Sustainability, City Light, Arts and Culture Committee 5/17/2024

Good morning.

The May 17, 2024 meeting of the Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture Committee will come to order.

It is 9.31 a.m.

I am Tanya Wu, chair of the committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Moore?

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Saca?

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Chair Wu?

Present.

Chair, there are three members present.

Thank you.

CM Strauss and CM Moore are excused today.

Council Member Moore is attending the Regional Policy Committee meeting this morning where they'll be voting on crisis care centers.

I'm also on that committee, but...

Council Member Sarah Nelson will be there in my place.

I also want to let the record reflect that Council Member Morales last committee was excused.

And so if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So today we're gonna learn about Hope Corps, one of the many programs that our arts and culture department runs to uplift our communities.

As chair of this committee, I am committed to amplifying the work our dedicated arts and culture staff do to make our city unique.

That being said, I'm excited to announce that June 21st will be our kickoff for an arts round table centering the creative economy.

Today, we're also going to learn about Don Lindell, our nominee for Seattle City Lights GM and CEO.

Thank you, colleagues, for preparing questions for this discussion.

And lastly, if we have time, we will hear from Seattle City Light on easement ordinances.

And so we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to items on today's agenda and within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently, we have two in-person speakers signed up, and there is one remote speaker.

Thank you.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

Clerk, couldn't you...

Oh, actually, I will now read the public comment instructions.

So the public comment period will be moderated in this following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Speakers will be called in order in which they are registered, and speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow for us to call on the next speaker.

So the public comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

The first in-person speaker is Alex Zimmerman, followed by Parker Dawson.

Sieg Heil.

Sieg Heil.

A dirty damn Nazi fascist junta, bandito and killer.

My name Alex Zimmerman, I'm president of Stand Up America.

I live here approximately 40 years, and I try to understand what is culture Seattle have.

You come to very interesting conclusion.

I simply have a culture, how more dangerous than German Nazi Gestapo have in Tory.

And I explain to you why.

German Nazi Gestapo in Germany, in theory, don't have freedom of speech.

We live in America, who officially, under Constitution law, have freedom of speech.

We don't have freedom of speech here.

Blair, could you please pause the timer?

Mr. Zimmerman, is there something on this agenda?

Don't interrupt me, because it's exactly what I told you, because you're acting more dangerous than Nazi Gestapo.

You understand?

It's exactly what I told you.

What is problem?

I come and speak this for many years.

If you are minority, if we don't have a freedom of speech, For last 10 years, 100 times I told them, okay, you don't give a chance to speak here.

Open better room in city hall.

Give us three minute, one time per week, so we can doing this.

It's make me totally sick.

It's not probably me make sick.

So minority, and you right now here, all minority, you know what this mean?

Don't have freedom of speech.

Why?

You could because you're more dangerous than Nazi Gestapo.

You understand what is I talking?

We have fundamental constitution, freedom of speech, you don't give a chance.

Okay, you have right to one minute, 30 second, 15 second, it's okay with me.

So open Bertha room in City Hall.

And I talk about this many times.

One day per week, people will come and speak for three minutes, like I speak around, from Tacoma to Everett, more than 4,000 times.

Why you, my...

Acting like a Nazi Gestapo pig.

Can you explain this to me, for an old Jew man like me?

Huh?

Who I will answer?

Thank you very much.

Next, we have Parker Dawson.

Good morning.

What was this one?

Hello?

It doesn't matter.

Good morning and thank you chair and council members for advancing today's appointment.

My name is Parker Dawson here on behalf of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.

The master builders are honored today to enthusiastically support the choice in today's confirmation of Don Lindell to the post of general manager and CEO of Seattle City Light.

Don's tireless work in Colorado, California, and now right here in Washington have earned her a reputation as a pensive, innovative, and inspiring leader.

Her bona fides are irrefutable.

given her years of service that she has accrued.

And we at the master builders at the very least are confident in her ability to lead this utility to a reliable, affordable and sustainable future that we all know that we desperately need.

We look forward to being a partner to Seattle City Light under her leadership And we thank Mayor Harrell's team, Chair Wu, and this committee for bringing forward and confirming such a deserving choice as Dawn Lindell.

And given I have a little bit of time left, I would just like to say on a personal note, it really just took one meeting to understand and appreciate her ability.

And I'm sure that through your questions today, you will understand the same as well as getting to work with her in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next remote speaker is Nancy Hirsch.

Please press star six when you hear the prompt.

Hi, good morning, Chair Wu, members of the committee.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

OK, great.

My name is Nancy Hirsch.

I'm executive director of the Northwest Energy Coalition a nonprofit advocacy coalition of 100 organizations across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, working to advance a clean, equitable, and affordable energy future.

Seattle City Light, the Office of Sustainability and Environment, are both members of the coalition.

Last week, I submitted to the committee a more detailed letter of support for Dawn Lindell to lead Seattle City Light.

City Light needs an experienced and proactive CEO who will motivate and challenge City Light to expand its leadership within the region and with innovative energy efficiency and electricity demand management programs, utility rate designs that support customers with high energy burden, and a deep commitment to salmon recovery and environmental stewardship.

Ms. Lindell's breadth of experience and focus on innovation and getting the most out of advanced technologies and her workforce will serve her well in Seattle.

As you know, the electricity sector is facing significant challenges in meeting growing loads from decarbonization and economic activity and in meeting the challenges of climate change impacts from drought and extreme weather.

We will need Ms. Lindell to keep open lines of communication with the public interest community and to work in partnership with tribal nations, community-based organizations, and businesses to ensure that City Lights investments are as effective as possible to advance our shared goals of a clean and equitable future.

Thank you.

So if there are no additional speakers, we'll now proceed to our items of business.

We'll go ahead and proceed to our items of business.

If anyone has any additional public comment, please email them to us at council at council at cl.gov.

We'll now move on to the next item of business.

Will the clerk please read the first item into the record?

Agenda item one, Seattle Arts and Culture Hope Corps Overview for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

Item one has been read into the record.

Will the department coordinators please once ready introduce yourselves and we're excited to learn more.

Hello?

Yes.

Thank you, Chair Wu and Council Members Morales and Saka.

My name is Gülgün Kayyem.

I am the Director of the Office of Arts and Culture, and I'm joined here by Alex Rose, who manages our creative economy work.

And I'm very happy to be invited to present to you on our Hope Corps program, which is a workforce program that we developed during the pandemic.

And we'll be talking a little bit about that program as a way to stimulate dialogue about the future of workforce and creative economy in Seattle.

Next slide, please.

So before diving into details of Hope Corps, I just wanna remind us of the mission and vision of our office.

So the mission of the Office of Arts and Culture is to activate and sustain Seattle through arts and culture.

And the vision is we envision a city driven by creativity that provides the opportunity for everyone to engage in diverse arts and cultural experiences.

Well, these are what we are striving for.

These are the outputs that we wish to, or the outcomes we're striving to do.

We mustn't forget that we need to lay down a foundation of a strong economy in order to achieve these.

Next slide, please.

So I'm going to provide some background and context for you before we dive into the Hope Corps information.

So that, as I mentioned earlier, this program was developed in response to the pandemic, to the economic impacts experienced by individual workers.

And so I'm gonna present to you some data that was gathered in 2020 on the state of the workforce and remind you that this data was collected at early 2020. And I'll give you a little bit of update on what's happened later in 2020. So, as in other sectors, the creative sector experienced widespread loss of work and income in the creative sector.

In early 2020s, we found through surveys that were done nationally that 65% of creative workers were impacted, so they had lost their jobs.

Now, One thing you'll note in that first bullet, we refer to creative workers and non-traditional workers.

And what we mean by non-traditional is that it's the gig economy.

And many in the creative workforce are working in the gig economies.

