Council Briefing 5/20/2024

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

Today is May 20th, 2024, and the council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.04.

I will note that Councilmember Strauss and Wu are excused today, and I believe that Councilmember Moore will be joining us a little bit late.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Moore.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Rivera?

Present.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Five are present.

Thank you very much.

So for those of you out there in TV land or streaming this live today, you might wonder, what are we all doing here at the table?

And I just have to say that we're sort of test driving a practice that was...

was in place before the pandemic for briefings and for council meetings.

And those meetings were held at this table instead of the dais.

And that allowed for a less formal venue to have just a little bit more of a, a more intimate conversation.

And that changed when during the pandemic, at the state level, there was a pandemic policy that required a meeting format that would allow for a hybrid option.

And there was a lot of interest in trying out this format today and getting back to that form of practice, so we're giving it a try today.

There perhaps was more dependence on...

I will speak for myself that my dependence on having an internet connection during meetings probably increased the past few years.

And so I just have to say that we are trying this out today because we do not have a presentation with people who must join remotely, so that makes it a little bit easier.

And as we go forward, I'll be asking for your feedback to see if we want to continue with this.

But again, I say that this is a pilot, and if we were to go forward, chairs would have the discretion of whether or not they want to have their meetings at the table or on the dais.

So I just do want to say, though, first and foremost, I want to thank you to our IT and our clerk staff who really put a lot into making this happen today because it seems easy.

We're all just sitting around the table.

Thank you very much, Ian, over there.

But we do not have computers in front of us, and there are a lot of things that went on behind the scenes to make this possible today.

So thank you very much, and we'll see what we do going forward.

All right, moving on.

Let's see.

We have two proclamations today and one executive session.

And on tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are 25 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

They are the weekly bill payment ordinance, 11 appointments to the Seattle International Affairs Advisory Board, four reappointments to the Seattle Film Commission, four reappointments to the Community Roots Housing Public Development Authority Governing Council, ...seattle public utilities to execute an interlocal agreement with the county relating to material waste disposal and four reappointments to the Seattle City Light review panel.

That's on the IRC, and the consent agenda will include the weekly bill payment ordinance and five appointments to the Seattle Fire Code Advisory Board.

The regular agenda includes one item, which is Council Bill 120766, relating to SPD staffing and recruitment.

All right.

Note that next Monday is Memorial Day, of course, so we will not have Council briefing next week.

Council President?

Yes.

I believe we skipped approval of the minutes.

Can we go back and approve those minutes from last week?

All righty.

Thank you.

With no objection, the minutes will be approved.

Seeing no objection, the minutes are approved.

Thank you very much for that.

Okay, Council Member Morales has a proclamation recognizing May 25th, 2024 to be Eritrean Independence Day in Seattle.

Council Member Morales, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback from council members before I request signatures to be affixed to it.

Thank you, Council President.

Yes, May 24th is the day the state of Eritrea formally achieved independence in 1991. Today, Seattle is home to 10% of the Eritrean population in the United States, with many Eritrean immigrants seeking political asylum in the U.S. during the 80s and 90s during their war for independence.

The Eritrean community in our city is known for their rich customs, traditions, and unwavering spirit of resilience and determination.

Through their struggles and triumphs since their independence, they've made significant strides in education, healthcare, and economic development.

I'm proud to honor the Eritrean community in our city and particularly in District 2, and hope you'll all join in celebrating the 33rd anniversary of Eritrea's independence.

And I'll be presenting the proclamation this Saturday at their annual celebration in South Seattle.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions or comments?

No questions.

No questions?

Thank you very much for bringing this forward.

I wish that I could attend that celebration.

Unfortunately, I will be out again.

There's going to be great food.

I imagine.

All right, so thank you very much.

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 May 25th, 2024 to be Eritrean Independence Day in Seattle?

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Five signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

All right, moving on.

Council Member, let's see.

Now we'll move on to Council Member Kettle's proclamation.

Council Member Kettle has a proclamation recognizing Memorial Day 2024. Council Member Kettle, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I ask for signatures.

Thank you, Council President.

I should say, and it's just, as it turns out, Council Member Saka is sitting next to me, so it's really our, you know, as the two veterans.

But this is not about veterans, really.

This is about Memorial Day.

And as we know it today, but it really started before World War I. Since before then, it was on different days and even sometimes called differently as Decoration Day.

As an American, as a citizen of the state of Washington, and a Seattleite, I'm quite proud that my country, state, and city honors and will honor this day across the board.

Parades, ceremonies, which is in keeping with General Order Number 11 of the headquarters of the Grand Army of the Republic, signed in 1868. The order stated, no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

The intent of the orders was to inaugurate the observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades.

And obviously, since the Civil War, we've had other wars.

World War I was very important in terms of really creating the national holiday that we have today on the last fourth Monday of May.

So I would just like to put this forward as a recognition.

And the important about this, too, is that this is for those that have given their last full measure of devotion, as Lincoln said.

This is not about veterans.

This is not about people who are currently serving in the armed services.

These are those who have been killed in action, who have died for our country.

And with that, I would like your support for our proclamation, for our Memorial Day proclamation.

