Seattle City Council Briefing 10/3/2022

We're ready.

Okay, great, thank you.

All right, with that, good afternoon, everybody.

Today is Monday, October 3rd.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

It is 201, and I am Deborah Juarez.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Nelson.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council President Ores.

Present.

And Council Member Nelson.

Nine present.

Present.

Thank you.

Nine present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of council briefing on Monday, September 26th will be adopted.

Not hearing or seeing an objection, the amendments are adopted.

I'm going to go to the President's Report.

On today's agenda, we have two proclamations offered by one, Council Member Herbold, proclaiming October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the second proclamation will be offered by me, proclaiming October 10th, the Indigenous Peoples Day.

You should have received copies of each proclamation last week with an opportunity to comment.

There will be no presentations today.

We will have a 20-minute executive session at the end of this meeting, but there's no call-in number, so everybody just stay on the line until we take roll.

As a reminder, we do not take public comment at council briefings, though we welcome the public to council chambers every day or to watch online.

Public comment will be accepted tomorrow both in person and online.

On tomorrow's agenda, we will begin with the presentation of the Domestic Violence Awareness Month Proclamation by Council Member Herbold.

And we will move on to.

The consent calendar.

The consent calendar will include the minutes and payment of the bills, as well as 15 appointments, including 11 appointments recommended by the Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights, and Cultural Committee, and four appointments recommended by the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

We'll take one vote on all items of the consent calendar unless any council member, again, requests that any of them be removed to be considered separately.

Following the consent calendar, we will be considering five items on tomorrow's agenda.

The first item was referred directly to full council without committee review is an ordinance sponsored by Council Member Peterson related to wastewater services in Seattle with the Seattle Public Utilities in Seattle Public Utilities.

Specifically, it is a code adjustment, which would allow automatic pass through changes to treatment rates charged by external wastewater treatment providers.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Brian.

Good night on central staff.

Item two on tomorrow's agenda is an ordinance related to solid waste rates.

The Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee recommended full council support the vote by four to one.

Item three is regarding drainage rates, was also recommended by the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee by a vote of four to one.

Councilor Peterson will speak to items two and three tomorrow.

Item four is to conform the city municipal code with changes in state law as it relates to crimes and punishment.

It was recommended by the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

And finally, Item 5 allows Seattle Municipal Court to accept a grant.

Councilor Herbold, as Chair of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, will speak to Items 4 and 5 tomorrow.

Information on all these items is available on the online agenda.

As a final note, I would like to remind everyone that we will be suspending council briefings during our review of the 2023 budget.

Today will be our last council briefing until we resume on Monday, November 28th.

If there is business, such as proclamations or executive sessions that need the attention of the full council during this time, please contact my office and we will include them in our regular council meetings.

Moving on in the agenda to the signing of letters and proclamations.

We will start with Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Herbold has a proclamation for signature today for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you so much.

This afternoon, I'm asking for your signature on a proclamation declaring October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The mayor is concurring with the proclamation.

My office circulated the proclamation to all council offices last Monday.

The proclamation itself notes that intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime.

and that women of color are at an elevated risk and experience barriers to finding help.

It encourages all Seattle residents to recognize the signs of abuse and coercion.

Tana Yasu, who is the chair of the Seattle Women's Commission, will join us tomorrow at full council to accept the proclamation and share some thoughts about the need to raise awareness of domestic violence and how to find help.

there any comments or questions happy to answer otherwise back to you Madam President to collect signatures.

Thank you.

Are there any comments before I ask for the signatures?

All right not seen any and no further discussion.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their names affixed to Council Member Herbold's proclamation.

Madam Clerk.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

The second proclamation is the proclamation that I would like to bring forward for signature today, recognizing Monday, October 10 as Indigenous Peoples Day.

I will leave the discussion on the proclamation for additional feedback before I request signatures.

Which signature should be affixed to it?

A little background history.

The concept of an Indigenous Peoples' Day is not a new one.

An Indigenous Peoples' Day on the second Monday in October was first proposed in the 1970s by a delegation of Native nations to the UN-sponsored conference called the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas.

Yours truly actually had an opportunity to study human rights and international law and Native American folks in Geneva, Switzerland when I was in law school.

In 2014, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed Resolution 31538, creating Indigenous Peoples Day in our city, which was sponsored by our own Council Member Sawant, and now then Council Member Bruce Harrell, who is of course now our Mayor.

Last March 2022, by passing Ordinance 126559, we made every second Monday in every second Monday in October, Indigenous Peoples Day, an official city holiday.

Cities and states throughout the country now recognize this day, and President Joe Biden was the first United States President to recognize it on the federal level through an executive proclamation in 2021. The President said, Today we acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on tribal nations and indigenous communities.

It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past, that we face them honestly and we bring them to light and we do all we can to address them.

The proclamation you have before you is our annual recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day.

It'll be presented as part of the Indigenous Peoples Day ceremonies, which will take place Monday, October 10th.

There are three planned events Monday, which everyone is welcome to join.

The first one is the march from 930 to 1130 meeting at Westlake Park.

The second is a gathering at City Hall from 1130 to 130 and an evening celebration which we go to every year at Daybreak Star hosted by United Indians from five to nine with our CEO and partner, Mr. Dr. Mike Tooley.

At this time, I would like to recognize Council Member Sawant to say a few words since she's worked with tribal communities and indigenous led organizations to help bring forward indigenous people's day to the city of Seattle.

Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, Council President Juarez.

I really appreciate your noting the history of Indigenous Peoples Day and the tremendous work that has been done by Indigenous activists and by the entire Indigenous community in recognizing the traumas of colonization and imperialism and also the role that is being played by our Indigenous community members to this day.

It was a real matter of honor for my Socialist Council office and for Socialist Alternative to have worked alongside Indigenous community members in 2014 to bring forward the Indigenous People's Day Resolution.

And since then, we have gone forward to also pass a resolution recognizing the incredibly harmful experiences that indigenous children were subjected to through the boarding school practice, which we know how horrendous they were and the traumas are still being lived by those generations and also by the future generations.

And that is why it's so important that the community across Seattle and Vancouver and, you know, in the Pacific Northwest has been marking that somber moment to the Orange Shirt Day and Every Child Matters.

And then we also, and Council President Juarez, you'll remember, we also worked together on the No DAPL resolution, marking our solidarity with the really courageous, you know, tens of thousands of courageous community members and environmental activists who brave police violence at Standing Rock against, you know, for their opposition against the pipeline.

