Seattle City Council Briefing 9/12/2022

You can begin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Today is Monday, November, September 12th.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

It is now two oh one.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Lewis present.

Council member Morales here.

Council member Mosqueda present.

Council member Nelson present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council President Juarez.

Here.

Nine present.

Thank you.

Move on to the approval of the minutes.

If there's no objection, the minutes of August 15, 2022 will be adopted.

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

I'll move into the President's Report.

On today's agenda, we have a proclamation for signature recognizing September as Children's Cancer Awareness Month.

I will be speaking to this in a moment.

We also have a presentation today regarding Initiative 135, the social housing initiative, which received sufficient signatures to be considered by this body for the ballot.

Amy Gore of central staff will be presenting.

You should all have received a copy of her PowerPoint last week with the agenda.

As you know, the council will be choosing whether to put Initiative I-135 directly into law, send it to the ballot, or propose an alternative for consideration on the ballot.

Following our individual reports, we will also have two executive sessions at the end of our meeting today regarding some legal matters.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes and the payment of the bills.

We'll take one vote on all the items.

And as usual, if there's anyone that wants to remove any of the items, we will discuss them at the end of the agenda.

Following the consent calendar, we'll be voting on 12 of the 13 items on the agenda.

The first item is a clerk file to extend the deadline for surveillance technology review reports.

The second item is the initiative 135 certificate of sufficiency.

Please know that because this item has not had a committee review, we will be holding this item for one week.

we expect to take action on it Tuesday, September 20th.

Item number three on tomorrow's agenda is a resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Discovery Park Master Plan.

And I believe Council Member Lewis will be speaking to this.

Items four and five regarding Yesler Terrace and the Green New Deal were recommended unanimously by the Finance and Housing Committee And Council Member Mosqueda will walk us through the details of those two matters.

Item number six is regarding the Garden House, which was recommended unanimously by the Public Assets Committee as well.

And Council Member Lewis will speak to that as well.

Item seven to 13 came out of a, it says here, a very busy Transportation and Public Utilities Committee meeting.

I will allow Council Member Peterson to speak to these when we get to the individual reports or that portion of the agenda.

Information on all of these items are available on the online agenda.

So it looks like tomorrow we will be hearing from Council Member Lewis, Mosqueda, and Council Member Peterson.

Moving on to agenda item number three, signing of letters and proclamations.

I have a proclamation that I'd like to share with my colleagues and the public proclaiming September 2022 to be the Childhood Cancer Awareness Month for Signature.

This was distributed to your offices last week for your consideration.

I will leave the discussion on the proclamation and ask for any additional feedback before I request my colleagues to fix their signatures.

I'm pleased to bring forward today a proclamation recognizing September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death of disease, I'm sorry, by disease in children affecting one in 285 children in the United States.

Each day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer and there are approximately 40,000 children in active treatment at any given time in the United States.

One in five, unfortunately, will lose that battle.

Today, we recognize the work of organizations helping children and their families.

This proclamation was requested by the National Kids Cancer Connection, which joins organizations such as the American Childhood Cancer Organization, and providing educational, emotional, and financial support to families with children facing this terrible disease, cancer.

We would like to also recognize the local work of the Seattle Children's Hospital, which works tirelessly with their partner, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, located in Tacoma, to help families and children facing cancer here in our region.

Today with this proclamation, we recognize the many professionals who work tirelessly in fighting childhood cancer.

So thank you.

Are there any comments on this proclamation or questions before I move forward?

Okay, not seeing any.

No further discussion.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like to affix their signatures to the proclamation?

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to our next agenda item.

So we have presentation on Seattle Initiative 135. Amy is here and ready to go.

So let me just share this with you before I hand it over to you, Amy.

Again, we're planning on holding the vote on this item to next Tuesday, September 20th.

As a reminder, the city's election code, Seattle Municipal Code 2.04.300, prohibits elected officials and city employees from using their office for the promotion or opposition of any ballot measure.

According to the code, we should refrain from discussing the merits of the initiative until we are actually voting on legislation to support or oppose the ballot proposition.

Welcome, Amy.

It's all yours.

Thank you, Council President Juarez.

Let me pull up this presentation.

As you mentioned, my name is Amy Gore with Council Central staff.

As Council President Juarez described, I'm here today to give a short presentation on Initiative 135, which would establish a new public development authority or PDA for social housing.

This afternoon, I'll provide information on the substance of the initiative and then discuss Council's responsibilities and potential actions.

