Council Briefing 6/3/2024

Good afternoon, everyone.

Here we are back at the table.

This is another chance to try it out with a little bit more of our body here today.

It is June 3rd, 2024. The council briefing meeting will come to order and the time is 2 0 1. Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council member Moore.

Present.

Council member Morales.

Here.

Council member Rivera.

Present.

Council member Saka.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Eight Council Members are present.

Thank you.

All right, if there's no objection, the minutes of May 20th, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing none, the minutes are adopted.

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

On tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are two items on the introduction and referral calendar.

Oh, I will note, I'll interrupt myself.

Greetings, Council Member Hollingsworth is present.

So, on tomorrow's IRC, we'll have the weekly bill payment ordinance and the reappointment of Lisa Judge as Inspector General.

The consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and six reappointments, four to the Seattle Film Commission and two reappointments to the Seattle Police Commission.

And there are three pieces of legislation from committees.

the appointment of Don Lindell as General Manager and CEO of Seattle City Light.

I'm looking forward to that discussion.

Council Bill 120777 regarding unsafe building abatement and Council Bill 120774, also known as the Carry Forward Ordinance, which takes funding that was allocated in the 2023 budget, but not spent and carries it forward into 2024. So, I do want to note, and as I've communicated to your offices, that at the request of Councilmember Saka, I'll be limiting public comment tomorrow to probably 40 minutes, I believe.

Originally, the request was for 20 minutes.

But that's so that we can end the meeting at 4 o'clock and begin the transportation levy public hearing promptly at 4.30.

Two of the agenda items have amendments that may require lengthy councilmember discussion.

And so I'm just letting folks know as a courtesy right now, because if they were planning on providing public comment, I just wanted them to know what to expect so that they can plan accordingly.

All right, moving on to proclamations.

Councilmember Strauss has a proclamation recognizing Friday, June 7th.

Orange National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

So, Councilmember Strauss, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for additional feedback before I request signatures to it.

Yeah, I'll be brief.

First, I want to thank all of the community-based organizations who don't wait for solutions to implement the work that reduces gun violence.

We see a lot of places around our country that wait for politicians to pass laws.

Here, especially in our central district, we have organizations that are just stepping up and doing the work.

They're not...

you know, waiting for hopes and prayers to be delivered, they're doing the work themselves.

So, in years past, when people have asked where America's backbone is on, you know, gun responsibility legislation, I've always said it's right here in Washington State, it's right here in Seattle, and specifically, it's on 23rd and Union with our community-based organizations.

I've got a lot of things to say, but I'm just gonna say, you know, When we have tragedies here in Washington state, we, again, don't wait with hopes and prayers.

We respond with legislation.

So after the Santa Barbara shootings, Senator David Fracht wrote up the extreme risk protection ordinance.

When that bill couldn't get a hearing in the state legislature, and I don't fault any legislator for not getting that on there, because there'd been years and years of lobbying work set up to not allow responsible gun legislation to be voted on.

When ERPO couldn't get a hearing, we took it to the initiative, passed with nearly 70% of Washington State voters.

When the shootings happened in Mukilteo, the response from the Attorney General was to ban the sale of high-capacity magazines.

We here in Washington State are able to pass legislation, and still there's more work to be done.

And so we can never pass June, wear orange gun violence legislation.

Awareness Day without passing a proclamation so that we keep the attention to it.

And so I thank you all for your support on this proclamation.

Thank you very much.

Are there any comments or questions from colleagues?

Thank you for bringing this proclamation forward.

It's the beginning of summer.

And so it's great that you're having the eyes on this and we're able to have these conversations.

Yeah, thank you.

And there's a specific reason that we do it on this day.

And I'll just...

I wanna make sure that I get the names correct.

In January 2013, Haida Pendleton was tragically shot and killed at the age of 15 in Chicago.

This would have been her 27th birthday this June 2nd.

And so June 7th, people from all across the United States will recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Day by wearing orange in a tribute to Haida and other victims of gun violence.

Thank you.

Will you be presenting in community?

We're finalizing those details now.

Yes.

All right.

Anything else?

Thank you very much for bringing this forward.

If there are no other questions or comments, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing Friday, June 7th, 2024 to beware Orange National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Great, thank you.

All right, we'll now move on to Council Member Hollingsworth's proclamation recognizing June 20th, June 2024 to be LGBTQ Pride Month.

Council Member Hollingsworth, please lead the discussion on the proclamation and we'll, Ask for feedback and comments before doing the roll call on signatures.

Colleagues, it's year 50 for a celebration of Pride.

And so it's a big deal here in Seattle.

We're one of the biggest Pride events in the country.

When you look across like just visitors, we have Pride Fest that I attended, a cleanup on June 1st to signify on Capitol Hill with Pride Fest with Egan O'Ryan.

And then we also have, don't confuse it with, we also have the Pride parade as well.

Those are two separate events.

Pride Fest is something that goes on at Broadway, which brings over 100,000 people to Broadway and then hundreds of thousands of people to the Seattle Center for celebration.

And so It's a very glorious month.

It's also a month that I celebrate.

Obviously, I'm gay, so celebrate Pride since I was little.

And also, I think it's just something that we just need to recognize in Seattle, how we are beginning to hope for a lot of LGBTQIA youth, adults, families in our city.

When I'm constantly talking to folks, when I'm visiting them, just in the street or whatnot and i asked them like hey where'd you move from they have you know they have moved from different parts of the country to be here to be accepted and i think it's really crucial um capitol hill is is one of the great places where we have obviously our celebration of our pride flags and also our aids memorial pathway park at cal anderson that park's going to be reopening uh the sun bowl and it's going to be very special to people so would love all your support and the celebration of this very special year 50 years

Thank you, are there any questions or comments?

I didn't know it was 50 years.