And so, you know, there is both history and also current activism that we want to celebrate.

We also want to somberly mark the harms that were done and at the same time connect all of this to the fight today for affordable housing and dignified lives for so many of our community members, indigenous and also other races, who are facing poverty, inequality, homelessness, a lack of funding in public schools, and also student debt.

So I think Indigenous Peoples Day is a reminder for us that our society has a long way to go to deliver justice and dignity for so many of the people around us.

And I look forward to joining you all at the Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations on October 10th.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just is there any other comments before I have a few other words before we move to asking for signatures from my colleagues?

OK, not seeing any, I just want to thank this city council and the prior city councils and some of you council members individually that worked with us on the Dakota Access Pipeline on Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

on the boarding school.

I mean, there's been a lot of issues in creation of the Indigenous Advisory Council.

I think we're the first council we are to go forward to have a council, Indigenous Advisory Council, selected members of the community and Indigenous-led organizations.

And a particular big thank you to the Council Member Mosqueda being the budget chair and recognizing that when we fund these organizations and give them the capacity to deliver services, that that is the real change that makes things happen.

So I wanna thank all of you.

You've all been very gracious and kind, and you've actually been putting up with me for a few years, so I appreciate that.

So with that, is there, I don't see any other hands raised.

All right, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to this proclamation?

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council Member Solan?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council President Ores.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

With that, we'll go to preview of City Council Actions, Council and Regional Committees.

Here's the roll call because everybody's here.

Today, we're going to start with Council Member Nelson, then Council Member Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbold, Lewis, Morales, Council Member Mosqueda, and then myself.

With that, Council Member Nelson.

Hello, everyone.

Starting with meetings last week, I met with SPD North Precinct Captain Grossman and attended the third watch roll calls.

Captain Grossman said that the the city attorney's high utilizer list has been a quote unquote game changer for the North Precinct in reducing the rate of increase in crime in that in that precinct.

So that's good news.

And he something that other officers said during roll call was that for other people committing crimes.

They know that it's difficult, difficult to do their jobs when the when jail just is booking for felony offenses and misdemeanor DUI and sexual assault.

cases.

And so that was also mentioned in the Seattle Times article this past weekend.

So just got me thinking I hadn't really clued into that.

All right.

My chief of staff attended the quarterly Seattle board meeting last Wednesday of the visit Seattle and just want to report that the expanded state Seattle Convention Center is opening the first week of December.

And while they're going to be down in revenue, the next few years compared to pre-pandemic, they're confident that they'll see a strong return in revenue from the larger conventions that will now be able to be accommodated in the years to come.

And they ask that we convey, again, thank you to my colleagues for support of the STEA legislation, which increased their resources to be used to promote Seattle as a tourist destination.

And if you're interested at all in how they've spent the additional revenue, I'm happy to provide a report on that.

My chief of staff and I attended the SIF marquee gala.

It was the first one in three years last Thursday at Seattle Center, and it was a pretty good time.

Got to meet the new executive director, Tom Mara, in person finally.

and just have to say thank you very much for doing all that they have to sustain film during these difficult previous years.

So if anybody has a chance to attend, they have some pretty good dancing at the end of these events in the future.

So note to self on that one.

My policy director met with representatives of businesses along Madison Street that have been impacted by street and sidewalk closures related to the bus rapid transit line construction.

been hearing from some of these businesses as well.

And I just continue to, to grope for solutions to help small businesses that are shouldering the burden of really important road projects, and not just road projects, but public infrastructure projects in general.

So hopefully we can come to some ideas on that one.

Last Friday, my staff and I met with senior leadership of DESC and SEIU as I'm sure many of you have to talk about the upcoming budget and impact on social services.

So just a note on something I'll be doing tomorrow, joining the Mayor and OED Director McIntyre at an event that will be announcing a new program that will provide some meaningful support to small businesses.

And I can't say more than that, but stay tuned for that exciting news.

We'll just ignore the unmuted.

Anyway, and then finally, on Wednesday, I get to attend my first in-person public Puget Sound Economic Development District meeting.

It's been a long time, and I'll be looking forward to that.

And then otherwise, I'm heads down in budget, as I'm sure everyone else is.

But before I cede the mic, I just want to say thank you to Council Member Peterson for the statement he put out yesterday in response to the three separate Incidents of shootings in the U district over the weekend, because I think it captures well the gravity of the problems we're facing when it comes to gun violence and not just in the U district, but across our city.

So the question that I bring to my budget decisions and in these deliberations is how can we best most effectively spend public resources to keep people safe in the city of Seattle.

And that is also something that is on the mind of UW President Anamari Kase, who said in her own statement, quote, no one should have to fear for their safety as they go about their daily lives.

So I now will pass it to Council Member Peterson if there aren't any questions.

Seeing none.

take it away.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson.

On tomorrow afternoon's full City Council agenda, we've got three items from our Committee on Transportation, Seattle Public Utilities.

Our committee recommended Council Bill 120410, which is a modest update to the planned solid waste rates.

When solid waste rates are combined with SPU's other lines of business, we expect to see overall rates for customers increase at a lower percentage than what was recently promised.

That's good news overall for Seattle Public Utility Rates.

I appreciate SPU doing everything they can to manage their costs and keep rate increases to a minimum and keeping their promises on their rate path that was approved by the council.

If you have any questions about that, please ask Brian Goodnight on City Council Central staff or consult his memo, which is attached to the agenda item.

Tomorrow afternoon, we're also voting on two related pieces of legislation from Seattle Public Utilities, Council Bill 120417 and 120421. They will enable the city to streamline how we memorialize the pass-through rates we are required to use from King County, relating to drainage and wastewater services.

So unlike our charges for solid waste and for drinking water, we have no control over King County's wastewater drainage rates, which are just passed through to each customer's bill.

So both pieces of legislation create more certainty and remove the redundancy and administrative burden for SPU.

It also makes clear to our constituents that they need to contact their King County elected officials when they have concerns about those particular items, wastewater and drainage charges.

This legislation will make the SPU process similar to the Seattle City Light process where fees from the Bonneville Power Administration are automatically passed through because we can't change those fees either.

While the committee approved Council 120417 for drainage, a technical drafting change on the other legislation for wastewater required us to hear that in our committee just as an informational draft.

But tomorrow, both bills arrive at the full council at the same time.

for our consideration.