I do want to reiterate the Council President's instruction that due to Chapter 2.04 of the Seattle Municipal Code, this presentation and any discussion should be strictly about the initiative and the Council process related to initiatives.

Any comments or questions in support or in opposition should be held until Council is taking action on this item in an open meeting.

Unless there are any questions about that, I will dive right in.

Okay.

As you are aware, if enacted, Initiative 135 would establish the Seattle Social Housing Developer, which would be a new public development authority, which would develop, own, and maintain publicly financed social housing developments.

As described in the initiative and in the PDA charter, Social housing is defined as being owned by the social housing PDA and cannot be sold or transferred to a private entity or public-private partnership.

It would be affordable to households earning between zero and 120 percent of area median income and would allow tenants to remain in their housing if their income changes.

Rental rates would be set by the operational needs of the building, including maintenance, any kind of loan service and other operational needs.

Residents have the opportunity to participate in decision-making through being on the board of the PDA, through the governance councils of buildings, which I'll speak about in just one minute, and would also have the opportunity for restorative justice conflict resolution prior to eviction proceedings.

The charter also stipulates that if possible, buildings should be built to passive house standards and to use union labor.

The initiative includes the PDA charter, which authorizes the creation of a 13-member board, and the initial appointments would be made by the Seattle Renters Commission, King County Labor Council, El Centro de la Raza, City Council, the Mayor's Office, and the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

Eventually, at least half of the board will be residents of the social housing owned by the PDA.

In addition, as I mentioned, each housing project will have a governance council, which will give residents the opportunity to provide input on aspects of the building operations and policies.

And also, if passed, the initiative would take effect within five days of the certificate of the election.

So if passed, if I-135 is passed, the city has two primary obligations.

First, it must fund 18 months of a CEO and CFO, as well as provide in-kind support to the PDA for things like maybe office supplies, office space, that kind of thing.

This would be this is estimated to cost approximately $750,000.

The city cannot use current PDA funding for the new social housing PDA.

And in addition, the initiative does not require any additional city funding, but doesn't prohibit any additional city funding.

Second, if passed, the city must conduct a feasibility study whenever considering the sale or gift of public land.

It is already policy that the city prioritize affordable housing when disposing of surplus city property.

Those policies could be updated to include this feasibility of transferring the property to the public developer.

As you recall, The council must either enact or reject the measure.

Let's see, it's based on Article 4 of the Seattle City Charter, and specifically, it states that the council may enact or reject any initiative, bill, or measure, but shall not amend or modify the same.

It may, after rejection, propose and pass a different measure dealing with the same subject.

So what exactly does that mean?

It means the Council must either enact or reject the measure.

To enact the measure, the Council would need to file the Certificate of Sufficiency and pass an ordinance enacting the provisions of I-135.

The Council could also reject the measure.

As you recall, to reject the measure is choosing not to enact it and instead placing the initiative on the ballot to be decided by Seattle voters.

If the council does not want to enact the initiative, it will need to file the certificate of sufficiency and adopt a resolution placing the initiative on the ballot.

In addition to enacting or rejecting, the council may also choose to create an alternative to be placed on the ballot with I-135.

The council could also choose to adopt a resolution in support of or in opposition to I-135.

At the Council President's direction, I have drafted Resolution 32069, which will be on the introduction and referral calendar tomorrow, September 13. The resolution would direct the City Clerk and Seattle Ethics and Elections to work with Seattle County Elections to place I-135 on the February 14, 2023 ballot.

Council has the discretion to instead place the initiative on the ballot of the next general election, which is scheduled for November 7 2023. If anybody is interested in amending the proposed resolution, please let me know as soon as possible.

So to recap.

The King County elections has provided the certification of the initiative signatures tomorrow with the introduction of the clerk file 315404 reporting on the certification and the initiative.

Council has 45 days to act.

Resolution 30269, which would place initiative 135 on the February 14th, 2023 ballot will also be introduced tomorrow with potential council action on September 20th.

That's well in advance of the deadline for council action on this matter.

which is October 28th.

That is all that I had prepared for today, but I'm happy to answer any questions about the initiative or the council process.

Thank you, Amy.

And it looks like Council Member Lewis has his hand up.

Amy, thank you for that presentation.

Can we go back to the slide that talks about cost?

Oops, yes.

Yes.

So what, what is the thinking behind the 18 month support for the leadership of the PDA is the assumption that after that length of time, the PDA will sustain its operations on its assets, uh, or, or we'll reevaluate how much we provide to support those, those positions.

