Council Briefing 5/4/26

Good afternoon.

Today's May 4th.

The council briefing will come to order.

The time is 2.03 p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Lynn.

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Councilmember Sacca.

Here.

Councilmember Strauss.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Council President Hollingsworth.

Here.

Seven present.

Councilmember Juarez and Councilmember Lynn are excused.

If there's no objection, the minutes of April 27th will be adopted.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are adopted.

Today, there are no presentations or proclamations.

There are seven items on the introduction and referral calendar, and there are two executive sessions.

Next Monday, May 11, council briefing is canceled.

A cancellation notice has been issued.

Colleagues, I've talked to you all, and I will go around, but us trying to figure out a cadence for council briefing and trying to fit it into a lot of the information that we have coming down to the pipeline.

So I will be talking to you all individually about scheduling our council briefings that are appropriate to some of the council actions as well.

Just a heads up, we have that canceled next Monday.

Also the full council meeting on Tuesday, May 26th is canceled as well.

So that is May 26th.

That is the day, Memorial Day weekend.

And so that Tuesday we will have it canceled and the following week we'll resume.

all of our, well, we'll have business that week, but we'll take on the full council meeting the following week.

There are no signing of proclamations to sign today.

We will begin our discussion on the preview of city council actions, council and regional committees.

I guess we'll start, I think last time we started with our left.

Is it okay if we start on our right today?

Awesome.

Council Member Rivera, I know, surprise.

Surprise.

I sat here, so I shouldn't have been that surprised.

I don't want to scare anyone from not sitting here, because you never know, but Council Member Rivera.

I know you're keeping us on our toes.

I appreciate that, Council President.

All right, colleagues.

Last week, I'll go with what I worked on last week.

As you all know, last Wednesday, the Families Education Preschool Promise Implementation and Evaluation Plan was transmitted by the mayor to the council.

I know you've all received that legislation.

I'll be reviewing that legislation.

I'm working with central staff, and my office will let you know next steps for the committee schedule.

Sadly, I do want to say the mayor had a press conference last week to announce transmittal of the INE, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention it was impacted by gun violence, which occurred yet again in our city.

Luckily, no one was injured.

As you all know, colleagues, public safety is something I deeply care about, as I know we all deeply care about.

And as I said in a statement last week, it was jarring to realize that the local children identified the gunfire instantly.

As you know, last year I put forward in the 2026 budget some funding for gun violence intervention, either summit or symposium as part of that.

I've been having ongoing conversations with a national leader in the gun violence intervention efforts, David Kennedy.

His organization, the National Network for Safe Communities, which I identified in that CBA, has worked with many cities, including Baltimore and Philadelphia, to significantly reduce gun violence, I'm still working with to figure out what this looks like as we tackle gun violence here in our city.

I will say it's really important that we have this conversation not in silos, but together.

And this is really the crux of what I'm trying to do is really make sure we're all working together and having a unified voice and a unified conversation on what this looks like.

I've also reached out to the mayor's office about this and the city attorney and the prosecuting attorney.

So more to come on all that will yield.

But I know that this is something we all care about, and I want to make sure we are all having this conversation together at some point in the near future.

Last Wednesday was Denim Day, and the Council President and I had a tour at Magnuson Park, so we missed the photo.

But I was wearing denim that day, and I also had the great pleasure and opportunity to meet with the Seattle Women's Commission.

I so appreciate what they do, and I really appreciated learning about their priorities and goals, and so that was part of what I did on Denim Day, and that was really great.

They're working on some really important things, and I feel really lucky and fortunate that we have a women's commission, and I look forward to working with them in the future here.

Also, last Friday, I attended the Association of Washington Cities Legislative Priorities Committee meeting.

I sit on the committee.

We talked a lot about the importance of the legislative work to all the cities, and we really had sort of a recap of the last legislative session and sort of just an opportunity to talk about what we might care about moving forward.

We did not set a legislative party's agenda coming up, but we started the conversation.

So that was really great.

I really enjoy my participation on the Association of Washington Cities.

Many of the cities are really all of them.

We all have similar challenges that we are working on, and it feels very much like a unifying piece to serve on that association.

No matter how big or small, the issues seem to be very similar, and so really appreciate having the conversation together.

Whether we agree on some aspects or disagree on others, we come to a compromise piece on what the agenda will look like for the legislative session, and I really, like I said, appreciate being part of that conversation and representing our city.