If you have any questions about those, also contact central staffer Brian.

Good night or consult his memos.

Due to the fall budget calendar, our next committee on transportation in Seattle Public Utilities is scheduled for Tuesday, December 6th.

My office enjoyed the event this weekend organized by the nonprofit Transportation Choices Coalition, which honored several transportation champions.

This past Friday, I met with constituents during my in-person office hours at the Raven Eckstein Community Center in the heart of District 4. Constituents brought their concerns to me about abandoned properties that are magnets for criminal activity.

and fire hazards as well.

You can sign up for these Friday afternoon office hours through my City Council website.

And I join students and neighbors attending the U-District food walk and street party which activated the Ave in the heart of the District 4 this weekend, but I'll turn to the more tragic events that Council Member Nelson alluded to.

I visited the sites of each of the shootings that recently shook the University District neighborhood.

There were three days in a row of violence.

I met with the mayor and District 4 this morning.

I conferred with our Seattle Police Chief, the University of Washington, and the nonprofit that oversees the U District's business improvement area.

We are unified in our commitment to the safety of all communities in Seattle, including the University District, Our Seattle police chief will be meeting this week with the chief of the university's police, and I look forward to their action plans.

To the parents deeply concerned about their children attending college in the neighborhood who have reached out to my office, please know that as a fellow parent, my commitment to their safety is personal.

That's the same neighborhood in which my wife and I are raising our children.

The university district is at a pivotal moment with the opening of the regional light rail station, the return of 10s of thousands of students to our world class campus and new construction projects increasing vitality, we can solidify an overdue renaissance for that neighborhood that can benefit all of Seattle.

I want to thank our police officers for responding as quickly as they did, despite being short staffed.

And for the victims.

I want to encourage our highly trained detectives to bring to justice the people committing these crimes of gun violence.

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their city, whether they're a student here in North Seattle.

or families or workers anywhere in Seattle.

Safety must be a priority in our city, and I support our mayor's budget proposals to provide ample resources to public safety programs, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to deliver results.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we move to Council Member Sawant?

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Good afternoon, everyone.

There are no items on tomorrow's city council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee.

Like other standing committees, the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee has no meetings scheduled until after the end of budget deliberations.

Before I go on to the next point, I just want to also apologize to council members and also members of the public for not being able to be on camera because of technology reasons.

I would like to express solidarity with the Iranian community in Seattle and the mass movement of women and young people in Iran who are fighting for justice for Zina, Masa Amini, and to overthrow the far-right fundamentalist regime of the mullahs.

Over the weekend, socialist alternative and community organizers from my office joined hundreds of protesters at Westlake Park organizing international solidarity with the struggle in Iran.

Zeena or Masa was beaten by the so-called morality police, the brutal agents of the Iranian regime, and died after being in a coma for three days.

Women in Iran are arrested and beaten on a daily basis for the way they are dressed.

It is an example of brutal state violence and how it is interlinked with deep-seated misogyny and femicide.

This is why the first thought of many was, this could have been me or my daughter or sister or friend.

This is not the first time that women have been killed during detention or under torture.

Throughout its history, the murderous regime has thinly veiled these murders as heart attacks, suicides, et cetera.

This time, however, it has led to widespread protests in various forms, from sit-ins to strike action, from demonstrations of the universities to actions in front of the police offices.

The regime is seeking now to break the movement and the ongoing strike action.

In the Kurdish regions, for instance, they have resorted to massive repression and even killings of the demonstrations.

But people's widespread and profound anger cannot be silenced at this point.

Zina's life was taken in a situation in which the regime is in the middle of multiple crises, inflation, growing poverty, and skyrocketing prices, all of which, in fact, affect women even harder.

The mullahs are in a deep crisis of legitimacy.

Risking their rule with every step, as we have seen throughout the pandemic with growing protest waves and strike actions from teachers to oil workers, from nurses to bus drivers.

The people have had enough, and it is women and youth who are at the forefront of struggle to end the rule of these far-right killers.

Of course, it also should be said that the successes of these movements will depend entirely on the political course they take and the leadership of the movements.

The struggle against mandatory hijab and dress codes in Iran is deeply interlinked also with the struggle against the entire regime and capitalist system in Iran and internationally.

In many ways, it is the same as the courageous struggles of Muslim women in India who are fighting on campuses to be allowed to wear a hijab if they wish.

And they are being attacked by the Hindu fundamentalist regime there.

It is about the freedom to choose how you dress, which is totally antithetical to the control of right-wing religious regimes which use personal repression to maintain their grip on power.

As we see globally in times of crisis, the rulers need to control women's bodies and lives even more.

The Iranian regime needs the brutal oppression of women through religious laws and violence to maintain gender roles and the massive exploitation of women in the home.

While Western politicians, such as the Biden administration, are trying to instrumentalize Zina's death for their own agenda, it is absolutely clear that these forces cannot be trusted?

Where is their outrage at the absolutely brutal religious dictatorship in neighboring Saudi Arabia, whose treatment of women is equally abominable?

Imperialist powers are not interested in real freedom and liberation of the masses.

This is why it is only through the power of regular women workers, all oppressed and poor in Iran, organized independently from the false friends of imperialism and big business that the far-right theocratic regimes can be overthrown.

This is also why it's important that working people and young people in the West have built protest actions in solidarity with the movement in Iran.

Unless council members have any questions on my report, I will hand it over to Council Member Strauss.

I actually do have a comment, if you don't mind, Council Member Sawant.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you so much for bringing up what's going on.

I know we don't always, people kind of What's going on in Iran.

I too have been in contact with a lot of folks who are concerned and I know Iranian women that are worried about their families back home and Because the nerd that I am.

If those of you haven't watched.

There's a four part special series on HBO happening right now that you should watch going back from 1953 to 1979 to 2022. So those of us that have been around long enough to remember the 1979 and President Carter and the hostage situation.

And there's a lot more to it than just that.

But the historical, the political, the social, the legal, the things that led up from 1953 to 2022, I think what I walk away with still is that the people that get hurt the most are women.

children and the reforms always come at the cost of females and women's lives.

So this isn't that removed from our country and what we see and I could go on and on, but I won't.

So I wanna thank you for bringing that up because those types of international issues just aren't about being in another country or different border.

They affect the politics, the global political politics and how we view ourselves as women.

of the world, not just in our own country.