Thank you very much for bringing this forward.

Yeah, Council Member Soccer.

Yeah, no, I think Council Member Kettle said it so eloquently already.

So plus one on all those comments.

Have some more fulsome comments to share tomorrow during the actual presentation.

to our, you know, certain communities, but this is...

I also ask for your support.

I wanna thank you, Councilmember Kettle, for your partnership in bringing this forward with me.

And I also ask for your support on this.

Colleagues, really important that we honor and recognize and appreciate Memorial Day, but which is specifically designed under Congress, congressional statute to recognize the great war, the war to end all wars, which is supposed to be World War I. You know, come to acknowledge those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service of our great nation and our fallen heroes.

So really important proclamation.

I ask for your support and looking forward to that CEREMONY PRESENTATION TOMORROW.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR BRINGING THIS FORWARD.

AS I WAS SAYING, WILL WE HAVE GUESTS IN THE AUDIENCE TO ACCEPT?

YES, WE WILL.

OKAY.

GOT IT.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I WILL SAVE MY COMMENTS FOR THEN.

SO, SEEING AS HOW THERE'S NO FURTHER DISCUSSION ON THE PROCLAMATION, WILL THE CLERK PLEASE CALL THE ROLL TO DETERMINE WHICH COUNCILMEMBERS WOULD LIKE THEIR SIGNATURES AFFIXED TO THE PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING MEMORIAL DAY 2024?

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Five signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

All right, thank you very much, everybody.

We'll now move to the next agenda item, which is, since we're talking way back days, we used to call this section Blue Sky.

So just for kicks, I'll say we'll begin our next discussion of the preview of council actions last week and going forward, formerly known as Blue Sky.

So today's roll call begins with Councilmember Hollingsworth, who is not here, so we will move on to begin with Councilmember Kettle.

GO AHEAD, PLEASE.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL PRESIDENT.

THERE'S NO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE THIS WEEK.

THAT WILL BE NEXT WEEK FOLLOWING MEMORIAL DAY.

UPCOMING THIS WEEK, RELATIVELY SHORT WEEK, I WILL BE ATTENDING THE SEAFARE MILITARY BREAKFAST ON WEDNESDAY.

I JUST HIGHLIGHT THAT BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, I JUST WANT TO HIGHLIGHT THIS SUMMER WE'LL HAVE SEAFARE AND FLEET WEEK.

And, you know, it's an opportunity to see what the preparations are.

And I'll do this early invitation to all my council colleagues to join in and get some, maybe even some time underway.

I don't want to promise anything, but definitely get on a ship.

And it'll be a great experience.

Also on Wednesday, I'll be meeting with Seattle Center Foundation.

That's very important.

A lot of things are going on with Seattle Center at the moment, a lot of work.

I was at the Pacific Science Center last week, different things related to Puget Sound, obviously on the sporting arena.

A lot of things happening with the Kraken and the storm starting up their season.

And so it's very important to get a sense of what's going on at Seattle Center, not to mention the Memorial Stadium and its Memorial Wall.

And then Thursday, I'll be visiting Fire Station 10 on Thursday evening, so I'll be looking forward to that.

Last week...

Where is that?

Right here.

Thank you.

And then last week...

You've been meeting with a lot of constituents to include a lot of discussions on the public safety challenges that each of these neighborhoods are meeting.

I met with constituents in Belltown to discuss public safety issues, particularly in the second and Bell area, but really broader than that.

And I had King County Councilmember Jorge Barron join me, so it was a great opportunity for both of us to see the challenges that we're facing in our city, and particularly in Belltown.

I mentioned Pacific Science Center.

On Tuesday, I went to their Ignite Luncheon, a fantastic opportunity that highlights the Pacific Science Center's education programs.

It's unbelievable what they do in terms of their at-the-Pacific signer, but also their mobile, essentially, training team that goes out to the schools.

Incredible amount that they're doing, up to 250, but they're going to go to even more as they move forward.

I mentioned the Storm, by the way.

Last week was their first kickoff for their season, and tomorrow night, or two nights from now, Caitlin Clark and Indiana Fever coming to town, so it's going to be very interesting there at the Climate Pledge Arena.

Importantly, and I know a lot of others came, the National Peace Officers or Police Officers Memorial Day was last Wednesday, and that was a great opportunity to go there and pay respect to those fallen police officers to include Officer Barbara, who was a cousin of a friend of mine, so it was really poignant to be there that day.

Also, late last week, visited the Emergency Operations Center with Director Meyer and Deputy Director Steven.

Such an important mission, you know, and work that they do related to, essentially, emergency preparedness.

whatever it may be.

It could be an earthquake or tsunami, but it also could be other things as well related to mass movement of people.

There's a lot of different things.

MLB All-Star Week two years from now, World Cup, no doubt they'll be stood up for different things.

So a very important...

function of city government.

And so it was really important to see the Emergency Operations Center.

Also very important is the West Point Treatment Facility for our raw sewage to transition to another area.

I went there with Council Member Hollingsworth, a great visit to West Point to see the challenges that they have in terms of, you know, ensuring the you know, the dealing with the wastewater, but then also protecting our environment, particularly Puget Sound.