That really speaks a lot to the strength of the community and also the need to gather and celebrate.

make sure that there is a place and time for this community.

So with that, if there's no other comment, thank you very, very much for bringing this forward.

This is your first proclamation.

This shows you how important it is.

Yeah, it is my first solo one, Council President.

I did jump on Council Member Saka's for Black History Month, but it's my first solo one.

Yes, you are correct.

I jumped on the proclamation train.

All right, seeing there's no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing June 2024 to be LGBTQ Pride Month.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we will now move on to our next agenda item, which is our regular discussion previewing council actions and committee and regional committee events and meetings, etc.

To best accommodate some time constraints today at the request of council members, we're gonna break roll call order and begin with council members Rivera and Strauss, and then move on to a regular roll call.

The remaining members in that order will begin with council member Moore.

Before I hand it off, if you were planning to speak to any amendments that you have to legislation on tomorrow's agenda, if you could wait until the sponsor of that piece of legislation speaks during their presentation, it's just easier so that the public can track the actual legislation and the amendments that go with it.

So, all right.

The roll call order today again is Rivera, Strauss, Moore, Morales, Saka, Wu, Hollingsworth, Kettle, and me.

Council Member Rivera, please begin, then hand it over to Council Member Strauss.

All right.

Thank you, Council President.

It's hard when we're not in line also.

We're getting used to it.

It's good.

I like being amongst Normal setting for this meeting, so thank you for your leadership on that.

Today I wanted to take my few minutes to talk about the amendment I brought last week.

After meeting with community members and stakeholders, I've decided to withdraw my amendment, which included a proviso for this year's approximately $25 million.

Instead, I'm bringing a new amendment to keep the call for the detailed report from OPCD on how they will ensure EDI's successful completion of its 56 ongoing projects.

This is the main intent of my amendment.

I continue to have questions, colleagues.

It does not sound like OPCD has been adequately partnering with other departments to help some of these projects along.

I remain concerned that OPCD has not shown an appropriate level of accountability or transparency regarding EDI program and its ability to track and complete these projects.

We don't control the departments, but we can via the broad budget process compel them to offer transparency and accountability.

colleagues, as you may know, uncontracted department funds lapse at the end of every year.

Departments can then request carry forward authority in the following year.

Council can vote to approve or not these requests.

I was in support of the over 50 million in carry forward requested.

As I said last week, the ongoing EDI projects were never at risk.

OPCD could have asked for continued carry forward next year for any amount it didn't spend this year, but I understand that stakeholders needed a strong message of support for the program.

OPCD has spent on average only 25% of EDI's budget every year for the last five years.

If this trend continues by 2026, the program will have over $90 million of unspent funds in its budget, which they would need to continue to request carry-forward authority for.

And you may have seen my chart from the press release that I sent out at the end of the week, and this shows what they're spending now, and then the continuing increase You know, and this delta is what they would have as a difference.

And what we're saying, and I got this from the central budget office, this is their estimates.

just based on their trending for the last five years.

So this is what I have continued concerns about.

Even if they increase their spending by 50%, which would be going in this direction, it would still have that 50 million of underspend every year that they would need carry forward for.

So That is what, you know, what's the continued carry forward issue with this particular program.

My intent is to provide accountability to this and all city departments.

We need to provide good governance when managing public funds as we continue to unequivocally support the community projects that have already been awarded funding.

I look forward to continue engagement with community about this and about this and all city programs as council continues to review the budget as we look toward the fall.

And aside from that I had some great meetings last week, but I want to cede my time to councilmember Strauss Although I do want to say that I had a great meeting with fourth and fifth graders at Jen's John Stanford Elementary I took a walking tour to talk about pedestrian safety and that was really a highlight last week as we continue to look at the transportation levy and just the Pedestrian safety aspects.

So that was really great and there were other meetings but colleague

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

I will also say it's really great to be back at the council briefing table.

This is the first time we've been back at the table since 2020. Last week, sorry, I was not present last week.

Or the week before last, because it was Memorial Day last week.

Yeah.

Last week was Memorial Day.

I was at Cromwell Cemetery with the VFW and the Boy Scouts.

Here we are today.

I will say another tradition that was previous to 2020 that somehow has slipped in the last four years is when we do public hearings in the evening, usually every office has one volunteer come and help out whoever's office is staffing.

In this case, it's the transportation levy.

I think your office is technically in charge, Council Member Saka, but Just put that plug out there that usually in the past, and I know some things have changed in the last four years, but I put that plug back out there.

Here we go.

The next select budget committee is this Wednesday, Wednesday, June 5th.

We have three items on the agenda.

This is part of our select budget series.

The last of these meetings will be in the first week of August when we go over the revenue forecast.

This...

This meeting in our select budget series, we'll be hearing three presentations, one from Tom Mikesell, talking about the restricted revenue sources that we have.

We'll then have Deputy Director Ali Panucci brief us on the revenue stabilization workgroup findings from last year.

And then finally, we'll have a summary of the 2024 budget review presentation, which will conclude kind of that formal setting.

We'll then be working over these next few months not necessarily at the dais, but continuing to work on digging into the budget book that central staff has presented into some of these additional findings.

And we'll have the August meeting to really cap us off with the revenue forecast.

Any questions on select budget this week?

Moving on to, I'm gonna brief us about the next Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee because it's a special meeting.

It's on Monday, June 17th at 9.30 a.m.

This is because Juneteenth was our regularly scheduled budget meeting, so that needed to be canceled since it's a day off.

And so we will be Monday morning at 9.30 and we will be taking up the HSD Aging and Disability Services office lease.

This is the second briefing, and so we will be voting.

We'll be taking a briefing on the Office of City Finance Director Jamie Carnell for her appointment, and we'll be taking up some Indigenous Advisory Committee reappointments.

As you all know, so that's what's gonna be on the schedule for Monday the 17th.