Last week, I also met with small businesses that are members of the University District Partnership, which is our BIA in the U District.

I really appreciate all the work that the BIA does.

Want to give a shout out to our friend who runs the BIA there, and I'm having one of those moments where I cannot think.

What's his name?

Don Blakeney.

Don Blakeney.

Goodness, Don, apologies.

And I'm like thinking of five things all at once in my head.

But Don does really great work, and he's a really great partner in the district.

And all the small businesses had an opportunity to share out what their challenges and their concerns are.

And I really appreciate hearing that because as I represent the district, the small businesses are also constituents that I very much care about.

And as you all know, there are a lot of challenges that run the gamut.

And I will say I've heard a lot from not just businesses in the U District, but throughout the district about the break-ins and repeated break-ins that they've had to weather, which is not okay.

And it is something that continues to be just something that we are having I will be honest, a hard time managing for.

We are working with SPD, of course, and they're great partners at SPD.

And I know that SPD wants to be able to solve all of these break-ins.

And it has been, as you all know, challenging because it's not unique to the district I represent.

it's across the gamut.

So I really appreciate all the small businesses in the district and all they do, you know, and I just feel for them.

A lot of them are mom and pops that are just trying to make a living.

And so we really need to give and continue to focus to the small businesses in our city.

And then I will say, I also attended the Alliance for Education Gala on Saturday.

It was great to see so many leaders in education and philanthropy at the event, including our very own director, Dr. Duane Chappelle.

The mayor was there as well, and our friends from Seattle Public Schools were there as well.

So that was really a great event in support of education across our city.

This week, I had my regular check-in with Chief Barnes, where we talked a lot about those small business break-ins.

I so appreciate the work that they're doing.

And then I want to give a special note of gratitude and shout-out because of their efforts at Magnuson Park.

And I will say this is the first weekend, even though the weather was amazing, that I did not get any emails or calls over the weekend or today related to Magnuson Park, and that goes to the chief's community policing efforts there at the park.

So I really wanted to give a special shout out to Chief Barnes and the community officers that are doing the work there, our police officers who are doing the community policing work there at the park for all their efforts.

that has made a big difference in the district.

So thank you to them.

And then lastly, I will say this Thursday, I'll be touring the Evergreen Goodwill location.

They invited me to come tour.

They have a proposal for the siting of 1,000 to 2,000 units of affordable housing there, and they wanted to share their plans with me. and I really look forward to touring that space because even though this may not be the district that I represent, we all very much care about affordable housing and I appreciate all opportunities to learn more about the work that's happening across the city toward the affordable housing efforts.

So unless anyone has any questions, I will pass it over to my colleague, Council Member Kettle, to think about your name, Bob.

Just kidding.

No questions?

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Barron.

To bridge that moment, I always start off with the Public Safety Committee, and I do want to thank Don Blakeney for his work on the public safety side.

I know from the BI there's the business pieces, because of the public safety challenges.

He does a lot of work there and it's kind of like Aaron Goodman in District 1 and all the districts has their equivalents to include like John Scholes in the DSA downtown, the greater downtown pieces that are done.

So thank you to all of them because it's definitely value added in terms of the efforts that we're doing on public safety.

Now, with that said, we have two meetings for the Public Safety Committee meeting coming up this month, and we're breaking away from some of the work that we're doing to first on the 12th, so a week tomorrow, it's going to be Accountability Partner Day to two parts.

First is going to be OIG with SPD to talk about Cal Anderson protests, the SEER that was done, the Centennial Review, and kind of debrief that a bit.

and then the second piece, we'll have the three accountability partners sitting side by side here at the table to basically give a state of play where they are and the issues, budget, whatever it may be from their perspective.

So that's for the 12th.

And then two weeks after that, it's gonna be primarily OEM, but others too, in terms of speaking to preparedness for the World Cup, emergency preparedness, all those aspects to ensure that basically give an opportunity to show and highlight the different aspects.

I just got a briefing today as it relates to the Finance Committee, related to the World Cup and some of the finance pieces, but they relate primarily to public safety.

And so it's important to have that kind of brought to the surface to a degree so that the public can hear what's going on, how the different departments play in this.

And so it's really important.

Okay, for this week, A lot of meetings with various departments that's already started today.

I'm having a meeting with Juan Cato, a community leader, and it's related to a honorary street designation for Kevin Shea, who was killed in action back in 2006, military.