And they're putting a lot of work together, and they're being innovative, so it's fantastic to get that briefing.

And I also thank Director Lee for also showing up and participating with that, with the King County officials that were there.

And then after that, that was with Councilmember Hollingsworth.

That afternoon, I was joined with Councilmember Saka at the Nisei Veterans Center.

Basically, it's the Nisei, the Japanese-American, essentially, VFW post at 12th and King.

And that was a great opportunity to see that.

is not just like a military location for the Japanese Americans, but it's a cultural center.

It's a community center for the Asian community more broadly, the Southeast Asian community, Chinese American community.

They have different events there.

It's a great building and what they've done to it and what they can do for the community.

So really enjoyed with Councilmember Saka visiting there on Friday.

And I should note my staff also visited, speaking of ships, the new celebrity ship, the Echo, which is gonna be sailing out of Seattle en route to Alaska.

So important are our cruise lines.

I've had multiple meetings recently related to the Cruise Line Association or Celebrity Cruises.

This is really important for our city.

It's really important for our economic development.

It's something that we need to promote.

and also celebrate, and importantly too, is highlight the other parts of the city that tourists who may come in and then get on a cruise ship and then come back and then stay in the city, either pre or after, to visit more than just Pike Place Market, to see other parts of the city as well.

The MOHAI in South Lake Union or other areas in D2 or all the districts, one through seven, I think that's a great opportunity.

And the last thing I will say is that the last two years, previous two years, I was an event lead for One Seattle, One Day of Service in Queen Anne, two different events.

This year, as the new District 7 representative, I was at Occidental Park for the kickoff, and then I went through the district with all the great work that was being done on the One Day of Service, and I have to give a shout-out to the Freeway Park right there, like 6 and Seneca, I think, or, yeah, that area as you go over to First Hill.

And fantastic work that they were doing in the Freeway Park, and I recommend visiting there.

Also stopped in South Lake Union with their Cascade Park.

That was an impressive operation in Cascade Park.

And I have a photo that you'll see on social media.

I have, like, four folks behind me with pitchforks.

They were doing some serious compost and so forth work for the park at Cascade and South Lake Union.

And some great work in Belltown and other parts of the...

of the district, but I also have to, I ended at the West Queen Anne Greenbelt, where We Heart Seattle and a team of like 100 volunteers went in to that location near the Gaylier flyover, not too far from there, to get into Kinnear, and they took out like 8,000 pounds of trash.

Incredible amount of work being done, and so that was definitely one big day of service for District 7.

100 volunteers.

Approximately.

Yeah, I met a lot of most of them, but yeah, I think it's about 100. It's fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Since we're not sitting in necessarily the correct order, next up is Council Member Morales, please.

Thank you.

Good afternoon colleagues.

I'll start with committee.

My next land use committee meeting will be on June 5th.

I anticipate three items to be heard.

The first is council bill 120761, which is the office to residential conversions, part of the mayor's down activation plan.

This legislation would remove regulatory barriers by providing broad exemptions from dimensional and design development standards when an existing structure is converted to housing from other uses.

So the intent here really is to bring more housing online by allowing developers to retrofit existing office buildings, particularly the ones that are vacant down here in downtown, that aren't being used or that are underutilized.

to bring more housing into the downtown core.

I did take a tour last week with my staff and with the staff from OPCD.

So I want to thank them and Lake Union Partners.

We took a tour of a potential site to take advantage of the legislation.

The building owners at the Coleman Building on First Avenue are looking to convert their office space, which would bring about 200 units of housing, some of which would be affordable.

So it's an interesting opportunity to try to increase housing downtown and to take advantage of, or to mitigate, I guess, the issue of having vacant office space downtown.

The other bill is Council Bill 120771. This is downtown street level uses.

Excuse me.

Anybody else having allergies?

I feel like I'm having some allergy issues.

This legislation would temporarily add more flexibility and variety to the uses required to occupy street level space.

Along with new opportunities for flexible design and layout of these uses in the first two floors of buildings, the legislation would encourage filling vacant spaces by enabling a larger pool of potential tenants.

I will say my office is working with SDCI right now and central staff to try to get a tour scheduled for this as well.

I will be honest, I don't have a great sense of how this bill would impact our streetscape.

So I'm hoping to get a tour and learn a little bit more about that.

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

And then the final item is permitting audit.

This is an informational item.

This is an audit that was conducted last year at the request of Councilmember Strauss, who was land use chair at that time.

The audit requested information about how the permitting processes can be improved.

And it's gonna be an update from SDCI about the implementation of the improvements that were identified in the audit so that we can understand what might be contributing to delayed housing projects in particular.

Improving the permitting process and cutting red tape is one of the low hanging fruit that we can start to employ to get more housing across the city.

Finally, district updates.

On Saturday, I participated in the Women Build event with Habitat for Humanity.

I helped frame doorways in two housing units that will be available for homeownership soon, and I will say I was excited to kind of increase my power saw chops.

I felt like a badass, I won't lie.

This week, I have my regular check-in with Sound Transit regarding updates on safety improvements in District 2, as well as updates on the CID station location.

That is still being contemplated, so it was good to get some updates from them.