So I want to thank you for that, Council Member Sawant.

Thank you for your comments, Council President Juarez.

And you're absolutely right in what you said.

These are international issues.

And the problems in our society do disproportionately affect, as we know, women and children.

And we see the common suffering across national borders.

And in fact, this relates to what you were saying earlier also about the missing and murdered Indigenous women the violence that is faced by women in so many of our communities, all of this is interlinked.

And that's why the protest movement in Iran is actually inspiring people across the world.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

I'll just start by saying I want to wish everyone an early meaningful Yom Kippur starting tomorrow night.

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year, and I'll be taking Wednesday as a day to reflect and attend services.

Last week in District 6, my staff and I continue to host regular operational public safety and public space meetings.

Actually, Council President, I'm going to restart because I'm liking this timer idea.

Just a second.

Don't worry, I got a timer on too, buddy.

I got a backup one, so don't worry.

already got you clocked you already so go ahead we'll start your time over we'll start your time over thank you council president my staff and here in district six my staff and i continue to host regular operational public safety and public space meetings with community leaders social service providers the mayor's office city department city attorney's office king county prosecutors spd and many others to move action plans forward At the Larry triangle addressing homelessness in the ballot industrial area, implementing the 22nd Avenue plan in downtown Ballard and Ballard case in the D six case conferencing meeting there's a lot going on there so we're going to work to kind of break this out.

So with the industrial area homelessness, these are all operational meetings in nature.

We've been working to coordinate the vehicle residency outreach team, the Ballard Food Bank, and reach outreach workers to coordinate efforts along 8th Avenue, specifically starting at 47th and 8th and with many other places along 8th Avenue and a couple other spots throughout the industrial district.

Within case conferencing, every week we work to bring short and long-term solutions to people in and around the Ballard area on a case-by-case basis.

These are folks that need, that have the highest needs in the area.

Within the Leary Triangle work group, we are working to reseed the grass at the Leary Triangle, and we're setting up a community gathering space in the short term as we create the long-term changes.

that may include closing 9th Avenue there for more community-driven amenities.

As part of the 22nd Avenue work group, we are working with the Ballard Alliance and neighbors to bring activities to the front porch of the library.

There's many other updates.

These are the updates from this week.

On Wednesday, October 5th, from 1 p.m.

to 2 p.m., there will be a boxing and workout class.

And on Sunday, October 9th, from 12 to 2, there's gonna be kids' activities.

And I believe we're gonna have paper puppet opera that if you haven't seen you got to check it out.

On Ballard Avenue, we're working with SDOT to implement outcomes from the design charrette in September, the first of which is to host a follow-up meeting and finalize the redesign of 20th Avenue and Ballard Avenue.

Each of these teams is operational by design and is tasked each week on delivering next steps to improve public spaces and public safety in District 6. If anyone who's listening has issues you want addressed, please let my D6 District Director, Amy Inbisk, know, and you can email her directly.

Her email address is on my webpage.

Also last week in District 6, I attended the North Seattle Industrial Association and Green Lake Chamber of Commerce's September meetings.

I hosted a meeting with Labatea House, a leadership about expanding their capacity and help move more youth from homelessness to permanent housing and self-sufficiency.

I called together many departments across jurisdictions to assist residents at an apartment building in Greenwood.

My team, service providers and SPDs crime prevention coordinators attended a meeting with about 20 residents, property managers, and nearby neighbors to address public safety and specific issues that they're building.

I did bring together SPD, city attorneys, King County prosecutors, and homelessness outreach workers to work together to create solutions for these residents.

On Friday, I attended the anniversary event to honor 100 years of Mike's Chili Parlor at Mike's Chili Parlor in Ballard.

The original location is where the Ballard Bridge is now, and Mike's Chili Parlor has been in its current location since the 1920s or 30s.

I was honored that Mike and his family We're there, we gave them the proper proclamation we all signed last week.

They're gonna frame it.

It was really quite a fun event.

And if you wanna see how fun it was, King Five ran a short segment on our celebration, which you can check out on their website.

This coming week in District Six, my team will be attending the Finney Ridge Neighborhood Association meeting and the North Precinct Advisory Council meeting.

I'll be meeting with Ballard Food Bank Executive Director.

And on Thursday, I'll be hosting my regular office hours with D6 residents from 2 p.m.

to 6.30 p.m.

This week in City Hall, the Safe Starts program, this is outdoor dining, is entering the final step towards permanence.

The Public Space and Business Activation Permitting Bill will be introduced at tomorrow's City Council meeting.

Since outdoor dining became a fixture of our city during the pandemic, I've spoken about the need to have a pathway to permanence.

The pathway from piloting the outdoor dining to becoming a permanent fixture of our city.

This bill contains the permanent regulations that have been developed to be right size for our city.

And by introducing this bill tomorrow we are introducing the last step in the pathway to permanence, this bill will authorize permanent changes to the programmatic elements of the temporary business recovery permit program.

That authorized vending merchandise sale displays outdoor cafes and street closures in the city.

We have seen across the city, a very high desire for these programs, and we know many small businesses are interested in making street outdoor dining a permanent fixture of our city so we'll have between now and December to reflect on the proposal and develop any needed amendments.

also this week i'm focusing on my budget preparations and my work to improve design review in our permitting process and i'll be attending the awc housing solutions group last week it in and around city hall i was able to meet with s cl city light ceo deborah smith presiding judge eisenberg.

I was briefed on the maritime design standards by OPCD.

I was briefed on the tree canopy report, which is actually quite interesting.

And there's a lot of different routes there.

I was briefed by OSCE on this tree canopy LIDAR study.

And I was able to meet with DESC frontline workers regarding the behavioral health crisis.

many people are experiencing.

On Friday, I had a walking meeting in Ballard with Association of Washington City's President, Deanna Dawson, and attended another AWC Housing Solutions Work Group.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report.

I'm happy to take any questions there.

I cut it down to half of my last week's report time.

I'll try to do it again next week.

With that, Council Member Herbold, floor is yours.

Thank you so much.

So items on the full council agenda tomorrow include two reappointments to the the Pacific Hospital Public Development Authority.

The council agenda also includes Council Bill 1204-2020, which updates the criminal code to harmonize with state legislative changes, and Council Bill 1204-24, which allows municipal courts to accept a grant to fund therapeutic courts.

Specifically, the grant funds are one time for court coordinator and community justice counselor funded through a one-time grant through the state that the municipal court intends to use as a pilot project.