So there's those pieces, sound foundations, with the Hope Factory on Thursday, and then Friday, our District 7 Neighborhood Council, our quarterly meeting with all the community councils from each of the neighborhoods come together for the D7 NC, which now has created an offshoot, by the way, the Urban Communities Community Council, which brings in Cap Hill into the greater downtown piece of that.

And I think that's great because it's a way for these neighborhoods to come together.

And that will be held in Queen Anne.

And after that will be a discussion with Queen Anne Community Council and others related to Queen Anne Pool.

For those that don't know, there's a massive leak.

You know, it's a historically significant location and there's a lot of challenges.

It's old and a lot of work had to be done to really ascertain what the issue with the pool is.

And the pool, it's the Queen Anne pool, but it's not a Queen Anne pool asset.

It is broad in terms of the people, like indoor, you know, year-round.

and unfortunately has a major leak.

It's like dropping four loads of each month of water.

I mean, we just can't have it.

So we're gonna step forward on that and the better part of a year and a half to fix, it's gonna be painful.

And for those who have kids who particularly are in swim teams, the dynamic, the ripple effects in terms of schedules, everybody's gonna have to get up at 3 a.m.

in order to get to practice.

And then Saturday, Queen Anne Farmer's Market is starting up.

You know, it has its kind of soft start.

And so I just want to highlight, you know, the farmer's markets.

In this case, Queen Anne Farmer's Market.

Very good.

Next week, you know, I'll be doing more site visits.

I'm going to speak to this later, but I'll be down at McDonald's on 3rd.

And, you know, talking, it's going to be a little different angle there with 3rd Pike and Pine, talking about that.

and then later that day, very important, I'm not gonna say anything more, but except to say that I'm gonna be attending a certain town hall that's basically going to be hosted by my colleague here, Councilmember Strauss, just promoted you, for a different version of the Dan and Bob show, but this is going to be broader as it relates to sound transit.

I'm not going to say anything more.

You got it.

Inspire Washington next Tuesday in Cultural Futures.

We'll be doing some with MLK Labor and Public Safety on Wednesday.

And then I also want to note on Friday of the Pacific Science Center, PacSci Ignite Luncheon.

And I bring this up because Mr. Will Doherty, who's been the CEO of Pacific Science Center, will be stepping down.

And it's a big moment in terms of stabilization of the Pacific Science Center.

And it's also a transition where the Pacific Science Center is getting reintegrated, if you will, into the Seattle Center experience.

And so that's going to be a big moment, so Friday of next week.

I just wanted to note from last week, I had great meetings at Lake Union Dry Dock on Wednesday and then MSC Cruises.

I meet with all the various cruise lines and the work that comes in, because it's incredible what happens with that in our city, particularly because we're a logistical hub, too.

It's fantastic.

but also highlights the maritime piece.

Going to be working this.

I'm also working with the Port of Seattle on something, which I'll update later.

But, you know, just trying to keep pushing the maritime aspects, whether it's Lake Union Dry Dock, which is on the border between D7 and D3.

I think most of it's actually in D3, and that's not, you know, I just have a sliver of pieces of it.

But anyways, that's really important.

And then last Thursday, I went into D6 to Catherine Blaine.

an hour and a half with eighth graders talking about federal law enforcement and kind of framing it as it was interesting as council member Kettle, but also as commander Kettle and also as first generation little boy in the 70s Kettle because of the changes.

And I highlighted to them, by the way, and I don't think a lot of people appreciate this.

9-11 had such a dramatic impact in terms of where we were before in the 70s with INS, like me taking the green card down to the post office, and where we are today.

And it impacts what's happening as it relates to federal law enforcement today.

So it was an interesting conversation with these eighth graders, had great questions.

But the last thing I want to end is, and Councilmember Lynn's not here, but on Friday last week, we had the Rainier Beach Safety Walk.

It was a great event.

with representatives from the county, from the school district, from the community, various community groups.

Myself and obviously Councilmember Lynn's team, we were kind of the host.

And just to go into these various stopping points and talk about the issues and talk about who's who, how that we can be working better together, what things need to be happening.

It was a, you know, three principals from the schools that are in that small geographic area.

And it's good to see the parents, because the parents were involved as well, and to hear their viewpoints and their perspectives, in addition to more broadly community members.

and it is a team effort and that's the takeaway is that you have to have a team effort.