So they're working on temporary contracts.

In fact, artists are three times more likely to be members of the gig economy.

And some are combining full and part-time employment with gig economy work.

So they're cobbling together multiple income streams.

So that's something to take note because it will have relevance on the workforce in general and how they're able to get unemployment benefits.

Another factor in the creative workforce due to this loss of income was that creatives of color were particularly impacted by job loss.

And I'll be talking a little bit more detail about when we disaggregate the data, who exactly we're talking about.

And then one factor that was not well known is that a cultural brain drain was another impact of job loss.

So what I mean by that is many workers had to seek income from other sectors, and some left the sector entirely after the pandemic.

So, for example, and having a very serious impact on the sector itself.

And I'll give you an example here.

So, stage tech workers and backstage workers in performance left the industries and ended up working in other venues, and so some of them went into for-profit events.

As a result, we have a lack of technical, of experienced skilled workers in backstage work.

So that's where we've been left.

So the brain drain is real.

Next slide, please.

Here's the data I was referring to earlier.

As I mentioned, the workforce data was disaggregated by race.

And you can see here that creatives who identify as native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander were the most affected at 78%.

These were followed by creatives identifying as Black and Arab Middle Eastern, who were affected at 72%, and then followed by Hispanic and Latinx workers.

So this is when we disaggregate the data.

This is important for you to be aware of.

Later on, in mid 2020, when the survey results were done again, we had 95% job loss.

So we went from 63 in early 2020 to 95%.

So that's just providing you some context so that you can understand how Hope Corps was a response that Seattle developed in order to address these job losses.

And I'm gonna hand over to my colleague, Alex, who will talk more about Hope Corps.

Thank you, Director Kayyem.

Thank you, council members.

Let's get to the next slide.

All right.

Hope Corps launched in 2021 with a pilot project, the Beloved Campaign, which was a media campaign against gun violence, positioning gun violence as a public health issue.

And this program, as Director Kayim said, is meant to address unemployment, underemployment in the creative sector.

It supports organizations and groups as well as individuals.

So you can think of musicians, stage technicians, teaching artists, cultural practitioners, filmmakers, arts administrators.

It's a long list of folks who were left without an income.

And these devastating effects of the pandemic are still felt in our sector today.

We were very intentional in our program design.

We looked at past federal work programs like the Works Progress Administration or WPA, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act or CETA.

We connected with and learned from other cities and other groups across the country who were doing this work, trying to get creative workers working.

We gathered a group of local community advisors, we ran focus groups, and we've also worked with fellow city departments to put artists to work.

But it's not just about the members of Hope Corps, it's not just about the creative workers themselves, it's about the community as a whole.

At every turn, Hope Corps has supported projects that address our very real civic needs, starting with public health, mental health and healing, food security, media and storytelling, social cohesion, and arts education.

Here are just a handful of examples of the more than 60 projects that Hope Corps has funded since launching in 2021 with that pilot project.

We've had artists running free workshops in schools, in community centers, and other public gathering spaces.

Many grantees have told stories that are representative of their own communities, whether that's through sharing traditional practices to illustrations and portraiture to a podcast that was aired by KUOW.

And murals have been going up in parks all across Seattle and will continue to do so through this year, along with a number that will be part of downtown activations this summer.

There's a bit of a lag in this.

There we go.

And while each year of the program has had a distinct focus or flavor, Hope Corps has been supported through one-time investments to the tune of not quite $4 million from 2021 to now.

And it's worth noting that before releasing each year's funding, and this is true of all of art's grant programs, Art staff manages the rigorous process of developing grant guidelines, conducting thoughtful community outreach, building and testing the application in flux, which is the city's grant management system.

We support applicants in applying, and then we train, convene, and facilitate our selection panels who review the applications.

Then we offer awards, and then finally we contract with the awardees.

So all that has to happen before money goes out the door.

What that means for Hope Corps is that funds usually get encumbered in the fall, you know, they get under contract in the fall, and projects take place the following year.

So the mural projects I mentioned that we funded last year in 2023 will actually be realized this year.

And of course, that's after design, site preparation, permitting, and all that good stuff has happened.

So side note, feel free to reach out to us if you're curious to know what murals are going up in your districts, or if you'd like to join us for a tour of some murals downtown this summer that are part of the downtown activation plan.

Now, I want to tell you about the scale of this program.

Hope Corps has supported more than 200 creative workers through more than 60 projects.

And the awardees that have completed their projects have reported that they've reached 80,000 members of the community in person and more than 200,000 virtually.

Those are pretty good numbers, I would say, in terms of the reach of this program.

And again, that's only counting the 34 projects that have been completed to date.

Individuals have been able to count on up to $30,000 of income for a year-long project, and grantees have been part of a community of practice where arts provides additional social and professional support beyond just the funding.

And to give you a sense of the demand for this program, when Hope Corps launched in 2022 in a public application process, we were able to fund just 10% of the projects that were proposed.

So we had 300 applicants, and of those, we funded 30. And some of those were not funded at the full amount that they requested.

As I said earlier, the need for this program is still very strong.

Our creative economy is still adapting and recovering post pandemic.

Beyond just the demand though, the program continues to be funded year after year because it has proven to be effective and worthy of funding.

Let me show you the impact that it's having on individuals and communities across our city.

So let's look at the data for the 34 completed projects.

Most of it were funded in 2022. On the right, this may be of interest to you all, you can see the data where those 34 projects took place.

So many in District 2 and 3, and a good spread across the city.

On the left side of the slide, We asked the awardees whose projects supported one individual creative worker to rate these prompts about their Hope Corps experience.

This is on a five point Likert scale for my data nerds.

And the percentages that you see next to each statement reflect those who answered that they agree or strongly agree.

So fours and fives on that Likert scale.

And you can see the vast majority expanded or developed their networks.

They saw their earnings increase.

They advanced their skills and knowledge.

They expanded their portfolios and resumes.

And overall, they were satisfied with their Hope Corps experience.

And most feel pretty good about finding work after this program.

Though with gig work, it can often feel precarious.

Anecdotally, though, we have heard from awardees how many of their projects have drawn additional support beyond Hope Corps, or some of them have even continued to work with other artists or others that they've connected with through their Hope Corps projects.

Vivid Matter Collective, for example, has hired youth from the street art program that they ran.

And those youth are now teaching children and adults the skills that they learned from VMC's teaching artists.

So really the each one teach one motto, living out in real time.

All right.

So I think it's a nope.

There we go.

Okay.

We asked the group projects to report on the demographics of the creative workers involved in their projects.

And so you can see on this slide, the majority identify as female, mostly in the 24 to 65 age range, and at least 70% excuse me, at least 76% BIPOC.

So those are the numbers, but I want to give you a sense of some qualitative data as well to show you how the individual awardees have been affected.

So this is in the words of local musician JR Rhodes.

The key intention of the Hope Corps grant, in my understanding, is to inspire hope.

I believe that goal was met firstly for me.

This opportunity and experience has shown me I am stronger and more capable than I previously believed and that collaboration and asking for help in creating is beautiful.

So thank you from the depth of my heart.

Also, I believe this goal of sharing hope was met by measure of the positive responses from artists involved, inspired by the music and they being fairly compensated for their talent and time contributing to the music and such positive audience response and engagement.

So JR's project was funded in 2022. And one of our 2023 awardees, who is Carolyn Hitt.

She is a visual artist and organizer.

And she recently completed a mural at Rogers Playground as part of our partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation.

She says, as one who doesn't spend a ton of time around super young people, I really loved talking with the students, answering their questions and ultimately allowing some of their ideas to influence the final design.

My favorite moment was their excitement when I let them help pull all the tape used to lay out the design.

It was a lot.

I was really moved by how supportive, satisfied, and enthusiastic the students and neighbors were throughout the process.

