval sonar testing in the Puget Sound and coastal waters.

So lots to talk about.

So why don't we shift to public comment.

I'm going to call off three or four names so folks can queue up at either microphone.

Again, I'd ask that you watch the clocks up here that show you how much time you have left.

I will cut you off at one minute or give you a couple seconds to wrap up, but I'd really appreciate folks to honor a chance for as many people as possible to talk to try to keep their comments to that one minute.

Doug Holton is first, followed by Ann McCullough, and then Setdoe, I think, then Honeycourt, then Mr. Lay, then Nora Chan.

Doug.

Hi.

Is this on?

It's on.

All right.

My name is Doug Holtham, and I work for the First Still Improvement Association.

First Hill is one of the most transit-dependent neighborhoods in Seattle, with a higher-than-average elderly and low-income population.

First Hill is also designated as a regional growth center, and our transportation options need to work in conjunction with our land use and employment.

As Seattle's downtown neighborhoods, including First Hill, continue to gain jobs and residents, we need to ensure that there are high-capacity transit options.

Let's finish what we started and complete the streetcar downtown.

Great.

Thank you, Doug.

Anne.

Hello.

Hi.

I'm the executive director of the First Hill Improvement Association.

My name's Ann McCullough.

First Hill is one of the city's largest employment centers.

Over 35,000 people go to work in First Hill every day.

Additionally, the population of our neighborhood will increase by 72% over the next five years.

And we have the lowest rate of car ownership of any neighborhood in Seattle.

Completing the streetcar network with options to connect to light rail, sounder, and ferries will support one of Seattle's densest neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you, Anne.

I'm going to be joined by Council Member Chayko.

Seto?

Sorry.

That's okay.

Thank you.

Is Seto here?

Where's the fan?

Is he here?

I'm Nora Chan.

I take about 30 or 40 people here today.

And so I don't want to take up so much of your time.

So if you don't mind, we just all come up.

Is that OK?

That would be great, Nora.

Thank you for doing that.

So anyone with Nora wants to come up or stand up where you are?

Whoever want to come up, you can come up, OK?

This is the first time they come.

Thank you for bringing folks.

So they don't know what's going on.

You know, here, I started with Kason.

We residents, business, are supporting the Center City Connector.

We, Chinatown, have all sorts of restaurants, museum, and culture to share.

So anybody want to share with us, please come, okay?

And then, so first is, please keep your promise.

Small business has been waiting since the 2012 construction of the first hill streetcar.

So you tell them in Chinese.

I want them to participate.

So they will say in Chinese, I will say in English.

I hope you don't mind.

Nope, that's great, Nora.

Thank you.

Approximately 20,000 people will ride the new Center City Connector per day.

That is more than any metro bus line can do each day, right?

So I'll let her read it in Chinese.

Thank you.

And Nora, we'll give you a little extra time since you're translating, so keep going, this is great.

Okay, thank you.

Here, the Center City Connector will have its own lane, creating a fast and efficient way to move more people, and taking people out of their cars, and reducing gridlocks.

Okay, you say in Chinese.

Speak in Chinese.

Zhongxincheng's green train Streetcar will connect residents to the new job without increasing congestion and save money.

Remember, easy and fast transportation will bring successful economy.

Thank you.

You have people speak all three, four different dialects here.

So thank you very much.

And I have more people coming.

They are not here yet.

So sorry.

Thank you so much for organizing and helping translate.

And to all the folks who came down for the first time to testify at City Hall, we really appreciate hearing your voices here.

So thank you for being here.

Randy Gustafson is next.

Randy is going to be followed by Ryan Packer, then Andrew Kidde, and then Alice Lockhart.

Hello, I'm Randy Gustafson.

I am a retired, just retired, Seattle streetcar operator.

I was an original operator from 2017, or 2007. Anyway, I have some concerns about, I understand that you're going to be considering whether to amend the contract for the vehicles or to cancel it and get a new contract.

I would suggest, for several reasons, going back to the 66-foot vehicles that are actually available at Brookville Equipment Corporation.

I don't know them personally, but I do know that they are being used in five different cities down in Oklahoma, Tempe, Dallas, Milwaukee, and one other one.

Anyway, there are good reasons to stay at 66 foot.

The operators have fallback brakes, and so they would be going from maybe three or four or five different vehicles in one shift, and it'd be You have to understand your clearances, so to go from a 66 foot to a 75 foot and have to know which car you're in and doing your clearances is very important.

Thank you, Randy.

Can I leave this?

Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly will grab it from you.

I really appreciate you bringing your expertise here and congratulations on your retirement and thanks for sharing.

Ryan?

Hi there, I'm here because back in March we were all here for a Vision Zero presentation where we were told that Seattle continues to be on the right track.

I have some numbers from the first six months of this year.

Number of total collisions that resulted in serious injury and loss of life, 98. Average amount of time between those collisions, 44 hours.

Number of pedestrians seriously killed or injured in that six months, 39. Which means we're on track by the end of the year if the past decade of trends has continued.

to see 90 by the end of the year, when in fact we've been averaging around 50 for the past 10 years.

Average number of collisions reported by the SDOT traffic Twitter account on Rainier Avenue through yesterday, this year, 134. Percentage of people referenced above who deserve to have their safety prioritized over people moving vehicle traffic, 100%.

And the number of times the current mayor of Seattle has recommitted the city division zero, zero.

Thank you, Ryan.

Andrew?

And Alice?

By the way, Detroit was the other fifth one.

Thank you, Randy.

Hey, we're Alice and Andrew from 350 Seattle.

We'll give you two minutes.

Yep.

You need two minutes together.

Go ahead.

Hi, we're here to speak about the Green New Deal.

The Green New Deal acknowledges a truth.

We live in an era of climate emergency.

In this era, the city must ensure that we reduce climate pollution and make progress towards the city's environmental and equity goals.

The Seattle Department of Transportation's focus is the design and use of our streets.

Achieving climate pollution reduction on our streets is a simple design issue, but a complex social process.

The design is simple because all SDOT needs is a plan to convert annually some of our street from lanes for cars to green transportation, specifically lanes for buses, bike trails, and sidewalks.

Each year, the city should calculate the amount of carbon reduction emission achieved based on the estimated reduction in VMTs.

vehicle miles travels.

The social process is more complex.

SDOT and city leadership have barely begun to plan for how to convert a city of car drivers to a city of walkers, bikers, and transit users.

Here are suggestions.

First, we need to raise awareness in our communities of the many benefits of this conversion, not only lower carbon emissions, but also fewer deadly collisions, better air quality, better public health from active transportation, including biking and walking, more affordable transportation, which is super important, and the community bonds that form when we have walkable neighborhoods.

The city can promote and needs to promote all these benefits in neighborhood meetings, but also more strongly by committing to developing a social infrastructure that includes walk and bike coordinators at schools, greater engagements with employers through the commute trip reduction program, outreach to business districts and residential on green transportation.

I'm sure city departments have additional ideas, and we should mine those to create a culture within the city government and in the city at large of zero-carbon transportation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alice and Andrew.

Emily Manetti is next.

Emily's going to be followed by Katie Wilson, then Jordan Van Vost, and then Chen, C-H-E-N.

Hello, my name is Emily Manetti.

I lead transportation policy for the Downtown Seattle Association.

We are a member of the Seattle Streetcar Coalition.

I'm here today on behalf of our 1,000 members and over 1,300 center city rate payers to support the streetcar project.

We are pleased that the project is moving forward and we support council approving the necessary funds for SDOT to move this project forward.

We know that Seattle continues to grow and that downtown is now home to 300,000 workers and more than 80,000 residents.

We need to prioritize a diverse transportation network to give people more options to keep our economic core thriving.

Finally, we also know the majority of residents support this project.

It's time to move it forward.

Thank you for your time.

We look forward to working with SDOT, the council, and mayor as the project moves forward.

Thank you, Emily.

Katie?

Good afternoon, council members.

My name's Katie Wilson, and I'm here representing the Transit Riders Union.

First, I just want to express our strong support for the city developing a Green New Deal for Seattle with community support.

And I also want to speak to the commuter production program, which I believe you're going to be discussing later this afternoon.

Half of Seattle's carbon emissions come from passenger transportation.

If the city is going to meet our climate goals, we need to give people better options than driving alone.

Employers have a big role to play in this by providing transit passes for their employees and taking other measures that encourage employees to take transit, bike, or walk to work.

We appreciate that the city has a commuter production program, and we also think the city can do more to ensure that more workers are getting transit benefits and also to make sure that these benefits are equitable.

There's a lot of things we like about the plan that you're going to be discussing today.

The recommendation to actually rank requirements by effectiveness and do more to require that CTR employers take high-impact actions.

We also think that there's a lot of improvements that could be made and I'm out of time, so to be continued.

Thank you, Katie.

Jordan?

Thank you for offering the opportunity to comment on this legislation.

I also wish to acknowledge that we stand on unceded Duwamish territory, which is very relevant to the Green New Deal legislation.

I've spent my life learning to live in tune with nature, gardening, cycling, wilderness travel, low-impact living, but the indigenous people of Seattle were the experts in this regard, and we need to listen to them and the youth whose future we are foreclosing on with the fossil fuel-based economy.

Mother Earth is hurting now, and there's no more time for business as usual.

We've got to stop building giant parking garages like the one that just went up at Expedia.

We have to rethink our way of life based on an understanding of interdependence and prioritizing compassion over profit.

And I'd also be in support of the item number seven, the resolution concerning the sonar, which is harming the whales and other cetaceans.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jordan.

Chen is next.

I'm not sure if he testified already with you, Nora.

to Mr. James Wong.

He's more important than I am.

Okay.

James, James, you're after Jim Erickson, so hang on one sec.

So Jim Erickson, then James Wong.

I see Jim coming forward.

Whoever signed in at number 17 signed in their name in Chinese characters, so I can't pronounce that, but if someone signed in at number 17 who hasn't testified already, you can come forward.

And then following that would be Doug Trum.

Go ahead, Jim.

I am Jim Erickson speaking as a resident of First Hill.

It is my opinion that the Center City Connector Project should be completed as planned.

According to the KPMG Streetcar Cost Review, the benefit to Seattle will be an increase in potential annual ridership from the current forecast of two million to a new higher forecast of six million.

This will become the busiest metro line in Seattle.

First Hill is an urban center village that combines growing employment and growing residential housing.

We are a destination in the morning for those heading to work and in the afternoon for those returning home.

We recently advocated shifting the new underground light rail station on the east side of I-5 on First Hill.

The idea was rejected.

Our original neighbourhood plan centred on an underground light rail station at Madison and Minor.

The First Hill underground station was cancelled.

Our senior residents and healthcare visitors appreciate the roll-on and roll-off accessibility offered by streetcar platforms.

If the decision is made to cancel the Centre City Connector project, it will be another large disappointment on First Hill.

Thank you, Jim.

James Wong, you're next.

And then, again, if there's someone who signed in with Chinese characters, they'll be after James.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is James Wong.

I'm the CEO of Vibrant Cities, a locally owned and locally based development company based in Chinatown International District, focused on mixed residential and retail development projects in Seattle.

I'm here to speak in favor of the city center streetcar project because one, our city needs to continue to invest in reliable, affordable transit.

I'm an immigrant from humble beginnings.

Growing up, my family used public transportation because it was affordable.

It was a primary means of getting from home to work into Chinatown.

Second, our city is becoming denser every day, and we need transportation options that will help more residents without adding to the congestion.

A city population increased by about 135,000 people from 2010 to 2017. And if the city wants to reduce congestion, it needs to support transportation options like city center, center city streetcar, which will connect residents to jobs in downtown and South Lake Union without increasing congestion.

Number three, if the city truly values Chinatown District as a historic cultural neighborhood, then the city needs to invest in Connect City streetcar that will make CID more accessible to residents and visitors alike.

James, your time is up.

Oh, really?

But if you want to turn that in, we can keep it written.

But Nora said I could use her one minute.

Well, Nora had some time for herself already.

So there's a lot of folks that are here to speak today.

Oh, well, one last point then.

Ten seconds.

One last point is we don't want Chinatown to be like our neighbors in Portland and Vancouver.

Those Chinatowns are dead, and we don't want that to happen to Seattle Chinatown.

We need to connect it.

Thank you.

I got your point, Jim.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna go to Doug next, I guess, unless there's someone else.

Okay, go ahead, Doug.

And then, Doug, after you is gonna be, I think it's Penhua Liu, and then Paige Mallott.

I'm Doug, speaking on behalf of The Urbanist.

We joined both the MASS Coalition, Moving Seattle Sustainably, and the Streetcar Coalition because we believe in projects like the streetcar, and we want to see them done as quickly as possible.

It's high-quality, emission-free transit, and we need to be doing that as quickly as we can to deal with our climate crisis.

And 20,000 daily riders from pretty much day one, that's serious ridership.

And where else would all these people go if you've ridden a bus at rush hour at Seattle downtown?

Most of the buses are already pretty cramped full.

It would be nice to have a little bit of a safety valve for those folks.

And for folks who say we could just do this with a bus, each one of these vehicles, thanks to being 75 feet long, It can carry about 166 people at crush load.

That's about twice what most metro buses can handle.

So these should have more capacity, and that's partially why you're seeing there's so much ridership.

So I really hope that this project can stay alive and be carrying people very soon.

Thank you, Doug.

Is it Penhua?

Okay, maybe they already testified.

Paige Malott.

Paige, you're going to be followed by, we're going on to number 21, Lisa Howard, then Mike McQuaid, and Maria Badeola.

My name is Paige Milad, and I am a resident along the First Hill Streetcar Alignment.

I'm here today in support of the streetcar and look forward to the Center City Connector being completed quickly to help absorb growth in the downtown core.

Once the Center City Connector is complete, the five-mile streetcar route is expected to have more riders per day than King County Metro's busiest bus route, the Rapid Ride E, which covers 14 miles.

The connector will increase current streetcar ridership by four times as it joins the two existing lines to create one complete streetcar system.

Since 2010, the area along the streetcar route has added more than 43,000 new residents, an increase of 66 percent and a 27 percent increase in employment along the route.

The traffic congestion downtown impact buses along First Avenue, a signal of need for higher-capacity transit.

We also know that 65% of carbon emissions from our region come from transportation.

We cannot afford to wait any longer on making investments in high-capacity electric transportations.

Let's be proactive so we can build it quickly while maintaining the high-quality project that we were promised.

Let's get that streetcar rolling.

Thanks, Paige.

Lisa?

Hi, I'm Lisa Hart.

I'm with the Executive Director of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

I'm here because we believe this streetcar connection is critical to our continual revitalization work in Pioneer Square.

And we're committed to find solutions to minimize the construction impacts while completing this important project.

Please consider the benefits to our transportation system and our city.

And I'm happy to answer any other questions regarding Pioneer Square later so you can get to more people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa.

I'm sure we will have more as we move forward.

Mike.

Council members, I'm Mike McQuaid.

I'm a fourth-generation Seattleite.

I'm a business owner and a former Amazon.com employee.

I'm also the Southlake Union Community Council Transportation Chair and I'm a member of the steering committee of the Streetcar Coalition.

Mobility is clearly important to me.

In South Lake Union, I have 50,000 people living and working in my neighborhood that weren't there 15 years ago.

Most aren't from Seattle, many not from the United States.

Our newest residents think about mobility very differently than 55-year-old SUV driving guys like me, although I did log 200 miles on my bike last week.

There are among some 300,000 who now work downtown.

living in each of our seven districts.

Competitiveness as a city is critical to our way of life, district by district.

Our neighborhoods rely on that competitiveness and the 50% of business taxes in our city that come from downtown.

Vibrant and easy to navigate downtown benefits every voter in each of our districts.

Wrapping up, Transportation is the fabric that knits our community together.

Options went the day.

In this economy, would we allow our legacy as leaders to take us back to the 1970s when we turned down money for a subway system to be our legacy?

Let's go streetcar.

Thank you, Mike.

Maria's next.

Maria, you're going to be followed by Tom Chang, then Dave Ments, and then Rachel Ludwick.

Good afternoon, Councilman O'Brien and Councilman Pacheco.

My name is Maria Batiola, and usually I come here as Beacon Hill Council Chair and as Environmental Justice Coordinator for El Centro.

But today I come to you as somebody who's been working on environmental and economic justice since 1993. I want to bring the thinking and the soul of the Community Coalition on Environmental Justice that really I wanted to share with our environmental friends that Environmental isn't just natural habitat, but built environment, as well as people of color, those who are in danger.

So it is with such a wonderful kudos to the communities and yourself who has put this together to say that it's the right time.

We're in emergency with climate change.

We are in a place where the federal government is not taking any leadership.

We must take care of ourselves as a city to say who we are and do what we wish, and we have race and social justice within the city policies.