On Wednesday, I'm proud to sponsor for the second year, the Citywide Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Celebration.

It will be at Bertha Knight Landis.

I'll be providing a few remarks and excited to share in their light refreshment that is being catered by Musang and Chef Melissa, who is one of the semi-finalists for the James Beard Award and a beloved D2 staple in Beacon Hill.

This weekend, I also, right in my neighborhood, attended an emergency hub kiosk that was providing information to neighbors who were just passing by around earthquake preparedness.

This is something that they do every year about this time.

Every district has these emergency hubs and have folks who are providing emergency communications hubs and information to the public.

So I will once again give my PSA that this is a good time to get your water storage, your food storage, your backpacks ready in case you need to bug out in an earthquake and make sure you've got the supplies you need to be ready for Estimates are a two-week shelter in place.

It used to be three days, I think, but now folks are saying be prepared to shelter in place for two weeks.

So if you have a Costco membership, that might come in handy.

Wednesday, I will also be going to the Storm Game to see Caitlin Clark, but also to see our own superstars.

The game is sold out, 18,000 seats.

So if you plan to go, I'd suggest getting there early.

Thursday, I have a class of fifth graders coming from Maple Elementary School.

They come every year, and it's very exciting.

They'll be joining us Thursday morning at the Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee, and then we'll take them upstairs to see the city archivists.

This is great if you have kids coming, students coming, because the archivists will pull materials from the 60s and 70s and 80s to show the students what archiving is.

She actually pulled letters from Maple Elementary students from 30 years ago.

And many of the students then were writing to city council asking to fix things that the students now are still asking city council to fix.

So interesting.

Mostly, please give us parks and bike lanes.

Later Thursday, I'll be taking a tour from Lehigh at their new tiny house village in D2.

And finally, on Friday, I'll be having in-district office hours at the Columbia branch of the public library.

So we've got a full afternoon of constituent meetings scheduled.

That's all I have.

Can I, your mention of the, of emergency preparedness, back in the day they used to, the Ledge Department used to get a presentation or a seminar from the people that are in the weeds on emergency preparedness.

And I just, one thing I always remember that we were told is always have a pair of shoes under the bed.

Like, so that when glass breaks, you know where they are and you can get around without cutting yourself.

So that's, I have to say one thing that I remember that I still do.

Anyway, okay.

Next is council member Rivera.

Well, let me make sure that is the alphabet here.

Yeah, R before S.

All right, well, thank you, Council President.

Let me make sure people can hear me.

Last week, I attended the Maple Leaf Community Council meeting with Council Member Moore.

We participated in a panel discussion about the draft comprehensive plan.

Council Member Moore and I share a small part of Maple Leaf with Council Member Moore, so that's why we were there together.

There were a mix of neighbors represented, both folks concerned that density will have difficult impacts in their neighborhood, as well as neighbors who are concerned that without the added density, they will not be able to remain in Seattle, with one neighbor in particular that stood out living, already having moved from the D4 to the D5 because they got priced out of the D5.

So, you know, this is very real to folks, and it's what is on everyone's mind.

I believe there's still a lot of education that needs to happen, both regarding the state law passed, HB 1110, allowing for density across Seattle, as well as general education about the comprehensive plan and what the proposal is for the comprehensive plan in terms of density and really showing folks by zone what it could look like in their neighborhoods.

And I think the education will be really important to, you know, help with people's fears around density and then address the folks that are looking for more density in their neighborhoods.

And so the education is really important I was glad to see OPCD extend that comment public comment period to May, I think today actually, 20th.

But I was glad to see that happen.

And also I know there'll be, OPCD was also at the Maple Leaf Community Council meeting talking about the comprehensive plan and then the next iteration of the updates to the proposal.

And then there'll be opportunity for further public comment coming down the line as they continue to work on this plan toward the latter part.

or toward fall of this year.

On Thursday, I spoke on a virtual access panel hosted by the Downtown Seattle Association.

My colleagues, council members Hollingsworth and Wu were also in attendance.

We cleared with law.

It was okay for all of us to be there.

Did not discuss anything related to the committee.

We all serve on together We were there to talk about the issues of importance to the downtown small businesses and other downtown stakeholders We continue to hear about the public safety issues concerned downtown and also ways that we can increase residents from the city coming to downtown to enjoy the amenities as we continue to support post-COVID recovery efforts.

Last week, I also attended my bi-monthly meeting of the Lake Washington Cedar and Sammamish Watershed Salmon Recovery Council.

It's one of the most fun councils I sit on.

It's a little bit different, but we talk about the importance of salmon recovery and all the efforts that we're doing in the region towards salmon recovery.

On Saturday, as I'm sure many of you did, I volunteered for the One Seattle Day of Service.

My staff and I volunteered at the YMCA community outreach event in the U District.

We have a YMCA in the U District that services not just the U District, but all across the D4 and into Magnuson Park as well.

They work with a lot of young people in addition to, obviously, You Can Work Out at the Y, and they have a seniors program as well at the Y, so it's a really great resource in the district.

I got to meet with many of the kids and families who were attending the U District Festival that occurred there this weekend.