As you all know, the Carry Forward Bill is coming back to Council tomorrow.

Council Member Rivera, thank you for your new amendment.

Rather than reading my talking points, does anyone have questions about this small and technical bill?

Wonderful.

I'll pass it off to the next person, Council President.

I know the next person would be Council Member Moore.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Discombobulated here, okay.

Good morning.

Good afternoon, colleagues, here we go.

So the next meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 12th, and we will be having three informational items only.

One will be a presentation on affordable housing financing.

It's an abbreviated presentation from the last committee meeting that had to be canceled.

The second item is the Housing Levees Administration and Financial Plan, more commonly referred to as the ANF Plan.

And finally, we will have a joint presentation from the Office of the City Auditor and SDCI to report on the on implementing the auditor's recommendations and the rental registration inspection ordinance audit.

So it will be a very packed agenda.

And again, there's open invitation to any non-committee member who wants to attend to attend.

Let's see, for external committees, the KCRHA, the governing committee, is meeting later today to vote on a new permanent CEO.

So that will be an interesting meeting.

The King County Affordable Housing Committee will also be meeting this Thursday.

In terms of, let's see, in my capacity as chair of the committee overseeing the Office for Civil Rights, I will be attending the pride flag raising this Friday with Councilmember Hollingsworth and Mayor Harrell.

It will be my honor to get to introduce Councilmember Hollingsworth to make the great speech, so looking forward to that.

And then actually moving to a more solemn piece that I need to bring, which is in the district.

So regarding my district update, I am deeply saddened to report a recent hate crime in my district.

So a brick was thrown through the window of a Jewish family's home in the Greenwood neighborhood.

SPD is aware and they are investigating and they have confirmed that this was a hate crime.

So since that incident, I have had several Jewish constituents reach out to me with concerns about the impacts of this event and other events that have happened.

And so I do just want to say without wading into the broader geopolitical issues here, That when people's homes are vandalized because of their religious beliefs and or their ethnic identities, or people on the street are called a slur based on their religion, that that is unacceptable.

And that we will not tolerate acts, we will not tolerate violence or acts of intimidation targeted at individuals because of their religion, their ethnicity, their race, their sex, their gender identity, or national origin.

And lastly, I just want to say that lest we forget the massacre that happened at the Jewish Family Services not so long ago, we cannot remain silent in the face of acts of hatred or intimidation against our Jewish neighbors, and we all deserve to feel safe and welcomed in our shared Seattle.

So if anyone is concerned that they have been a witness or a victim of a hate crime, I do strongly encourage you to reach out to SPD.

I have to note that they were very responsive and attentive to the family, took it very seriously, and the family was reassured by the response that they received.

And as their council representative, I am reassured that SPD is taking hate crimes very seriously.

on that sort of somber note, I will end my remarks.

Thank you.

So I very much appreciate you bringing this up.

I admit that I have felt rather helpless on how to respond to community members who have reached out to me about this particular incident because because some of them called for a greater law enforcement response, and I didn't know what had been recently gone on around this particular incident, but I really do appreciate this.

This goes beyond vandalism, which we've, and I've commented on in briefings and other meetings in the past, but this, yeah, thank you for calling it what it is and bringing it to our attention.

Thank you.

And I want to echo the sentiments.

Thank you, Council Member Moore, for the update.

I had not heard the update.

So very much appreciate, understand this is now filed as a hate crime and that SPD was on top of it.

I know that they had initiated an investigation.

I agree with Council Member, Council President Nelson.

This is an issue that is very near and dear to me for numerous reasons.

There are a number of synagogues in my district, and also it's near and dear to my family at home.

We have a Jewish household, so I really appreciate that very much.

Hate crime...

is not tolerated in Seattle.

We're not going to tolerate anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, for that matter, or bigotry or anything of that nature.

So I really do appreciate you bringing this up, and it very much saddens me, but I'm glad that SPCD took that seriously and that we take this seriously as a city and will continue to do so.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore, I just want to thank you for your update and that solemn note and just to echo these concerns.

Hate has no home in our city.

Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia has no home in our city.

You know, any bigotry, any Asian hate, any...

But homophobia, any of it, it doesn't have a place in our city.

And so I want to thank you for bringing it up in the way that you did, because anti-Semitism and Islamophobia has been on the rise over the last number of months, and it has no place, it has no home in our city.

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly.

And Council Member Moore, if I could, as Chair of the Public Safety, this is a public safety concern, clearly, and I'm aware of the issue and looking to schedule, and probably already scheduled, regarding meeting with Jewish groups about this, and we'll do that, and we'll be engaged with SBD and others as necessary.

So thank you.

Next up is Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Let's see, we'll start with the Land Use Committee.

We do have a Land Use Committee this Wednesday, June 5th.

We've got three items on the agenda.

The first is Council Bill 120761, which is the Office to Residential Conversion Bill.

It's been transmitted by the executive.

This legislation would remove regulatory barriers by providing broad exemptions from dimensional and design development standards when an existing structure or a structure that is already permitted is converted to housing from another use.

We will have, I won't go into a whole bunch of detail about the legislation.

We will talk about it on Wednesday.

It is part of the mayor's downtown activation plan.

And I did have the opportunity to tour several potential sites.

I believe it's been two weeks ago now.

So I wanna thank OPCD and Lake Union partners for the opportunity to understand what they're contemplating.

The second agenda item is Council Bill 120771. which is the downtown street level uses bill.

This would allow temporary uses and give flexibility and variety to the uses required to occupy street level spaces in three particular parts of downtown.

It is also part of the mayor's downtown activation plan.

And again, we will have a briefing on that bill on Wednesday and have a opportunity for discussion.

These two bills we will not be voting on.