Back to you, Director Kayim.

Thank you, Alex.

So as Alex mentioned, our 2023 investments were focused on the Downtown Activation Plan, so that's what, in terms of geography.

And again, this year, we will again be working on the Downtown Activation Plan, in that geography, and we've also overlaid it with the FIFA World Cup.

This year, Downtown Activation and FIFA World Cup are kind of, you know, it's a priority within downtown.

So the geography, the map that you're looking at represents the areas that we've identified that we will be investing in.

The shades represent priorities.

So the darker the shade, the higher the priority.

And the way we got to these, the way we got there was we looked at where the investments were already among our partners, where we could go with our funding that others would not.

And we did a racial equity overlay to see where the need was greatest.

And that's how we got to these.

So I'm happy to talk about them more.

Just to go over what we will be funding, we decided on working on themes, themes that would support our identity, so climate and water justice are one of those themes, as well as the idea that Seattle is thriving.

So we're looking at inviting artists to think about what that means from their perspectives.

The other element that we're really interested in is place-making, place-keeping, and belonging.

And the reason we wanted to think about those is we're interested in working from our assets out.

So the way we're thinking about the geographies are we're thinking about nodes and corridors.

Where are our assets already in these geographies?

For example, King Street Station's an asset, Benaroya Hall and that area is an asset.

Can we work from our assets out rather than putting a project in the middle of an empty street?

So that's what we're thinking about in terms of nodes and corridors belonging and place keeping.

And I think that's it.

If there's any other questions, one other thing I should say is our applications this year will be opened in July, as you can see in this slide, and we expect the work to begin in November.

Oh, and then one last element.

This year also, we're putting in some technical assistance for those grantees.

So acknowledging that while we're funding projects, we're also funding skill building and support for those artists who are commissioned.

So we're developing a community of practice.

We're going to be developing skill building workshops to help these artists and individuals grow from this work.

So I'm going to stand for questions.

Colleagues, any questions?

That's okay.

Thank you very much.

This is exciting as...

it's interesting to hear things coming up about what we did in the pandemic, because for those of us who were here, it was really frigging traumatic.

You know, trying to respond, trying to figure out how to deal with small businesses closing, with...

our kids being home because there was no school, there was a lot going on.

So I'm getting a little bit of PTSD, I think.

Sorry about this again.

But that said, I do think that it's important for us to understand what the impact was on this particular sector of workers and what we did to try to respond to make sure that we weren't, that we were supporting their ability to have some sort of livelihood and not having to deal with it on the other end with increased social services all the rest.

So that's just background on what I recall from those conversations.

One of the things you mentioned is when you showed the map of, or the chart of where programs, where projects were funded in different districts, there were also several projects that were happening across districts.

So I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what those were.

Sure, yeah, there were projects, and I can go back to that slide if it's helpful.

Oop, that's not the one.

Real quick.

Let me go back.

I'm gonna try it this way.

Back, back, here we go.

So here, the locations of the 34 completed projects.

And yes, there's a note here that seven of those projects took place in multiple districts.

And those are programs that maybe ran workshops in different neighborhoods, or they held rehearsals for their dance performance in one neighborhood, but performed in another.

Those are sort of where those numbers come from.

I want to sign up for a tour of murals.

Yes, great.

That would be great.

And then I wonder if you can talk a little bit about...

Oh, shoot.

I lost my question.

Can you go towards the end of the...

Sure.

The next cycle of funding?

Yes.

Oh, I know.

So regarding the placemaking and FIFA in particular, I think we've talked a little bit, Dr. Kareem, about what might be happening in the CID and I'm sure you've got questions about this as well.

I've also talked with folks at King Street Station, and I know that there is interest in ensuring that we don't have sort of a replication of what happened with MLB and that we are creating active, interesting things that keep people in the CID so they can spend their money there.

So I understand that this grant process is just beginning, but can you talk a little bit about what some of the ideas are there?

Yes, so we're working with our partners at Station Space at King Street Station to amplify the work they're already doing.

So First Thursdays is something that we open up the gallery for new exhibits and our partners downstairs are also correspondingly opening up their spaces and having events.

So that's just something we're sort of moving towards at the moment.

But the concept in general is to create sticky spaces, acknowledging that the way the infrastructure, the urban environment is designed.

So think about King Street Station.

It's really designed to be a place you arrive at and leave as quickly as possible, right?

Because you're taking a train.

and you're going somewhere else.

It's not really designed from the urban design standpoint to be a sticky space.

So however, in proximity to the stadiums, right, we have a tremendous opportunity of coming to King Street.

So acknowledging that FIFA is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we are looking at making King Street more sticky, as well as we're looking at the CID, areas in the CID, because these are areas we want audiences not just to come for the World Cup, but to linger, to consider coming early, to consider having post-game dinner or just hanging out and experiencing.

So some of the things we're thinking about is expanding on work that's already done, as I've mentioned, but also activating the plaza area, putting performances out there, putting out temporary public art, making destination artwork, so artwork that stays there that you can see from a distance that has a nighttime presence and a daytime presence, In essence, sort of announcing this isn't just a place that you come to to travel through, but a place you can come arrive at and engage with.

And that's what the way we're going to engage along our geographies as well.

So inviting artists to really bring their best ideas and resource those ideas.

There's one thing you should be aware of because of our funding pattern at the moment, this is all prototyping at the moment.

So we're prototyping these ideas so we can see what works.

And then FIFA, which is in 2026, that's going to be another, you know, we're working on what the funding source is at that time.

So we're hoping to sort of build towards it, engage communities now, engage our partners now in helping us dream towards what that future looks like.

Thank you.

Thank you for that question.

Thank you.

I just want to highlight that you said earlier 65 to 95% during the pandemic.

By the mid-pandemic, it was 95%.

And there's one thing I think because of the way the creative sector is composed of three times, so the general workforce, about 34% are gig economy workers, you know, people with temporary contracts.

So three times more likely in the creative sector.

Often people tend to think of workers in the creative sector as it's a hobby.

And actually it's not.

These are workers.

This is a workforce that generates significant revenue and gross domestic products.

So there is an economy there.

And that's actually something that we've got to overcome, that our assumptions that these are things that people do in their spare time.

I'm just so curious to see if that came back after the pandemic and what it looks like in the next couple of years and look for the future.

Well, one thing that I didn't share with you is the way in which the workforce could access unemployment benefits, for example.

So yes, it has come back, but it's come back late because when you have 1099s and W-2s, right, if you have a part-time job and then you have a bunch of contracts, when you went in during the pandemic to get the unemployment benefits, you had to choose.

So you had to either choose your 1099s or your W-2 income.

So when people did go in in the creative economy, they had to decide, right?

which arena to collect their unemployment benefits.

And also, the way in which the questions were geared was actually very difficult for people who had multiple 1099s in general.

So looking at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, they did report that the uptake from the creative economy was below what their target was.

So it was about 34% uptake.

So it just shows you that these are all national numbers.

It just shows you that really we didn't achieve what we needed to achieve in providing support for people in the gig economy during the pandemic.

I'm sorry.

Oh, go ahead.

Would you repeat that?

So only 34% of gig workers...

Of gig economy workers could access unemployment.

Okay.

Yeah.

So especially thankful for this programming.

And I have a quick question.

So there was a slide that said 3.7 million was funded.

Is that total to last since 2021?

Yes, that is total.

That's since the beginning of the program.

And so it's about a million a year.

Yes, and it's been one time each time.

Where's that funding coming from?

Is it from the Arts and Culture Office budget or is there another funding source?

The funding source is from our ad tax dollars, yeah.

Great.

Great.

Well, I'm...

Oh, Kazimierzaka?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And thank you, Director, for this insightful presentation.

And pardon my ignorance.