Those are the items coming up for Council tomorrow from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

No Public Safety and Human Services Committee meetings until December.

I just want to offer a few departmental-related updates in the area of book safety.

I do want to thank Councilmember Peterson for his statement this weekend amplifying instances of gun violence.

I completely support his call for public safety interventions in that specific geographic area and as well as throughout the city.

I'm very encouraged that multidisciplinary approaches using both traditional law enforcement and diversion programs like Speed are beginning to pay off in areas like downtown and we're hearing from residents downtown that they see a difference and they feel that we're starting to turn a corner.

But we know that we need to take these models in other geographic areas and bring everyone in who has a stake in community safety.

Just as a reminder, not necessary for the members of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, but other council members, we hear things this summer about local intervention and prevention efforts.

Had two separate meetings back to back.

One was really led by King County Public Health.

The second one, we brought in the providers who are doing the work, including the youth link, which is leadership intervention and change, community passageways.

We heard from the Harvard New Medical Center hospital-based prevention staff.

We also heard from the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit, and we're joined by Ida Driscoll of the mayor's office, our staff expert in the mayor's office leading gun violence prevention efforts.

We know that this is a important element in the mayor's proposed budget.

Mayor's proposed budget includes 4.3 million for the Seattle Community Safety Initiative, and these are geographically focused interventions.

The proposed budget also includes 1.5 million for youth and families impacted by gun violence.

at the county's hospital-based intervention team at our review medical center.

In July, at this committee meeting, we learned that the program has traditionally focused on young people, and we've seen good outcomes from the work this program has done, providing wraparound services for victims of gun violence, their families, In the families of suspected perpetrators of gun violence.

And the reason why this is so important is because victims of gun violence, often become perpetrators of gun violence and so this this intervention has has boost.

we're seeing is we really need to expand the age range to serve ages, 25 to 40, where we are seeing an increasing amount of violence.

I did identify when we all shared our priorities, council members individually with the mayor's office prior to there being announcement, I did identify this expansion as a priority of mine in the mayor's budget.

And if we find out through our efforts delving through the mayor's budget that it is not included expansion to this older cohort, I will be seeking such an expansion in the 2023 budget.

I just want to share that there are 2 council appointed vacancies on the commission.

My office will be sending out an advisory soon seeking members I encourage members circulate the and let us know of any Currently scheduled for the first and third Wednesdays of every month between 9am and noon, commissioners must be able to dedicate at least 10 hours per month to CPC related work, which includes participating in committees or ad hoc work groups, attending community meetings and forums, and engaging with the community.

Secondly, the Safety Civil Service Commission will also have a council-appointed vacancy at the end of 2022, and I'll be working on circulating information about the appointment later in the fall.

On the Human Services Department side of things, as mentioned, this is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the Women's Commission is hosting a community engagement event and resource fair right here at City Hall on Saturday the 15th between noon and four.

The theme is Shattering Stigma Through Knowledge.

I should hopes to shatter the stigma related to domestic violence including sexual assault and sexual exploitation and make assistance and resources more easily available to victims and survivors of domestic violence.

I want to thank the commissioners for pulling together this important event and I look forward to them there.

On regional committees, last week there was a ferry terminal project update.

Some of you may have heard that the Washington State Ferries will be replacing the current ferry dock at the Fauntleroy neighborhood for ferries that have been from Vashon and Southworth.

I serve on the elected advisory group and the Fauntleroy terminal is one of the few in a and we received a significant up at a meeting of the community advisory group recently.

They eliminated from consideration was all that would have And the other is to maintain the current size of the terminal, possibly in combination with the use of the good ecosystem that we already use for the poles on highways and some advanced ticking technology.

let's see, last week I did have in-person office hours on Friday at Southwest Community Service Center, and then I was in community a lot last week with many passageways and evergreen treatment services, fundraising events on Thursday, and also on Thursday, the SEIU 775 Leadership Award Celebration, Friday morning, attended and had the honor to speak at the annual Seattle Firefighter Memorial recognition event.

Saturday, I attended CARE Seattle, a new early learning facility here in Southwest.

And Sunday, I attended the pro-choice Washington movement, Mount Sinhala.

Coming week, Good morning, everyone.

My name is Mariela.

I'm a member of the Salvation Army.

I toured the Salvation Army enhanced shelter in Odo which currently houses 270 people.

I was joined by councilmember Morales, King County councilmember McDermott, as well as representatives from the King County regional homelessness authority.

On Friday, I'll be joining the Audubon society for a bird outing in That's all I've got, folks.

Anybody have comments?

Not seeing any, pass it on to Councillor McLeod.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

And I guess this would be a good transition to also acknowledge that it was great to see you at both the Evergreen Treatment Services event in Belltown, as well as the Community Passageways event downtown in District 7 last week.

And similarly, very great to join both of those critical organizations that dedicate so much to our community, public safety and our public health.

So thank you to Evergreen Treatment Services and Community Passageways.

Boy, so last week was Park Week, to say the least, and I'm happy to give an overview on a lot of developments with the Harold ministration and the council in relation to our parks and open spaces.

I first want to offer my gratitude and thanks to all of my colleagues for their work and engagement with me in our capacity as Metropolitan Parks Board directors over the course of the previous several months in putting together a new cycle of investments for the Seattle Metropolitan Park District.

Really appreciate all of the passion that council members brought to that process.

in putting forward critical projects and priorities and channeling the needs of our constituents into the final package that we approved last Tuesday evening.

So thank you so much for your leadership and assistance in getting that significant body of work done.

in time for our budget process and in time to give our new superintendent of parks time to ramp up to deliver on that package of investments.

I was very pleased to join Mayor Harrell last week to announce his nomination of a PD as currently serving as the assistant general manager of the Los Angeles City Park system to be the new superintendent of parks.

AP comes to this role with a significant amount of experience as a deputy city attorney in Los Angeles, as well as several different positions within the Los Angeles Parks Department.

It was a real privilege to get to know AP in a meeting in my office last week, in addition to being able to take him around community and introduce him to stakeholders in some of the various neighborhoods of District 7, as well as critical boosters for our parks.

I do look forward post-budget to duly considering his nomination in our committee, and I do hope for a successful confirmation process.

It was great to join on Saturday afternoon, my neighbors in the Magnolia neighborhood and beyond, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Discovery Park.