And even Mayor Bruce Harrell stopped by.

And in the spirit of One Seattle, another member of my staff volunteered to clean up at Cal Anderson Park in Council Member Hollingsworth's district.

So we were all over the city this weekend, and it was really great to participate in those activities.

This week, I will be chairing the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee.

The Department of Education and Early Learning will be there.

to present about the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy's four-year annual report.

So it should be really interesting to hear about some of the work that the levy has helped fund these past four years, especially in preparation for a potential renewal of the levy next year.

And then also this week, I'll be attending the Seattle Municipal Courts Law Day event as well as where I hope to encourage and inspire youth in our community to participate in our legal system and government.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So why don't we go ahead and continue with this order, and then when you're finished, Councilmember Sacco will go on to Councilmember Moore and Hollingsworth.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

So, colleagues, tomorrow we have a very stacked transportation agenda.

Right here in these council chamber, in this council chamber, and so I appreciate the patience and equal energy and enthusiasm for all topics transportation-related.

For my colleagues that actually sit on the Transportation Committee with me, Vice Chair Hollingsworth, of course, and then Councilmember Kettle, we're gonna kick off the day at 9.30.

9.30 a.m.

sharp tomorrow with some items that someone considered more routine, but really important work.

And so that's going to be up to one hour for our regular transportation committee meeting tomorrow at 9.30, immediately followed by our select committee meeting.

at 10.30 a.m., and I do note that tomorrow's 9.30 a.m.

Transportation Committee meeting will be our very last one of these, of the levy conversations.

So we're gonna, after tomorrow, we're gonna shift to focusing exclusively on this billion-dollar-plus levy package and proposal, and we'll pick up regular Transportation Committee meeting and agenda items at the conclusion of our process.

So that's tomorrow, 9.30 a.m.

and 10.30 a.m.

at the select committee at 10.30.

The agenda will be our own central staff's analysis and presentation and issue identification on the mayor's proposed levy renewal package, what that looks like.

And then, again, tomorrow is gonna be very stacked from a levy perspective.

At 4.30 p.m., we are going to have our public hearing, our first public hearing, again, right here in this chamber.

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

We have a lot of time to accommodate two full ones, but tomorrow is the first one.

Really excited for that.

Colleagues, you may have seen the media advisory that me and my office sent across earlier today about that levy.

And the final thing I'll note on transportation, I appreciate the engagement from every last one of you all in your respective offices and meeting with me one-on-one to discuss the levy strategy and just generally check in about that.

Really important work and looking forward to continuing that work alongside you all tomorrow.

So, and...

I guess, so that's the main focus that I wanted to share about transportation topics.

As an aside, I will share that last week, proud to share that last week, I rode my bike to work twice last week.

One was with SDOT Director Spotts and some members of the SDOT leadership team, and the other was just by myself, like everybody else, most people who do it every day, commuting to work, that are able and choose to ride their bikes to work.

But with an important, of course, pit stop, on Friday through an annual event sponsored in part by the West Seattle Bike Connections Group, so really appreciate that engagement with those constituents and those important, my constituents in District 1, but also as part of the broader transportation conversation, really enlightening for me.

And then I also, like, coincidentally biked to my meeting to the Friends of the Waterfront My meeting this morning.

And so, which means I'm exhausted.

But, you know, here I am.

And then, yes, on Saturday, colleagues, I think many of you all participated in the mayor's wonderful One Seattle Day of Service.

various events throughout the city.

Was honored to participate alongside council president and council member Kettle at the Pioneer Square event.

And that event featured folks from all over the city and the Seahawks and Amazon was there.

They brought a bunch of their workers.

And, of course, you know, the mayor, and I want to thank the mayor and his great leadership for kicking that off and getting us all to rally around a common goal of connecting people with communities and service.

So, really awesome event.

Immediately after that, me and the mayor, we headed back to West Seattle and did a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Delridge Farmer's Market.

Really awesome event.

The African Housing and Community Development Group kicks off that event.

It's a farmer's market that's held every Saturday, in West Seattle and South Delbridge.

Really, really cool event, really fun event.

Me and the mayor handed out some kids' books to all the little ones there, so they can engage.

And I personally was able to purchase some wonderful flowers that my wife really enjoyed.

I didn't get in on the fresh fruits, because we already had our fresh fruits or fresh fruits and vegetables covered, but got some really awesome and tasty jollof rice.

and from West Africa.

Sadly, it wasn't Nigerian Jollof Rice, which is by far the most superior of all the Jollof Rice between Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria, but Jollof Rice is still king.

And then, as Councilmember Kettle alluded to, I had the pleasure of joining him and others last Friday at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Wall and Museum.

Awesome event with some folks from the Ballard VFW, I think post 3063, if I understand correctly.

And also from my own VFW post in West Seattle, post 2713, Bob Lunke.

And, you know, we're also joined by our mutual friend, Lin Tai.

And so special thanks to the folks that joined us.

My own staff member and teammate, Elaine Ko, was able to join us as well.

But great event.

And so thank you to all who joined, including Dale Watanabe.