Can you help me, first off, clarify the proper pronunciation of your last name?

Oh, it came...

Kayim?

Kayim, yes.

All right.

Thank you, Director Kayim.

I appreciate this.

Very helpful.

And I'll be honest, my ears started perking up more when you started talking about FIFA.

Well, I've said it in multiple kind of formats and forums and on this committee and others.

FIFA is a top priority for me, my office, the city, and I think many council members, but and not just selfishly because a lot of the core games are going to be in my district in Soto, but the experiences are going to be, and there's plans.

And I met with folks from the mayor's office about this, but yeah, there's plans to have viewership opportunities across the city and places for people to connect.

So anything tied to World Cup is important.

I like your point.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I would say it's a once in a century opportunity.

We might never...

see this level of potential opportunity and impact in the next hundred years or so.

But four billion people, Four billion sets of eyes potentially watching this thing across the world.

One million conservative estimates of net new visitors into the city.

Who knows, we get some big matches, some countries that travel.

Huge opportunity, and we want people to experience the vibrancy of our city from an arts and cultural perspective, directly germane to this conversation.

but also we want people to have a safe experience in public safety, have reliable transit, easy to navigate, connect.

And we want everyone to benefit from the economic boost to our local economy here.

So yeah, World Cup is important.

Glad to see the overlay here.

Also be curious to, and it sounds like I'm hearing So the original purpose and goal, having heard your sort of report out here and the additional context from my colleague, Council Member Morales here, the original sort of purpose and goal and intent of this program, it was designed to address creators who were deeply impacted, especially from an equity perspective as a result of COVID.

And to your point, people who creating things and contributing meaningfully to our creative economy is more than just a side hustle.

And it sounds like there's been some good progress and I'm hearing that it kind of sparked and boosted third-party activations and work, which is exactly the kind of thing that it should be doing, ideally, because, yes, then, absolutely, the city government had a strong role, and many governments and private organizations, and we can't be solely responsible for some of the underlying challenges.

So glad to hear on that front.

You mentioned...

The funding source of this was a certain amount of one-time investments since 2021 totaled $3.75 million.

And those one-time investments, what was the source of those to your knowledge?

Was that COVID relief funds?

In the beginning.

Was that...

Yeah, in the beginning of the program, it was federal relief dollars.

That was a mix of what we got through the city, that was funneled through the city, as well as a significant grant from the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts.

The subsequent year, it was the payroll tax, jumpstart payroll tax revenues.

And then as Director KM said, it's been our arts and culture fund

So the admissions tax, the ad tax.

The what now?

The admissions tax.

Okay.

Can you share, so I see there's nine projects in District 1 that have been, or as part of 2022, 2023. What are some prominent examples offhand that people might recognize in District 1 that were created pursuant to this program?

And if you don't know right now, that's totally fine.

I was just curious, we can follow up offline, but if you happen to have any offhand, curious to...

I'm trying to think through the spreadsheet.

You're putting me on the spot here, but...

We should do a walking tour.

Yeah, I might have to sign up for a walking tour after this levy.

Yeah, there will be lots of murals, I can say that, this year.

All good.

I just don't want to misspeak on behalf of any of our grantees.

Fair enough.

But in any event, no, this is exciting work.

I appreciate the work you all do for our city in this space and really important work.

I would encourage you to lean into the FIFA aspect.

Also, personally, like...

This particular program made pursuant to address a very specific concern.

And as we move beyond the pandemic, I'm personally in favor of sunsetting programs and standing up new programs.

So if you're going to build something to address World Cup, start a new program and fund that through that.

Once we start extending the lifecycle and expanding scope of programs that were narrowly designed and tailored, It's anyway, so yeah, just how we administer these things and those kind of details matter.

May I respond to that?

Yeah, go ahead.

So what I think this program has demonstrated is that it's flexible.

So initially when we started out, it was citywide and it was focused on cross sector work.

So artists working in other sectors, which is how the WPA work really is sort of, it was inspired by that.

And as our new priorities have come up, we've been able to deploy it towards those new priorities.

And so from that standpoint, we are continuing to help skill build and resource underemployed artists, sometimes through organizations.

So organizations are also collaborators with us.

We certainly have indirect funding through funding organizations to hire artists.

So we've provided...

this resource and it's doing, it's a very flexible program.

I just wanna point that out.

And in terms of the future, we are hearing very clearly from the National Endowment for the Arts that their priorities are going to be in integrating the arts further into other sectors.

So arts and food, arts and social justice, arts and health, those types of things.

So in a way, this program is really also future forward.

in terms of how it's been structured.

So I would be very hesitant in just for the sake of starting something new, I just want to respond to what you're saying.

And then on the other side, starting new things just takes a heavy lift.

It's a great deal of push.

You can think about it as launching a rocket.

You've got most of your energy just to get it up there.

Before it floats.

So we should consider, obviously, what's working and what isn't working.

But in terms of starting something brand new, I'd just be very hesitant to do that without fully saying, is it doing everything we want it to do?

Can we deploy it to do other things, et cetera?

So that's just, I wanted to just sort of provide you with that context.

Thank you.

I have a potentially slightly different view of how we can best drive operational efficiencies, but I hear you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm on your website and love the pictures, and there's a list of different organizations who have gotten the grants and excited to hear about the next year of grantees.

So thank you so much.

Any additional questions, comments?

Thank you so much, council members.

Thank you.

And I'll be following up.

Don't worry.

I'll get you your data and I'll get you the invite for a downtown mural walk.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

We will now move on to our next item of business.

Will the clerk please read our next item into the record?

Agenda item two, appointment 2864, appointment of Don Lindell as general manager and chief executive officer of Seattle City Light for a term to May 31st, 2028 for briefing, discussion and possible vote.

Will the nominee and the chief operations officer from the mayor's office please come to the table.

Once ready, introduce yourselves and we'll start with Don's introductory remarks before opening up for comments and questions.

Yes, go ahead.

Chair.

Chair, would you mind if I did the introduction for Dawn, and then we'll let her start in?

Thank you so much.

Go for it.

Thank you.

I'll do my reading glasses.

I'm at that age now.

Chair Rue and members of the Council, my name is Marco Lowe.

I'm the Chief Operating Officer for the City of Seattle, working for Mayor Harrell, and in my portfolio proudly resides Seattle City Light.

We're excited to present Dawn Roth-Lindell to this committee as the potential new General Manager of City Light.

City Light is a critical story department within the city that is essential to us living in Seattle.

The lights come on, the oven bakes, the cars charge.

We take it for granted it's in the background, but so much work and leadership makes that happen.

Filling this position is scary when they tell you that we're going to have a new position open.

You start a process and you just dream of getting candidates like Don.

We did a national search that attracted candidates from across America from utilities that the workforce themselves were small cities.

From the earliest days of the search, Don's name was rising to the top.

She has an amazing resume that I'll let her walk through.

She has led major parts of organizations that I did not even know existed, and is recently coming from a utility in a very difficult, lively, and exciting power market of California.

In this position, City Light, we are finding at a crossroads.

I don't think it's ever easy to run this utility.

I'm old enough to remember when Enron raided our finances in the early 2000s.

But this is a unique moment for us and for the ratepayers and the residents.

After decades of relatively stable power usage, we're watching City Light power demands go up, and our current generating power will need to increase.

It's not just the electrification of our homes, but now we have people like me that bought electric vehicles and want to plug them in and charge.

We're also seeing wilder weather events.

The MLK weekend saw tremendously cold temperatures where City Light needed to keep people warm and safe.

We had a fall of 2022 when the rains that always come to replenish our reservoirs to continue our power creation did not arrive.

And we're seeing snowpack even today that's under average.

Also, City Light is in the middle of relicensing with the federal government, and we're working very closely with our tribal partners and other communities in that process.