We will be having a public hearing for both of those bills on Wednesday though.

um uh so no vote on those two bills um the third item is uh permitting audit uh last year well i guess it was 2021 council member strauss as land use chair at the time asked uh the auditor's office to review the permitting process at sdci that audit did take about a year i think and in And since the report was done last year, they have been providing or creating metrics and taking the corrective measures to implement the recommendations that were made.

So they will be before committee on Wednesday to present their progress.

Again, you know, There's a lot of work to do, and so it's gonna take some time to meet the recommendations of that audit, but they will be with us to share their update.

And this is important because we know how slow our permitting process is.

We hear about it all the time.

And it's really delayed housing projects from coming online and added unnecessary costs to the development process itself.

The requested information was about how the process could be improved to make things smoother and more just to speed it up.

And we know that cutting down red tape is one of the kind of low hanging fruit that we have as a city to make sure we get housing online more quickly.

So those are the agenda items for Wednesday.

Similar to Council Member Strauss, whose meetings are on Wednesday, our June 19th meeting will be canceled.

We had contemplated rescheduling it, but the following week, Council Member Strauss and I will be in Vancouver for the AWC week long board meeting and business meeting.

So we are just canceling the second meeting for June.

I do have an amendment that I'm sure council member Kettle will speak more about, but I do have an amendment that was included in the vacant buildings legislation package for tomorrow.

The buildings that we're talking about represent a safety risk to communities that are located in in the communities and to the general public because they really create, if the buildings are left unsecured by property owners, they really create nuisance and opportunity for public safety challenges.

So I'm pleased to have been able to work with Council Member Kettle on this.

My amendment is in the findings and was offered as an alternative to a different amendment that had been proposed.

I think it's important that the findings are really grounded in facts and the fact is that These buildings become nuisances because they've been vacated by property owners and have been unsecured, left unsecured by property owners.

So the vacation of the property creates nuisances, invites people into the property.

Their activity can compromise safety, not just for themselves in the building, for our community members and for our city workers who have to respond if there is a fire.

So we'll be talking about that tomorrow.

In district updates last week, I met with Representative Jayapal to discuss shared federal priorities.

I know she's been meeting with all of us, so I appreciated that opportunity.

My staff and I toured Uplift Northwest, which provides vital support and employment opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty.

We visited their housing connector program and their learning center, which provides skill building classes to help move people toward greater employability.

I would highly recommend a tour if folks are interested.

It's really impressive what they do to make sure that people who are experiencing dire poverty are actually moving along a workforce development path.

And they're also looking for more employers who have available sort of entry-level, low-skilled jobs that need to be filled, because that is very often who comes to them looking for help.

So if you have ideas of employers in your districts who need entry-level, low-skilled workers, send them to Uplift Northwest.

I also toured the International District Community Health Services Center last week, where they offer comprehensive patient-centered primary medical, dental, and behavioral health services, as well as on-site health education, nutrition counseling, lab services, care management, and a pharmacy, all right down here in the CID, very important for our communities there.

Our first after-hours clinic is located, their first after-hours clinic is located in Holly Park to better meet the needs of community there.

I wanna thank Keto Freeman on council central staff and Gordon Clowers from SDCI.

They took my staff and myself on a tour last week to look at the sites that are on the map for the street, uses bill that we're gonna be talking about this week.

So that was very helpful to see.

We looked at Third Avenue, Seattle Center, South Lake Union, and got a little bit better idea of what the intention of this bill is.

My staff attended the Bids for Bravery with Seattle Firefighters Foundation and the Rainier Beach High School Safety Meeting with Urban Family last week.

This weekend, I got to attend the Rainier Beach Action Coalition fundraiser on Saturday and enjoyed seeing the...

development of their food hub, their food innovation hub that they've been working on for quite some time.

And it is finally coming together thanks to the ability to put a capital stack together.

This week, Wednesday, I will be taking a tour of the new Seattle Storm Training Center.

I know some of you have been there.

I haven't been there yet.

And as a season ticket holder, I am very excited to go see where they train.

I'll be joining Councilmember Kettle and the Mayor at a bill signing of our vacant buildings legislation later this week.

Friday, I'll be attending a community safety event in Rainier Beach for Gun Violence Awareness Day.

And finally, this Friday is the last day for our intern, Adriana, who's been amazing and really incredibly helpful with gathering all of our constituent requests and helping us to respond.

She's in on Wednesdays and Fridays.

So you've got two more chances to say hello or goodbye.

We'll be taking her to lunch on Friday.

So please stop by and say goodbye to her.

That's all I have.

Council Member, no, you already went.

Council Member Sotka.

I wanted to thank you for bringing the audit.

Is it going to be City Auditor Jones that's presenting the I'm sorry that I can't attend.

I'm not on the committee.

I cannot attend because of a conflict, but this is such an important issue for me, permitting stops.

I mean, the problems that we have seem to be perennial.

Thank you very much for calling for that audit in the first place.

I hope that we learn that there has been improvement, and it's something that I'm constantly focused on, so thank you.

Yeah, so there were, I think, 11 recommendations made and they will be presenting on where they are.

They just got the report in the end of last year.

So there is a lot of work happening, but it's still kind of early days for taking the corrective action.

So there is a report due.

Am I?

I think I'm mixing up the topics.

I had two meetings with SDCI this morning.

So yeah, they'll be here on Wednesday and happy to share with you the presentation that they bring.

Great, thank you.

All right, Council Member Saka.

All right, thank you, Madam Council President.

So big day tomorrow, colleagues.

We were going to have, I think, our third select committee on transportation.

And so good news to my colleagues who sit on the regular transportation committee.

I'm looking at you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss, Kettle, Wu, and Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

We are not going to be triple booked tomorrow.

And, you know, we are pausing the regular meetings until after we get to vote on and fully consider.