And on the government side, we really need to work with our county counterparts on things like gun violence intervention prevention and particularly because that too is a regional problem that we have.

I just wanted to thank everyone involved for that, and particularly for Councilmember Lin's team, who basically was the coordinator of that public safety walk.

And by the way, this is the second one, because I did one in North Beacon Hill into Little Saigon and the CID more broadly.

So it's not just the Bob and Dan show, it's becoming the Bob and Eddie or Eddie and Bob show as well, multiple times in community.

But it won't match Magnolia though.

Any questions?

Alright, over to my colleague from District 6.

Thank you, Councilmember.

You demonstrate that we are, especially as district electeds, are elected by the people in our district and yet we all still represent the entire city of Seattle.

Noting that you oftentimes have district office hours in District 6 and I actually fundamentally appreciate that because it's all of our job to work together to serve all Seattleites.

And so with that, the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee will be meeting tomorrow.

We have three items on the agenda.

The first is a briefing on the Centennial Accord with Gordon James.

This is a very special experience because Gordon comes from the Washington State Governor's Office of Indian Affairs.

And so Gordon will be walking us through a training on the Centennial Accord.

This is a very big deal and we're very lucky to have him.

The second item is a briefing and potential vote on a bill that allows us to accept grants for putting on the FIFA World Cup and enters into a local agreement with the World Cup Local Organizing Committee.

Colleagues, this is one time that I would like to have an exception to my two-meeting rule because we are in a tight timeline for FIFA World Cup.

So thank you, Councilmember Kettle, for already receiving your briefing.

I did ask the mayor's office to brief all council members, especially on the committee.

And so if everyone's comfortable, I'll bring it for a vote tomorrow and that will go to full council next week.

This bill does have one technical amendment that cleans up a small typo in the number amounts.

of those grants, and so we'll be putting forward that technical amendment.

The third item is our first of two hearings on Dwight Dively's nomination to be the director of the Office of City Finance.

As you may recall from the way I run it, is the first meeting is more about the background, the resume, who are you, how did you come here.

For many of us, we know with Director Dively very well.

I always remind that this is for those people watching on Seattle Channel that don't necessarily know us from Sam.

So the first meeting will be focused on the resume.

The second meeting that we'll have him will be answering the questions in which we've submitted.

We have passed that deadline.

We have submitted the questions.

If folks still have questions that they want Director Dively to answer, please talk to me and my team.

Moving on to my external committees, Sound Transit.

As you have heard, there's a lot going on.

And so anyone that wants to receive a more in-depth briefing from me, I'm happy to provide it at any time.

The Sound Transit Executive Committee is the committee that is responsible for putting forward the different approaches that they have started with.

As you heard, not having Ballard on the map is unacceptable to me. that is what the approaches have demonstrated.

And so we will see this Thursday, May 7th, what we expect to receive from the executive committee, from the chair's package, as to what the upcoming approach will be.

So I'll be attending that meeting, even though I don't sit on the committee.

That also brings up, Councilmember Sokla, thank you for scheduling my Safe Streets Bill and your committee for 9.30 that morning.

I'll be with you from 9.30 to 10. and then I'm gonna go advocate for West Seattle and Ballard down in Sound Transit.

So thank you for letting me do well, helping each other out here.

So that will be this Thursday, May 7th at 10 a.m.

From there, and actually before there, tomorrow, Transportation Choices Coalition is holding a town hall here at City Hall about the future of light rail.

It will be in Bertha Knight Landis Room May 5th, doors at 5.30, program starts at 6. This is again hosted by TCC and held here at City Hall.

Then comes this Thursday's executive committee.

Next Monday, I should say, is what Councilmember Kettle referenced.

And I want to be thankful for my 36th delegation partners.

It's not just the state delegation.

It's also Councilmember Jorge Barone, Councilmember Kettle.

We all work together as a good team.

So we will be joined by Sound Transit for what I have told them, a 15-minute, seven-slide maximum presentation because we're here to hear from the community.

and we will be located Monday, May 11th at 6pm at the National Nordic Museum.

You've all heard my very clear stance, leaving Ballard off the table is completely unacceptable.

and so this is a chance for the public to let Sound Transit know what they think through question form.

I am hoping that we don't have too many statement questions with that.