And in the midst of all these pressures, we all expect City Light to keep rates as low as possible.

You don't get to choose to pay your power bill.

Sometimes if our rates get too high, somebody may choose between power, rent or food.

So the pressure to make sure our power is affordable as possible is ever present.

And yet in this moment, I'm so excited to present Don Rothlindell.

Even during the interview process, Don was very clearly going to tell us what we needed to hear, not what we wanted to hear.

that hasn't changed since she's arrived.

Even before she accepted, I had a conversation with her last year where I laid out everything I could that was concerning me beyond even the list I'm talking here publicly, and yet she's still here today.

Since arriving, she has led with that blunt honesty.

I'll see financial projections or power uses estimates that seemed a little rosy.

Dawn was in the job for a little while and those changed.

Councilman Morales mentioned the trauma that we all went through during COVID.

We know the city family went through it as well.

The people that were at home had children, loved ones, elders that we had to take care of, people that got sick.

Just even the management of our household changed.

But we also know there were many city employees that didn't get to stay home.

Many of them were at City Light.

They had to keep the power on.

And Dawn has to juggle that workforce.

Already she's gone down to Charles Street and met with those workers face-to-face.

They get to meet her and judge as well as you do.

So to wrap up her experience, her bluntness and her leadership, I believe is what we need and why the mayor and I are excited to present her for your decision and for the residents and also for the repairs of City Light.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am Dawn Lindell and I am the...

Is my mic not on?

Put it a lot closer.

A lot closer.

All right.

Thank you for the coaching.

Appreciate it.

All right.

I am Dawn Lindell and I am the current...

Interim General Manager and CEO for Seattle City Light, where I have served since February 20th of this year.

So it's great to be here.

Good morning, and thank you for taking the time to meet with me today.

I also want to start just by thanking each of you.

Council Member Wu, you and I spent time together as we drove to and from the Skagit operation.

where we got to visit with tribes and with our city employee team and learn about that operation.

I want to thank you for the wisdom and insight that you gave me during that time.

And then Council Member Morales and Council Member Saka, both of you have taken time out of your busy schedules also to meet with me, to share your priorities and tell me more about the good work that you do in this community.

And I really appreciate that.

I look forward to answering your questions as we continue with this confirmation process.

And I was really thrilled to be nominated for this esteemed position by Mayor Bruce Harrell.

I've greatly benefited from conversations with employees, from customers, regional leaders, community partners, and colleagues across the city, as well as business, environmental leaders, and tribal leaders.

Their insights and their experiences have helped me get to know more about the city and the utility, and more importantly, the people who live and work in Seattle and the surrounding communities and the wonderfully dedicated employees, the professionals at every level who work at Seattle City Light.

Examples from just yesterday include spending time in the morning with the Swinomish tribe for their annual blessing of the fleet and spending yesterday evening in the Pinehurst neighborhood with Council Member Moore and both Sarah and Tina from, or Nina, excuse me, both Sarah and Nina from Council Member Wu's office.

The tribe is a critical partner.

in our Skagit relicensing effort.

And in Pinehurst, we met with very caring neighbors, great people who are concerned about the reliability in their neighborhood.

So we were able to hear their concerns, talk about how we can address those concerns in the short term and also then in the long term.

And where we fall short, just helping them understand what the root causes of that were.

I'm excited to be at City Light, an environmental leader in this industry, because it aligns with my values for public service in the public utility sector and my passion for growing people and serving our customers.

As I have been coming up to speed, I realized that leading the city of Seattle's public electric utility and the largest department comes with many opportunities as well as many challenges.

This is an amazing organization made up of hardworking, dedicated professionals, as I said, at every level, working together to provide affordable, reliable, and environmentally sound energy for customers.

Every person at Seattle City Light deserves a culture where they feel included, valued and where they can bring their very best selves to work.

While City Light is a great place to work for many, we have fallen short in some areas with some concerning incidents in the last few years.

As the new leader, I vow to continue with the improvement to culture, and improving that to one where we can rapidly address and resolve issues and take the steps necessary to demonstrate our commitment to creating that culture.

On a different note, with more than 490,000 customers, I believe we have a responsibility to go beyond just keeping the lights on.

Also preparing for our energy future, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and equitably meeting the needs of the communities that we serve, including those who are underserved and underrepresented.

It's going to take a lot of ingenuity and innovation to find the right path forward for creating our energy future in a way that is reliable, affordable, and planet sustaining.

We will need to address how we meet the increasing energy load that comes with making the right legislative policies to increase building transportation and electrification.

This, I believe, is the adaptive challenge of our time.

A key part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the electrification of transportation and buildings.

Leading Seattle City Light through the challenges of supplying enough sustainable electricity to meet the increased load and doing so reliably and affordably is a challenge I savor.

Identifying and implementing new baseload generation sources and the transmission and distribution systems to move this energy is key to achieving just that goal.

To do so successfully, we must also actively plan and assess our hydro situation, rapidly develop demand response and time of use rates to shave our peak, And all of these measures are going to help us.

We also will work to meet the increasing demand by diversifying and expanding our mix of power sources pursuing purchase power agreements for geothermal, wind, and solar combined with battery storage.

we're going to keep our options open to new and emerging technologies.

Building partnerships with other utilities can lower implementation costs.

Building partnerships locally with businesses, nonprofits, tribal nations, environmental leaders, and others will drive innovation in our approach.

We will also focus on internal process improvement as a way of life.

We have to continue to reduce costs wherever possible and increase efficiency so that we can reinvest those resources in this adaptive challenge.

In the role of general manager and CEO of Seattle City Light, I plan to tackle these challenges head on.

forging tangible solutions, and looking toward building a positive, inclusive workplace where employees feel safe and supported.

Frankly, I can't wait to get started working with each of you as a collaborative team to make a real impact for Seattle City Light.

Thank you.

I'm so grateful for your informative, well thought out and authentic responses to our questions.

We sent 15 questions and received 30 pages in return.

Thank you so much.

I learned so much from reading through your responses.

I love learning about the passion you have for your employees, all the extensive experience you have with utilities and have similarities in the challenges we face today.

your upbringing in Indiana and the love you have for sustainability.

Even in your interim role, I learned you've already accomplished so much at Seattle City Light.

You signed solar purchase power agreements that will help us into a wholesale market, kept staff accountable to uphold physical and psychological safety in the workplace.

You've engaged with various stakeholders, including staff, agencies, tribal nations, and you could also speak on customer stories.

And I've heard amazing things.

about your visit to Pinehurst last night.

So thank you for all the work you've done in your very short time.

And at this time, I'd like to open this to my colleagues for questions.

Oh, I'll go if I might.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you for responding to our questions.

It was great to see all 32 pages.

If folks have not seen the responses, they are posted on the website.

So I would encourage people who are interested in these issues to go read them because they're very informative and really provide us with a rich understanding of your background and what you're bringing to this role.

So I appreciate learning about your priorities for a just transition for energy and greenhouse gas reductions, for protecting rate payers who are low income in our community and making sure that they are getting access to the service they need and that they can afford it.

And really for thinking, we had an interesting conversation about how to think strategically about a long-term plan for reducing our reliance on hydropower, understanding that that's how we do things here, but it certainly has some challenges and we do need to be thinking about what kind of a shift we might make.

So I appreciate that conversation with you.

You alluded to this, but for the benefit of the viewing public and for those who haven't read your responses, I would like to focus on the question of culture in the department.

And we also had a conversation about this in our meeting.

The city of Seattle has known for some time that we have a problem with workplace culture.

City Light has come under fire for sexual harassment, but it is not the only department.

We've been sued by women, particularly black women from our parks department, from our police department.

And we hear regularly from workers in departments across the city who are operating in a toxic work environment, who fear retaliation, who are treated poorly by their supervisors.