And with that, I cannot wait to see how this will actually be concretized, as we say in the old business, and without a carbon impact analysis, we will not have as an effective program.

Please consider including that carbon impact analysis, same as any fiscal or social impact analysis.

Thank you.

Thank you, Maria.

I appreciate that.

Tom?

I don't see Tom Chang getting up.

Dave Menz?

Thank you for your work on the Green New Deal.

There's so many important aspects.

I think we should include radical new green building codes.

My friend Chris Rogers led construction of Patsy Bullitt's Bullitt Center here on Madison and 14th, world's greenest building.

We should be proud of that.

But he told me that during design and construction, he had to beg the city to create exceptions to the building code to allow the greenest features to be built, such as gray water recycling, passive solar walls, solar electricity storage, use of non-toxic materials, composting toilets, and more.

Every home and building in the city could have these features, every one of these features can create new business structures and jobs in our city.

We have these visionaries to follow.

It's already been done here in Madison.

Follow them even if the cost seems excessive and high now, but just wait.

So in conclusion, we should change the paradigm.

We should resist powerful calls for business as usual.

When our city leads with amazing things like this, the nation often follows.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dave.

I just want to make sure we're not missing over Tom Chang has signed up.

All right, we'll go to Rachel Ludwick.

Rachel, you'll be followed by Emily Hazelton, then Megan Murphy, and then Megan Cruz.

Hi.

Thanks for being here.

I'm Rachel Ludwick.

I'm really excited about the Green New Deal like everyone else, and I really want to draw attention to how important and how difficult it will be to get transportation justice right.

As Ryan mentioned earlier, actually, we are on track this year to have twice as, I think it's twice as many deaths and serious injuries as 2010, which is actually the year after I moved to Seattle.

So we're not actually making progress on this.

And this ties in the Green New Deal because the reason why that's happening is because our streets are still overwhelmingly designed for cars and we don't really reprioritize cars.

In 2016, we actually passed an ordinance to lower speed limits everywhere, but in reality, we haven't really lowered them everywhere.

Avenue South is still 30 miles per hour everywhere, except for like a very short section in Columbia City.

And most of MLK, which is next to a light rail station and lots of housing, especially lower income housing, still has 35 mile per hour limits.

And I think it's just important to note that when we go out to do this Green New Deal, and it's really important, if we don't implement it and we don't care about what actually happens on the ground in every community, and we're not following through, that people won't actually switch to light rail and to the streetcar and to all these things if we don't actually provide them a safe place to walk.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rachel.

Um, Emily.

Hi.

My name is Emily.

I rent in Belltown, and I'm a volunteer with 350 Seattle.

As our climate changes, Seattle will be a destination for climate-driven migration in the coming decades.

We are not ready for this.

The rent is already too damn high for people who live here.

We are struggling with homelessness and displacement for current residents.

To be a truly welcoming city, we need places where people can afford to live.

I'm proud to live in a sanctuary city, and I hope that we continue to be a sanctuary city as climate change gets worse.

In order to meet this hope, Seattle's Green New Deal should invest in affordable housing along public transit routes.

Greater density will accomplish many things at once.

It will lower our city's emissions, help communities thrive in place, prepare us to accept climate migrants into our city, and create lots of jobs.

Thank you for your endorsement of the Green New Deal, and I advocate for centering housing density and affordability as you commence planning.

Thank you.

Thanks, Emily.

Megan.

Hi, I'm really excited about the Green New Deal.

I was at Pramila Jayapal's office last spring, and there was a whole group of us trying to have her endorse it, and then she finally endorsed it, and people, the movement is still building.

There's all these new health apps where they can track your blood pressure and your blood sugar and your resting heart rate.

and there's algorithms that connect it all in an app, but what if they had one for the earth?

It's like, with all this carbon going up in the air, it's like telling someone with lung cancer to keep smoking, because we need to quit the habit of carbon.

So with city planning, I'm hoping, the Green New Deal is like way on the cutting edge of where the future is, and I only hope, as city planners, we all go further, because we all are stakeholders.

we develop cities that are completely carbon free and more shared spaces and shared living quarters for climate refugees.

Thank you.

Thanks, Megan.

And Megan, next Megan will be followed by Alex Hudson, then Don Blakeney, and then Shirley Saville.

Great, thanks.

I'm here to voice support for the Commute Travel Reduction Plan.

It is the first planning document for either land use or transportation in the city to acknowledge the impacts of transportation network companies, Ubers and Lyfts.

I do propose one amendment to this in the measuring, in that it equates one SOV, single occupancy vehicle ride, with one TCN or TNC ride, and we know that it's not really equivalent.

For every Uber or Lyft ride, for every person driving alone in their car that puts one mile on the road, someone taking an Uber or Lyft puts 2.8 vehicle miles traveled on the road.

So this is really something that we've got to address.

And then furthermore, this is part of the grand scheme that's dictated by our comprehensive plan in Seattle.

We need to put this designation, TNC and delivery trucks, as mode shares that we're tracking.

They're the fastest growing elements on our streets and big disruptors.

Thanks.

Thanks, Megan.

Alex.

Hello, good afternoon.

I'm Alex Hudson.

I'm the Executive Director of the Transportation Choices Coalition.

We're a statewide advocacy organization working to bring people more and better transportation options.

I'm here to speak on behalf of the Center City Connector Streetcar.

I have been working on Center City Streetcar for a very long time.

As somebody who's cared a lot about First Hill and great transportation options, you've heard many excellent reasons why we need to keep this project moving forward.

It's a zero emissions transportation project that's going to connect people to amazing destinations throughout our city and create opportunities for tens of thousands of people to get out of their cars every day, leading us towards a car light downtown.

I'm also just going to speak on behalf of somebody who is an active and avid user of the First Hill line to just bring into the room.

the many, many, many people who are already using the system and who benefit.

I see people across all levels of society using the streetcar and they need this option.

So thank you for your leadership and looking forward to keeping it moving forward.

Thank you, Alex.

Dawn, you're next.

We're at number 31. So thank you all for being so quick and concise.

If it's okay with you, Council Member Chico, we'll extend public comment for another 10 minutes or so, and I think we'll be able to get through everybody at the one-minute pace.

Thanks, Don.

Great.

Thanks, Council Members.

I'm Don Blakeney.

I work for the Downtown Seattle Association, and I'm here today to speak on behalf of the Center City Connector Streetcar.

It's exciting to see so many familiar faces in the crowd here, folks that are supportive of this project.

It does touch every corner of downtown and many of the communities that make our Center City a vibrant place to be.

One voice that's not here today, and it's sad we've lost a champion on this project, Mr. Tom Gibbs, who used to stand here next to me and taught me just about everything I know about streetcars, isn't here with us.

He passed away earlier this month, and he fought his entire career to fix our environment, make Lake Washington healthy, and fight for transportation.

And most recently, he was fighting with us to get this project back up and running again.

And so we're super excited that we see some momentum and appreciate the council's work on that.

So thank you, and we look forward to working with you.

Thank you, Don.

Shirley.

Hi.

My name is Shirley Savelle, and I brought this poster for you.

It says Vision Zero equals Vision Kaka.

Let me tell you why.

So my family, we live very close to Rainier Avenue, and so it's not funny, the collisions, but we can hear them.

We hear them every day.

Yesterday, we were in the house, and we heard a collision, so I walked down.

I expected to see one of these two-car collisions, but no.

Instead, what I found was a young girl who was on her bike.

She was crossing the crosswalk.

A driver decided to not look for her in the crosswalk, hit her, Paramedics were there.

Her head, she had blood pouring down from her head.

So I really don't think that the mayor has done any investment in Vision Zero.

I don't think it's funny to call it Vision Caca.

But to us, because every day we hear and we see the traffic violence, we don't want to be the next person to my kids.

This was a young kid, younger than my daughter, just going somewhere.

Not a white guy in spandex, a kid.

So this is for you.

All right, thank you for taking the time to listen.

Kelly, I'll grab that from you.

Shirley, thank you for bringing that, and I'm sorry about what happened.

Diana M.

is next.

And Diana, you're going to be followed by Jill Mangaliman and then Johnny Frickrew.

Hi, my name is Diana, and I'm part of the Seattle Women's Commission, and I'm here to talk about the Commute Trip Reduction Program.

We appreciate the program, especially because it does help reduce, obviously, the transportation cost for some workers, but I'm here to talk about the fact that According to the Puget Sound Regional Council's travel survey, low-wage workers are much less likely to get an employer-paid transit pass than high-income workers.

And low-income workers are those who need these passes the most.

And I'm here on my capacity as part of the Women's Commission to talk about the fact that, obviously, women and children are more in need of transportation.

transit and more transit opportunities that are more flexible, and they are often traveling with children, with other people.

And so for this population, obviously, and for low-wage income, low-income workers in general, thinking about expanding the way that the commute trip reduction program expands is a big necessity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jill?

Hi everyone, I'm Jill Mangaliman.

I'm the executive director of God Green.

We're an environmental justice organization based in South Seattle.

We're here to speak in support of the Green New Deal.

As an environmental justice organization, we really encourage the city to take seriously the climate crisis.

Our communities are bombarded by climate pollution, have lower life expectancy rates, and are deemed sacrifice zones by this current economy.

We really want to see a robust policy that ensures investments in environmental justice communities, communities of color, working class communities, so that we can also have long, healthy lives.

We don't want to see any more people die from health issues or from climate related issues or from even economic violence.

I really appreciate hearing from everyone about the importance of investments in these communities, what it would look like if we had access to living wage green jobs, healthcare, transit for everyone, and affordable housing for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jill.

Johnny.

members, my name is Johnny Fickrew and I'm an organizer with Got Green.

I'm part of the Seattle for a Green New Deal campaign.

And this past summer we've been having lemonade stands, we've been canvassing folks, and we've been talking about the Green New Deal.

And one of the priorities that keeps coming up is transit for all.

And when we say transit for all, we mean free public transit.

You know, I think it's really cool in this city that we have middle schoolers and high schoolers that get ORCA cards, but a Green New Deal is calling for so much more where everyone has the ability to hop on the bus and travel safely and freely where they need to be.

You know, public transit should serve the public and not only those who benefit based off financial means.

And I think in a Green New Deal, we should also think about a just transition for fare enforcement.

Instead of finding people who may or may not be able to afford transit, we could have them be transit support guides and help people get to where they need to be.

And so think about these really cool creative ideas and building a better world.

Thank you.

Thank you, Johnny.

Next is Barry Blanton, I think.

And is Barry here?

There we go.

Barry, you're gonna be followed by Jamie Lee, and then Monisha Singh, and then James McIntosh.

Hi, I'm Barry Blanton.

My company is Blanton Turner, and we're down in Pioneer Square.

I currently serve as the co-chair of the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

I also serve as the chair of the Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area, here to strongly support the Center City Streetcar Initiative.

In fact, I look at the streetcars that we have, and while they're great, this link will add the value necessary to the other two links.

And it makes it a reasonable system.

And that's what we really need to have.

So we appreciate your support and hope that you support that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Barry.

Jamie?

Hi, I'm Jamie Lee with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation Development Authority.

I'm here today to express our support for the Center City Connector Project.

It's no secret that our neighborhood endured years of construction for the first hill streetcar with the promise that our segment was eventually going to be part of a larger system connecting the CID to downtown and bring thousands of riders into our neighborhood.

Right now, the streetcar system is unfinished and it's not fulfilling its promise.

Our neighborhood has one of the highest transit riderships in the city.

It's important to have a full functioning system.

It would be unfortunate to have suffered through years of construction for nothing.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jamie.

Manisha?

Hello, I'm Monisha Singh.

I'm the Executive Director for the Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area.

The CIDBIA works to support small minority-owned and minority-operated businesses in the Chinatown International District.

I'm here to echo the support of the streetcar on behalf of Chinatown ID business owners, property owners, and residents.

The Center City Connector would help drive tourism traffic to Chinatown ID to support the economic vitality of the neighborhood.

Through the streetcar, we would have more visitors and other residents of Seattle to be able to eat at Chinatown ID, restaurants, shop at retail locations, attend neighborhood festivals, and enjoy the unique and vibrant neighborhood that the Chinatown ID is.

Thank you.

Thank you, Manisha.

James.

And after James McIntosh, we're going to have Catherine Leggett, then Alec Conin, and Sarah Tekla.

Okay, hi.

My name is James McIntosh, and I'm with the Transit Riders Union and chairperson of the Transit Operations and Planning Committee.

The Transit Riders Union has endorsed the completion of the Connector Streetcar Line.

So please go ahead with completion of the Seattle Connector Streetcar Line.

I am a person who is visually impaired, so transit is my lifeline.

The Connector Streetcar Line will provide swift and convenient service between Southlake Union, Westlake, the Pike Lakes Market, Pioneer Square, the International Train Stations and International District, the First Hill and Capitol Hill, serving locals and visitors alike.

And particularly, the line will be of great benefit to the disabled people in wheelchairs and people like me who are getting a little older and having trouble walking.

I'd like to remind people that we're all getting a little older.

The system will run on renewable energy, so what better way to work toward a green new world, especially for future generations?

So please go ahead with connection of the Seattle Central City streetcar line as a vital link in our city's transportation network.

Thank you.

Thanks, James, for coming out.

Catherine?

Hi, my name is Catherine and I'm a volunteer with 350 Seattle and I believe we have a great opportunity ahead with us with the Seattle Green New Deal.

I came to the issue of climate justice most recently reading the New York Times article about the IPCC report back in October, 2018. It's alarming words really shook me out of my previous complacency.

It's well known that the target year for the radical changes that must be made is the year 2030. And my oldest daughter will graduate from high school in 2030. So that's the motivation I have to do this work every day, not only for my family, but for all of the families.

I try to look to see how many, graduates Seattle will have in 2030. I'm just going to estimate 10,000.

So thank you for all your support so far, and I look forward to working with you.

Thank you, Catherine.

Alec?

Alec, you're going to be followed by Sarah, and then Neil Anderson, Lippa Brackleyite, and then Lisa Nitze is the last one.

My name is Alec, I'm an organizer with 350 Seattle and also working on the Seattle for a Green New Deal campaign.

I want to start by thanking Council Member O'Brien for all your leadership with relation to the Seattle for a Green New Deal campaign and thank you Council Member Pacheco for your support signing on to the campaign a couple of weeks ago.

To just reiterate why we need this campaign, 2001 Mayor Paul Schell said that Seattle has become a new leader for climate action in the United States.

And 20 years later, we found out the most recent years we have data, Seattle's emissions are rising.

They're going up at a time they need to fall.

And so we need much more dramatic action than we're currently seeing.

And just to say one thing that I hope the Green New Deal will include is We can't lock this away in OSE.

We really need to have every single city department making all of their decisions through a climate lens and through an environmental justice lens.

So if we can see as part of this instructions to every city department that they need to come up with plans that will reduce our emission and reduce our pollution in line with what science and justice demand, that should be part of this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alec.

Sarah.

Hi, my name is Sarah.

I'm from Seattle, currently do not live here.

I'm actually a sustainability student in Arizona.

And I think I just want to speak to the importance of Seattle's leadership because on the Green New Deal, because if you guys don't pass it, it's not gonna pass somewhere else.

We're waiting for you guys.

We're also in Phoenix working on a localized Green New Deal, but things like this, it's a lot harder moving forward in a red state, and I think that that is really what Seattle has the opportunity to do here is lead the nation.

And I think it's gonna be really important, especially given Washington's already regressive tax structure, finding a way, you know, if we're talking about climate justice, those with the most money are paying the most into this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Neil?

Hi, my name is Neil Anderson, and I'm here today to express my support for Seattle's Green New Deal.

But ironically, I drove my car into Seattle to come here and tell you that.

Would have been better to take a bus, but I'm coming from outside Seattle and making multiple stops.

And managing all of that with bus transfers would have been a lot more difficult.

So I just took the easy way and drove instead.

But if we were to embrace the Green New Deal, I imagine that there would have been a congestion price to discourage me from driving into the city.

And I would gladly pay that, not just to relieve some of my guilt from driving, but also because I would know that the money was helping to fund infrastructure that would make it less necessary to drive in the first place.

And once I arrived downtown, it would look very different than it does now.

With many fewer cars, it would be possible to have a greatly expanded bike network with dedicated lanes to keep bikers safe.

That would make it easier for people like me who aren't as comfortable riding in traffic to hop on a bike to get around.

These aren't simple changes, but the Green New Deal invites us to completely reimagine what our city could look like.

When we leave the building today, it'll be to the familiar sight of frustrated drivers on crowded streets competing for scarce parking spaces and to the familiar smell of gas fumes from the constant stream of traffic.