I hope I pronounced that right, Dale.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

He's the post commander for that facility the nvm there and was a great great engaging and enlightening event finally i'll note colleagues that later this week i will be hosting office hours doing regularly as i think many of you all do uh and do them all over my district but i'm excited to announce that on friday going to be doing doing office hours in soto for the very first time so in any event i will I welcome any comments, questions, or feedback from you all.

And if not, I will kick it off to Council President to figure out which one of you all are going next.

Ask Mom, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have a question.

Is there a schedule of topics that will be discussed in each of the Transportation Committee of the Whole's meetings going forward?

Yeah, yeah.

So we are still finalizing some of that, but tomorrow's agenda is set, and more information will be forthcoming.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So today's roll call did start with Councilmember Hollingsworth, so we'll begin with you, but hold on a second.

Before you got here, we did vote on...

Well, we didn't vote.

We signaled by voice...

that we would sign two proclamations today.

So I will just say those titles and then just you can confirm verbally whether or not you would like to sign those.

So Councilmember Morales has a proclamation recognizing May 25th, 2024 to be Eritrean Independence Day in Seattle.

And Councilmember Kettle has a proclamation recognizing Memorial Day 2024. So Council Member Hollingsworth and more, do you wish to have your signatures affixed to those proclamations?

Yes, on both.

Yes, on both.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Take it away, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Oh, this moves.

Okay, great.

I like being at this table.

I get to look at y'all.

So that's what I wanted to do in my life.

Look at each and every one of you.

Okay.

Parks Utility Technology Committee, May the 22nd, 2 p.m.

On the agenda, we have an agreement with King County.

It's going to be about garbage and waste, SPU.

It's going to be a short meeting.

They'll give a presentation and we'll ask questions.

And so it's going to be fairly short.

Regional committees, and I'm pretty sure Council President Nelson and Council Member Kettle probably mentioned this, Board of Health, looking forward to finding solutions with the fentanyl crisis in our city.

And then I also had the Regional Transit Committee, where I joined with Council Member Saka, where we talked about the rapid ride, rapid line transit.

G will be done in August of 2024. So the open heart surgery on Madison is going to be stitched and completed, which I'm really happy about.

And to restore, Madison is a big artery and pipeline in Seattle, and the G line is going to be phenomenal.

So really excited about that.

Also looking forward to, and I haven't mentioned this to Councilmember Morales, but I know the Rapid Ride R line is coming down Rainier.

And a lot of people are excited and have reached out about that.

So looking forward to working with your office about the R line down Rainier and then Rapid Ride J line down East Lake is coming on board that is out for contract.

So looking forward to working with the East Lake businesses and small business owners and Aegis all along there.

with construction mitigation.

Last week in the community, I joined Councilmember Wu and Rivera, presentation with DSA, conversation about downtown and public safety.

Also had a tour of our Seattle Convention Center, the Summit.

I know some of you have seen it.

It's phenomenal.

West Point Treatment Center with Councilmember Kettle, where we got to smell what wastewater smells like that was fun.

And then the cleaning side of that met with business owners, PCC council member kettle public safety.

I will say this one thing that concerned me about public about PCC, 90% of their issues that they have with public safety come from the central district.

store location on 23rd and Union.

So looking forward to engage with them as well.

Woodland Park Zoo, I got moved that to this week.

So I did get to feed the red panda.

I already forgot the red panda's name, but it starts with a C.

Really the cutest thing ever.

I fed it carrots and biscuits.

It looked good.

The Woodland Park Zoo is doing phenomenal stuff.

I think they do a really, really great job of creating amazing amounts of access for families, but also bringing people to the zoo outside of just seeing animals.

Zoo Tunes, they're going to have The Roots this year.

Last year, they had Chaka Khan.

They have so many great, amazing programs there.

This weekend, I did two things.

I went to First Amy Church.

We did a street renovation project on, they're on 14th.

in between Pike Pine and Madison, so that was fun.

One thing I did want to mention that I have been becoming increasingly alarmed about in our community is the graffiti that is on churches.

And to see that church, it is my church, to see the church, their aging population, have to climb up to the old bell tower that is a historic landmark to be able to scrub the graffiti off of their building, off something that is as historic as that, was just really unfortunate and challenging, and they deal with that a lot.

And, you know, a lot of black churches in the CD have to experience that.

To me, that's anti-black to be able to continue to do that type of behavior, so...

I just wanted to tag that because we've been getting a lot of feedback of churches having to clean up graffiti along their churches.

So wanted to throw that out there.

Also had a health fair.

I was down in Council Member Morales' district.

I was up at Beacon Hill.

I only crossed the border just a little bit, so don't kill me.

You're always welcome.

Okay, cool.

I go play golf at Jefferson.

So we picked up trash around Jefferson and it was 20 vendors at a health fair that the Urban League did.

And so it was phenomenal.

You had a lot of people.

We Zumba'd.

It was really, really great.

Ate corn and all that stuff.

Last but not least, I wanted to send a big thank you to our, and I'll say this.

I know that people come to chambers last week and, you know, really encourage people speaking up, processing, all of the stuff that is civic engagement.

But I want to thank our security team because I saw how the gentleman belittled our security guard who had been here for 12 years and the impact that had on that man, spoke to him after the meeting, and it was just unfortunate the way that he was talked to.