It was a great honor to speak on a as part of a program that included Mayor Harrell, as well as I'm excited for the second Mike Tooley reference and briefing today to speak with Mike Tooley, United Indies of All Tribes, as well as a number of other speakers to commemorate this monumental milestone for Discovery Park.

and to really meet with folks in the community to learn about what makes Discovery Park important to them and what they hope to see for the next 50 years that would be commemorated in 2072. I hope to be there, but we will see how it goes.

And it was really good to be there for that gathering of community members to get that milestone over the top.

And I wanna thank Friends of Discovery Park for their critical convening role and want to thank council colleagues for working with my office to pass a resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary.

It was very well received by the community and it was a really good community event.

Moving on to Clean City Update.

For the September 19th through September 23rd Clean City data collection, they're reporting 2,350 collected needles as well as 48,180 pounds of trash collected from 73 park pickup locations.

There was no focus park during that period, but as they stated, 73 separate concentration areas that were in parks or adjacent to parks.

As always, appreciate that update from our hardworking team at Clean City.

And with that, Council President, I don't have anything else to share.

So I'm happy to open it up for comments before I turn it over to Councilmember Morales.

Not seeing any questions or comments from colleagues, I will hand it over to Councilmember Morales.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Let's see, we have.

I have no committee report.

We don't have a committee for the neighborhood education culture and civil rights committee until December 9. So we'll see you then.

Let's see.

Last week, I joined Transit Advocates at Transportation Choices Coalition's Tuxes and Trains event.

Had a lot of fun talking to folks.

Saw Director Spatz again.

I think he's following me.

I want to congratulate all the folks who entered the Transit Hall of Fame at this year's event, including the folks who really advocated for repealing the bicycle helmet laws with the King County Board of Health, on which I sit, along with Council Member, not Morales, Mosqueda, and Council Member Herbold.

Wow, I almost did it to myself.

Let's see, last week my, and I also will be attending, I'll be watching the live stream of El Centro's event this Saturday.

I love going to that event, but I can't make it this year in person.

I will be watching and look forward to seeing how it goes and celebrating with them.

Last week, my staff attended a mediated conversation with the Office of Housing, residents of the Artspace building in Mount Baker.

We've been hearing about those conversations for a couple of years now, along with building owners and property managers.

Artspace is an affordable housing project that the city funded as an intentional space for artists, and we've been working with residents there to really try to address some of their community safety concerns.

I'm hopeful for continued progress in the neighborhood and really hopeful that the tenants get the relief that they are looking for from the property management company.

We will be following up on that.

My staff also attended a community safety workshop put on by ACRS, the CID coalition and others.

And this weekend I attended the chief Steve bike trail grand opening to celebrate the opening of the South loop.

I put funding in last year's budget.

so that they could complete the South Loop and begin or continue the work on the North Loop, which I'm thankful to my colleagues for supporting.

This is going to be a really important opportunity for community members to access this great green space that we have in Beacon Hill that before tens of thousands of hours were put in by community was really covered in blackberries and bramble.

I want to thank the Parks Department, for all their work in both supporting the cleanup of invasives and the replanting of thousands and thousands of native plants, but also in helping with the design and implementation and building of the mountain bike trail.

Also want to thank the Evergreen Bike Alliance, which really helped support sort of the some of the technical aspects and how to make sure that that was a safe place given the wetlands and the steep slope in the area.

So very exciting project and really a great example of how community's vision can really lead to some very important public assets for the rest of the neighborhood and the rest of the city.

If you've got a mountain bike, go check it out.

This week, I will be speaking on a panel hosted by Future Wise.

The panel is on the intersection between reproductive rights and land use.

So we're looking forward to having that conversation and sharing a little bit more about why, as a city, we're paying attention to this issue.

Just a tangent for a moment.

I do want to take a minute to acknowledge and thank Council Member Sawant for the issue that she raised about This Iranian woman and women across the globe.

I will say as somebody from Texas I pay a lot of attention to what's happening on the border, and I know that migrant women on the Texas border regularly go missing experience sexual assault and human trafficking.

And very often their bodies are found sort of discarded in the desert.

So, as Council President was saying this is an important issue for all women everywhere, and the fact that we are here, talking about abortion rights is one piece of a much larger conversation and really want to thank colleagues for for all the work that you're doing to make sure women are protected.

My office will also be participating in a discussion with Seattle Repertory Theater.

They are hosting an abortion rights and healthcare panel discussion with local artists and advocates.

The panel will deconstruct the themes from playwright Heidi Schreck's play, Shrek's play, what the Constitution means to me, and discussing the role of storytelling and activism.

I will not be able to make it this is on Wednesday, or sorry Tuesday evening, I will also be observing him Kapoor.

But Heidi will be there herself as part of the panel, as will Congresswoman Jayapal, co-founder and director of Shout Your Abortion, Amelia Bono, Mercedes Sanchez, who's the director of development at Cedar River Clinics, and our own Alexis Terla will be participating in that panel.

So I want to thank Alexis for being there.

She will be a fantastic participant in that panel.

Let's see.

Finally, this morning, as Councilmember Herbold said, I toured the Soto Shelter with KCRHA, King County staff, as well as county and city colleagues to better understand the proposed expansion of that site.

I want to say I share the concerns about how the project has been communicated.

I didn't find out about it myself.

the scale of the expansion until late this summer, and agree with the CID community that they really have to be at the table in these discussions.

There is no doubt that we need behavioral health services, we need many more housing options, particularly for people experiencing homelessness, and the proposed project siting has created a lot of fear and extreme frustration for many folks in the CID due to the initial lack of communication and transparency and, candidly, the historic conditions in the neighborhood.

So I was at the community meeting in 2017 before I was elected when the city told community members that they were putting the navigation center in Little Saigon.

Needless to say, people were very frustrated about that.

So I acknowledge what the community is saying and really just want to honor what they have asked for, which is that we don't allow another planning process to go forward without them that could perpetuate structural racism and really add to the burdens of the harm already done to the CID.

and that we act in accordance with the Council and with the Homelessness Authority's goals and values and sort of take a step back, make sure we're being inclusive in this process and really listening to folks in the community.

I want to stay involved.

I will continue to stay engaged with how we can build and maintain bridges with the CID community regarding this expansion.

and really hope that we can continue these discussions in good faith.

I've seen a lot of coverage in the last several weeks that really pits our unhoused community and the CID community members against each other, which is divisive and harmful and dangerous.