And we will be joined by Councilmember Kettle, Senator Noel Frames, Representative Liz Berry, Representative Julia Ree, King County Councilmember Jorge Barone, and we have invited all North King representatives to Sound Transit.

Members of the public can go on my website to find out more information in RSVP.

In District 6, in place of my normal weekly office hours this week, I am changing it to meet about comp plan amendments, so I'll be going over comp plan zoning maps with residents, and we will get back to our regular cadence on office hours next week, as well as I'll be adding a weekend office hours block sometime this month.

So with that, thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

I'll take any questions.

Seeing no questions, I will pass it on to Councilmember Rank.

Thank you.

Well, first and foremost, I hope everyone had a good weekend.

It was gorgeous out.

I hope everyone just got out in the sun and enjoyed themselves.

It was good to see so many of our neighbors out also enjoying themselves.

So looking forward to this summer.

Just to dive into a brief committee update.

This week, the resolution sponsored by myself and Councilmember Foster addressing the KCRHA Forensic and economic evaluation next steps will be transmitted to the IRC.

This resolution is scheduled to be heard and scheduled for a vote of the Human Services Labor and Economic Development Committee meeting on Friday, May 15th before heading to full council.

Central staff will be connecting with your offices this week to hand off copies of the resolution and will be available to answer questions ahead of the May 15th committee meeting.

Additionally, during the May 15th committee meeting, we will hear and vote on the appointment confirmation for Beto Yarce as the Director of Office of Economic Development.

I encourage any council members, committee members or not, please attend.

Without walking through everything I was up to last week, I just wanted to briefly touch on three major community events that I wanted to highlight for today's briefing.

The first of which was last Monday.

I joined alongside the mayor's office.

I think folks saw that the mayor had administered and put out a renter survey and got thousands of responses.

Since then, they have been scheduling these kind of junk fee town halls to take a focused approach of engaging folks on different kinds of junk fees.

I joined for one of those, the one hosted at the University of Washington to engage our student population and just understand what are kind of some of the junk fees that they might be experiencing or having to pay that was put on in partnership with YDSA and UAW-4121.

It was just a great discussion with some of our students and residents.

The second event I wanted to highlight was last Thursday with the Office of Labor Standards actually in District 2 at the Chinese Information Services Center.

This is the May Day Big Outreach Event.

This is an event that OLS does annually to do outreach to small businesses about the work that OLS does.

It was really great to be joined alongside Councilmember Foster as well as Councilmember Lynn to do that work.

And we had a number of our labor partners and contract and provider organizations that work alongside businesses there as well.

And lastly, I wanted to highlight a visit that I had on Friday to the Recovery High School and Bridges program in District 7. For those who aren't aware of this program, it's tremendously important.

It's primarily funded through Seattle Public Schools, but when we're thinking about an afterschool third space for teens and young people in recovery, can't underscore the importance of that.

So being able to sit down with young folks who are part of that program and just see the real value of having that community space and connection throughout recovery is just so important.

So I wanted to uplift that.

If you haven't had a chance to visit with the program, I would highly encourage it.

and those are my updates for today.

Thank you.

All right.

Where to start?

Okay, last week was really a busy week.

I will share over the weekend, I had a fantastic time.

I was able to attend the Mount Baker neighborhood cleanup Saturday morning and do some trash pickup.

I also got my 13-year-old out there with me who is big on the micro trash, so that was a lot of fun.

But, you know, colleagues, we heard a lot a few weeks ago from business owners in Mount Baker in regards to the challenges that they've been having in their community, and it was really important to be out with folks, many of the folks who were here in council chambers testifying were also there on Saturday at the trash pickup and really, I think, appreciated the engagement.

And many of them are out there every week or at least every first Saturday, and so I just want to express my gratitude to them for their leadership.

It was also Neighbor Day, so that was a great moment.

There was lots more folks out there volunteering, but just very clear the leadership that's coming from that community and helping make sure that we are keeping our streets safe and clean.

So shout out to those folks.

Staying in South Seattle for a second, my team also attended the safety walk on Friday.

I wasn't able to be there myself, but I was glad that my chief of staff was able to attend.

I believe at the time I was busy, I had my meeting with Amazon and their leadership or lobbying team just to start building that relationship.

So appreciate them for coming in.

Over to D2, sorry, D3.

Had a fantastic time with the Central District Preservation Authority and got a chance to visit their space where they are working hard to bring in entrepreneurs and really do some really just fantastic community revitalization, economic development.