But I think it's possible to imagine walking out to a much more welcoming environment that's centered around the needs of people, not cars.

And to me, the power of the Green New Deal is that it gives us a chance to meet the goals of emission reduction in a way that creates a more livable and inviting city for all of us.

Thank you, Neil.

Liepa?

Hello, my name is Liepa Bracilite, and I'm a volunteer with 350 Seattle and an incoming UW student.

And I'm here to testify on the Seattle Green New Deal.

We've all heard of the UN report that states that we have just about 10 years to cut our global emissions by half.

But a lesser known fact from that report is that our emissions must peak at 2020 and fall sharply in the years after.

That means in just the next few months, we must create a strategic plan on how we'll slash carbon in the next decade.

That plan is what we call the Green New Deal.

It must include a ban not only on new fossil fuel projects, which we currently have in King County, but we must also swiftly replace existing fossil fuel infrastructure with renewable energy.

Furthermore, we must have an urban growth boundary to limit logging in the name of development and reduce our emissions from commuting at the same time.

Thank you, council members for supporting the Green New Deal.

And I look forward to the swift transformation in our city in the coming year.

Thank you, Lisa.

And then there's one more signed out for Lisa.

Chris Liu will be the last one.

Hi, I'm Lisa Nitze with Nitze Stegen, a real estate developer and manager, owner and manager of the Starbucks Center with a long history in Pioneer Square.

And I'm here to express strong support for the Center City Connector Streetcar Project.

In August, Nitze Stegen breaks ground on 80 units of workforce housing at South Washington between second and third.

It's the first Opportunity Zone project in the city, and in 15 months, we'll have between 80 and 160 tenants coming and going from their homes there, most of whom are expected to primarily, if not solely, take public transportation.

So the streetcar connector will have a significant impact on their experience living in Pioneer Square, along with that of all the others spending time in this historic part of our city.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you, Lisa.

Chris?

Chris Liu here?

All right.

Not seeing Chris.

We're going to go ahead and close public comment.

Thank you all for adjusting your time frame to one minute.

You did an amazing job.

So applause to all everyone in the audience for getting through that.

And I really appreciate so many folks coming out today.

We have a packed agenda.

It's one of, frankly, many packed agendas we're going to have in the Sustainability and Transportation Committee my waning days on the council wind up trying to get as much stuff done as possible.

So thanks for all being here today.

We'll jump into agenda item number one.

I'll have Kelly read that in and I'll invite presenters forward to the table while she reads that in.

We are having a briefing on the Green New Deal.

So folks come on forward.

Wherever you like to be.

There's congestion in the halls as people are working their way forward, but we may need a protected walking lane in the back of chambers to get people through.

In a second, we'll start with introductions.

I just want to let folks know we spent almost an hour in public comment today, so the meeting, which was already planning to run about an hour long, will likely run a little past 5 o'clock.

My goal at this point is to get through all the agenda items.

Council Member Pacheco, I recognize that you may have other commitments, and so Just let me know if there are things that you have special concerns about, if you want me to hold those.

But for now, let's get going.

So why don't we start with a quick round of introductions, if you want to just say your name.

I'm Lavanya Madhusudan.

I staff Council Member O'Brien on sustainability.

I'm Brittany Bush-Bolay.

I'm the chair of the Sierra Club Seattle Group.

I'm Nancy Huizar, climate justice organizer at Got Green.

My name is Matt Rimley, and I'm the co-founder of Musta Scott Talks.

Thank you all so much for being here.

It was great to hear from so many folks in the audience today talking about support for the Green New Deal.

It's a concept that I've heard a lot about in the past year, and yet figuring out what does that mean for a city like Seattle if we want to follow in that framework is a kind of important question that you and the organizers who showed up at City Hall a little over a month ago and actually got the city council to sign on, everyone to sign on to a letter supporting the Green New Deal.

We want to work towards that.

Lavanya, do you want to maybe start with just a couple comments about what we've been working on in the office and then I'll turn it over to our presenters.

Sure, thanks Council Member O'Brien.

Yeah, basically our office has had the pleasure and the privilege of convening various community stakeholders around discussing what a Green New Deal looks like and we've been meeting with them since the Green New Deal endorsement letter was delivered to council and council endorsed it.

And we'd just like to thank the three community stakeholders here for being here today and to open up the floor for them to share what the priorities are for including in a Green New Deal for Seattle.

Great.

So I will turn it over to you all to decide who wants to speak first.

I think I was tapped with that for more formal introduction.

Well, good afternoon.

My English name is Matt Remley.

My Lakota name is Wakianwa Anaton.

I'm from Standing Rock, but a resident of Beacon Hill.

And my parents are Charles Remley and Donna Harrison.

And I would like to thank Council Member O'Brien and his staff for the incredible work and support in bringing forward this incredible opportunity to make Seattle a leader with the passage of a Green New Deal.

So we'll get there.

And thank you for signing on to the letter of support a few weeks back.

In our Lakota language, we have a saying, mitakowe oyasin.

And what that roughly translates to is, we are all related, or all my relations.

And we say this with an understanding that We are related not to just our own family members, our own tribe, other humans, but literally related to all of creation, human and non-human relatives, as well as Unci Maka, our grandmother earth.

And when we say this, we understand that we are all interrelated and interdependent upon one another.

And when we begin to negatively impact one aspect of, or one of our relatives, it eventually impacts us all.

And that's absolutely what we've been seeing over the course of the past several decades.

Our native communities have already, and one point I'd like to make is our communities have already experienced a changed climate and experiencing a changing climate due to the practices of mining, the siting of hazardous and toxic waste facilities and nuclear waste facilities at more on or near tribal reservations.

and which has negatively impacted our health in terms of cancer rates, in terms of life expectancies.

For my own people, Lakota people, our life expectancy for males is only 45 years old.

Our life expectancy for Lakota females is 49 years old, and I'm 42. What brought me here to Seattle was actually, someone shouted out earlier, the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, where I was hired as a community organizer, where we specifically addressed the impacts of the siting of hazardous and toxic waste facilities located primarily in Southeast Seattle, Beacon Hill, South Park, and Georgetown.

And I'd also really like to acknowledge Got Green for taking up and continuing and expanding on the work of environmental justice here in Seattle.

Because Seattle, just like some of our tribal communities, residents are already experiencing the impacts of toxic waste facilities.

We know a report shows that there are higher rates of asthma in places like Beacon Hill.

So there's an absolute urgency to the passage of a Green New Deal.

We see it stalling on the federal level, and that's somewhat to be expected.

But we have the opportunity here in Seattle to be a leader in the passage of a localized Green New Deal.

Because communities and folks have failed to kind of heed the warnings of traditional communities, we find ourselves in the conditions that we are all facing now.

And I just want to say a few other reports.

Just the other day, the Earth Overshot Day, report came out which is a annual day that looks at resource consumption and the earth's ability to regenerate the resources that have been consumed and July 29th was this year's Earth Overshot Day, July 29th.

And this was the earliest date to be recorded since it began in the 1970s, which means that we're using nature at 1.7 times faster than the ecosystem can regenerate itself.

And of course, the United States is the largest consumer of those resources.

We all know that June was recorded as the hottest month on record.

The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released a report a few months back, which among many things, it states that over one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction due to the impacts of climate change.

The World Health Organization released a report where they cite that since 1988, over 150 deaths per year can be attributed to climate change, with the majority of those deaths taking place in the global south.

And they anticipate that number to rise to over 250,000 by the year 2030 through 2050, with malnutrition, heat stress, and malaria being the main source of death.

More locally, Zillow, the home site you can go on and look for housing and apartments, they actually released a report a number of months back where they state right here in Seattle that they anticipate over 1,500 homes being underwater within just 80 years.

So we're not talking about a radical environmental organization.

real estate agency and Which of those homes that be an estimated loss of two billion dollars and the bulk of those homes?

projected to be underwater are centered in the West Seattle Rainier Beach and Southeast Seattle communities You're not talking about underwater from a mortgage financial Yes, thank you for that clarification there.

So Seattle, we have the opportunity to take a lead and set a strong precedent by passing a Green New Deal that not only sets its sight on Seattle being carbon neutral, but carbon, excuse me, climate pollution free by 2030. Free of all pollutant gases that contribute to climate change We know over the past even in my time working with this council that you've taken incredible steps and standings from 15 now to Indigenous Peoples Day, your support for our fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

And as was shared earlier in testimony, oftentimes when Seattle takes a stand, the rest of the country and in some cases the rest of the world is watching.

And so you have an opportunity to set precedent for other communities to follow.

The other piece I'm excited about with this Green New Deal is the inclusion of free prior and informed consent, which is a concept that actually also came out of Standing Rock in 1974 when indigenous peoples from around the world gathered in Standing Rock to convene a strategy session on how to support one another from out the globe.

One of these ideas was free prior informed consent, which became a part of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

What that would allow for is an exciting new opportunity for Seattle to collaborate with our local tribes.

and looking at unique ways we can revitalize habitat.

As was also stated in testimony, you know, our local tribes are the experts on this land, and we're able to live in coexistence with it for tens of thousands of years with little to no harm to it.

Which brings back to one other point to that intergovernmental science report.

What they found was in communities where, or excuse me, lands that were held by indigenous communities or managed by indigenous communities, they found little to no impact on those lands.

So this Green New Deal could provide a space for a unique collaborative effort.

And thank you all.

I hope I hit my five minute mark.

Thank you, Matt.

That was great.

I really appreciate that.

So I want to talk about the importance of the Green New Deal being led by frontline communities.

So as Matt had mentioned, we see black folks, indigenous and communities of color and poor folks being disproportionately impacted by pollution across the country.

So it's not just here.

And that's why it's really important that we're part of the solution.

And this isn't just a simple rebrand of the work that we're currently doing in Seattle.

What this really means is institutionalizing this process where, you know, I've been, I've lived here my whole life.

I have worked with God Green for the last three years and every single meeting that I come into, I hear city staffers saying, oh, we really want to know community priorities and we really want them to be in alignment with the work that we do.

This is a way to do that.

If we're forming a task force or governing board, whatever the word, the term is that we end up using, this will be an accountability space where the community can really drive the work that we are wanting to push.

You know, as communities go through these problems, they know the solutions, but they're not often resourced to be able to make these solutions happen in their communities.

And this is also an opportunity to move towards a just transition.

And when I say a just transition, that means moving away from an extractive economy and making sure that people who directly and indirectly work in the fossil fuel industry aren't left behind either.

And we're looking into how to make sure that folks that drive trucks for fossil fuel industry or people that are actually like in the front lines who have health issues because of this are also able to access free healthcare and be able to get compensated for the new work that they have to transition to, as Johnny mentioned earlier in his testimony.

And we also want to make sure that, you know, frontline communities need to be part of this work because we have already been facing gentrification.

We don't want this new brand of ego gentrification to happen.

And so when I hear people talk about, oh, we can do green buildings, well, we should consider green buildings that don't displace people when we're implementing policies like that.

And then to give you some examples of just transition, we have some local ones, like in Bellingham they have a farm worker co-op where folks are able to, it's a co-op, they own part of the, it's not a corporation, you know what I mean.

They own part of the work that they're doing and they have ownership over that.

And they work together to be able to build what works for them.

And then in other areas where we have, where we work as an alliance through the national organizations, folks at Urban Tealth in Richmond, they have been able to work together as community.

When the city couldn't build gardens on a greenway trail, the community came together and they started building gardens.

This initiative started in the early 2000s and now they feed families locally and it's all access to healthy food.

This is a way that we can move towards more community land trust and have community-owned land, community-owned solar, where communities are able to figure out for themselves and go through the motions themselves and do what works best for them without having to go through many barriers that they have gone through right now.

So having this process be frontline, lead is really important for us.

And to also bring home the point, we are really interested in looking at the green zone concept.

This happened, this legislation, it's passed statewide in California where they prioritize areas that have been impacted most by pollution and the communities are able to drive their solutions.

So when we go through a Green New Deal, we need to be able to identify which areas would need the most work right now.

As I mentioned, that happens a lot in communities that are primarily primarily encompassed of black indigenous and communities of color and poor folks.

And so to be able to identify those areas through whether that's census tracking or looking at health disparities or respiratory issues, diabetes, things like that, that'll be a concrete way for us to be able to say these are the communities that we need to make priority first and then figure out with them how to build these solutions for them.

Thank you Nancy.

Appreciate all that.

Thank you.

So I would like to talk about the places in Seattle that our emissions are coming from and some of the work that we would like to see there.

Our greenhouse gas emissions in Seattle come from two places, transportation and buildings.

And to really achieve our stated goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, we need to aggressively reimagine the way that we construct and use these parts of our city.

Transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

It's responsible for about 2 3rds of our emissions in Seattle, 85% of which come from cars.

So we really have to reimagine our city as a place built for buses, for bikes, and for pedestrians, and not as a car-centric place and way of life.

We need a comprehensive bus and bike system that can safely and reliably get people in all parts of town, not only to play but to work, no matter where they work, no matter what hours they work, not just for people who have normal commutes, but we need bus and transit service for people who work on Sundays.

Not only tech workers, but our domestic workers and our service workers need to reliably be able to use transit as well.

Otherwise, it's not equitable.

We need equitable access that includes bus stop design that's friendly to people with disabilities.

We need affordable and multifamily housing near transit, and we need to explore making transit fare-free.

When cars are used, they should be electric when possible.

And we need an Allegro bike network that makes biking an easy and obvious choice everywhere in the city, including the South End bike network that doesn't have people coming in and talking about the trauma.

from the accidents that they witness every day in their neighborhood, and that lets families feel safe.

The other major emission source is buildings, which account for about a third of the greenhouse gas emissions.

One thing that we can do there is continue to welcome multifamily housing into our city, because multifamily housing is generally inherently more low emission, more energy efficient.

But one thing that we really are going to have to do is examine our fuel usage.

A 2016 OSC benchmarking report says that Seattle's carbon neutral electric utility City Light has a minor contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

but natural gas and steam have larger impacts.

Although emissions are overall declining, the largest greenhouse gas emission source, natural gas, has remained nearly constant in almost three quarters of Seattle building energy emissions.

Another report from 2017 notes that for Seattle to meet the goal of being carbon neutral by our previous stated goal of 2050, not only must electricity remain carbon neutral, but we must convert 75% of residential gas and oil used for HVAC and domestic hot water to electricity, as well as the majority of our commercial usage.

So it's not only crucial that the city ensure that the building types like multifamily housing that usually are electric.

continue to be electric, we need to make sure that trend doesn't change.

But we really need to look at how we make electricity the largest possible portion of our heating and our appliance usage.

And of course, we need to do this in a way that is compatible with our just transition principle.

So we need to look at job impacts, job transition, job creation.

the financial impacts for the people who have already been bearing the impacts of the fossil fuels.

And look at the frontline communities to lead on that regard.

Thank you all for...

Thank you all for the ongoing work you've all done individually and collectively around climate justice and for being here today to frankly speak truth to us about what we need to do.

Some of the things that I heard were that we need to be climate pollution free by the year 2030. How we do it is critically important and centering the voices of frontline communities who historically have been most impacted and will almost certainly be most impacted by the effects of climate change is critically important.

Not simply rebranding the existing work we've been doing, but frankly, rethinking how we approach this.

I heard that the principles around prior informed consent are important to center this.

That there are opportunities for partnerships and working with communities, especially indigenous communities, who frankly have a centuries-long history of doing the exact type of work that we need to discover right now.

Concepts like green zones are a tool we can use that have been used elsewhere, are starting to be used elsewhere.

A focus on if we're actually going to meet these goals, we're going to have to do significant things to address the climate pollution in our transportation sector and how we heat and operate our buildings.

Are there other things that you all want to highlight that we should be centering when we talk about adopting a Green New Deal for Seattle?

This is our little document from God Green.

I'll tell our eight priority areas.

So fair green jobs for all, housing for all, healthy food for all, public transit for all, healthcare and childcare, clean air and water, energy democracy, and no more fossil fuels.

I can give you this little sheet.

I won't go super into the details, but we can continue that conversation.

Thank you.

The just transition was another concept that we talked about that is critically important and also heard about access to free transit for everyone, both in public comment and here today.

So those are good principles too.

Other comments?

And Council Member Pacheco, if you have any comments or questions, please jump in.

Sorry, I was writing down some notes.

Well, thank you all for being here and speaking to the committee today.

And just because I was jotting down some notes for myself in terms of what I think I need to be thinking about just moving forward today and for the remainder of the year, especially as we continue the conversation around the Green New Deal.

you know, just thinking about land use and specifically, like, how, you know, how do we develop more walkable neighborhoods and, you know, more density near our transit centers?

And so, you know, I'm going to keep, you know, my thoughts are with Brian and I are trying to work on some things that I think we'll be able to keep moving the ball forward.