And the problem is pervasive enough that in 2018, we created an office of employee ombud to support city employees who are dealing with workplace misconduct, discrimination and harassment.

And the point of this office really is to be a watchdog for us, for our elected officials, for our departments, directors and supervisors to see how we are handling workplace discrimination.

So I say all that to acknowledge that this isn't your problem alone to solve.

We all as city leaders have a responsibility to hold our departments and our workers and our supervisors accountable for how workers in this city are treated.

And so I would like to hear from you.

Question five on the packet that we sent.

I'd like to hear just a little bit about your response.

So the question is, what are specific actions the department is taking to create a safety culture, particularly in preventing harassment?

And what is your philosophy on creating a safety culture for the department?

Sure, thank you.

So specific actions that we have taken to date predate me in part and will continue under my leadership and have been a little bit enhanced under my leadership as well.

So the first thing that we needed to do was ensure that our leaders understand their accountability, leaders at every level.

And the thing is, in a utility environment, we get great engineers, technicians, craft individuals, accountants, et cetera.

And these people, like in any profession, sometimes we look to the best of the best of them to promote them into leadership.

And it is a different set of skills.

So when someone becomes a supervisor, we need to make sure that they understand they have a different responsibility to work through people instead of doing the work themselves.

And they are accountable for creating the environment in which their employees work and ensuring that the culture in their individual areas is one that supports and ensures that employees feel safe.

And so setting that expectation is key and then providing them with the tools to do just that.

In addition, leaders have an accountability.

They have an accountability when someone brings forward a problem, they must address it.

Specifically in the area of harassment or sexual harassment, they are required to act on that information.

That wasn't clear to all leaders at MIT.

Seattle City Lights.

So what we have done is we have made mandatory classes on mandatory reporting so that every leader understands their requirement.

We also have developed training for individual employees that we will be rolling out that enables employees to understand when they go to their leader, what the leader's accountability is.

Because in some of the incidents that were reported, the employee requested that the leader not act.

That can't happen.

That's simply not a possible outcome for a leader.

A leader must act.

And so we need everyone to understand that, and we need to provide our leaders with the tools to do that.

So the first step really is training.

And it is not a one and done.

It can never be a one and done.

We need our leaders trained not only in those specific areas to address the urgent culture issues, but our leaders need training in how to work collaboratively.

They need training in problem solving and conflict resolution.

And we have new leaders come in as other leaders exit.

We have leaders promote, and we need to keep this training ongoing.

For this year and for next year, we're going to focus on this training for all existing leaders.

It never hurts to refresh every single time.

I've been in leadership for 30-plus years as I'm becoming a person eligible for senior discounts now.

Um...

And I still learn each time I take training.

I walk away with nuggets and reminders.

We've gotta sharpen our leadership saw, and we've gotta make that available for our employees.

Philosophically, And not even just philosophically, there is no way in my comprehension for us to achieve the incredible challenges faced by this industry right now, other than creating an environment where employees can engage with their full minds and their full hearts in their jobs.

I need them fully engaged.

I need them coming to work thinking not only in their current role, but in a broader perspective.

Employees who really care and who feel secure in doing that will do that for us.

That's what we need to overcome these challenges.

So it is crucial and critical for this utility in this community that we create that environment.

I really appreciate that answer.

And especially that last point about employees needing to be able to operate fully.

And because as I said before, it's not just your department.

We hear this from departments across the city and what it means for us as city leaders.

and for our community is that if we have employees who are coming to work and can't operate because they're afraid of retaliation, they're afraid of workforce hostility, they're in a toxic culture, they can't deliver for our community because they're worried about all these other things.

So I appreciate that you're coming in eyes wide open and with a plan and understanding that we as a city need to be doing much more to make sure that we are responding when we hear that our city workers are afraid to show up to work.

Because that just it doesn't just impact the workplace culture.

It impacts our ability to deliver city services to our community.

And so I appreciate that.

And I thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Council Member Osaka, do you have any questions?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And thank you, GM Lindell, COO Lowe.

Really appreciate the comments so far.

Couple of things, appreciate the collaboration and conversation that we had during our meeting a while back.

And first off, level set, this is, This is one of the most important, what we're doing now, this confirmation process is one of the most important things that we have to further our collaboration between the legislative branch and the executive and our partnership and our oversight.

And this is one of the most solemn duties that we have, what we're going through right now.

At our level of government, this is very, very important.

But I just want to, and I'm honored to be a part of this, my first department head confirmation process.

But I just want to acknowledge the great collaboration so far and the conversations that we've had.

And your comments now about culture, kind of touching upon and in line with some of our earlier conversations about culture towards the end of that conversation.

But yeah, culture is very important.

You and I talked a lot about the importance of driving efficiencies and improving systems and focusing on operational excellence and effective and efficient delivery.

in addition to maintaining strategic planning and all those things.

But culture is very, very important too.

And to Council Member Morales' point, there are culture challenges across departments and it is not new, but we have a urgent opportunity to make better progress and we need to do better.

And so I'm confident in your ability to make progress over time and culture and live up to those things we talked about in creating a truly diverse equitable and inclusive environment where everyone feels empowered to show up as their true authentic self, making sure the leadership team ultimately reflects the diversity and richness of the population here locally and kind of trickle down through all levels and dimensions of leadership.

And everyone is empowered, again, to share and have their thoughts and their views listened to, and accountability at all levels is important.

ending right here.

So I appreciate, you know, that kind of doubling down on that emphasis.

I wanna talk about A few things or questions about a few things.

One is you mentioned here and your questions and our conversation, the importance of electrification, very, very important.

I think for our city, our region, our state, our country, our world, electrification, very, very, very important.

And we need to do more.

We need to do more quickly.

as it relates to some areas of particular interest for me right now as chair of the transportation committee here, electrification efforts across our transportation sector.

So, you know, personal EVs, electrification of the port, drainage, et cetera, et cetera.

And I am a little concerned about You know, the pending vote to potentially impact or repeal the state CCA, uncertainty in our national you know, politics and about what the potential outcome of a presidential election might mean in terms of federal funding available for electrification efforts locally.

And, you know, we as a city have our own unique responsibility to invest you know, on our own.

But I am concerned about, you know, some of those other things and their potential impact on our ability to execute on our sustainability and climate goals as it relates to transportation.

And so I'm just curious to kind of hear your thoughts on how we can best Whatever level of investment we do have, what are your thoughts making sure that City Light, who will be kind of frontlining that work from a city government perspective, how are we best prepared to implement and build and help the city electrify

Sure, thank you for that question.

I appreciate that.

Well, as Chief Operating Officer Lowe said in his amazing introduction of me, thank you, that he is an EV owner, so am I.

And so coming into Seattle on that very first day as my husband and I traveled in Seattle, I was getting low on charging, on my charge, my electricity amount left, and went to look for a charging station downtown.

That was really challenging, because I would have had to pay to park and charge, not just charge.

So that right away opened my eyes to the need here, because I had to drive back outside of downtown to do my charging, and right away saw some opportunity.

In fact, I think in my very first meeting with our chief customer officer, Craig Smith, I mentioned, you know, we really got to work on our infrastructure here for customers, and he vehemently agreed.

So...

For this region, 61%, I believe it's 61% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector.

It's very much worthy of our focus.

At Burbank Water and Power, when I got there, we had about 20 charging stations that we owned and operated.

and about another 20 that the community, businesses in the community owned and operated, including the busiest Tesla charging station in the nation.

Happens to be at an intersection of a couple of big freeways, so that leaned into that.

When I left, we had, in both sectors, multiplied that by a factor of 10. We had 200...

utility-owned charging stations and 400 owned by the community.

I recently read a report that said between now and 2030, we need 8,000 charging stations in the city of Burbank to meet the need on just vehicle charging.