And I really enjoyed, I know there's been other council members who've been out to their location.

And colleagues, as you're hearing from any small businesses who may be looking for opportunities and spaces to rent.

Just a really, really fantastic opportunity there.

Moving up, I had a chance to be with the Refugee Artisans Initiative in D5.

I know some colleagues went to, and Councilmember Juarez is not here today, their grand reopening.

And we'll just put in another plug to say a really special place where they are employing refugee women and really focusing on skills training, language development, and like making really beautiful things.

and they shared with me there is over 300 women on their wait list to get into their program right now.

So that is something I just wanted to come and bring back.

And not only are they doing that work, they're activating this fantastic storefront space right in Lake City and bringing foot traffic into that community.

So I'll just share that so we all have it on our radar.

If we know of employers for their skills training program, that is something that they've asked for support with so that they can continue to graduate women from that program and bring folks off of that waitlist.

So I wanted to share that back with you, colleagues.

And I'll be brief with my last things.

Got a chance to launch Seattle Civic Magazine this Saturday, which is really exciting.

A nonprofit group that's bringing back another arts and culture print piece.

which you just have to love today when so many things have gone online to get to walk in and get this hard copy piece of art.

And as arts chair, it was really fantastic to see the work they were highlighting of local artists all around Seattle and we just loved that.

All right, over to some business things.

I just wanna share, colleagues, as you know, we are having a vote on the shelter census legislation this Wednesday.

We heard a public comment last week, and we also got a chance to daylight amendments.

I wanted to share Council Member Juarez and I are working in concert on some changes on the amendment that she authored that I am sponsoring so we want to make sure that we're clarifying the language in that amendment so we look forward to sharing more colleagues and I encourage all of you if you are working on amendments to your amendments to share that as you are able so that we can make sure that as we go to vote on Tuesday the whole committee understands what we are looking at and voting on And lastly, I'll just close out by saying our office is working hard and we've been meeting with folks from the Seattle Roundtable, Seattle Housing Roundtable, as well as HCC, the Housing Development Consortium and others to ensure that we are getting it right on MHA.

And so we look forward to engaging more with those constituencies and this really important policy reform to make sure that we are accelerating housing production in our city.

All right.

Unless there's no questions or comments for Councilmember Foster, I'll take the baton.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On the steps committee front, this coming Thursday, May 7th, at 9.30 in the morning, we're gonna have our steps committee, where we're gonna be having three agenda items in steps.

One, Councilmember Strauss noted, his shared streets legislation.

The second item is district project fund, implementation briefing, status briefing from the department.

We're all familiar with the district project fund.

And then third and finally is gonna be the U Alley vacation.

So looking forward to that meeting on Thursday.

Moving on to a few select community highlights or involvement.

Last Tuesday, I organized, convened, and participated in a roundtable conversation to discuss Seattle Center, the future of Seattle Center, and included leaders from labor, and private and philanthropic investors as well, including Rob Johnson from the Seattle Center Foundation, partners from MLK Labor, the Seattle Building Trades, and the Carpenters Union as well, among others, and a few of their individual member organizations.

Representatives from those discussed the future of the Seattle Center.

including a potential funding package and how we can best renovate the center.

And so great conversation.

Really appreciate meeting with those stakeholders.

Last week, I also attended the Seattle Fire Awards annual ceremony.

Such a terrific event.

Colleagues, we know that our firefighter heroes, they go on thousands of runs each and every single year to serve us and keep us safe.

Many of those runs go unnoticed by the rest of us.

And so it was good to...

for our city to honor and our fire department to honor the heroes that serve in our fire department.

Among other things, I got to witness the person who was named firefighter of the year receive their award and receive their figurative flower, so to speak.

Our firefighters, again, do so much for us.

People were...

and they're always on.

And it was great to see recognition of our firefighter personnel who, when they were out in their personal family vacations in Utah or wherever it is, They intervened and helped save lives and being recognized for that great work.

It was excellent to see, so honored to attend that.

Last week I also attended the West Seattle High School versus Chief South International High School, big annual rivalry softball game.

and that was last Thursday evening to be exact, the Battle of West Seattle.

It's the biggest rivalry softball game on the West Seattle Peninsula, connected with the athletic directors, school leadership, some players.

West Seattle High School Wildcats won.