Improving those transit options for communities, I think that's just so vital.

You know, I speak so often about how, you know, I don't have a car and just, The part of it is because I happen to be in such a transit rich district and I wish that was more true for more people.

And so that we can get more people out of cars and support for just renewable sources of energy and safe routes that make it easier for people to bike and scoot around our neighborhoods and our communities would be helpful.

and acknowledge just the disproportionate impacts of climate change.

I mean, we know that this is historically the decisions we've made that have led to this point have most disproportionately impacted communities of color, low-income communities, and what we do next needs to be proactive in helping to address and mitigate those concerns so that we're we're intentional about our solutions.

So I'll be mindful of that in terms of my thought process moving forward.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Takeo.

I really appreciate the ability to chat with all of you since, well, frankly, some work together that goes on for a number of years, but also just in the last month since you came to City Hall to ask for us to support a Green New Deal.

And based on the conversation today, Councilmember, what I'm interested in doing is finalizing work on a resolution to bring back to committee a week from now where the committee could consider adopting the principles of a Green New Deal as outlined by some of the conversations and some of the prior work you've shared with us.

I'd love to be able to share a draft with that before the end of this week with with you all and the public and council members to see that but there is a sense of urgency around this and a Resolution would be a great step.

It would be setting You know laying out some principles and some commitments Of course a resolution alone is not going to achieve the stuff we need to do and so I would love to move swiftly through passing a resolution and move on to some of the work we need to do and some of the investments we need to make in communities to get this work done.

So that's my plan at the moment.

I want to just highlight the challenges before us that I think everyone in the audience knows, but I'm going to say this out loud just to remind myself.

When I started on council 2010, I think it was in 2011 actually, we passed a resolution committing the city to being carbon neutral by the year 2050. At the time, this was less than 10 years ago, that may have been the boldest commitment in the United States and certainly one of the boldest commitments around the world.

In the 10, nine years since, we've done some good work, but what we've seen is in the past few years, our overall carbon emissions continue to go up.

So not only are we not on the trajectory to meet our carbon neutrality by 2050, we're actually still heading in the wrong direction.

And what we're talking about here is back then we had almost 40 years to meet it and we're saying we need to make a new commitment and we have 10 years now to do something that for the past nine years we haven't been able to do on a trajectory of 40 years.

I think we're capable of that.

I mean, frankly, we have to be.

But it means that, frankly, I think passing the resolution, even with a bold commitment to 2030, with the principles you've laid out here, I think that will be a relatively easy thing to do because I think the people on this council are supportive of your communities and the concepts laid out here, but the actual work to completely make our transportation system pollution-free in the next 10 years, to make sure that all of our buildings are running exclusively on 100% renewable energy in the next 10 years.

These are going to require significant, bold actions at the city level.

And there's, you know, without your all and your all support, We're not going to have a prayer doing that.

But I believe that the Green New Deal is a moment, an opportunity, a movement that can change the political dynamic that we've been stuck in for a long time.

And I have some hope and optimism that that will allow us to achieve this.

And that's what I'm going to try to do in my remaining months on the council.

And that's what I plan to be working on for the next decade myself, too, once I'm no longer in council.

I want to give community members any closing comments, if you have anything else you'd like to add before we move on to the next agenda item, and invite you to be part of the discussion in one way or another a week from now.

One last thing.

We talk about transit-oriented development a lot and how that could be a solution for getting people to take buses and whatnot.

However, I just want to make sure that when we're doing things like that, we're mindful of how we're bringing communities back who have been displaced through different developments that have happened through that process, as we've seen that happening already.

We have a lot of displacement, and that makes it harder for people to meet their carbon goals.

So bringing them back into the city and creating space for that again.

Appreciate that, Nancy.

Just thank you all for the work and look forward to we'll be along with you all the rest of the way and in 2030 making sure that Seattle holds to its commitments.

Thanks, Matt.

Yeah, I want to say thank you for your work and your leadership on this.

I think there's a movement, there's momentum, and now is the time for us to be really, really bold on this, to really use our imaginations and take big step forward as a community, and I think we can do it.

Great.

Thank you.

Lavanya, any other comments?

No other comments.

Great.

Thank you all so much for your leadership.

It's been an honor to work with you, and I'm looking forward to the next few months.

Thanks a bunch.

We're going to read in agenda items number two and three and invite presenters forward for that next item, next two items.

Council Bill 119564, an ordinance relating to the Department of Parks and Recreation accepting an easement from and entering into a maintenance agreement with Seattle Children's Hospital, a Washington nonprofit corporation as a condition of the public benefit requirement for the street vacation of the portions of 41st Avenue Northeast and a portion of Northeast 46th Street petition approval contained in clerk file 309690. and Council Bill 1195662, an ordinance vacating a portion of 41st Avenue Northeast and a portion of Northeast 46th Street on the petition of Seattle Children's Hospital.

Clerk, file 309690.

Welcome, everyone.

Let's start with introductions.

Beverly Barnett, Seattle Department of Transportation.

Good afternoon.

I'm Todd Johnson with Seattle Children's Hospital.

I'm Richard Golagum.

I'm with the Parks Department and Real Estate.

Thanks, Richard.

I'm Michael Jenkins, Seattle Design Commission.

Thank you.

note that I will have been on the council for 10 years.

I feel like I started my work at this project in part and it seems fitting that it's right here to say goodbye to me and kick me out the door.

So why don't we jump in and Beverly I assume you want to start and give us an overview and there's two pieces of legislation so maybe just help us understand the distinction between those two but you can talk about them collectively if you'd like.

Yes, and we're very happy to be here and have finished this work.

So there are two pieces of legislation in front of you, and what we propose is to perhaps go over the vacation presentation first.

The vacation ordinance is the second step in the vacation approval process.

So when the City Council approves a vacation petition, it's always subject to numerous conditions.

There are conditions that relate to design and mitigation and public benefits.

So we see the vacation ordinance coming right at the time a project is opening or later if there are easements and other things that take us a while to figure out.

So when the council approves a vacation, there's a public hearing and conditions, and then we all go out and spend sometimes a long time figuring out and developing things and implementing them.

So the two pieces of legislation are the very, very last step, which is the vacation ordinance, and one of the vacation conditions, which is the park easement legislation.

So normally we would look at voting on all of the condition-related legislation first, so that when you vote on the vacation ordinance, everything is done, even if it's just a few moments apart.

And we did think, so Richard has a very brief presentation on the parks connection, but we thought it does make sense to introduce the subject more broadly since there was a major institution master plan and phased work and a lot of issues related to that.

So what we're proposing is that we look at the vacation presentation, which Todd's going to go over for us and answer any questions.

And I would note that we have a pretty extensive PowerPoint presentation just because it was such a complicated process.

We wanted to make sure we had everything here.

I know you're familiar with it.

I know Council Member Chico, living in the area, may be very familiar with the project as well.

So we can go as quickly or in as much detail as you wish.

So we propose to go over that and then turn to Richard and look at the vote on the And then finally, the vote on the vacation ordinance.

Excellent.

So what I would suggest is, in the spirit of time, to move the abbreviated version.

But Council Member Pacheco and I will interrupt if we have any questions.

It's obviously a big, complex project.

And I know it's in Council Member Pacheco's district, too.

So we'll get the reverse order of the presentation.

There it is.

Sure.

Thank you.

So good afternoon.

Thank you for the time.

You're very familiar with Seattle Children's Hospital.

We've been around for 111 years and since 1953 in Laurelhurst.

And as you know, we provide health care to children of our city and our region, regardless of their family's ability to pay.

This afternoon, we're gonna talk about the street vacation.

We'll give you some context and history and share with you the public benefits that we put in place in response to the council conditions.

So as you all know, we're in Northeast Seattle behind the University of Washington in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.

Back in 2010, as part of our major institution master plan work, we had over seven different proposals for a needed expansion on the Laurelhurst campus.

We, together with the council and our neighbors, agreed on what we called Option 7A, which involved the purchase of the Laurel on Terrace apartments.

It was 136 units of housing to the west of the campus, and that is hatched there.

Part of the Laurel on Terrace was two streets, Northeast 45th Street and 41st Avenue Northeast, that were part of the original development back in the 1940s and wound their way through this development.

We proposed the demolition of the 17 buildings on the site and the vacation of the two streets in order to complete our master plan, which you see on the screen.

The master plan adds 1.25 million square feet to the campus, and you can see that the proposed buildings are labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.

As soon as the master plan was approved, we began a major, excuse me, a permit application for building number one, which opened in 2013. It's a building that is primarily patient care.

196 patient bedrooms and emergency department and kitchen.

We're currently involved with phase two, if you've driven by, which I'm sure you have or ridden by.

It's a big hole right now, but that will contain a new cancer care clinic, laboratory, pharmacy, and other needed services.

We developed a list of six different public benefits that we presented in this room and were accepted here back in 2013, 14, I believe.

And they consist of a Burke-Gilman Trail connection, additional street amenities on Sandpoint Way, a transit center, contributions of $2 million or more to a bike and pedestrian fund, some street amenities on 40th Avenue Northeast, and finally, the creation of a pocket park.

And in the appendix, I have a whole lot of information for you, lots of texts and lots of photos, but I chose three photos to share with you to represent the work that is now complete And these photos were taken a few years ago, so it looks actually even better.

On the upper left is a view northward on Sandpoint Way.

It's notable.

It shows the transit improvements.

It shows a plaza.

It shows what I believe is the first bike path in Seattle.

It doesn't go very far, but it's meaningful to us because it goes from our new Burt Gilman connection to the front entrance of Seattle Children's Hospital.

It can be used by neighbors, families visiting the hospital, and certainly our own staff.

The center photo is a pocket park on the corner of 45th and 40th that we created in a landscape buffer area there at the corner of the campus.

And then finally, on the upper right are several significant sequoia trees, and the Burke-Gilman connection that we created from the intersection of 40th and Sandpoint Way up to the Burke-Gilman Trail.

So we showed this chart back when we were here the last time, and you can see that we've completed everything that we said we would, and we also made a cash payment back in 2013 as required.

So we believe we've completed all our obligations.

and we are ready for approval.

This final slide that I have for you shows about, oh, I think it's nearly $4 million in improvements that are spread over the four phases of the master plan improvements.

The bulk of them come in phase one and are already complete.

Questions?

Just thank you for the bike path, it's nice.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I don't know.

Michael, the Design Commission was really engaged in that, and then we can look at the more detail on the trail connection, which was one of the public benefit obligations.

Yeah, I guess in the interest of time, I guess I'd just like to summarize quickly that I think this is a fine example of what the commission likes to see.

You've got public facing public benefits that do not require use of the building, do not require you to go interior to the site.

They provide a clear benefit to the nearby community, in particular of 40th, but it also enhances on larger city investments, the trail connection in particular.

At Burt Gilman, a lot of those connections that we see can sometimes be awkward.

You're entering right in off of the path of automobile travel.

There's a significant time for people to enter or leave, gather yourself before you hit a city street and then you've got that other significant investments along the right of way.

Again, I just think it's a fine example of what the commission likes to see that and then ultimately recommend to the council in terms of a healthy public benefit package.

a public benefit package before it's time.

Or just in time, maybe.

Great.

Richard?

Members of the Council, I'm pleased to present on behalf of the Department of Parks and Recreation the Trail Connection Project that was a multi-departmental and agency effort.

First of all, I want to thank everybody who was involved in it and all the good hard work they put into it to go forward.

It's got an overhead picture of the trail, and you can see Park Property or the Burt Gilman Trail, which is shaded in green.

You can also clearly see the Connector Trail, which goes across Park Property to the Children's Hospital property and then onward to Sandpoint Way.

It offers a pedestrian access.

And it's also maintained per a maintenance agreement.

Children's Hospital will maintain the landscaping, they've put in hardscaping and lighting, and this is in perpetuity of the portion of the trail that's on park property.

The portion of the trail that continues across Children's has been granted to the city through an easement, and that again is in perpetuity.

Maintenance and repair of the trail connections, again, will fall on Children's Hospital and their assigns.

So even if the property is sold, it continues to be maintained by the future owners.

And the trail agreement provides terms and conditions of trail usage, further protects the city through defining identification, liability, and access requirements.

The trail is also accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, except when there's required maintenance, in which case, at that point, you know, people may have to be diverted, but that's the only time it's going to be impacted.

questions.

I don't have anything specific on the project.

I've seen most of these investments come online, so I can visually account to the fact that they've met the requirement.

But Beverly, do you want to just confirm?

that what we anticipated years ago when we first started on this has been completed?

Yes, they have completed everything and paid the required vacation fee and so everything is ready and we do recommend that we vote first on the parks easement and then that will tick off the very last.

So yeah, so this, it took a while for us to get here but Children's is very responsive so it was really our pleasure to work with them on finishing this.

I think the council went into great detail on the master plan and the vacation, and I think everything has been implemented very carefully.

Great.

Well, I also want to just applaud Children's.

This isn't really part of the vacation process, but it is part of the major institution master plan.

Your ongoing commitment to transportation for people who reach the hospital has been an inspiration for me since I've been on the council.

I really think that as an institution, a private institution, you do amazing work to really thoughtfully figure it out and our role model for agencies and institutions and other private businesses around the city.

I'm not sure how much capacity we have, but in the coming months, if there's an opportunity to get an update on what you're all doing on your future production, it's always inspiring to hear that and lift it up because of everyone, we're doing what children's are doing when it comes to transportation, especially for their workers.

I think that our carbon emissions that we just talked about in the last issue would be a lot lower.

Council Member Chico, do you have any questions on this?

Are you ready to, should we vote?

I'm ready.

All right.

So I'll go ahead and move, well I guess I should just mention that I believe I once again skipped over approving the agenda, but not hearing any objection.

I'll go back to item B and approve the agenda.

But now I'll go ahead and move Council Bill 119564. Second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Great.

So that'll move on to the full council, the recommendations, the parks easement.

So now we can move on to the actual vacation now that, at least in theory, when it gets to full council, if we do it in the right order, we will have met all the requirements.

So I'll move Council Bill 119562, the actual vacation ordinance.

Second.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Great.

Thank you for all your work on that.

And this will be the full council on Monday.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

Kelly, let's move to agenda number four, and I'll invite the presenters forward as you read that in.

Seattle Department of Transportation's annual report on race and social justice initiative, workforce equity, and contracting equity.

I'm here for two agenda items in a row, so if you guys want to control.

I'm just going to have a seat.

Hi.

You should just have a seat.

That's exactly what I encourage.

You want to play musical chairs for a while, or just jump in and grab a seat?

You want to take your shoes off, feel free.

Just get used to me.

Why don't we start by just going down the line, and everyone can just introduce themselves briefly, and then we'll get into the agenda item.

Good afternoon, Michelle Domingo, the new manager for the Office of Equity and Economic Conclusion.

Manal Omar-Alansi, I'm the RSGI Advisor.

Sam Zimbabwe, Director at SDOT.

Hi, I'm Viviana Garza, the Interim Women and Minority Business Advisor.

Hi, I'm Chris Tipton, I'm one of the Co-Chairs for the SDOT Change Team.

Hi, Chisaki Muraki, I'm also the Co-Chair of the SDOT Change Team.

Thank you all so much for being here.

I'm really excited to see this report.

So Sammy, it looked like you wanted to maybe kick things off.

I was just going to open it up and then let these really capable folks lead the show.

So I'm just excited to be here with this team.

The team does a lot of really great work across the agency and is really leading our charge forward throughout the agency on all of these issues together.

With that, I will let them share all the good news and all the work that we're doing and be here to help answer questions.

Great.

You can go to the next slide.

Again, my name is Michelle Domingo.

You can go to the next slide.

And I'm three months in in the new position.

And the Office of Equity and Economic Inclusion sits in the director's office and works collaboratively with the change team.

We have the co-leads here and also the Transportation Equity Program.

The OEEI, that's our acronym, we promote equity throughout the entire organization of SDOT through a race and social equity lens.

And our office, with the WMBIE advisor and the RSJ advisor, and in collaboration with the change team and transportation equity, we lead the strategic vision and leadership in the planning and promotion and advancement of equity, and leads SDOT to measurable improvements through an intersectional equity analysis.

I started in May, so I'm three months in, and I have a great team here to report out some details on the past year.

And so I think Manal Al-Ansi is next.

All right, good afternoon.

Again, my name is Manal Omar-Alansi, and I'm going to provide a few RSGI updates.

As we all know here, the mission of the city's RSGI Race and Social Justice Initiative is to end institutionalized racism in city government.

And at Seattle Department of Transportation, we've analyzed our scope of work, authority, and impact in identifying what our role and accountability is in getting the city there.