And that's the whole purpose and goal for suspending our regular transportation committee meetings is to allow us more time, effort, and energy to focus on this critical, critical levy.

And speaking of which, you know, that is going to be one of the three main agenda items tomorrow.

My proposed chair's amendment package, which...

was summarized in Calvin's staff memo, central staff memo, last, dated last Friday.

And, you know, which, you know, we, you all were provided a initial kind of framing of what that was going to look like absent these words on this specific piece of paper.

But I'm really excited for tomorrow morning's meeting at 9.30 a.m.

Again, because we are not going to have our regular committee meeting beforehand.

So 9.30 a.m.

will be our select committee meeting.

Also on the agenda will be a property tax 101 or property tax overview that from presentation from central staff to help.

to help us all walk away with a better shared understanding of kind of how we got to this place and the importance of property taxes.

Also, we're going to, that we've, you know, frankly, become very heavily reliant on at this point now more than ever.

Also, we're going to get a very high-level overview presentation of some initial concepts from SDOT on the proposed financial task force.

So we're going to talk about that.

And then also the proposed chair's amendment.

And then tomorrow afternoon at 4.30 will be our last public hearing on the levy.

And by law, we are required to have at least one.

One.

We are doing two this time.

And so, thank you, Madam Council President, for limiting, if needed, comments tomorrow to accommodate this long-planned presentation, or public hearing, rather, at 4.30.

And so, thank you for your leadership on that.

So my chair's amendment colleagues shall be treated as the new baseline.

And I invite you, you know, your full and robust review.

It is based, this proposal, this chair's package proposal is based on my individual offline discussions with every last one of you all.

And, you know, my hope is that it captures the majority of of the main issues, the essence of those issues at least.

And I'll be speaking more on that proposal tomorrow during the select committee.

But just to make a few initial comments here as well, as we know the standard process, typically central staff memos follow the underlying legislation and essentially kind of summarize that.

But today, We're putting in tomorrow, we're a little bit putting the cart ahead of the horse because there's so many, what I think are wonderful ideas in the proposed chairs package that our central staff experts are still writing them up.

And so to facilitate and keep us on time and on target, You know, they have the great idea of just kind of summarizing a memo form.

And so while they finalize the underlying legislation, including the companion legislation and what that is intended to look like.

So stay tuned on that.

More details to follow.

But at least conceptually and directionally, you can see through the memo, it's a 13 pager.

It's a real page-turner from my perspective, and I know every last one of you all as well.

It's a great, great reading.

But it really does help shape the way the contents and the investments contained therein and the real tangible impact.

It really helps shape the way we interact with each other in our city and connects communities with people.

and serves as the backbone for our economy.

So really, really, really important stuff.

And I'm excited to learn more about the chair's package, the property tax overview, and the proposed task force tomorrow.

and then the public hearing at 4.30.

So the chair's amendment, it reflects our shared kind of high-level priorities of prioritizing safety, climate action, and the economy as well.

You'll see some of those in there, and then a strong, heavy focus on Whatever the investment amount is, we need tight controls, good accountability mechanisms and provisions, and good old-fashioned, as Councilmember Kettle would like to say, good governance features baked in there.

And so it does a lot of that, hence the extra time that our central staff team is working to finalize and commit all those great ideas and concepts into underlying legislation.

The proposal does increase 100 million.

You know, the overall size of the mayor's final proposal, which itself was an increase of 100 million on the mayor's original proposal.

And that decision was not made lightly.

And, you know, we have a very heavy responsibility to be, again, accountable for every single dollar that we are spending.

And so some of these new programs and investments and accountability provisions are designed to contemplate that.

And then there's a proposed companion resolution as well that would spell out the council's direction on some items in the future.

For clarity, there will be no votes, no votes tomorrow.

And just to kind of, the memo talks about this as well and the agenda, but so that's tomorrow's agenda at the June 18th meeting, which is two weeks from tomorrow.

If there are ifs, there are any, uh, council member amendments, uh, you know, that's when we're going to discuss those.

And then the final vote, the final vote will be on Tuesday, July 2nd.

Uh, and that is again, the, the King County department of elections sort of drop dead date, a deadline made that we have to, in order to get this on the, on the ballot.

Um, and so, so that's kind of the roadmap roadshow of how things are going to go.

And again, for clarity, there'll be no votes on anything, on any amendments until the 2nd of July.

And again, thank you, Madam Council President, for making sure we can efficiently and effectively run through all of our meetings tomorrow to adequately consider and hear the public hearing that was already on the calendar.

So I'm really excited about that.

I know you all are too, having some initial conversations with you all.

Some of you seem to be more excited than me, which is hard to do.

And kind of as an aside, so that's the transportation stuff.

I also have my own amendment.

I'll let the author talk about that with respect to the building codes legislation we're gonna be voting on tomorrow.

But I'll just tee that up.

And then finally, finally, I know colleagues that great news, great news.

I know everyone's waiting for this, but the West Seattle High School boys baseball team, the Wildcats, they won the state championship about a week ago.

And so, I'm very proud of them.

And so, this evening, I'm attending a celebration for them, and I'm gonna be presenting them with a proclamation on behalf of myself and Mayor Harrell to celebrate the tremendous achievement, which reflects great credit upon not only their school, that school, but everyone in my district.

So, in any event, that is all I have there.

I welcome any comments, questions, or feedback from you all.

Council Member Saka, I thought you were going to bring up the West Seattle Junction game on Saturday, but I won't bring that up.

Hey, well, listen, congratulations on a hard-fought, I think, 4-0 victory from the Ballard team and the West Seattle Junction.

It's new, brand new.

It's our first year, so we're still, like...

I feel good.

We're going to split the, we play you guys again, one more match.

And we talk, we're going to tag team that one together.

But hey, you won one, but one more opportunity.

So congratulations.

Let's go.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay, go ahead.