I was able to bring my two young boys to that and they really enjoyed watching the girls go out there and get after it.

doing great things on the field, on the diamond.

And my youngest, or my oldest, rather, my daughter, she was disappointed she couldn't personally attend because of a conflict, but love being able to show up and support.

softball, youth softball, and the biggest rivalry game that we have in terms of youth softball on the West Seattle Peninsula last week.

I'm hearing a few of my colleagues went to schools recently.

I also, too, last week went to a school, Pathfinder, which is a K through eight school in West Seattle.

Last Friday had the pleasure of speaking at an assembly of sixth through eighth graders at Pathfinder.

and it's great to share a little bit about my background, my journey, the ins and outs of local government, what we're working on here at City Hall, what my office has been focused on, and then answer some questions directly from the students.

One boy asked me which city department has the highest budget allocation, and my office confirmed and looked into it and we learned that SDOT has the single highest budget allocation, though City Light and SPU have larger budgets, but much of their funding comes directly from rate payers and so SDOT.

But great to connect with our youth, among other things.

One of their engaging questions was, What's your favorite color, Rob?

And I told them purple or lavender, some offshoots thereof.

I was also asked if I liked Bluey, the show Bluey.

And if you have young kids, you'll know all about Bluey.

And my response was absolutely yes, I love Bluey.

And in fact, me and my kids still play There's a little game called Keepy Uppy involving a balloon that me and my kids still play.

So, yes, I love Bluey, but very inspired by our youth, and it was great to get out there and stay engaged with youth at Pathfinder.

Finally, I'll share in community, also attended and visited Nucor Steel.

Colleagues, I know many of you have as well over the years.

I try to get out there every now and again.

Personally, I always check in with them regularly because they're such an important part of our local economy and such an important part of our maritime and industrial manufacturing economy as well.

So great to get out there, visit, check in with their leaders and learn more about what they're working on and how the city could potentially help.

There, many other workers and leaders happen to sit on a number of boards, non-profit boards that serve West Seattle and beyond, including the Center for Active Living and the Junction in West Seattle and the West Seattle Chamber, among other non-profit boards.

So love all the cross-pollination that happens every day with terrific organizations like Nucor.

that are a valued part of our community.

And colleagues, you know, Nucor is the second largest- Nucor Steel is the second largest customer of Seattle City Light.

So that is all I have in way of updates from my perspective.

I do welcome any comments, questions.

If not, I'll pass the baton on to Council President.

Go ahead.

I should be honest with you, it's not a question.

It's just that you talked about going to a sports game and it reminded me I needed to say something really important, which is Storm opening game night is this Friday.

If you weren't there to watch Flaugé drop 20 last week, I suggest you find some time in your calendar.

We're really excited to celebrate the winningest team in Seattle.

Thank you.

Love it.

Love our Storm.

Go Storm.

I was just going to note on the transportation funds that District 7 definitely engaged.

Vision Zero is kind of like guiding force with projects across Uptown, Queen Anne, Magnolia, D7 part, and to ensure that we can move forward with some of these challenges that we have.

with a little bit left over, so I'm also looking at another opportunity to invest in our safer streets, if you will.

Awesome, thank you.

And I just wanted to say Councilmember Saka really appreciate the district fund.

We got a lot of input from my district on a lot of projects.

Actually, the projects total more than what's available in the fund just to show how popular this is and how much there is that work that needs to be done across the district, not just mine, all our districts, but all this to say thank you for working with the department to include this district fund.

as part of the levy budget because, as you can see, the constituents very much appreciated the ability to put their projects in this district fund as a proposal for upcoming work.

So thank you.

Awesome.

Okay.

Awesome.

Thank you.

I'll be quick and brief because I know we have two executive sessions after this meeting.

So thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Yes, the district fund has been great, and I know we've gotten a ton of feedback, so I want to thank Councilmember Saka and SDOT for all their hard work.

I'm more than happy to share with the citywide positions some of the projects that people have pushed forward, just so to get your input as well.

So I'm more than happy to do that as well.

We...

Where am I at with my life?

Sorry.

Okay, so Governance Utilities Committee meeting will be on May the 14th.

We have a reappointment of General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Lee, appointments to Seattle Public Utilities Customer Review Panel colleagues, King County Flood Control District, interlocal agreement, We also have our stormwater code updates, and there's also a slide from quarter one AI report from information technology department as well.