And we've established a vision to end institutionalized racism, biases, and inequity in our transportation system, workforce, and intersections with institutionally racist systems.

What that means is that we're intentional about not only centering an institutional analysis, but also a structural analysis in our pursuit of equitable outcomes.

We currently have one full-time RSGI staff member, and in this role as RSGI advisor, I advise SDOT directors, managers, and staff on equity strategies, as well as systems change across our various lines of business.

I also serve as an advisor and resource for our change team chairs and numerous IDTs across the city to build both a department-wide and a city-wide RSGI framework that will center RSGI as a practice in all of our city work.

In 2018, as we can see on the slide, we set seven department RSGI goals, ranging from establishing a new change team function all the way down, as you can see, to training all staff for implicit bias and RPOI.

And we've had quite a bit of transition over 2018 in both our leadership and our organizational structure.

So it did slow down our progress on some of these goals.

However, we are meeting all of them except for establishing our employee resource group for POC advancement called POCA.

fully drafting RCI goals for divisional work plans.

In regards to POCA, it's up and running, however we're at a place where we're currently working to establish funding for the employee resource group.

And regarding the divisional work plans, I'm actually in the process of scheduling meetings with the new division directors to discuss their vision of embedding RSGI in their divisional work plans.

I should also note that our goal to train all of our staff in implicit bias and RPOI, it wasn't an expectation that we would achieve that in one year or in 2018. But our goal was to make significant progress towards that.

And we have trained 311 of our staff members in implicit bias or RPOI since setting this goal in 2018. And lastly, using racial equity toolkits to guide our racial equity analyses on our various projects and lines of work.

has become a norm at SDOT.

And if you'd like to see a few examples of that, we've submitted the four listed here on the slide to Seattle Office of Civil Rights.

So please feel free to look that up at your discretion.

Thank you for your work on that.

And thanks for highlighting the toolkits that you've done.

And those are really helpful when we set policies.

So I appreciate your leadership on that, everyone.

Okay.

Some of the changes that's happened with the change team from last year when we met, one of the first things is the restructure of the change team leadership.

As you can see, we have four different subgroups in our change team, and we wanted to make sure that we're having people who we see as subject matter experts within each subgroup, and so we decided to have them as a lead within that.

And also, we just want to promote leadership development as well.

And then the second thing we did was really clarify the roles and responsibilities of the division staff, divisional staff, and also the change team subgroup liaisons.

And so we put together one pager that did that and shared it with the senior management team, which was especially helpful, I think, in terms of basically every year, one-third of the change team is in their first year or their three-year term.

And so there's a pretty steep learning curve and there's been some changes at the leadership level too.

So just having a resource that everybody can point to has been really helpful.

And the partnership that we see up here with OEI and HR with our training is with OEI, like when I was talking about, we wanted to make sure that our plan is that everyone who has the ability to have some type of ability to hire, we want to make sure that they're taking implicit biases to have that analysis when they are making the decisions with who they're hiring.

And with HR, we wanted to make sure we created a three-tier system.

And with HR, they have more of the data just to see kind of where are our employees at and what, where they need to be as far as like the institute, I mean the foundational knowledge they need to take each tier going up.

And then lastly, we created a new communications subgroup.

And that was based out of the realization that, you know, staff really needed to know that there was a change team and that we were there to support them.

Because when we think back, you know, the only time we did outreach, like internal outreach, was really during recruiting.

for new members and so we thought that was really important.

And then the second part was there was a lot of good work going on by SDOT staff that we wanted to highlight their equity analyses and then the decisions they were making based on those analyses to mitigate impacts on communities of color.

And so those are kind of the four things that we've done in the past year that we wanted to highlight today.

So I recognize that whenever we restructure anything that can be somewhat sensitive, so I don't need to tread too deeply here, but I'm just curious if the restructuring was driven about kind of matching the new structure in the organization, or creating new opportunities for folks, or just a recognition that it needed some New Energy, I've had that chance over the years to visit the change team a few times, and I know there's a lot of engagement, at least at the meetings I went to, but I'm curious what was driving the restructuring and, you know, you don't need to go too deeply if there's sensitive stuff that you don't want to talk about here too.

Well, I think part of it was that we wanted to kind of flatten the change team organization.

And so initially there were, in the previous years, it's been two co-chairs kind of leading the change team, I guess you can say.

But now we have us two, but then a lead for every subgroup.

And so change teamwork is really about kind of building momentum and a movement of sorts.

And so we really wanted to kind of have the structure reflect that.

That's great.

That's really helpful.

Thank you.

Drawing error has occurred.

But we can still, I think we still can go.

Yeah, my graph's a little different than yours.

I hope so.

I have the slide in front of you.

Good.

We do.

Sorry, those in the audience, but it'll be available online later.

But please speak to it.

Absolutely.

So as you can see here, we compare the representation in our workforce to that of the greater Seattle slash King County area for a more accurate and meaningful reflection of the diversity in our department.

We also break the data down by both race and job classification for a more clear understanding of who's most impacted in our workforce and where the disparities lie.

This data in turn informs both department-wide workforce equity initiatives as well as our contributions to our citywide workforce equity initiatives.

Our HR department works in partnership with the Office of Equity and Economic Inclusion in establishing our first employee research group that I mentioned earlier named POCA.

Apprentice and mentorship programs and implementing workforce equity initiatives supported by the city's WEPAC group, which stands for the Workforce Equity Planning and Advisory Committee.

And our department has representation on that committee through the Office of Equity and Economic Inclusion.

So, quick question here, and again, sorry audience.

I'm looking at the percentages in the, they don't add up to 100% across on the columns.

Is that people, like for instance, the percent of greater Seattle area that's African American says 6.8%, Asian American 18.2, Hispanic, Latin American 90.7.

White 68%, Native American 1%.

But when I add those up, that comes to more than 100%.

And then similarly, representative in the department, it comes to less than 100%.

Is there any explanation for that, or is that something I can get some information on later?

Well, actually we don't have any representative from the HR department here at this moment.

This is a reflection of the records that they have and what was submitted to the Office of Equity for this presentation.

I'll forward your question and then I'll get back to you.

Thank you, Manal.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Yes, Council Member Chico.

Just to the workforce equity metrics, one, kudos to the women making more money than the men.

But there's an 8 to 10 percent disparity between people of color and their white counterparts.

Is that, without getting more specific into the data, like, can you speak to that?

I can speak to how we're using that data.

So we're really intentional about having our representation on WEPAC be from the Office of Equity.

I, as RSGI advisor, am serving on WEPAC.

So I, in turn, can pair that strategy with RSJ and use RSJ as a practice in our departmental HR workforce equity initiatives.

What you're highlighting right now is the need to center race in all of our analyses and is the reason for us breaking down the data the way that we did.

Now why that's a reality is why we have the race and social justice initiative, right?

We will do moving forward around that is to be disclosed and what will be done in partnership again with the office of equity HR and our citywide we pack committee.

I'm just most more curious to see if it had more to do with the advancement opportunities or where the positions were relative to.

everyone else and so forth.

And so, again, getting more specific into the data, it's a little bit difficult, but just wanted to highlight that more about just the pay disparity.

Thank you.

Thank you for highlighting that.

Great.

So, oh no, it doesn't have any of my slides up there either.

Wonderful.

Okay.

Apologies again to, for this lovely thing for the audience.

My name is Viviana Garza and I'm the, I can move a little bit.

Yeah.

I'll keep talking.

So I'm the interim WMBIE advisor, Women and Minority Business Enterprises advisor, and I oversee the implementation of our department's efforts for inclusion for women and minority-owned businesses.

So for 2018, this is our annual update.

I would love for the, I appreciate, thank you so much for trying to get the photos up.

or the picture.

So at SDOT, we look to leverage our purchasing power to be inclusive of and to build the capacity of women and minority-owned business enterprises in the work that we do.

We track our spending in purchasing, consulting, and construction.

But for construction, we collaborate with our partners at the Finance Administrative Services Department for advancing our goals.

So the information we're showing today are performance indicators for our purchasing and consulting goals, which is what we set for our department on an annual basis.

So our actual performance for the past six years has shown a steady increase in the departmental goals.

But in the last four years, we've reset how we look at WIMBY targets from being solely endpoints or kind of a finish line to developing, implementing structural changes that can change the processes internally and see the results externally.

So that means structural changes within our procurement processes to change and advance our utilization.

So some of the initiatives that we've implemented include looking at availability proactively, engaging regularly with department leadership for accountability, as well as asking for planning for procurements ahead of time so that we can take a look at that and plan accordingly, and providing an advanced look of opportunities both in the consulting world and construction through providing what I've, in my experience, has been most valuable for firms, at least from the feedback I've gotten, is our anticipated project sheets.

So those sheets let Wimby firms know what we might be working on looking as far forward as 2023. And we share that in advance so that they have time to prepare to meet our needs and start teaming.

Now, I love.

How is that?

Yeah.

Is it pretty well received?

I mean, my sense is that when we look at how SDOT does on some of the Wimby work compared to other organizations, including WSDOT, Historically, it seems like you've been a real leader in this.

And I'm just curious if the feedback you get from community that's bidding on these, is that still?

Yes.

And so one of the big pieces too, so as when we're, when I'm talking to folks in the community, that is a big piece of feedback that comes back is looking at having the opportunity and the time to prepare for our needs, our business needs with advanced notice so that they know about what's coming up all the way.

I mean, we have in the construction world, I have anticipated project sheets that go out to 2023. So looking ahead and being able to know about those opportunities, folks can get, involved with teaming, preparing themselves, getting together to do joint ventures, that way that they can be ready for the procurements when they go out for a full solicitation.

So that is something that we've, I've had a conversations or many conversations with folks in other agencies and they're following suit or doing similar things.

That's great.

That looks like it.

That's the first slide.

That's okay, I'm gonna move on to the next slide.

Oh, perfect.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Kelly.

That is one slow laptop.

I'm so happy about it, thank you.

Okay.

But I won't criticize the laptop.

Keep going, buddy.

Yeah, I don't want to criticize it so it doesn't do anything else.

So I wanted to dive a bit deeper into our performance for 2018. So about $19.4 million of our 2018 dollars went to Wimby firms in 2018, which was actually an increase of $4.2 million from 2017. On the purchasing side, that meant about $4.4 million went to Wimby firms, which came out to about 19% of our purchasing spend, which surpassed our goal of 15%.

And in consulting, that meant about $15 million to Wimby firms, which was 40% of our consulting spend, again, far surpassing our 23% goal.

And I also want to be clear with this data.

You'll see the bars are, they might have similar numbers like the 23% on the consulting side for 2017 being slightly higher than the 23% on the 2018. It's because we're looking at the totals for the year.

I just wanted to be clear.

So 23% in 2018 was smaller than 23% in 2017 just because the body of consulting work we put out.

Exactly.

So the consulting work was less.

We spent less in consulting that year.

What I wanted to also take a look at and what is important for us at SDOT is breaking this down further so that we can see patterns.

Breaking this down into women and minority-owned business enterprises, we're able to see that out of the $19.4 million, a substantive amount does go to white women-owned firms, and the remainder goes to minority-owned businesses.

So that breakdown is helpful because it allows us to tailor our outreach strategies, as I think we mentioned last year as well.

And that helps us develop our annual outreach plan going on to the next year.

One thing that came out of this is we focused on workshops in the community in Spanish, partnering with the Seattle Public Libraries and Finance Administrative Services.

In the past, we did a how to do business with SDOT Spanish language sessions.

But in 2018, we expanded that and we decided that this is important to do for more of the city as a whole.

And so we connected with our capital department partners and collaborated with the Wimby advisors from SPU and SEL and the mayor's office policy advisor on contracting equity and economic inclusion, Edson Zavala, to put on how to do business with the city of Seattle.

still in Spanish and still leading folks through the online business directory and how to get in connection with the City of Seattle's opportunities.

We've also reached out to the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and the Department of Neighborhoods to extend this type of outreach to the East African communities as well as other communities inclusive of women business communities focusing on the inclusion of women of color.

And so we're trying to figure out other avenues to include and to give this information and tools to additional communities.

So this is key for our data in terms of developing our targeted outreach.

An important part of the numbers that aren't accounted for are the sub-consultant dollars.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about that.

We had in 2018 about $3.6 million on tracked inclusion plan contracts.

that went to Wimby firms.

So for our consulting contracts that exceed $314,000, there will be an inclusion plan attached to that procurement, which means that we ask Primes to show us what kind of substantive sub-consultant commitment they can deliver.

Though those sub-contracted, those sub-dollars aren't part of our actual percentages, that is something that is important for the big picture because we can see the impact of the inclusion to Wimby firms even within our larger projects.

We've also taken a strong look at our prompt payment performance.

So we've been asked to include from within our annual outreach plan and starting in 2018 prompt payment percentage.

And we've been asked to, the expectation for all departments who have an annual outreach plan is to have a 95% commitment.

At SDOT we have a 100% commitment to pay invoices within 30 days.

And we achieved in 2018 90%.

We continue to hold our goal at 100% going forward because we recognize that even though in 2018 there were some bumps in the road due to changing financial system issues which impacted our percentage, we think it's particularly important to maintain that goal because prompt payment really impacts women and minority-owned businesses in the way that they can continue to do business.

We also track our diversity commitments and payments in step with the Finance Administrative Services Department through BTG Now, which is our city's online diversity compliance system.

And that allows us to track payments on the sub-consultant level to make sure that we monitor the progress, but also to make sure that the sub-consultants can share with us whether or not they're being paid promptly and step in if that's not the case.

Beyond the numbers, we moved to, I can't move that around.

We looked at outreach efforts to move the needle.

So last year we continued our working with SDOT events, which are SDOT hosted outreach events that we hold downstairs in the Bertha Landis room.

We had our Working with SDOT Move Seattle event in 2018, which showcased the kind of work we expect in the Move Seattle levy, updated on the current project of the Levy to Move Seattle's projects, and we had SDOT project managers and leadership accessible to firms to connect with them and prime contractors.

We also had a Working with SDOT Ready to Prime event, which threw a panel of SDOT PMs, contracting specialists, and staff from the Finance and Administrative Services Department, focused on providing tools, resources, Tips and strategies to be successful as a prime, especially for firms who are looking to make the transition from being a sub-consultant to being a prime.

And we chose that particular focus because we had gotten community feedback and interest.

We also continue to have Windy advocate trainings.

And that is to help SDOT staff understand where expectations for the department are coming from.

We partner with the Office of Civil Rights to make sure that we are, to offer those courses within the Race and Social Justice Initiative, so we make sure that we are aligned with them.

We have two courses, the first talking about contracting equity.

and what it means and exploring the effects of racism and how that impacts contracting.

And the second is how that translates into expectations for the city and what tools are available to help.

So we still, we connect again with Edson Zavala as well as Finance Administrative Services Department to walk us through the online business directory which is a very important tool for the city to advance contracting equity.

At the close of 2018, we had 80 WIMBY advocates and I'm hoping to move that number a little bit more than it was this year, but still, AD Advocates is pretty great.

And another piece that I wanted to make sure that's really important, and I know I talked about it a little bit last year, is our goals, generally, and how we're challenging ourselves in 2019. We are increasing our goals to 30% in consulting and 19% in purchasing.

And another important piece of our goals is the levy to move Seattle's 23% WIMBY utilization goal.

For that, we collaborate with our partners in the Finance Administrative Services Department and our Office to Move Seattle to gather all the information we need, because that spans consulting, purchasing, and construction.

And the dollars include the spend to construction subcontractors and leveraged funds, but does not include the subconsultant dollars currently in line with the city policy, does not include labor costs, or anything that's identified as direct exceptions.

So from the start of the levy through 2018, we attained a 23.3% WIMBY utilization, which is exciting.

It's about $48 million that went into the pockets of WIMBYs, which is fantastic.

But we still continue to do our targeted outreach.

So about two months ago, we had our latest Move Seattle, Working With Us.MoveSeattle event to continue that targeted outreach.

And we had about 131 attendees, which is really great.

We also implemented a new award recognizing s.wimby pathfinders.

So s.folks who go above and beyond help connecting Wimby's to the right sources.

This year our pathfinders were our three preems.

Scott Hart, Mark Sliger and Greg Izzo and we're really proud of them.

But one of the things I wanted to mention is that while we're happy that we're meeting our utilization currently, we're still remaining diligent and we're continuing to keep our finger on the pulse of that because we realize that this is, we're barely halfway through the levy and we want to make sure that we're conscious of maintaining our percentage as we go forward.

So to finish off, we're proud and excited to have attained the highest WIMP utilization at SDOT to date, and we plan to continue challenging ourselves.

And we are committed to continuing with our internal contracting process improvements, monitoring subcontractor goals, hosting working with SDOT events, providing advanced notice of opportunities with our anticipated project sheets, implementing WIMP advocate trainings, and having targeted outreach, such as the intro to the city Spanish language workshops.