No appropriate sports transition.

Council Member Wu, would you like to talk now?

I'm excited about the Transportation Select Committee meeting and the Budget Select Committee meeting on Wednesday.

So I'm looking forward to that.

On Memorial Day, I attended a commemoration held at Heng Hei Park by the Cathay Post to honor our nation's fallen heroes.

Over 150 people were in attendance, including Bill Chin, a 99-year-old World War II veteran.

He turns 100 next month, and I hear we're all invited to his birthday party.

And so, he served in World War II at a time when the China Exclusion Act prevented over 8,000 Chinese American veterans like himself from obtaining citizenship.

I also, some of the highlights of some meetings and community events I went to, I met with the Coalition for Rights and Safety to discuss underlying economic challenges facing sex workers in Seattle.

I also joined Councilmember Kettle in ringing the opening bell for the Queen Anne Farmer's Market, which is, I believe, celebrating their 17th anniversary and is Seattle's only independent and community-run farmer's market.

Yes, quite right.

Cowbell.

Yes, we...

Councilmember Wu had the fever for some cowbell at the Queen Anne Farmer's Market.

It was well represented.

Always use more cowbell.

I also attended the Northwest Asian Weekly's transition celebration.

Ascenta Ng, who's the founder and publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly, is passing the torch to an ownership group of a new generation of visionaries, and very excited to see the continuation, the legacy of the paper, and the new ideas this group brings.

Yesterday, I spoke to a group of scouts in North Seattle working on their citizenship in the community merit badge, and it was amazing to see so many young people, both female and male, who care about their community and are interested in getting involved to learn more about the city process.

So the next Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture Committee meeting is on Friday at 9.30 a.m.

We will meet four members of the Seattle City Light Review Panel for a reappointment, and City Light will also give us a briefing on the construction of system improvements associated with Terminal 46 and the Pier 66 shore power project in agreement with the Port of Seattle.

And if there are no questions or comments, I will pass this to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Hello.

Good afternoon, council, colleagues, not council.

Well, you are the council, but you're also my colleagues.

Parks Utilities Technology Committee, next Wednesday, June 12th, we are still finalizing the agenda, but we're hopefully to have a, presentation from Parks about our tree canopy and what they're doing to continue to grow our canopy and our green space around Seattle.

Regional Water Committee meeting, I have that with Council Member Kettle.

We're gonna be going over this week about sewer rates, wastewater services plan, which will be important, and then the emergency or emerging contaminants of concerns within water as well.

And last week update, I did a waterfront, Friends of the Waterfront Tour with Council Member Kettle.

That was fun.

This weekend, I also joined 250 volunteers at Cal Anderson Park with a Pride Fest as we kicked off LGBTQIA Pride Month.

And so that was really fun to see all the volunteers pick up litter, trash around Capitol Hill, just cleanliness of the park.

They do it every year, but to see 250 people there dedicated at 10 a.m.

was huge.

Also attended a Capitol Hill safety meeting with businesses, GSBA, Capitol Hill, and Capitol Hill Business Association, GSBA, and shout out to Russell and Heather.

They are property owners on Pike, or excuse me, yeah, on Pike and Broadway, right across the street from the Harvard Market.

They've been phenomenal of organizing the community together to think about different safety techniques around the community.

So they've been great.

Also, I did went to the grand opening of Good Shepherd in Lehigh building, which is on 22nd and Union affordable housing project.

Representative Jayapal was there.

Congresswoman Jayapal was there.

and also other folks.

Senator Saldana, shout out to Senator Saldana.

It was good to see her and other folks, the opening of the affordable housing project, which is huge in our community.

Also attended Black Wall Street.

That's an event that's put on every year by Africatown.

There's over 200 businesses on 23rd and Jackson that go in between 23rd and MLK.

They line the streets and people are able to shop It's really important.

A lot of the people that are business owners used to live in the Central District.

They do not anymore.

10% of the Central District is now black, used to be 90%.

But the cool thing about it is those people come back to that community to be able to sell and create revenue and showcase their small business.

So it's kind of a homecoming, as you might think of, for people coming back.

and then went to a youth care to see their facility, which will be on Broadway in Pine.

And that is a facility that is gonna be 84 units.

And they're gonna break ground on a summer of this year.

This week, I'll be raising the pride flag.

Thank you council member Moore for reminding me that I will be speaking at that event.

I forgot, my apologies.

Yeah, great.

I'm excited.

And then also I'll be playing kickball with the Lowell Elementary kids.

It's staff versus students.

I'm actually gonna win.

So I just wanna throw that out there to the kids that you're not gonna beat the staff.

I'll be on the staff side.

Also the, I think I'm going to the storm training facility.

So I think I might be joining you council member Morales.

We'll see.

I think that's on the calendar.

And then also wanted to give a shout out to our parks department.

They've been working really hard to get Cal Anderson park reopen.

I talk about this often.

My dad worked for the parks for 35 years.

He used to start by cleaning up trash at all the different parks.

I think what our parks department have to endure now is way different than what my dad had to endure growing up.

And so just want to thank that staff for getting the park restored and they're going to be opening up the bathrooms.

We're park rangers.

They're going to do a really cool design around the bathroom.

And also we have transitioned and moved the Black Lives Matter Garden to MLK Park, which is right along MLK.

It's a beautiful site because they have an amazing amount of green space, which is going to be very intentional about growing different vegetables and culturally curated foods.

And so that is going to be happening, that groundbreaking on this Friday, on the 7th.

So that's going to be fun as well.

And then last but not least, I wanted to give a shout out.

Council Member Moore brought it up.

Everyone was talking about it, but just wanted to give some historical perspective about the Jewish community in the Central District.

There were three main churches along Madison, Temple de Hirsch, First Amy Church in Mount Zion.