We know that unhoused people are also part of the CID community.

And so I want to make sure that we prioritize safety for everybody there and acknowledge that we need to be bold in addressing our homelessness crisis.

And we need to make sure that people who live and work and go through the community are included in the discussions that we're having.

That is all I have.

I'm happy to take questions.

I don't see any, and so I will hand it over to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Morales.

Colleagues, as we know, last week was week one of budget.

The mayor submitted his proposal on the budget on Tuesday, September 27th to the City Council.

We thank him and Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harreld for coming to present that budget to our full council meeting on Tuesday last week.

The following day, on Wednesday, September 28th, we had an opportunity to hear from the leaders of central staff, Director Handy and Deputy Director Panucci, followed by a presentation from the City Budget Office led by Director Julie Dingley.

They provided an overview and an introduction to the budget process, and Director Dingley gave us a high-level summary of some of the Mayor's 2023-2024 proposed budget items.

We noted in that meeting that during week three, we will have the opportunity to sit with central staff and members of the departments to go into more details.

And here are some significant program and staffing changes, additions, reductions in our deliberations that begin next Tuesday, October 11th.

We'll have October 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th.

So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

To get into details.

At the upcoming week three deliberations starting on the 11th, we will have 930 a.m.

public comment.

We will seek to hear from everybody who dials in and have given ample time to this deliberations for public comment, at least an hour and a half, which we may extend if there are more people.

And then after we do public comment, we will begin our overview starting with the fundamentals of how the mayor's proposed budget has looked at the deficit of $141 million in operating deficit and has tried to realign some revenue streams and make some changes to department investments.

We will have that overview as day one.

We will then make sure to have a recess from 1 to 2 p.m.

And because I believe that there is not a full council meeting next Tuesday, if we have any additional items that we need to continue to cover at 2 p.m., we will go from 2 to 4. Folks, we will make sure that if we do have an afternoon session, we will have an hour break again from 4 to 5 p.m.

and really encourage folks to We will have a public hearing in the evening on October 11th starting at 5 p.m.

starting at 9.30 a.m.

for public hearing and, excuse me, for public comment at the committee meeting, 9.30 a.m.

on October 11th, and then that evening at 5 p.m.

for a full evening dedicated to just public comment.

We're doing this in an effort to make sure that we can hear from everyone, regardless of your schedule.

If you're able to dial in in the morning, fantastic.

If you cannot, We look forward to hearing from you in the evening.

You do not have to dial in for both opportunities, but wanted to make sure that there was two times for folks to comment as we really started off this discussion with city council members.

And then colleagues on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we will have full days where selected departments will be at the table to provide an overview as the first panel.

And then we will have a central staff panel to go through issue identification.

This will be an opportunity for you to highlight areas of interest to you, ask some critical questions about if items were to shift or be rearranged, and to flag some of those for our central staff's further investigation as they are going to be compiling an issue identification list.

It will be a good starting place for us as we begin to come up with possible amendments, which will be due the following Monday on the 17th of October.

Again, every day we will have a break from 1 to 2 for lunch and seek to end by 5pm each evening.

Okay, thanks to the Council President.

our clerks team, central staff, IT, and everyone involved for continuing to make sure that we can have these remote meetings and also welcome members of the public if they wanna come, but please do.

We are strongly encouraging people to come if they come mass, but love to have that public comment virtually if possible.

Thanks so much.

Last week, last week we saw dozens of woodworkers members of machinists, I am a w district w to for who work at where Hauser and Southwest Washington and Oregon, come to Seattle, Seattle is home to.

the headquarters of Weyerhaeuser and Pioneer Square, and folks from the labor community and community generally rallied for a fair contract with these workers who have been on strike since September 13th.

Weyerhaeuser reported record profits last year, but is proposing takeaways for these 1,100 members.

The workers are on strike to maintain their health care coverage and vacation policies and for improvements to retirement and wages.

Standing in solidarity while I couldn't be there sending a message of solidarity and echoing the words of MLK labor leader, Katie Garrow, Washington State Labor Council Executive Secretary April Sims, and members of the Teamsters Shawnee Wheeler, for example, spoke there, among many other labor members.

Last week as well on Friday, we all heard the fireworks.

If you weren't at the game, you did get the chance to hear the fireworks that rebounded across our city.

I know I heard them as the Mariners won and ended the drought.

Congratulations to the Mariners and also the same weekend.

We had the chance, my family and I had the chance to go with some friends to the O.L.

Reign game.

The women who played their last at-home game of their first season in the giant new stadium.

Congratulations to the women of O.L.

Reign and for representing our love here in Seattle for soccer and especially for women soccer players.

Very excited that they made the playoffs as well last week.

So we send them a huge note of congratulations.

Last week, I also attended the AWC's Large City Advisory Committee and the National League of Cities Board.

I'm on the board of both of those and participated in the quarterly meetings for NLC National Discussion and our second meeting of the year for the AWC Large City Meeting.

I attended the Department of Interior Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.

I had the chance to meet with the Assistant Secretary Shannon Estinos and learn about investments in urban parks through the Outdoor Recreation Leadership Program.

We were joined at the Garfield Superblock with members of Seattle Parks Foundation, Seattle Public Schools, Senator Saldana was there, and so many community members who continue to call for investments in the Garfield Superblock since 2005 and before.

We had a chance for a sit down roundtable discussion with members of the community to hear about the barriers to getting the funding needed over the years, and the way that they are bringing together funding for not just outdoor recreation but really infusing arts and culture.

and making this a true community project thanks to members of this council who continue to invest in Garfield Superblock.

And because of our investments, we were able to pair our funding with $2 million investment from the federal government to be used for improvements at the site.

Much more to come.

I think $4 million is the perceived gap in funding there.

And so I know this will be a big priority for us as we continue to want to see those investments carry forward.

Thank you so much for that.

the city of Garfield super block.

We had a great event with parks levy last week, which they greatly appreciated to make sure that they were called out by name.

Really wonderful event, and we'll be posting more information on our social media website.

But thanks to the City Council and our city as a whole for continuing to invest in Garfield super block.

This week.

I will be attending a number of meetings.

We will be.

I'll be chatting with members of the local to hear from community members about their input on the mayor's proposed budget, including from members of the labor community, folks who work on affordable housing, and folks who are seeking to invest in human services.