And I know that when people come, they have a lot of emotions, but...

You know, our security team are doing their job, especially for the gentleman who had been here for 12 years.

The way he was belittled I thought was completely unacceptable, and I apologize to my colleagues, because I should have said something and stood up for him to see the way that impacted him, and so that won't happen again.

I will say something.

I'll be nice and kind, but I just wanted to flag that, because they endure a lot, and he had been here for 12 years, and to be belittled like that when he was trying to respond you know, in a way that's very professional was just unacceptable.

So I just wanted to throw that out there.

And Council Member Moore.

Well, I just wanted to say thank you very much for mentioning that.

You might have seen that I did leave the cameras rolling during the recess.

And that was a decision so that people understand that when a recess is called, that is why.

And there is behavior that is unacceptable in chambers when we're trying to conduct business.

And I was not aware of that encounter.

So thank you.

Great, well, thank you very much.

It's nice to have gotten two mics here.

Double amplified, thank you.

I'm so sorry.

That's okay, I appreciate that.

My apologies.

So the next meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee is this Wednesday, and we have a very packed agenda.

We will have several appointments for a possible vote.

We have a presentation from LEAD, from Lisa Dugard, Co-Executive Director of PDA.

We also are going to have a presentation on affordable housing financing from the Office of Housing, and we are going to have the UCT quarterly report.

So I think we might run past 1130, so just giving you a heads up.

And anyone who wants to attend, Council Member Rivera, you're more than welcome.

So open invitation to all.

We've done our pre-briefing.

It's all really interesting information.

So I think it will be an informative committee meeting For external committees, last week I attended the regional policy committee for the vote on the crisis care levy implementation plan, which I'm pleased to announce did pass unanimously out of that council committee.

And I had two amendments that were successfully adopted, so that was exciting.

the plan is now going to move on to the housing and human services committee for their consideration and then if it's voted out of there it will then move to the full king county council for a final vote so i'll be happy to keep everyone posted on that last week in district i attended the pinehurst we had a pinehurst community meeting with city light because there's a particular section in pinehurst that has basically the cables were installed in underground cables in 1957 and they have really run the course of their usefulness.

And so we have ongoing power outages in Pinehurst.

So this was an opportunity for residents to share that information with Seattle City Light, talk about better ways basically to advocate for moving them up the list on the cable replacement.

And then also just to talk in general about how to do a better job of communicating for planned outages.

I also attended the Maple Leaf Community Council meeting, and there were a lot of discussions about the comprehensive plan, and particularly how it is going to affect the Maple Leaf community.

And on Sunday, I attended the Northgate Library Connections Cafe, where there were three people, two of whom we recruited from the Bob Ferguson shrimp feed.

So...

We offered to have dessert if they came to my event, so we did get two people.

And I also attended the one day of service at Bitter Lake Reservoir, and then also my staff attended at Lake City, so we had a pretty good showing in District 5. That's it for me.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

I have to say that I do learn so much about what is going on at the city listening to you all, so thank you.

You're out and about, and...

doing a lot of things and engaging.

All right, so as I mentioned earlier, there's one item on tomorrow's agenda from the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee, which is Council Bill 120766, which would strengthen efforts to recruit and retain police officers in the Seattle Police Department.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend passage of the bill at our May 9th meeting.

All right, the next meeting of the committee, my committee, will be this Thursday, May 23rd at 2 p.m., and the items on the agenda are a presentation from the Seattle Film Commission in partnership with the Office of Economic Development on the Film Commission's work what their priorities are, how they have organized their work going forward.

And also, piggybacking on that, will be four reappointments to the Film Commission.

The Film Commission has staggered tenures for people, so some people serve one year, two years, and three years.

And so the folks that served one year are eager to re-up their appointment for another year.

uh come to that or listen in if you're interested in hearing what's on deck for the film commission or learn a little bit about some of our commissioners all right position nine update last wednesday i was pleased to see a great showing from council at the spd headquarters for the annual peace officers memorial day service already mentioned by councilmember kettle um i learned that this uh that this service began under president kennedy to honor officers killed in the line of duty At Thursday's King County Board of Health meeting, we had the second of two briefings on the county's response to the opioid crisis, and this one featured a presentation from a University of Washington researcher on existing harm reduction strategies and and some of the things that are going on right now and some best practices.

And to be blunt, I do remain concerned that the region's public health system might not be meeting the urgency of the moment.

But the chair, Councilmember Mosqueda, did say that the briefing was to inform future next steps.

So I remain engaged and eager to see what's coming down the pike, what could be added to the work plan this year and going forward on that.

Let's see.

There was also at that same meeting a presentation on steps being taken to address gun violence as well.

On Friday, I joined the King County Regional Policy Committee, which unanimously approved the crisis care levy implementation plan.

And I have to say that feels sort of like joining, just for dessert, a whole process that started with sowing of the fields for harvesting to be served at that meal.

So I just have to say thank you very much to all the people, all the participants, and Council Member Moore for your amendments to strengthen the implementation plan.

So thank you for your work on that.

And I joined because Council Member Wu's committee was being held at the same time.