Back in the day, Mount Zion was ran by Reverend McKinney, Temple to Hirsch, Father, or Father, Rabbi Levine, my bad.

I always think Father, Rabbi, I always mess that up, Rabbi Levine, and then Reverend Adams at First Amy Church.

MLK was assigned to come speak in Seattle, you know, during the Civil Rights Movement, and he was actually booked at one of the churches, not one of those churches, but another church, and they canceled it.

him to not be able to speak.

And Rabbi Levine stepped up and he actually spoke at Temple to Hirsch.

And it was Reverend Adams and Reverend McKinney who had always worked with Rabbi Levine during the civil rights movements and everything.

So just wanted to bring that historical perspective up in our district.

And with that, I will pass it off to Council Member Kettle.

Okay.

Quick question.

Council Member Hollingsworth and Council Member Morales, when you attend the Storm Practice Facility, hopefully soon to be known as Storm Country, if you can check in about the arts projects that were supposed to be in the SDOT right-of-way and the other SDOT improvements that were supposed to take place.

If there are any hiccups, can you please let me know?

We had to pass land use change to allow that facility.

I'm not going to go into the background right now, but just let me know.

And let me know as the District 7 representative for the Seattle Storm Facility and the arena which they play and the fellow season ticket holder for the Storm.

There you go.

We got to fix those potholes back there, right?

Next to the facility.

Almost broke my will.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council President, for me, there's no Public Safety Committee meeting this week, but as you heard with the referral, OIG, Inspector General Lisa Judge, reappointment, a very important topic with our accountability partners.

Something that I did bring up in my conversation that I had with our federal monitor, very important to work this issue, and I'm glad that we're moving forward on that.

This week, Statement Authority legislation.

Wanted to highlight, you know, very straightforward.

We did get some amendments that I think add to the legislation and reflect us listening to public comment, for example.

And that's the first one from Council Member Saka related to historic districts and the like.

One of the points that came out of public comment just at the beginning of our meeting.

So thank you, Council Member Saka, for this.

We'll add some clarifying information related to Seattle Municipal Code retaining to historic districts and landmark buildings.

Anything else you would like to?

add to that?

No, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, at least in your capacity as chair of the Public Safety Committee, which we're talking about a topic right now.

No, yeah, that's it.

The amendment adds some clarifying language around how this update to the ordinance operates and interrelates or doesn't with existing historic preservation legislation.

And so just some minor clarification language to address some real questions I think, thoughtful concern from some of my constituents in Pioneer Square.

But the underlying issue is not confined solely to the historic buildings in Pioneer Square.

There are historic buildings all over the city.

So I think we all can benefit from that.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, and on that point, I did hear from Historic Belltown.

They had similar points, and we mentioned that we already have an amendment.

And secondly, we have a second amendment coming down regarding protocols, which I think will further strengthen the review process and those concerns related to historic districts.

So thank you for that.

The second amendment, Councilmember Morales presented, kind of...

STATING THE POINTS THAT WE'VE BEEN MAKING IN COMMITTEE THAT I'VE BEEN MAKING, AND FRANKLY, JUST BETTER WRITTEN THAN WAS ORIGINALLY.

SO THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER MORALES, FOR THIS CLARIFYING IN TERMS OF THE THREAT TO THE COMMUNITY THAT'S PRESENT WITH THESE VACANT BUILDINGS.

The third one is from law, and this is the protocol one.

So we're going to add protocols, you know, having fire.

It's already kind of happening, but make sure it's within the legislation, working with SDCI and others to ensure that T's are crossed, I's are dotted.

So this is the point that I was making relative to the historic, you know, Pioneer Square and Belltown.

So that's the third one.

Again, straightforward, and you have all of these council members.

The fourth one is related to basically construction sites.

So thank you to Master Builders because they brought this up.

And that's a good point.

We shouldn't forget about, you know, these kinds of lots that have, you know, some type of state of construction that may still present a public safety threat.

So thank you to them.

And then the last one, and this is the, you know, essentially a good governance because it is a major play.

And thank you for the piece related to the levy.

But, you know, having a fire come at the end of the year or, create an end-of-year report in terms of what they've been doing.

And this is important for a number of reasons.

One, a good governance piece, but it also goes to the, you know, the paying ahead of the, you know, the abatement and then recouping the funds afterwards.

So it's basically a tracking mechanism for that.

And so that bill will be coming up tomorrow and pretty straightforward.

I urge your support for it, and thank you for the support that I received as seen in these amendments.

Separately, last week, from my point of view, you know, from District 7 and from the broader work that we've been doing, PSRC, the Puget Sound Regional Council Assembly, which I attended with Councilmember Saka that featured Representative Larson speaking along with Mayor Harrell, Very good opportunity to engage with all the various fellow electeds from the region, talking all the issues to include transportation.

That was fantastic.

Also last week, met with the Community Police Commission co-chairs and its executive director.

And on that same day, I met, I was at Daybreak Star, very important.

I spoke with, met with Dr. Mike Tooley.

And highlighting some of the Native community issues, this goes to our community, Chair Strauss from that community, to include Portal Park.

Includes Canoe Car and South Lake Union.

Also, representatives, we need representatives from the Native community for the Community Police Commission.

So I spoke to him about that, and also issues related to their location in Discovery Park and Magnolia.

Of course, on those issues particularly, we'll be working with you, my fellow Magnolian council member.

I mentioned the PSRC.

Also had a great, as mentioned, with Council Member Hollingsworth, a tour with the other Joy, Joy Shishake, from Friends of the Waterfront.

A great opportunity to see what's been going down there and the investment that's been happening on the waterfront and how that's going to play in terms of its connection to, as well, to other areas like Seattle Center, to South Lake Union, to Mohi, other parts of the city on that front.