So with the Office of Equity and Economic Inclusion increasing in capacity, with the addition of our OEI manager, which we're so excited about, we hope to continue building the capacity of our equity team and continue pushing for inclusion and further solidify that SDOT really, truly values equity.

So thank you.

Thank you.

That was a lot of information.

I apologize.

I kind of bogarted all the slides and a little bit of the time.

So I apologize.

No problem.

A lot of really good data in there.

And I appreciate the commitment.

And I think there's a lot of success stories to share.

And I really appreciate that this isn't just about, hey, here are numbers and we hit it.

But I appreciate that you're looking at the distinction between a women-owned business versus a women of color-owned business.

And, you know, when we achieve our overall goal, how are we doing with other splits and other areas we could do better, and that every year we keep improving or trying to improve at least.

So, that's great.

And then our last slide.

So Viviana talked about key initiatives moving forward.

But for Workforce Equity, again, the establishment of the People of Color Advancement Employer Resource Group is a big deal at SDOT.

And they're looking at creating a budget and working with human resources and OEEI.

to center workforce equity and is a prime stakeholder.

And then for the change team, they're working on their divisional work plans, developing internal RET workshops inside SDOT so people can learn more about how to actually do the RETs and refreshers.

And then change team, you're working on sustainability of new members and creating a budget moving into the next year.

Is there anything else the change team wanted to add or RSJI advisor?

We're busy.

That is very clear.

I'm really intrigued by the POCA and I'm interested, I think I'll just flag for us as we get into budget, I'd love to see how that's funded and I'll wanna make sure that it's adequately funded.

I've seen, I know that in the city or other organizations too, often folks find you know, start with like, hey, we need to have a workforce that more represents our city, that can bring those perspectives in, then retention can be really hard or promoting people through the ranks can be really hard.

And so I really appreciate it.

I'm intrigued to learn more about this and maybe take it to other places where I'm involved to figure out how we can use a tool like this and see how that works.

But I know that having a commitment without the funding and the resources to actually do it just leaves a gap.

So I hope to see that fully funded in the budget when it comes to us and want to make sure we flag that so we can pull it out and learn a little more about it at the council when we get there because I know there's also a lot of competition in the budget.

And I really appreciate the change team.

I know that I really appreciate your comments earlier about how we, you know, what I heard was, you know, this is like a grassroots organizing effort within the department and we want to structure this like an advocacy group.

Maybe you can't say that in front of your boss here, but that's what I heard.

And I think that's outstanding because I think that's how, You know in my 10 years on the council I've learned so much because of city employees who are doing the organizing including organizing around me And it's been really powerful and probably the most valuable thing I've learned since I've been at the city so That's great to hear, and anything we can do on the council to support the change team, you know, please keep us posted.

And all the folks, you know, welcome to the new position and the new structuring.

It's exciting to see.

I think certainly, you know, when you look on org charts and look at titles, that's a piece of showing a commitment and dedication to the work, but obviously you could put titles on org charts in and still not do any of the work.

And so it's great to hear from you all personally about what you're doing.

And I sense a real passion and a commitment for this work.

And for some of you I've worked with before, I know that's real.

So this is awesome.

Council Member Pacheco, any other questions?

Ditto.

And thank you for the work you do.

Thank you all.

Thanks for being here today.

And thanks for staying so long.

For the record, I support advocacy from within the organization and throughout the organization as well.

That is on the record.

So he can't give you any trouble.

So thanks, Sam.

Great.

Thanks, you all.

And you all will be excused except for Sam.

And Kelly, I'll let you read the next agenda item.

The annual streetcar operations report and next steps.

Excellent.

We'll get the whole team up here and...

You're not going to do this by yourself?

I'm not going to do this by myself.

All right.

I would happily do it, but I've got a lot of smarter people than me.

We'll check and make sure your slides are there.

Pictures look good.

That looks good.

I'll just acknowledge that we had a lot of turnout and public comment today for the streetcar.

I think people randomly saw this on the agenda and showed up, or maybe some organizing going on out there.

But it was great to have so many people in the community and a mix of folks from across the community speaking to it.

Streetcar remains a major transportation, both in terms of impact on how we get around the city, but also financial resources.

And so I'm excited to both hear about how the operations at our existing streetcar lines work and where the Center City Streetcar fits in.

So why don't we start with introductions.

Calvin Chow with Council Central staff.

Chris Eilerman, Streetcar and Transit Quarters Manager at SDOT.

Sam Zimbabwe, Director at SDOT.

Eric Toit, Project Manager at SDOT.

Great.

Thank you all for being here.

Cal, did you want to make any comments?

Or just, okay, you're just here to keep an eye on us.

Let's jump in with the presentation.

And as we get to questions, Calvin, please feel free to ask questions too on our behalf.

So I appreciate that.

All right, so I'm going to give a little framing, and then I'll turn it over to Chris to talk about 2018 performance.

And Eric will take the lead on where we go with the Center City Connector next steps.

So we're very excited to be here to talk about Streetcar.

We see this project as being core to our mission, our vision, and core values, which we worked over the past year or so to refresh and renew as well.

So we're here to talk about two things, the current status of the streetcar program, especially the 2018 operations report, and then talk about the Center City Connector and where we go.

So 2018 was a very positive year overall for streetcar operations.

It also included a lot of work by the department, which was at the direction of Mayor Durkin, to understand where the C3 project had seen issues, and some of those might have been just below the surface to many, We worked hard to surface those.

We've continued that work into 2019 and we're here to discuss both where we may be able to make improvements in 2018 and then how we are ready and prepared to move forward with the C3 project in a responsible way.

So with that, we sort of talked a little bit about each of these components and I'll turn it over to Chris to talk about the operations report and then again Eric will take the lead on the C3 next steps.

Thank you.

So we're here to talk about the operations report.

As you may be familiar, this is a requirement that was pursuant to an ordinance of council from some time ago.

We were last here in December 2018 to talk about the most current numbers at that time.

We're here now to talk a little bit about 2018, some of the trends we saw, and if you want to go to the next slide.

Looking at the year in 2018, we're pretty encouraged by some of the results we've seen, particularly on the ridership front.

System-wide ridership was up over 2017 in year 2018 to the tune of about 18%.

Most of that increase came on the First Hill line.

We saw a 31% jump in ridership on First Hill in 2018, which is pretty significant.

Ridership on the South Lake Union line stayed pretty consistent over the past three years, so we see that starting to sort of stabilize a bit.

It was down slightly about 4%.

Those two lines combined, we're still showing a double digit increase in the 18% range.

That trend continues through the early part of 2019, so through the first quarter of 2019, even looking up into May, we're still seeing increases on First Hill and even some increase on South Lake Union as well.

So we're, you know, happy that that's continuing.

We expect that that will play out through the rest of the year as well.

Can I just clarify one thing?

You said most of the ridership increase came on First Hill, but all of it did, right?

Actually, yeah, all of it.

Essentially, I know there's a little bit of noise there, but Southlake Union has been flat for three years.

You mentioned in early 19, we're seeing a little pickup.

Is it still within the margin of error kind of thing, or is it a trend?

We're seeing, I think the First Hill line continues to grow.

The Southlake Union line remains pretty Now, the increases we see month to month are somewhat seasonal, and so there are high points and low points throughout the year.

And sometimes, you know, typically we see some changes in the latter part of the summer, early part of the fall.

So September tends to be a little bit of a lull.

October tends to pick up a bit.

So I think by the time we get to the end of the year, we'll be able to kind of know more about the trend.

But so far, the numbers are encouraging through the early part of 2019.

It's probably just worth remembering that I think the South Lake Union streetcar ridership peaked at around 2013. Excuse me, at about 750,000 riders, so it was significantly higher than it is currently.

There's a lot of reasons why that has changed.

Part of it might be because we've really expanded transit service in South Lake Union, so there's a lot of other options.

We have overall a lot of great transit network, but slice of ridership on South Lake Union decreased at that time.

It does seem to have stabilized for the last three years, but it's not where we originally thought it would be.

Yeah.

And so, just to be clear on the transit, what we may have seen before is people doing a two-seat ride, and when we extended service into there, where there was a C-line, I guess, would be the big one, the 40. that folks were able to do a one-seat ride, and they just, that may have been a, whatever it was, a 15 or 20% reduction in overall ridership.

But the first Hill Street car, what we're seeing is a different trend.

And even though it's been, you know, it's not a new line at this point, it's been operational for a few years, we continue to see increases.

And is that attributable to growth?

Are more and more people just kind of getting socialized to it and trying it?

I think that's a big part.

This is the, I guess, the third full year of operation now for the First Hill Line.

As people, I think, learn about it as an option and come to experience it, I think we're seeing growth in that sector.

We're seeing a lot of transfers, particularly in the sort of Fifth and Jackson Corridor, where we touch Sounder and we touch Link Light Rail and we touch a number of bus routes.

So we see a lot of transfer activity, a lot of ons, a lot of OrcaTaps ons in that 5th and Jackson stop, taking up towards the First Hill, Capitol Hill neighborhoods where people are getting off around, you know, Swedish Hospital and some of the other hospital campuses, Seattle University and so forth.

Yeah.

They both touch on those transit hubs, Westlake and International District, although I think International District is a larger hub for sure.

And so that would make sense.

It's a little bit longer line.

I'm also curious your sense on, it's a newer line.

And so my sense is when we designed and built it, we learned from some of the operation challenges on South Lake Union, specifically dedicated right away.

And I'm curious if we think that makes it, is it a faster, more reliable connection because of that?

Or are they still similar in that terms?

We tend to operate a little quicker on the First Hill line in terms of travel times.

But I think some of that's due to some of the challenges that we see in South Lake Union that we don't see in First Hill.

So on the South Lake Union line, we cross Mercer twice as we complete that circuit, which, as you know, is some pretty heavy traffic volumes in the PM peak.

I'm a bike, I can do this and weave between the traffic when they're blocking the box, but a streetcar doesn't really have that opportunity.

Right.

So we are subject to pretty frequent blockages, particularly from blocking the box, sometimes from cars blocking what are marked streetcar only lanes.

On the first hill line, we're more center running, particularly on the Jackson Street alignment.

So I think that helps, we don't tend to have to do the the zig and zag of the curb lane and parked cars and so forth.

But South Lake Union, we're trying to take some steps to improve on that, to reduce some of those blockages, to bring some spot improvements to bear that will help improve speed and reliability.

And actually, the next slide speaks to that a bit.

In fact, this photo you see here is very recent.

This is some of the most recent pavement markings we've done.

This is from last weekend, I believe.

where we were out clarifying on Terry Avenue some of those streetcar only markings.

We put some signage out to that effect late last year.

Now that the weather's more conducive to doing that pavement markings, you'll see the red paint treatment, which hopefully will help keep some of those cars out of the transit only, particularly at that Terry and Mercer crossing.

And there's some others that we're considering related to speed and reliability as well.

And then a number that we're looking at related to trying to improve some of the safety concerns around bicycles interacting with streetcar tracks, trying to clarify some paths for bicycles and so forth.

And you'll see that reflected in a forthcoming bicycle related report.

This painting is, makes it pretty clear.

So I appreciate that.

Are we going to carry this painting across Mercer so that even when people are blocking the box, they'll at least not block that part of the box if it's an option?

At this point, we haven't looked at extending it into the intersection per se.

I think there's probably some additional concerns we'd have to look at as part of trying to do that further north.

We are looking at like Fairview and Valley as an intersection where we have some blockages, which actually as part of the Roosevelt Rabbit Ride project is slated to have some improvements that will benefit streetcar as well.

And then looking at the Westlake and Valley intersection, and I think that's been considered as part of some of the C and D line improvements.

So like trying to capitalize on improvements that will benefit not just streetcar, but other lines as well.

Looking at operating costs and revenues, this is just kind of a snapshot of the Southlake Union line.

You'll see the next slide to give you a snapshot of the First Hill.

Generally, we run about twice as much service from a revenue hours perspective on the First Hill line as we do on Southlake Union.

And you see that reflected in the operating costs for those two lines.

a little bit under half as much to run the South Lake Union line as it is to run the First Hill line.

Fair revenue for both of those routes, while fair revenue overall is up, it's up, again, similar to ridership on the First Hill line, down a little bit on the South Lake Union line.

We'll be trying to do some more data collection and analysis to try to get to what may be behind some of those numbers.

Fairbox recovery, again, you'll see reflected as sort of a snapshot of that revenue.

20% is our Fairbox recovery on South Lake Union, 10% on First Hill.

Councilman Pacheco?

Sorry, maybe I'm going a little colorblind.

Is 1.5 million, is that King County or Amazon?

So the lion's share of revenues on the South Lake Union line come from $1.5 million contribution that King County contributes to that line.

Sorry, it looks like the same blue from here.

That's a little lighter there.

That little lighter blue wedge is the amount that we received from Amazon as a sponsor of one of the South Lake Union streetcar vehicles.

And that was part of the street vacation.

And is that a 10-year commitment?

Yeah, I think it goes out through like 24, maybe.

I think it's 24.

Sounds about right.

I just wanted to just mention again One of the things driving fare box recovery is the use of ORCA and the number of transfers that are happening.

And I think that might be one of the issues that is behind where the variations in fare revenue.

Obviously, when you have an individual taking multiple transfers, that fare gets split across all the platforms that that person uses.

So that has an impact on the fare recovery.

And just to reinforce that, about two-thirds of our trips are transfer-related on the streetcar, which is very good news in the sense of it's integrated into the regional transit network and people are taking multiple modes.

It means that a fare paid on the streetcar is not a full fare if you weren't transferring.

So, you know, that's why it's one of the reasons why fare revenue may not track exactly with ridership.

We heard in public comment today and we've heard it numerous times over the years and a broader issue around transit is how we make transit more accessible and I think there's a growing movement to figure out Can we just make transit free to everyone?

It's complicated obviously in a system that's run by multiple different agencies.

It's complicated because we do get significant revenue from fare box recovery and so that we'd have to find out how to fill that gap.

But I know that historically fare box recovery is a metric that transit operators look at a lot.

And I appreciate you guys and I expect you to keep bringing it back and I also want to be aware that there are other policy decisions we'll be making to, you know, we've done it in the schools, you know, it's still show up, I assume, in fare because I'm guessing how ORCA is tracked, we give the cards away free and reimburse on the other end.

I don't want to be too focused on farebox recovery as being the ultimate metric, because what I really care about is ridership, and if we can figure out a way from policies to allow people to have cheaper, free access to transit, and the ridership goes through the roof, and we're saving climate pollution, and congestion goes down, and our farebox recovery is a completely different metric, that is spot on with me.

But we're not quite there yet, but I just want to flag that.

So moving forward, just the next slide gives you kind of a snapshot of as we look at total operating costs and total operating revenues, which go beyond just the fare box.

There is still a city investment that is brought to bear to sort of make the numbers pencil out.

The, you know, just like most transit systems, this is not something that pays for itself.

And so there is a city investment that you'll see along the bottom there.

This is the combined system, First Hill and South Lake Union.

As we get into 2024, you'll notice that that number goes up a little bit, actually quite a bit, as we lose the sound transit contribution to the First Hill line.

That's a $5 million annual source of revenue for that line.

I appreciate that.

Not just all transit gets subsidized, but all transportation modes get subsidized in various ways.

Certainly much more happy to be subsidizing transportation transit than I am freeways, so But it's good to track that and I know that that sound transit issue is an issue that will Sand sound transit will be dealing with and I'm sure as we work through sound transit to read this will be part of those conversations for future councils and sound transit boards to work through Yeah, and so

On that front, or related to that front, we do have some developments on the sort of governance structure front.

We've been working on a new interlocal agreement with King County Metro.

As you'll recall, the city owns the system, county operates it for us.

That's governed through an agreement we have with Metro that expires at the end of this year.

And so we'll be bringing forth to council a new agreement later this summer for your consideration to renew that relationship into the future.

And is the term of the new one a five-year deal or?

At this point we expect it will be a five-year term and preserves a lot of the provisions of the previous agreement with some changes that we'll discuss with you later this summer.

Sounds great.

So at this point, I'll hand it over to Eric to talk more about Center City Connector and some of the next steps we have proposed.

Great.

So before Eric jumps in, just I think we heard a lot about it during the public comment, but we really see the Center City Connector as being a critical link in the system and making it a system and connecting a lot of the destinations that we see around all the regional transit network from commuter rail to ferries to link to Metro bus.

We've seen housing and jobs grow in the area served by the Center City Connector and we think that this is a vital part of the transit network going forward that where we are ready to move forward in that responsible way.

So it's a critical link.

We heard about it from public testimony today.