So we have a nice, packed agenda.

From our Regional Water Quality Committee, I, myself, and Councilmember Lynn are working with Seattle Public Utilities to send a letter to King County.

Right now, their proposal is 12.75% for rates.

We are asking that that be nudged down to 10.75 for this year.

It's a small amount.

However, It has a big impact.

20% of your water bill comes because of King County.

the wastewater.

So I just want them to be a little bit more flexible on rates.

I know that it's going to be, we're going to have that conversation with Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities as well.

That's why on June 1st, and I will connect with you all, we are going to propose to have central staff come and do an affordability meeting to talk about all of the legislation that has passed regarding the library levy, the property taxes.

We also have a Seattle transit measure that's coming as well.

A lot of these feel like one-offs, but they add up.

And so I think we need to see how they impact our community and what that looks like, just so we can kind of have a table setting before we're going to take off take up some of the legislation that's coming this summer as well before.

So that's what we're planning on as well.

This is also a friendly reminder that we are trying to fix also to the Monday briefings as well.

So I will talk to you all individually about how we can make it better suit our scheduling efforts.

All right?

Because I know you all are very, very busy.

And it's a lot.

And we have a lot coming down June and July.

That's putting it very nicely.

And then I know that Councilmember Strauss, you'll have your hands full with budget and all the hard work that you all do and your team and your staff.

So it's going to be a lot, you all.

And I know that we have different people that have different committees.

Seattle Transit Measure, you just finished the library stuff.

public safety going on, housing, human services, King County Regional Homeless Authority.

There's a lot going on, okay?

So anyways, comprehensive plan.

God bless Eddie Lynn, Councilmember Eddie Lynn.

Seriously, he's had a lot on his plate for the land use.

Okay, awesome.

Is there any other questions?

Councilmember Foster followed by Councilmember...

Oh, there's everyone.

Okay, Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Council President.

I appreciated the update about the letter that you and Councilmember Lynn are going to be sending over to the county.

I just wanted to ask if there will be an opportunity for other Council members to sign on to that letter.

I know that you all do a more than fantastic job representing us on those regional committees, but just wanted to ask if there would be an opportunity to do that.

Yeah, it's great.

I'll look into it, but I'm pretty sure that we can bring it to Council to be able to get support, as long as it's an open session, I'm assuming.

Yeah, awesome.

And I understand it's timely, so, you know, if time permits, thank you.

Okay, awesome.

Yeah, I'll look great.

That's a great suggestion, too, because I know we all care about rates.

Yeah, awesome.

Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you for that, Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Kettle, then followed by Councilmember Rivera.

I was going to say one thing, but just to add to that, we need to be mindful because it's not just the rates, because I used to serve on this committee, you know, we have with the transit measure, with sales tax, between sales tax, property tax, across the board, the cumulative effects is just going to be substantial.

And because it's such a challenge, I just wanted to say to the CP, Hollingsworth, may the 4th be with you.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Rivera.

Just to acknowledge that the water rate conversation is one that is taking place at the state level, too.

I mean, this is an issue.

Ratepayer in general is a huge issue across the state as those rates continue to increase, and it really goes to the affordability piece in Seattle and all the cities across the state.

So it's something we talked about at Association of Washington Cities.

So thank you for that.

And also want to thank you for the review of all the affordability pieces you're going to have central staff do, because we do need to take a holistic approach at looking at when we make these decisions, what impacts it has collectively because the impacts are not small.

And we want to make sure we're being responsive to constituents and recognizing that affordability conversation and issues they're saddled with.

Absolutely.

June 1st, Monday, 2 p.m.

That's our target date.

Awesome.

Does anyone have any further questions?

Thank you for that, colleagues.

All right.

So guess what?

We're going to go and call the executive session.

So if there's no further business, we will move into the executive session.

Hearing no further business, we'll now move into the executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that Seattle City Council will now convene into the 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 Council to discuss confidential legal matters with City Attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor for the City Attorney's Office is always present to ensure the Council reserves questions for policy for open session.

I expect the time of this

session to end by 4 p.m.

What's that?

Yeah, about one hour, so about 4 p.m.

And if the executive session is to be extended upon time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

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

The next regular scheduled council briefing is May 18th at 2 p.m.

So next week is none, and we will reconvene here May 18th at 2 p.m.

The council is now in executive session and a reminder, we love our security team.

Thank you.