So please do continue to send your priorities our way to the full council at council at seattle.gov and also to my office at theresa.mosqueda at seattle.gov.

Thank you all.

Madam President, I don't see any hands.

I believe I hand it back over to you.

Well, let me check the timer on that one.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, and thank you for mentioning the mayors.

I mean, not the mayors, the Mariners.

For the love of God, since 95 and 2001, can everybody just stop whining?

They're going to the Big Mitt thingy.

Congratulations.

I was hearing about it all weekend, that's why I'm laughing to myself.

So I'm sure I'm gonna get some hate mail about the Big Mitt instead of what I'm supposed to call it.

What's it called?

World Series.

Playoffs, World Series.

All right, thank you, Council Member Esqueda.

Let's see what we got here.

Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governance Committee.

We have no items on tomorrow's agenda.

And let's see, last week, By invitation, we, I, along with our comms director, Dana Robinson-Sloat, went to Joni Balter's class at CLU regarding the public sector and the media, and that was fun.

My office also participated in the bi-week, bi-monthly Sound Transit North King sub-area meeting with the new Sound Transit Director, CEO, Julie Tim.

Coming up this week, tonight we'll be attending an event at Seattle Center honoring Seattle Sonics coach Lenny Wilkins, Coach Wilkins.

As you know, Coach Wilkins led the Seattle Sonics to win the NBA championship in 1979 and will forever be remembered for his leadership both then and now for all the charitable work that he's done with his charity.

And Coach Wilkins is also an amazing person in that he has worked with our friends at Rise Above and with tribal leadership and tribal governments and Native youth programs and Native children and diversion programs.

And he's been doing that for well over a decade.

So he is more than just Coach Williams of the Sonics.

He's truly a wonderful, civic-minded, kind human being that lives here.

We're lucky to have him.

This week, my office will be meeting with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, OIR, regarding the state legislative agenda.

We met with our federal lobbyists, Leslie, I was going to say Leslie Nope, Leslie Polder last week regarding any kind of federal issues that we have.

My understanding is that a lot of other council members met with Leslie when she was here regarding potential money, federal money, for bridges and roads and transportation and infrastructure.

My staff will also be meeting with the city and with city staff regarding the Sound Transit West Seattle Ballard Link Light Rail Extension Project.

As you know, that is still going on and we are beginning decisions on ways to This is a different topic.

We are also looking at ways to honor Sue Bird following her career with before time championship winning Seattle Storm, which is the only team that comes from Seattle that has won four titles.

So with that, I don't think I have anything else.

Is there any questions for my colleagues before we move into executive session?

Madam President.

Yes.

It was really exciting on Saturday.

I don't know if folks had the chance to watch the O.L.

rain, but Sue Bird had the chance to stand there as well with Megan Rapinoe and receive the jersey that they had framed for them and then to kick off the game.

So it was really, really a sweet moment for Seattle as a whole.

So really excited to celebrate our city and also women's leadership in sports.

So thank you for continuing to bring up the way in which sports especially women's sports have shaped the culture and give opportunity for kiddos and young women, female identifying kiddos, the opportunity to see leaders in our community.

Well, we would not have a council briefing complete if you did not say kiddos.

So thank you for that.

Twice.

Did I mention I brought my kiddos to the game?

And when I went to the Seahawks game, not this last one, but the one before, they also honored Sue Bird, which was really cool.

She was up there and the whole You know, I don't know what stadium they play.

Is it Lumenfield?

I get them mixed up.

Mobile Park, Lumenfield, whichever one the Seahawks play in to see.

Is it Lumen?

Yeah.

Thousands and thousands of people stand up and see Sue Bird and people just go crazy.

And again, and as you probably have seen in the news, there's been the recent allegations of sexual harassment and all kinds of things.

in the Women's Soccer League, which will be ongoing.

But just the fact that Megan Rapinoe and all of those folks, women, strong women, went forward in their lawsuit and won and settled for the kind of parity for pay.

And I think it's important that we also still note that Brittany Griner is still in prison in Russia.

Again, I don't wanna get on my, a gender politics soapbox.

But I just can't help believing that if that were a NBA player in Russia in a prison cell, that people would not be doing more.

So I hope we don't forget about that.

I'm guessing, and from what I can tell from the media and what the news we do get, is that there are behind the scenes negotiations going on.

But if our women athletes didn't have to go overseas, if they were paid what they're owed here in this country, perhaps they wouldn't have to go overseas and risk their lives in imprisonment because they can reach nowhere near what male athletes make.

Exactly.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson.

Thank you.

Go Hickas or say I know you got something else to say.

You mentioned Lumen Field.

So I do want to put a plug in again for a well rain who will have the chance to be back there on October 23rd.

So not only do they have an awesome game on Saturday, but with the win on Saturday, the number one seed with their win was accomplished this clips the Portland Thorns on the last day to win the shield, which is the best regular season record.

So they get to skip quarters and go directly to semifinals, which they will host in Lumen Field on October 23rd.

Maybe we can make a council field trip for it.

Maybe all the council women can go.

And you know a lot about soccer because I don't think people know that you played soccer.

You mean captain of my high school game?

Yeah.

Here's your lead, here's your high gymnastics, I'm just gonna say, okay?

Yeah, no, very exciting to see how far this sport has come in the time that I played, but also just to see how many fans were there.

It's just incredible.

Well, maybe every council briefing, we can have a little section for women's sports updated.

Maybe that can you e-counselor Mosqueda, where you can be our sports reporter from the field, telling us what's going on, but it should be exciting.

So thank you.

Be still my heart.

I might take you up on that.

OK, now that I got the two kiddos on my bingo card, I think I won today.

All right.

So with that, I am going to read my script about executive session.

So all of you just hold up because I never heard it before.

But the viewing public needs to know why we go into executive session.

If there's no further business, we will move into executive session.

Now it says pause.

Hearing no further business, we will now move into an executive session.

As presiding officer, I am announcing that Seattle City Council will now convene into an executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open sessions.

My understanding is that executive session today is 20 minutes and Madam Clerk will let me know.

So they'll probably be at three, whatever, 340. Correct?

20 minutes.

It's 320 now.

Okay.

Thank you, Brindell.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

at the conclusion of this executive session, this council briefing meeting will automatically be adjourned.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is scheduled for November 28th, 2022 at two o'clock, which is scheduled after the council anticipates to adopt the budget, hopefully.

Council is now in an executive session and colleagues don't go anywhere.