And we think that it'll have the ridership modeling that we've done still continues to show it as being a strong additional, you know, absorbing a lot of transit demand in and around downtown.

Okay, so I'm going to start with a status update on our vehicle contract.

We have a contract to deliver 10 vehicles for the Center City Connector project.

We issued a stop work order on that last year coinciding with the independent review that has been extended now through September of this year.

And we really have a couple of options going forward with that contract to keep the project moving forward.

One would be to amend the contract and really extend the schedule out a couple of years to meet our revised draft schedule for delivery of the streetcar project.

The second option would be to terminate the contract and then begin a new procurement process that would coincide with our updated schedule for C3.

There are some opportunities potentially with new procurement in terms of the vehicles, but there are also limitations and we're not going to be able to address all the things that we've identified in terms of the larger, longer and heavier vehicles.

They're really just what's out there today is really not, there's not a lot of matches or any matches locally for vehicles that perfectly match what we have on South Lake Union and First Hill.

Eric, we heard in public comment today from a recently retired operator that they do exist, and he named a manufacturing company that I wasn't familiar with.

I don't recognize the names in some other cities.

I don't know if you can speak to that, or if not, it'd be great if someone would kind of follow up.

We're happy to get the name, just to make sure we're not missing something.

I suspect you're done your homework here thoroughly, but it'd be great to understand that if you have any information on that.

Sure.

I mean, we are aware of Brookville as one of the producers for some of the more recent projects in the US.

The cars are, I mean, they're lighter, I think, but they're still heavy and we still would have the weight issue.

Maybe not as short as First Hill right now, but they're definitely shorter than the CAF vehicle, the ones that have been built recently by them.

Got it.

That is one of the things we would be doing next year is really doing more research in terms of what's available, what our options are.

Okay.

And along those lines, the other thing that the gentleman mentioned which I really appreciated was just the driver training necessary and the differences of running different fleets.

It's something that as a transit user I don't really think about, but obviously the interoperability, you know, maintenance base and lines and tracks, but also interoperability among drivers, is that something that is a real consideration also as we move forward in making this critical decision?

Yeah, it certainly is.

And that is from people like him, but also working with King County, the streetcar operators there that are working with us on both delivery and even design.

Okay, great.

Went to the end.

Not quite there yet.

Okay.

So just in terms of moving forward then with design, first I want to point out, you know, we do have, we completed 100% plans for the core, I'll call it, of the Center City Connector Streetcar Project on First Avenue and Stewart.

So those plans are really done.

We will be reviewing them, looking at risks and opportunities going forward.

We don't really expect to see major changes on those or changes on the design and configuration there.

There is new scope that we identified last year coming out of the independent review and then further analysis by Estad and our consultant team looking at how the new vehicles would interface with the existing system on First Hill and South Lake Union and identified changes to some of the platforms and tail tracks.

changes to the design at the maintenance facility at South Lake Union, identified some bridge strengthening that needs to happen on Jackson Street.

In addition to that, looking ahead, we'll also be revisiting the area way analysis that was completed, really looking at that and with the analysis that SDAC completed this past year.

So, to do that, we anticipate that you will be acting on or looking at legislation from us, I think, next week.

This is an appropriation for 2019 and 2020 of $9 million to proceed with design, primarily with that new scope.

This would be an inter-fund loan that is repaid by the transportation portion of the property proceeds for the Mercer Mega Block that we're anticipating coming through in 2020. Just pointing out that the 2019 adopted budget right now for the streetcar was $500,000.

That was really intended as a placeholder given that at the time the project was still under the independent review and we weren't sure what the status would be moving forward.

But the $9 million will allow us to complete the design to 30%, also to complete some of the analysis of the areaways and do updates to the environmental analysis.

We'll also be working with the Seattle Landmarks Board on options for the bricklayers building at the South Lake Union Maintenance Facility as we redesign that, both for the additional cars and the longer cars.

But with that work, we'll be ready to update our cost estimate and schedule towards the end of next year and ready to really initiate the Small Starts Oversight process with the FTA.

So Eric talked, laid it out, laid out what we're gonna be doing just in terms of when we're doing it and sort of the mechanics.

Over the course of the rest of 2019, assuming that the appropriation goes forward, we would be doing a re-procurement of design services for those additional tasks that Eric laid out.

Most of that work will be happening in 2020 and so 2020 will be a big, year in terms of advancing that design, advancing our delivery mechanism and how we would end up constructing the project and sort of testing through those different options that we have during 2020, being able to bring back a full funding package and a full project ready to initiate the FTA oversight process.

And just again, we're still at the beginning of that process, but there's a lot of work that we are ready and prepared to do.

Calvin.

Council members, I think it's just worth reminding you that the last cost estimate that came to you back in February still showed a funding gap of about $65 million for SDOT and about another 20 or so million dollars for utilities.

So this additional work would presumably update the cost estimates and schedules and provide a new baseline for the project, but there is not a funding proposal for the full project at this time.

So the overview, we received legislation from the mayor that would create the Interfund loan and give authority to spend that money.

We'll get that on the introduction and referral calendar for next week so we can actually have the legislation before the committee.

The next steps and where we are in this is, I guess it's not terribly different than any construction project.

It's just big numbers.

And so the decisions we're making here are really important ones.

I think one of the things that would be really helpful for us next week, I'm not sure, Calvin, we probably have some of this information, but we may need some SDOT help, is just to understand you know, kind of ranges of overall costs.

I believe the analysis that was completed at the end of last year, if I have my timing correct, gave some ranges of what we thought it would be to complete, but I know that those, until we answer some more questions about what, you know, what needs to be done on the viaduct and what needs to be done on the stations, we can't fill all those out.

But we're at this tricky position, not just the council, but the mayor too, where Sam, I can't remember the terms you used about proceeding, but you used your language carefully.

Maybe you can repeat that again so I can remember the learns.

Responsible.

Responsible.

So moving forward responsibly.

And I interpret that to mean the intent to move forward, but there's still pieces of information we don't fully know.

And so to say a decision that absolutely we're going to 100% build this yet, there's still a question mark.

And I don't know how gray that gray area is, but I imagine if there was a high likelihood that this project wasn't going to move forward, you wouldn't be asking for $9 million.

If we knew exactly what would be happening, you would probably be saying, we are going to move forward with this, and the next step is $9 million.

somewhere in between those ranges.

And so understanding how much sunk cost we have into this, I know some of that has to do with the procurement of the vehicles, which is some question mark, what canceling that contract might cost us, but some ranges, and what the cost to complete the project might be.

This $9 million again is adding to the sunk costs.

If we decide not to move it, we're not gonna get any of this $9 million back, maybe there's some ancillary benefit on the viaduct or something, but pretty limited there.

And so myself and I imagine my colleagues are going to want to understand, you know, what that looks like.

As Calvin mentioned, that, you know, there's some money set aside to complete the project, but almost certainly not enough to complete the project as envisioned today.

So what would we be looking for?

Of course, if we were to cancel the project, some of that money would probably need to be returned to other funding sources, but some of it would be available for other things.

So understanding those different colors of money that have been committed to would also be kind of good to understand.

Just so we release, we may not have policy agreement amongst the nine council members as we make this decision, but it would be great to have clarity on the numbers and the data we're using to make that decision.

And so hopefully we can get that dialed in and Calvin I'll look to you to help think through how we can present that because it's fairly complex but try to digest it for everybody as we go through committee and then potentially ultimately on to the full council.

I will say we can work to do that.

I will say that one of the challenging parts of that is that time is also money in this case, and work that we plan to do next year can, will give us a better sense of timing, which also ends up impacting the cost.

And so for us, being able to proceed with some of that work doesn't mean that $9 million goes out the door as soon as it's appropriated.

That enables the project to get to these points and we can continue to inform the committee as we make progress along the way there.

For planning purposes and my request, and there's probably a lot of question marks, but why don't we assume that the council would take action before recess in mid-August?

I don't know that that's a huge dollar difference, but let's just move forward on that.

So the assumption will be, if you approve this, this is the range of things we're looking at, recognizing that You know, my colleagues may have different ways in how we proceed in different questions there.

It would be, I imagine the questions we're going to learn will inform what happens, but getting clear on like if the technical folks and the political folks, the mayor, feel like, you know, assuming we get these types of answers, we're prepared to move forward on this.

And we think there's a decent chance it'll fall within the range.

If we get an answer that says it's, you know, it's actually going to be 100 million more, then, you know, I don't know that you're prepared to define what responsible looks like and not.

But having some sense of that, I think next week would also be helpful for us to understand where we're going, at least where the mayor intends to go if we can get that.

Council Member Pateko.

Just echo councilmember O'Brien, I think what would be helpful, you know, what I hear very consistently with throughout the district and especially this afternoon It's just the need for the the investments in transit, right?

And so what would be helpful for me is as I kind of go back to re-engage with community members in the district Is to the degree of certainty that the information the councilmember O'Brien so that You know, if I have that information, it's helpful for me to just be able to relay that back to constituents and so forth so that we instill confidence back into the project.

Because I think that just how things have, Sam, I know you've gotten here recently and so, as have I.

And so, I want to make sure that we instill public confidence back into the project and make sure that the investment is, there's trust.

And I think we also continue to move forward on a number of transit investment fronts.

We are working with the FTA on the Madison BRT.

That will greatly inform our ability to eventually receive the FTA grant for streetcar as well.

And so if we can build success and funding partnership there.

So there's a lot of interrelated transit investments that are coming to the downtown that we see C3 as being a really critical part of, so.

Great.

Super.

Thanks for your work on this.

I appreciate both the existing, the report on the existing systems and also the potential next steps and look forward to conversation next week.

We will, my goal would be to have a vote on this next week.

Obviously, colleagues can decide if we're not quite ready, but that's the intent.

Thank you.

All right.

As promised, we are going way long.

Kelly, would you read the next agenda item in?

We're going to talk about commuter reduction.

Council Bill 119581, an ordinance relating to Seattle's Commute Trip Reduction, or CTR, program, adopting an updated strategic plan, adopting a local designation of Seattle Center City as a growth and transportation efficiency center, as defined by RCW 7094-528, and amending Sections 2502 and 2503, but 25.02 slash 35, 2502.40, 2502.50, 2202.55, 2202.70, 2202.80, and 2502.90 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

Welcome.

Why don't we do quick introductions?

I'm Anne Sutphin with Seattle Transit Mobility Division.

Sarah Spicer with the Transit and Mobility Division.

Great.

I think some of the people were here.

Oh, yes.

Katie's still here, who testified about commute-trip reduction.

They've stuck with us for almost three hours now.

So tell us what we're talking about when it comes to commute-trip reduction today.

Great.

I'll kick it off, and Sarah will give you a more in-depth overview of the proposal today.

I lead the SDOT's Transportation Demand Management Program.

We also call it our Transportation Options Program.

These programs are strategies and efforts to help reduce reliance on single occupancy vehicles, single drivers or single riders, and increase use of transit, carpooling and vanpooling, ride share, active transportation such as walking and biking for people to get around and commute to work.

Our commute trip reduction program, or we call it our CTR program, we love acronyms, which is led by Sarah, is our foundational program that's guided by the state's CTR law that was first adopted in 1991. Since 1991, Seattle's local program has grown and evolved.

We're proud of the collaborative partnerships we've developed with Seattle's largest employers, Those employers have made significant investments in their commute programs, including transit pass programs, subsidized and otherwise, great bike programs, bike rooms, showers, and dryers, and many other things that make a great destination for biking to work, incentives, and other efforts that support the public investments that the city has made in transit service improvements, and walking and biking improvements in the city.

We also have had great relationships in delivering this program with King County Metro, who manages in King County business-focused programs like the ORCA Passport Program and business products to provide transit subsidies and products to their employees, and the Vanpool Program as examples.

Another key partnership for us is our partnership that we've developed over the years with the Commute Seattle organization.

They're a downtown service organization who works with downtown employers and property managers, and they also work with our largest employers, CTR employers, citywide.

As a result of these efforts and these great partnerships, our program is recognized nationally as a best-in-practice program.

And I'm going to turn it over to Sarah, who will walk you through the proposal today, which is an adoption of a new strategic plan for the next four years to guide our programming and amendments to the existing chapter in the Seattle Municipal Code that implements guidelines and rules for this program.

Great.

Thank you, Anne.

So as background, building on some of the details that Anne just gave you, Seattle's CTR program is mandated by state law.

We have our own local plan and local code in compliance with that state law.

It's also largely funded by the state.

And the goal of this program is to reduce single vehicle travel, decrease peak hour congestion and pollution, hence the focus on the commute trip.

This is the core of our TDM work.

It has provided key data programming and relationships with the business community during the Seattle squeeze.

Our last plan and ordinance was updated in 2008. It was followed by several years of pilot programs.

And so part of the reason that we have put together this plan today is to illustrate all the great work that was done during those pilot years and to incorporate them into our regular programming.

And state law requires adoption by ordinance, so that's why we're here today.

I'm just going to comment on the photo you chose to put there.

I still love that photo.

It's very popular.

It's a very popular photo.

If I remember correctly, I don't know if it was Grace Kernighan.

I think she was director at the time.

And maybe she actually was on a tour in Copenhagen and came back from it with the folks that did that with the transportation.

And it just says so much in a picture.

It's great.

And I would like to say that RuPaul tweeted this photo, I think, two weeks ago.

Awesome.

I don't know what it took to organize this.

It's a fairly simple photo and I imagine we clearly had to close the street and where you found 177 cars and then 177 bikes and hid them from the next photo, I imagine it took a few hours to organize.

But it's great.

It says a lot.

It's well used, yeah.

So as background, we currently work with 270 of our largest employers.

Those are employers with 100 or more employees commuting during peak hour.

And this covers around 195,000 employees citywide.

The core pieces of the CTR program are the biannual commute survey, which provides vital data tracking our commute mode split.

and includes data that contributes towards the Center City Mode Split Survey, which is core to tracking the data and performance of our demand management efforts.

It also includes biannual program reports, which tracks what employers are investing in and how they are complying with the code.

And the third core piece of our program is the partnership with Commute Seattle, which provides the key programs and support to our employers and helps build us relationships, providing this program as a real business-to-business amenity, helping employees and commuters to navigate all the changing transportation elements in our city today.

And that little graphic on the right is just to show the progress that's been made over the years and the reason why we're a leader in the state and also nationwide in terms of demand management efforts.

So this is just to show you our planning process.

We started back in March 2017, which allowed us to fully incorporate the latest data into our analysis and also time to do considerable outreach to our stakeholders and to the public.

We received some great public comment on the plan over the past several months.

So priorities and opportunities, so what's in the plan and why plan now?

Our priorities included alignment with our policy objectives, the Move Seattle plan, the 2035 comprehensive plan, and the One Center City planning area.

This new plan will allow us to align our targets going out to 2035 with those plan documents.

It will also align the geographic areas of study, particularly in the center city so that those study areas are aligned and also codify the center city as what's known as a GTEC, which is the state's term for a focus area for demand management efforts.

In addition, the priority of a plan that I'd like to highlight is the vision to continue to drive performance with primarily carrots, not sticks.

The business-to-business relationship that I mentioned earlier has been key to our success, and though there are enforcement means included in our code, we find that the partnership with employers generally is the more important piece of driving performance.

And also to continue our partnerships with Commute Seattle and also with King County Metro, who is a key collaborator on efforts surrounding ORCA promotion and the additional use of transit.

Opportunities.

Essentially, this plan includes a lot of strategies, you'll notice, and part of that is, again, illustrating the innovation that we'd like to continue based on our pilot programs over the past few years, so continuing that good work, and also responding to many of the changes in the city since 2008, including additional transportation options.

And finally, to ensure that the data that's collected through this program, that the ability to collect it, analyze it, and ensure its quality is continued.

And so is the ordinance today, like, does our existing ordinance not allow for the new technology, or is it just kind of clunky?

It doesn't reference things like, for example, TNCs, like Uber and Lyft.

It also, and there's a slide on this a little bit later, a few other aspects that needed to be updated include the acknowledgement of contract workers, which is something that wasn't quite clear in the relationship between our code and the state code.

So there's a few tweaks like that.

Updating them greatly allowed us to offer clarity in the language.

So the key metric that we track as part of this plan, as part of this program, is the drive-alone rate.

That's our key metric.

This chart shows the past performance in blue and then how we have modeled, in simplified terms, the targets moving out to 2035, which is where we want our performance to align with the Move Seattle and Comprehensive Plan goals of 25% drive-alone mode share.

in our case for the commute.

And so as part of this plan, we set new performance goals citywide that will help us achieve those targets moving into the future.

And so is this graph just the downtown peak period commute or is this citywide peak period or is it citywide all commutes or?

This is citywide during the peak period.