On that same day, Again, ringing the bell, the cowbell, at the Queen Anne Farmer's Market, which is a great farmer's market, along with Pike Place Market, South Lake Union, and Magnolia's Farmer's Market, not to mention Ballard, too, I'd be remiss.

And Fremont.

And Fremont, I'd be remiss.

And any other farmer's market?

U District?

West Seattle.

West Seattle, Capitol Hill, lots of farmer's markets here in the city.

And Delridge.

Wallingford, Delridge, okay.

Apparently, a lot of farmer's markets.

Definitely support your farmer's market.

There will be a farmer's market, I think, on the Seattle City Hall Plaza.

I don't know when that starts.

And that same day, I also went, it was mentioned by Council Member Morales, I went to the Seattle Firefighter Foundation event.

That was a great way to raise funds for the Seattle Firefighter Foundation.

So important as they look to augment their needs from what they don't necessarily get from council in the budget and in terms of supporting their efforts to basically conduct safe operations.

So that was a well worth event and well worth supporting entity.

The next day I met, speaking of connecting to different areas, met with Seattle Rep. and Seattle Center with Mr. Jeff Herman and also Marshall Foster, talking to issues related to particularly, specifically around the REP, but broader Seattle Center as well.

And for this week coming up on the, you know, the broader regional perspective, as Council Member Hollingsworth mentioned, Regional Water Quality Committee.

We also have the Salt Lake Union and the Queen Anne Community Council meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I'll be attending Before the Badge, very important, you know, program.

And, you know, this kind of goes to the issue as we're having a swap out of our police chiefs.

We have our interim chief, and she has been talking about guardians.

The Before the Badge is a great way to kind of build that kind of connection to community and the idea of being a guardian.

And then on Friday, just wanted to highlight, very last as my council members are about to run out, but I will be meeting with Port Commissioner Calkins on Friday for a lot of issues related to the port in our city.

So that is it, Council President.

Thank you very much.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Is that run down?

I'll just pause for a sec.

All right, folks, I have already noted that there are four items on tomorrow's agenda from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee.

Those are reappointments to the Seattle Film Commission.

The next meeting of our committee will be on June 13th, and that agenda is still being finalized.

Looking at last week, it was my turn to participate in a conversation that the Seattle Chamber has been convening between a handful of its members and district and non-district council members.

It's an opportunity to hear from people who don't usually attend, well, who are small business owners or nonprofit directors.

There was a representative from the Seattle Art Museum and Cornish College of the Arts also.

But it's a great opportunity to hear directly from them about what they love about the city, what some of their greatest challenges are, and it's just a really good opportunity.

So I think that you have gone, Council Member Kettle, and some other folks have, and so I appreciate that opportunity to just sit down and talk in a casual way about what's going on.

because I'm not a district representative, and so sometimes I'm not afforded that opportunity.

All right, last week I met with, it was a long-awaited and delayed, unfortunately, meeting with the director of the Office of Arts and Culture, Gugun Hejim, I'm sorry I'm mispronouncing that, but it was our first time to meet and talk about what she and her deputy director are thinking about for the office.

And I'm really excited about the roundtables that you'll be hosting and that she's excited to present in as well.

Councilmember Wu, I understand that those are coming up.

And so thank you very much for hosting those in your committee.

And also it seems as though the office is really trying starting to emphasize being more of a policy shop and thinking about how can we strengthen arts in this city.

So that was a great meeting.

Last Thursday, I also gave brief remarks at the Downtown Seattle Association's Board of Directors meeting.

They had invited me to talk about my legislation to accelerate police hiring, and that evolved into a conversation about other public safety issues and initiatives of import to downtown and the members that were gathered there.

And then just a conversation about things that are coming up before we hit.

the recess and the budget season.

So that was good to reconnect there.

On Friday, I had the pleasure of meeting with Sam Holloway, co-owner of the Kraken and also part owner of the Storm to talk about the team's activity and community.

And also touch on the world's perhaps worst secret involving efforts to repatriate MBA in Seattle.

So that's a long way away.

But anyway, it was great to make a personal connection to her.

As for this week, today at 5 o'clock, as already mentioned by Councilmember Moore, the King County Regional Homelessness Authorities Governing Committee will meet to vote on the Implementation Board's recommendation of Kelly Kinison to be RHA's new CEO.

And on Thursday, just one other thing I'll highlight, I'll be attending the 2024 King County Substance Use Conference in Des Moines, featuring Derek Belgrade as the keynote speaker.

And this is the fourth annual conference on substance use, and it's always sponsored by It's the initiative of King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn.

And it's in Des Moines this year.

I was on a panel last year when it was in Bellevue.

I'm really sorry that I can't attend all day this year or even more than a couple hours because it really is, it draws hundreds of people from the recovery community, which you might not know is very strong here in Seattle and in the region.

as well as policy makers, and it's a great opportunity to just hear different approaches to and initiatives, not just to, well, usually things are framed as, what are we gonna do about the drug crisis?

And this is framed around, how are we going to help people struggling with substance use disorder, and what is the nexus between that, the recovery community, and policy initiatives across the region?

So anyway, if you have a chance, pop in on that.

That's all I've got.

I have to say, I'm really looking forward to this week.

Not only do we have the transportation levy, but there are several issues of, it seems as though major issues of import are coming up around housing, budget, transportation, et cetera.

So I think that things are, this is a preview of how, of the pace at which we're going to be tackling really complex and intense issues going forward.

Anything else?

Yes.

Madam Council President, to a specific item in your report, I'll thank you.

I will say, I think I feel good about where we're at today, that this council, and this mayor are well positioned to bring our Sonics back.

And there are a lot of stakeholders involved, obviously, but certainly from a government and from a city perspective, again, I feel confident that this council and this mayor are well positioned and are gonna take seriously our opportunity to bring our Sonics back once and for all.

So thank you.

All right, hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

It is 3.08.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you.