We are set to have 2,000.

So we've got ways to go.

We've got a gap to build there.

To help us with that gap, we've recently received a grant from the state giving us enough funding to both deliver and partner to deliver 1,500 charging stations.

So we're moving in the right direction.

And we will be rethinking how we own and operate infrastructure that we use to charge our own fleet, as well as infrastructure that we can put near multifamily housing.

And then also encouraging multifamily housing to let people charge within.

In the community I just left, I lived in an apartment there and charged my vehicle on site, paying the apartment complex extra to have a line dropped near my parking space where I could charge regularly.

And then I also charged at work.

Those were both level one charging, low level, 120 kV or 120 kV.

120 volt, you know, I'm used to bigger numbers, 120 volt outlets that just enabled me to stay charged into the range at which I need to be.

We've got to look for those kinds of solutions so that downtown every multifamily has the opportunity for its residents, no matter what their income level, to be able to charge their vehicles.

At Burbank, we also created an app And that app enabled anyone, we could do it from here, to be able to go online and compare electric vehicles.

We didn't just do that for new vehicles.

We did it for used vehicles.

What is the expected battery life in a vehicle that's X years old?

And what are the different used electric vehicles have in terms of functionality?

So that people could compare those and get comfortable with making their next vehicle purchase an electric one.

In the utility sector, we will find the right balance for electric vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles.

We are looking for the market to catch up, the vehicle production market to catch up to our need.

We cannot go all electric, and here's why.

Should we have a huge event that takes out the power in Seattle and its surrounding communities, an electric vehicle that's working, as our electric vehicles do, all day long, will last us four hours.

And so if we are out trying to restore power and we only have four hours to do it in, that's unrealistic.

So we will need some percentage of our fleet to be alternative vehicles, potentially hydrogen.

I actually worked with a person in Colorado Springs Utilities who went around to McDonald's and got used french fry oil, and his vehicle ran on that.

He had converted it to that.

So I think there's a lot of potential and ingenuity in how we go about doing this going forward, and we've got to figure that out.

So fully supportive.

I love that Seattle City Light is already fully engaged with King County.

on the conversion of our buses, our bus fleet, and providing the charging infrastructure for that.

Fully engaged with the Port of Seattle on electrifying.

In fact, I think that last port is visible from my apartment as the cruise ships come up and electrifying to make sure that they can, while in port, hook up to our electric grid and and pay us for the electric power that they use while here.

So I think there's a lot of opportunity.

We've also already been involved with the FIFO planning group to see what additional electrification we need, A, to ensure the lights stay on fully and completely during that entire event, and then also thinking long-term What charging infrastructure can we put in place for scooters and bikes so that people...

We make those available while people are here visiting, and then they continue to be available afterwards.

Yeah.

So thank you for that.

Appreciate those comments.

Final comment on electrification.

From my perspective, very important, urgent priority.

Again, from my perspective, I would just...

encourage you to think about flexibility and the importance of not locking in principles that we know to be true today.

The reason why is because I think as it relates to our electrification efforts across transportation broadly, I think it is a rapidly evolving and dynamic market.

Across transportation, categories and modes, whether it's you know, scooters or transit, port.

But especially, especially when I'm thinking of top of mind for this, from my perspective is cars, personal EVs.

And the market is, there's so much innovation going on and the pace of innovation.

What we understand today in terms of best practices might not be that case in 10 years.

And yes, level two and level three.

Level three, it takes an hour to go from empty to fully charged.

And an hour is great.

It's better than the level one with days.

It takes days in that standard plug-in.

Level two, four hours or something like that, whatever it is.

But level three, one hour, that still doesn't fully replicate the experience when fossil fuel burning vehicles, when people just go to the local gas station, pause for five minutes, fill up, and be on their merry way.

And the convenience factor is going to be crucial to adoption of EVs and deployment and how successful this is.

And so other areas of the world, including certain parts of China, Europe, they have battery swapping stations.

That's about the closest thing in my mind that replicates.

You just drive in, change your battery, and boom.

way less than an hour.

So I would encourage you as we build out and expand and scale our EV charging infrastructure, which we will from a city policy perspective and funding perspective, to also be mindful that innovation is still happening rapidly and to leave room for flexibility as the industry evolves over time.

Final thing, that's the final thing I'll say on that.

And just curious, in this role, you've been in this interim role for a few months, and hopefully many years longer after this process, what keeps you up at night?

What keeps you up at night as the leader of this organization?

Sure.

Well, many things.

I'm known for waking up at 2 and stewing for an hour, so I've worked it into the sleep routine.

But one of those items is ensuring that our grid continues to grow in response to the electrification, both building electrification and transportation electrification needs.

When we compare the strategic plan that we're developing right now to the one that was developed in 2022, we right now have forecasted that our building electrification needs, our load will triple in that space compared to where it was in 2022. Transportation electrification, we expect to climb 70% more in load than we did when we were looking at this in 2022. We are seeing the impact of the legislation on the actual change happening, and we are seeing the impact on our grid.

So that means we've got to make sure that we are preparing to build out the additional infrastructure that we will need.

We typically build so that we are normally operating at less than half capacity.

That allows us to surge, so we've got room.

We've got room in the near term, and in order to make sure that we can serve the surge, we've got to also strengthen that.

We've got to invest...

Because our infrastructure here in Seattle is aging, and it's aging gracefully, but it is aging.

So many of the...

Lines that we've got, transformers, et cetera, the infrastructure that we've got in place has a lifespan of about 40 years.

And we're at 50 plus in many of the cases.

So the great maintenance work that our crews have done has enabled us to extend the life of these assets, and we must be prepared to replace them and update them as we go.

And this includes the fleet that our folks drive.

We have vehicles that are, many vehicles, that are well past their prime, at 20 years plus.

I don't know how many of us drive a 20-year vehicle, probably very few of us, but these are working fleet vehicles, meaning that they don't just drive to the site, but if they're a bucket truck, they operate all day long.

I recently had the experience at South Service Center where I had a question from the crews, a gentleman on the crew who said, why do we have to keep driving these broken-down trucks?

And, you know, I commiserated and said, gosh, I'm sorry you had that experience.

And I said, well, how many of you have had a truck break down on the job?

every hand went up.

And that's indicative of the age of the fleet, right?

We all know as our cars get older, they break down more often.

That happens.

Even really well-maintained vehicles, that happens.

So we're spending $1,000 an hour every time that happens.

Better to invest that in fleet vehicles.

And we do have $40 million worth of fleet vehicles, about 29 of them on order.

So we are working on that as well.

Our planning department, under the engineering genius of Andy Strong, is looking at a 10-year out and even 20-year out view of the utility to see where we need to actively update.

So I believe that we're doing the right planning, and now we've got to make the investment to make that happen.

A second area that will always keep me up as a 15-year chief information officer is gonna be around the area of cybersecurity.

We need to advance our systems.

We are, in my opinion, granted, I am a CIO, so I might be a little biased, but in my opinion, we're about 10 years behind where we need to be in terms of our system.

Typically, utilities have already got in place an advanced distribution management system.

Why that's important is because we need to have distributed management.

of our resources, including additional solar, much more wind, et cetera.

So the old model of bringing on from a few great hydro sources is not adequate, and we've got to have a system that will operate at the speed of light and let us integrate this energy.

We have yet to put that in place.

We've applied for our $45 million GRIP grant to help us do just that, and I hope that we get that.

If we do get it, we have a $45 million match, and I will be right here back in front of you looking for an appropriation to make sure that we can meet our match.

But that's just one example.

And then as we advance our technology, we've got to make sure that it remains secure.

We have adversaries that absolutely look at a city this size as a place where they wanna tap.

and we need to make sure that that doesn't happen.

And finally, we've got to look at our workforce.