Okay.

And is the latest data point, it looks like on here it's from 2015-ish or something or 16, I can't quite tell.

I'm wondering when do we get the next data point?

I know we probably not.

So yeah, I know it's a little hard to read on this graph.

So the 2017 goal for that biennium was 32%, and the actual was 31%.

So we did meet that target for our latest biennium.

Oh, great.

And the next surveying round is this fall.

So to add a bit more detail to our performance targets, we set our performance targets for employers based on a network group called, a neighborhood group rather, which we call networks.

This is a way of breaking down the geography of the city into areas based on common land use and transportation context.

We in this plan have moved to a different way of setting those targets.

The previous targets for employers were based on a combination of that land use and transportation context plus the average performance by employers in that geographic area.

We're now moving towards a target that is modeled based on the future performance we'd like to see.

So again, a way of improving performance until we achieve the 2035 goals.

So these are modeled rather than the previous sort of average achievable goals that we had set for employers.

So they are more aggressive moving forward in order to achieve those future goals.

The secondary metric that we've added through this plan is vehicle miles traveled.

This is a way of gaining additional insight into what the commuting patterns are out there.

Are we seeing, you know, fewer drive-alone trips but additional length?

That's something we'd like to keep a track on as an important trend.

So this gets to specifically the Center City.

Again, we're adopting that as a GTEC.

That's a Growth and Transportation Efficiency Center.

Every two years, we, with Commute Seattle, complete the Center City Mode Split Survey, which is a full market report that tracks both the large employers in the Center City, which are the CTR-affected ones, plus adding in data on the smaller employers.

So this is a full market.

understanding of what's happening in the center city.

It's widely used in terms of tracking trends for how people are accessing downtown.

So this chart illustrates how we've tracked in the past how the full market, meaning including the smaller employers, has been catching up in terms of performance and drive alone rate to the larger employers.

And we see that trend continuing into the future until They converge to achieve the same target in 2035, which will then be contributing to our citywide performance.

So that's just to say that we track the full market downtown and help the downtown to set its own full market performance goal, which is related to how we achieve performance citywide since there are so many large employers downtown.

So, question on data.

Most of these reports, at least as I recall in my history filling them out in a previous life, are self-reported data surveys for folks in buildings.

And I'm curious, from a data integrity perspective, do we Do we do any other kind of checks or, you know, my recollection on these is, you know, it doesn't, you know, we have whatever, 250 commute days a year, and people do a mix of things in how you report that.

And I think in this city, most people see themselves as doing the right thing.

And so do they over-report transit use and under-report driving alone?

And do we verify that by any intercept surveys or any other metrics to see if it's right?

Yeah, we do typically at least compare anecdotally to things like the American Community Survey and see if the trends are echoing each other.

This survey, while it's true, any survey does have a certain amount of error, you know, margin of error, et cetera, human error.

Or biases.

Or bias, what have you.

The number of surveys we collect through this is so large, you know, so our N is so large.

It's robust in that term.

Yeah, it's a pretty robust picture of what's happening around the city.

When you get down to some of the very specific geographic areas or areas of the city where we have fewer people reporting, the margin of error does grow.

But from what we've seen, we have no reason to suspect that there are huge errors.

And is this, sorry, remind me, the CTR sites 100 employers, 80 employers, sorry, employees, 100 employees or more?

100 or more, yeah.

during the peak period, who are scheduled to report to work during peak commute period.

Okay.

And so do we think that the full market will trend down just because of other investments we're making, or do we anticipate doing more outreach to them?

I know we passed that.

CTR ordinance last year that kind of addresses that, so I'm answering my own question a little bit.

But are there other strategies to reach out to the broader market beyond just the CTR affected sites?

Well, it's a combination of things.

It's certainly partly the investments we're making.

This program is very much a complement to the investments we're making in transit and other modes.

But it's also the trend we've been seeing in terms of how smaller employers are catching up to larger employers in terms of the commute programs they offer, meaning that more and more small employers are offering Orca products, including subsidized and even fully subsidized Orca products.

And that as investment in those programs continues, that's part of why we see our drive alone rate trending down for those smaller employers as well.

And we have had some grant money, when we've gotten some limited duration grant money, we have done programs, focus programs to try to reach employers that aren't participating in the CTR program.

We did one over in 2018 in the university district called University District Let's Go, did a lot of outreach with the small businesses there.

Also did a real effort with our transportation equity program to try to get ORCA Lift product into eligible transit riders hands.

We also did one for a while focused in South Lake Union on the smaller employers just because that was such a high growth area and we were trying to make maximum impact there.

So the next two slides are provided as mostly a reference and a summary.

These are the strategies included in the plan.

And again, we've included many strategies that reflect the existing work that we do, as well as the opportunity for program expansion.

Each one of these strategies typically includes what we would do under current funding, as well as what we could do given additional resources, whether staff or other resources.

So there's a flexibility built into the strategic plan where we assume the current flat level of base funding, but provide guidance for how we would use any additional resources.

So again, this is the second slide.

There are a lot of strategies.

So in summary, highlights of the changes that are included in this plan document.

There's that new approach to setting targets.

They are more aggressive.

They are aligned now with other planning documents, Move Seattle, Comprehensive Plan.

We have updated the network so that geographically we are aligned with the Center City planning efforts.

The funding scenarios, so for each of the strategies that I just mentioned, we assume the flat state funding.

State funding for this program has remained flat for at least 10 years.

But again, we offer scenarios for how we would use additional resources.

The additional metrics and benchmarks.

We have added VMT as a metric, as I mentioned, additional commuting patterns and insight into the impacts of how people are using our transportation system.

We've also added a framework of benchmarks.

I didn't include a slide on this, but essentially it offers a way for us to track our own performance and progress internally, such as how many people are we reaching through our programming, how many employers are offering Orca products, etc.

So it's a more detailed way of tracking progress.

And in terms of feedback, we heard a mix of feedback from our stakeholders.

We got a few comments on, you know, wondering how to remain compliant, how to meet the new aggressive targets.

We also heard some feedback that targets were not aggressive enough.

So I think we've landed somewhere in the middle.

And we believe that the data also bears out that these are indeed aggressive but achievable targets.

So finally, the ordinance that will adopt this plan.

The plan document itself will guide our program and defines the growth and transportation efficiency center that is the center city.

The clarification and updates to the existing code offers a cleaner structure and also offers clarified guidance to employers as to how they can remain in compliance Some of this addresses some of the changes that you had asked about regarding adding in new options like transportation network companies or TNCs, updating surveying and data collection, and promoting the most effective trip reduction strategies for employers.

So there's a series of clarifications in the code that will make it easier to understand further promote clarity in how employers remain compliant and how we run the program.

And so while there's no codified level of effort change for employer compliance, it does adopt those more aggressive goals by network.

So our request is to pass this ordinance to adopt the plan and the updated code.

I am happy to do that.

Thanks for all your work on this.

One thing I just want to mention, I'm not sure if you guys have sat through all three hours of the meeting, but we talked a lot about the Green New Deal at the beginning of this.

And one of the requests from community is that we adopt, frankly, radically more aggressive targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, specifically to be climate pollution free by the year 2030. We're not on target to do that by 2050 on the plan trajectory that we've been working on for almost 10 years now.

And so that is a radical shift in what folks are asking.

And to be clear, they're not asking it just because they think it'd be fun to be radical.

They're asking it because, you know, our ability to survive on this planet depends on cities like Seattle leading and others following almost immediately.

And obviously transportation is our biggest climate pollution source.

And I flag this only to say that if in fact we adopt the resolution, which I'm pretty sure we will, and if in fact we create the political will to actually meet those targets, which I think is a big question mark, I hope we have the capacity to do that, we will almost certainly be looking at all the tools in the toolbox, including commute trip reduction, and be saying what seems, I can't remember the word you just used, but we're kind of in the middle in a sweet spot of, you know, aggressive but achievable, but we will likely be in a place where we'd have to throw that out and say, we have to look what's scientifically necessary to do this and then figure out how to achieve that.

That will not change my action on supporting this today, but I just think for the folks that are working on that and the folks that are tracking this in the community, starting to think about if we wanted to eliminate all carbon pollution from our transportation system in the next 10 years, some of that will be conversion to electric, but some of it's going to have to really be based on mode shifts and what a different framework would look like.

It'll probably be beyond the term of me being here, chairing this committee for you to come back to, but I hope that the folks at SDOT and our partner organizations, Commute Seattle, and advocacy organizations, Transit Riders Union, TCC, environmental organizations, start thinking about what's possible, or what's necessary, and then how to make that possible.

And so, look forward to some interesting conversations that are gonna be hard, but I believe that Seattle can build on the national leadership we've shown on this front, and really grow that immediately in the coming years too.

So, heads up.

So with that, I get the distinct pleasure of moving Council Bill 119581 and seconding it, as I get to do when I'm the only voting member of the committee here, and I'll vote aye on that.

So it will move forward to the full Council next week with a recommendation to pass it.

Thanks again for all your work on this, and I really appreciate your thoughts on how we move forward, too.

Thanks for your support.

Thank you so much.

One final agenda item.

Let's talk about ORCAs and what the Navy can do.

Kelly, would you read an agenda item number seven, and I'll invite the presenter forward?

All right.

We have Resolution 31892, a resolution expressing concern with the Northwest Testing and Training Proposal of the United States Department of Navy for Puget Sound, coastal waters from Northern California through Washington State and for Alaska.

Michelle, would you introduce yourself?

Sure.

I'm Michelle Caulfield with the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

Thank you for being here at 517 on a Tuesday, a special committee meeting that is extremely long.

Happy to be here.

I think we might have one picture to put up just to remind everyone that when I'm talking about an orca today, it's not a transit pass but a marine mammal.

So I'm really pleased to be here to help introduce this resolution.

And I guess I'll just start with a little bit about the resolution and how we drafted it and sort of what's in the resolution.

There's, at a high level, three main elements to this resolution.

The first is really strong support about Seattle, a strong concern with the US Navy's ongoing and proposed testing and training activities.

The second piece is really to urge the Navy to use the latest science and to reduce impacts on marine mammals, including endangered southern resident orcas.

And the last bit is really to affirm our support, kind of collective efforts of the scientific community, environmental organizations, agency partners, and the work of Puget Sound tribes to reduce critical threats to the southern resident orcas.

So the background here is that the Navy is currently engaged in ongoing training and testing activities in Puget Sound and in surrounding coastal waters and elsewhere on the planet.

And they do that under, currently under a 2015 authorization from NOAA Fisheries.

In March, the Navy released a very lengthy 1800-page report called the Draft Northwest Training and Testing Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which I'll just refer to as EIS.

And that outlines proposed activities and impacts as part of its application for the authorization for activities to begin in 2020. So it's a five-year authorization.

This is the next batch of activities and another authorization.

Activities, when we talk about the activities that they're proposing, I'll just get a little more clear, they include air combat maneuvers, submarine tracking and detection exercises, electronic warfare practice, mine training, and torpedo testing.

And I'm embarrassed to say my son would be like super excited about all these activities probably.

In reviewing the Navy's proposed plan and drafting this resolution, we worked really closely with key partners who are leading ORCA and Puget Sound recovery efforts, and those include Puget Sound Partnership, Seattle Aquarium, Washington Environmental Council, Earth Justice, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Seattle Public Utilities, who has some marine biologists on staff, and some other city departments.

And as you know, Mayor Durkin also filed official public comment in June to formally document concern as part of that formal EIS process.

I also want to thank you for your vocal support in that public comment as well as Councilmember Herbold who offered her voice too.

So transitioning, there's widespread concern about the impact that these activities have on southern resident orcas.

You know, we are fortunate to have a family of 76 orcas living in the Salish Sea in three pods known as J-Pod, K-Pod, and L-Pod.

They're endangered and they're in decline.

And we had some really exciting news in May of a new baby calf that was born.

And that's actually the second calf this year, which is very, very exciting.

But it's important to note that Orca calves face a perilous first year with a 50% survival rate.

But it's still exciting.

I want to stay optimistic about that.

But I also want to say, you know, we probably all remember last summer, I know I was completely heartbroken by the images of J35, who is a mother of a dead orca calf who mourned her offspring and carried it for more than 10,000 miles for 17 days.

I'm almost going to cry thinking about that.

It was very, I know my sister in Chicago was like tracking it daily.

People all around the country and world were.

And so the primary threats to these southern resident orcas are three, diminished salmon, toxic contaminants, and disturbance from vessel traffic, and also noise.

And so really related to noise, that's a big key of these proposed training activities.

I learned a lot about orcas last month during Orca Month.

Orcas use biosonar and vocalization, which is sound, for really critical survival behaviors like mating and feeding and resting and navigating.

Naval sonar has been shown to cause whales to stop vocalizing and feeding, to abandon their habitat, to panic, and under some circumstances to strand or even die.

And strand is essentially get stuck on land because they sort of lose their bearings by not being able to communicate and use sonar.

In short, they need quiet waters to communicate, to navigate, and to thrive.

And there are documented cases in this region of U.S. and Canadian naval activities that have caused harm, displacement, or death to orcas.

And with this very small and declining population, even the loss of one orca can have a major impact on decades of recovery that many have been working on.

So in closing, just to keep this short, the resolution before you urges the Navy to prioritize and expand protections for southern resident orcas as part of these activities.

To use the most recent science in its analysis and to reduce harm.

and also to seize training and testing activities when southern resident orcas and other important marine mammals are present.

And lastly, it also underscores Seattle's collective commitment to reduce threats to these irreplaceable members of our region, to ensure protections, and to keep our Puget Sound waters safe for the entire community.

Happy to answer any questions.

Michelle, thank you so much for your work on this, and my thanks to Mayor Dworkin, too, for her leadership on this.

And I'm excited to pass the resolution today.

I'm curious if you've had a chance to have any conversations with anyone at the Navy I feel like we have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric NOAA Administration that seems to understand the science really well.

And you have the Navy who's trying to meet their objective, but at just great cost.

And it seems like, you know, what are the odds that we get through to the Navy that they need to do something different?

I have not had conversations with anyone from the Navy, but I have talked to folks from Puget Sound Partnership who staff and are on the Governor's task force, and I know that the Navy sits on that task force, so they're engaged in conversations around recovery, which is a great thing.

I do know there have been situations in the past, like in 2013, there was a court case that actually sort of addressed these testing and training activities in California and the Hawaii area where the Navy was forced to change some of their activities.

And I also know, I know another question you had was just sort of the regional kind of working together with other jurisdictions.

I've talked to folks here in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and we're really looking those partnership agencies that we work with under Protect Our Rivers and Salmon Recovery to look at should they look at resolutions like this and what are the opportunities for additional public comment on this situation because next year The final EIS will come out in the summer.

And also NOAA Fisheries will have a public comment process when it considers authorizing these activities moving forward.

So we're going to be tracking this and looking at what role we can play to support other partners in this conversation as well.

Well, my other request, and you probably already planned to do this, but assuming this passes at the full council next week, which I assume it will, Make sure that we deliver this with a letter to our federal congressional delegation.

I was just talking to someone about that in my office.

Excellent.

I imagine the, I hope the Navy will listen to our comments, but the people that approve their funding every year obviously will have some direct impact on them and hopefully can help steer us if in fact the state wants to do everything in our power to protect the resident orca population.

Thanks.

Yeah.

I also want to just acknowledge the work of tribal leaders on this who have done so much work over the years or over, you know, thousands of years, frankly, but who, you know, specifically see the orcas as members of their family.

And this is, you know, This is as critical to them and all of us as a family member threatened.

And so we have, I think, an obligation, moral and otherwise, to do this work.

And I'm grateful for amazing tribal leaders who have spoken on behalf of this and have fought for this.

And it's disappointing that we're at the point we are today where we're down to You know 70 plus resident workers, but let's do everything we can from here on forward So I'll go ahead and move and second resolution three one eight nine two and then vote yes on it that is what we need to do to get a committee and it'll go to the full council on Monday and Please let me know if there's a sign-on letter that we should do in conjunction with this obviously all our names will be on the resolution so that might imply it but if there's other things that we think we should do when it comes to coming next year and maybe there's some work with our legislative agenda to see if the state can do something like this similarly at the state level.

Sounds great.

I also want to thank your staff for their support with this and help.

They do amazing work.

Thanks for that.

Great.

That is the end.

We're going to wrap up.

It's not even 530. Three and a half hours.

Fish with a splash.

A couple folks in the audience still here, you are like heroes.

You should get a badge or a button or something for three and a half hours of sustainability and transportation.

Kelly, thank you for sticking around.

I don't believe you even had a bathroom break, so.

Oh, no, I ran away.

Okay, I didn't even notice it.

Nice work.

But we will be adjourned.

Thanks, everyone.