So Saturday, I was at the day of service as well.

I joined the kickoff in Occidental Park and joined a group that was stenciling above the storm drains on Main Street.

basically signaling, don't throw anything down the storm drain because it all goes out into the sound.

And so the stencils that don't seem very well done, that are a little bit blurry, those were done by me.

And I joined the group that was doing the street that would be soon to be torn up for reconstruction.

So there we have it.

The damage will not last long.

In any case, I'm new to those cans of graffiti.

Anyway, so last week, oh yes.

Okay, last week I was pleased to be able to get to know our interim city finance director a little bit better, Jamie Carnell.

She's been with the city for a very long time and assuming that position.

And in a separate meeting, I met our new OIR director, Mina Hashemi.

And I shared with, and you'll hear more about her as the confirmation process goes forward, but I shared with Director Hashemi that one of my priorities is is to revise our legislative agenda so that it is a more useful tool for legislators and their staff during the session.

Our legislative agenda is 16 pages of...

Well, it's basically a list of policies that we support, and that is good, but that doesn't serve as a...

It's not something that you can whip out and look at as when you're rushing into a meeting to know where is Seattle at on X, Y, or Z.

So hopefully that work will start soon.

And I also think that they will soon be, members of her staff will be doing the rounds of council members to find out what your priorities are well in advance of having to finalize the legislative agenda for next year's session.

So be on the lookout for that.

And I do have to say that I got the impression that the executive also is very, is looking forward to redoing the legislative agenda as well.

So there's partnership on deck.

Let's see.

I look forward to...

Well, never mind.

Coming up this week...

One of my members of staff will be meeting with the Cascade Bicycle Club, so I'm sure that we're all getting a lot of invitations for meetings as we're all looking at the transportation levy plan proposal.

And so we'll be switching off meeting with constituencies going forward.

On Wednesday, I'll be attending the 2024 Seafair Military Breakfast.

I'll see you there.

Get there early.

Yes, indeed.

On Thursday, I'll be participating in interviews with the finalists in the search for the new CEO for King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

That will be a I think it's about 45 minutes each for each of the finalists.

And then saving the best for last, or not the best, but the most internal piece of news.

Tomorrow, Maribel Centeno will be joining the legislative department as our new HR manager.

So if you recall, when our longtime finance and HR division director, Karen Jackson, retired, Justin Roberge, who heads up finance for the department, assumed the head of that division.

And the search was conducted for somebody to then provide the HR director.

specialty functions for the department, and that was a long and exhaustive process, and so she'll be joining us, well, tomorrow.

So say hello if you happen to be in your office when she comes on by.

And she comes from, Maribel comes to us from the municipal court where she served as the HR director, and we're excited to welcome her to our team here.

And then finally, a reminder again that we will not have council briefing next week because it is Memorial Day.

So I hope that everybody has a happy and solemn holiday.

With that, is there any other business before us?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

I just, so you asked a great question of me earlier, and I provided an initial comment, and it really did spark in me two other follow-up comments about, like, you know, schedule for the transportation levy, our deliberations and discussions there.

And I mentioned that we have a, which is true, we're still finalizing the schedule, but my commitment to you all and members of the public is later this week, we'll formally release and finalize and release the remaining kind of higher level what we expect to happen at each of those subsequent meetings.

The first two are obviously already set and calendared and scheduled.

And so just in the interest of transparency and making sure we share what that looks like.

But if you know me, working with me offline, there's nothing about me or what we're doing that's shooting from the hip.

But it is also important that we be transparent as well.

And so great question.

And my commitment to you is, you know, we'll finalize that as soon as possible this week.

All right?

So stay tuned.

And then also...

Good friendly reminder and plug.

If you haven't already, I know there's various levels of engagement.

We all have a gazillion things going on, but please do, you and your offices, colleagues, reach out and coordinate and connect with and engage with our central staff experts on the transportation levy.

And if you haven't already, get side briefings from them, work with them.

This is really, and start doing so now rather than, you know, once we, the next meeting is when it's like, More more substance.

So in actions and decisions on our end.

So so start teeing off that that process now, if you haven't already, because this this next six weeks deadline, by the way, is a King County imposed deadline when we have to.

It's not our own internal thing.

It's like if we want to renew this and get it before voters in November under the county's deadline work back plan, you know, we have to vote on it.

I think whenever the last meeting is, that's our last opportunity.

So it will come up quick.

These next six weeks will come up quick.

So I appreciate your partnership offline and these one-on-one conversations and sharing your feedback and priorities, staying engaged.

Please do connect and continue to connect with our central staff experts.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate your holding us to the task at hand.

It's a big one.

Okay, anything else?

All right, if there's no further business, we'll now move into the executive session.

Hearing no further business, as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into 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 attorney as authorized by law, and a legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

I expect the time of the executive session to end by, let's see, 345. If the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I'll announce the extension and the expected duration.

At the conclusion of this executive session, the council briefing meeting will automatically adjourn.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is on June 3rd, 2024 at 2 p.m.

The council is now in executive session.

So council members, please log on in your offices.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you.

I thought of today's format.

That was good.

See the reminder to bring printed books.

Yeah.