We've got to make sure that we are not planning just for the workforce we have today and training them to be able to have succession up into the needs of today, but we've got to be looking out.

Artificial intelligence is an area where there is great potential for us in more rapidly identifying the condition of our assets.

We need people who are thinking like that.

We need analytics and analytical support, and we've got to be thinking about what we might need 10 years from now, and then beginning to think about how we partner with our schools and our universities locally to ensure that that workforce is ready to step in.

So those are three.

No, no, that's very helpful.

And as a former cybersecurity attorney, tech lawyer, Former Air Force intelligence officer, I understand firsthand and share your priority and concern, frankly, about cybersecurity and vulnerabilities that it presents.

And I know I'm very familiar with the adversary threat, and it is a real challenge.

And so I'm looking forward to...

partnering together to address that head on and on a going forward basis, but I'm glad you are already thinking about it, so.

Final question in 30 seconds.

So I asked you the kind of uncomfortable question, what keeps you up at night?

But to end on my end of this line of questioning on a slightly more hopefully optimistic note and talking about terrorist attacks and cybersecurity vulnerabilities and all these things.

But what gives you the most sense of hope and optimism about the department going forward?

What are you most excited about?

This team and the teams that they lead.

I've spent a lot of time, not nearly as much as I want to, but a lot of time with people where they work, whether that's up at Skagit or in the control center or in the service centers where they don't actually work, but where they pick up their trucks to go to work.

spent time with people on power marketing issues, et cetera.

This team and the talent that Seattle has drawn in to Seattle City Light is amazing, amazing.

And I am really confident in their ingenuity, their innovation, their adaptability, their willingness to be agile and bring change aboard.

and tackle things in a new way.

They are super impressive and I am so lucky to get to work with them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have one question.

It's very clear that you value your staff and employees, and I love your plan for ensuring that there's a pipeline of apprenticeships and others to step into leadership roles.

This ties into, I believe, question four.

You said at least three employees should be ready to step into leadership roles.

With the many vacancies and the hiring freeze, how do you see succession planning and this pipeline of employees growing?

Certainly.

With the plan we've got on culture improvement around training leaders, I think that will help quite a bit.

And we are actually initiating work around both the right org structure to lead us for the next few years, thinking about organizational structure in the long term and what that should look like and thinking about leadership development and what we need in terms of skill sets for the long term.

So...

In the short term, we have some people who are ready to step up, and I'm excited about that.

And we also have opportunity to bring people in from external, and I think actually both are important.

It's important to have that fresh perspective, and it's also important to have that depth of knowledge and depth of experience right here.

I also think we need to think about maybe expanding our workforce in the area of environmental work.

We've got a wonderful set of highly qualified scientists who help us in that arena.

I think it may be time to add a sustainability officer, fully focused just on that, as opposed to one who's got a multifaceted focus, because things are changing so rapidly.

with that load increase in that space.

And we probably need to look there.

And we need to make sure that we've got the technologists in place who are able to support the technology we need to bring in.

That's another area.

And finally, with the increasing work we've gotta do on that grid to build up that load, we are gonna need to make sure we've got the right number of crews in space, in space, in place.

We might need crews in space too, but crews in place.

And then ensure that we're also thinking about not only the traditional crew work, but the non-traditional work like maintaining EV charging stations, for instance, that we typically haven't done.

and how we train for that.

So it's a broad focus at this point, casting a wide net and thinking about what we need and how we can prepare employees to get there.

Awesome, thank you.

I failed to mention and acknowledge that Council Member Moore has joined us.

So colleagues, are there any additional questions or comments?

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to say thank you very much to soon-to-be Director Lindell for our public meeting yesterday with the Pinehurst neighborhood and all the other staff that attended.

I know that's a neighborhood in District 5 that has chronic power outages for a whole host of reasons, and they were feeling very frustrated.

And I really appreciate the willingness to go out and actually sit with them and listen to their concerns and give them honest answers as well as points of action to move forward.

So if that's the leadership that's going to be under you, I am very encouraged.

So thank you for that.

Oh, thank you.

It was really an interesting and enjoyable evening.

I appreciate getting the chance to hear firsthand from our customers their perspective.

I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 2864. It is moved and seconded to confirm the appointment.

Are there any further comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Chair Wu?

Yes.

The motion carries, and the committee recommendation that the council confirm the appointment of 2864 will be sent to full council on June 4th.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We look forward to seeing you then.

Okay, I believe...

We will now move on to the last item of business.

Will the clerk please read items three and four into the record?

Agenda items three and four, Council Bill 120786 and 120787, an ordinance relating to the City Light Department accepting the following easements for electrical distribution rights in King County, Washington, placing said easements under the jurisdiction of the City Light Department and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

For briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

So once ready, please go ahead and introduce yourselves.

Thank you.

Again, this is Dawn Lindell, Interim General Manager and Chief Executive Officer.

I am Greg Sanswich, Manager of Real Estate Services for Seattle City Light.

Andrew Strong, Interim Officer for Environmental Engineering and Project Delivery.

Good morning still, right?

Yes, still good morning.

Eric McConaughey, Council Central Staff.

And Mark Harlow, Chief Operating Officer.

All right, today we are here to seek approval for what is considered routine electric utility actions.

The Seattle City Charter requires that all acquisition and disposal of real property interests must be by ordinance.

City Light periodically, typically annually, requests that City Council accept by ordinance all the electric service easements acquired through land use permitting actions since the previous ordinance.

We have two related ordinances before you today.

Distribution Easement Acceptance Ordinance and Platted Easement Acceptance Ordinance.

Greg Sanswich, City Lights Real Estate Program Manager, will run through a quick slide deck outlining what is included in the two ordinances before you for a vote today.

Thank you again for your time and attention.

Morning, Council.

Thank you for having us this morning.

This will be a quick and brief introduction to why we're here.

Seattle Charter requires all acquisitions and dispositions of real property to be through ordinance through City Council.

And today we have two packages we're presenting.

We'll do it in one presentation just for simplicity and clarity.

The first package we're representing is the distribution easements.

These represent easements for our service to our customers.

We have 51 within the distribution package.

These are necessary anytime City Lights infrastructure crosses over private property, whether overhead or underground.

And on the slide above, you can see an example here.

We've put a simple illustration of a line crossing a private property.

The red circle represents a telephone, a power pole.

And the red line is the service line crossing the private property on the right there.

And so we would need an easement across that property.

Another more complex example is over on the right-hand side of the slide, which shows some other infrastructure we would have on a bigger development providing more power and more service, a transformer and switch and other infrastructure necessary to provide power to that lot on the top of that illustration.

The other package we have represents 182 easements.

These are through what we call platted easements.

These are anytime there's a lot boundary adjustment or a short plat or a reconfiguration of a property.

These allow us to get easements across those properties to ensure we have ongoing service operations and maintenance capacity for that power.

And that concludes the presentation.

So any questions we're open to, but otherwise it's pretty straightforward from an operational standpoint.

It's a slight insight kind of into the operations on the day-to-day of what we do.

Are there any questions or comments?

It seems pretty straightforward.

So I move that the committee recommend adoption of council bills 120786 and 12787. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to adopt the resolution.

Are there any further comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll on adoption of bills 120786 and 120787?

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Chair Wu?

Yes.

There are four in favor.

Awesome.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the recommendation to adopt these council bills be sent to full council on May 28th.

So just for the record, the Seattle City Light confirmation will take place on full council on June 4th.

And thank you, Don, for...

being through the nominee process and then staying to work on this immediately after.

And also congrats and I'm excited to see you at full council on June 4th.

And so this easement ordinance will go forward to full council on May 28th.

We had to do some scheduling workarounds for availability.

So thank you everyone for understanding.

So we have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Hearing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

Thank you.