My recollection is that the initiative is silent on the next steps.

It could be presumably either the organization or the PDA could become self-sustaining using other funding or the city council could choose to provide ongoing funding either in support of the organization or for projects.

I don't believe that the initiative is explicit about what happens after that 18-month period is over.

Okay.

I don't think I have a follow-up at this time to that, but appreciate that answer.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Is there any other questions of Amy and And Amy, thank you for putting together the PowerPoint, particularly pages five and six.

I know we've gone through these before, and we're always trying to remember what exactly we can and cannot do and what we can and cannot say.

So thank you for that.

So Councillor Lewis, is that a new hand or an old hand?

Old hand, sorry.

OK.

All right.

So are there any other questions that we have of Amy Gore from central staff before we move on in our agenda?

OK.

Not seeing any.

Thank you very much, Amy.

I will be in touch with you soon.

Thank you.

Great.

All right.

OK, folks, moving on in our agenda.

So we're going to do our preview of City Council Actions Council and regional committees.

This is the lineup starting this week, meaning today and tomorrow.

We will start with Council Member Lewis.

then Morales, Mosqueda, Nelson, Peterson, Sawant, Strauss, Herbold, and then myself.

It looks like all nine of us are here for today and tomorrow.

With that, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Council President.

It's good to be back after recess and the week after recess.

I'm just going to jump into these presentations.

Appreciate Council President foreshadowing a resolution that I will be bringing to celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Discovery Park, the largest park in the city of Seattle.

This land was occupied for several decades by the United States military and eventually regranted back to a public non-military local use in 1898 and turned into a park in 1972 after continuing to be a base for much of the 20th century.

Discovery Park is a unique space in the city that accounts for roughly a quarter of our open natural space, and I look forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the designation of a park and all the pageantry that will go into that, including our passage of this resolution.

Next, I just wanted to let folks know about some Metropolitan Park District scheduling shifts to give a little bit more time to digest the proposal from the mayor.

We will be holding our final vote on the Metropolitan Park District on September 23rd, so that is a week from this Friday.

I'm going to be meeting with colleagues throughout this week to discuss Metropolitan Park District priorities.

I've already had meetings with several colleagues about this.

And amendments for changes to to the Metropolitan Park District are going to be due to Tracy and Eric on Council Central staff by noon on Tuesday, September 20. So a week from tomorrow.

So I'm definitely prioritize some we some time this week to think about some additional priorities for the Metropolitan Park District and get those potential changes to Tracy and Eric by next Tuesday.

Also just want to thank colleagues on a related MPD note for coming to a large public hearing last Wednesday, where more than 60 members of the public provided comments and many more showed up to support various funding priorities for the Metropolitan Park District at the Northgate Community Center up in District 5. I believe that meeting commemorated the largest off-campus official meeting of the city council since before COVID.

It was a monumental event in stepping back to what I've been told it was like to be on the council pre-COVID.

But in any event, really appreciated council colleagues for showing up to that hearing last Wednesday, hearing from members of the public and having an opportunity to take public service directly out to the community rather than always conducting our business here within City Hall or virtually.

So that was a great, great time that was had by all.

Speaking of parks, Clean City updates.

The data for the tail end of August and the first week of September, the Clean City Initiative recovered and disposed of 2,350 needles, Also over 100,000 pounds of garbage from 55 park pickup locations.

And I really like getting those updates and that accountability from the Clean City Initiative on the work they are doing in the community.

Pivoting to libraries.

The annual celebration of queer, trans, black, indigenous, and people of color youth through the legendary children program is returning as an in-person event at the Olympic Sculpture Park.

from 8 p.m.

to 11 p.m.

on Friday, September 23rd.

And this is after a three-year COVID hiatus.

It's the seventh annual Legendary Children event, and it will also be live-streamed for those unable to attend in person.

Legendary Children is a multi-arts party organized by community arts leaders with the Seattle Public Library, Seattle Art Museum, Central District Forum for the Arts and Ideas, and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.

This year's show-stopping event will include live performances, an outdoor dance party, DJs, and highlights from the Pacific Northwest House and Ball Community and Premier Drag Royalty.

A vaccine booster clinic will also be on-site, courtesy of Public Health, so if you're due to get another booster, this opportunity on Friday, September 23rd could be your opportunity.

Earlier this year, the Urban Libraries Council, the ULC, created the Business Value Calculator to enable libraries to quantify their services provided to the business community and other stakeholders to show the economic value of the work of our libraries.

Our Library to Business program utilized the tool to see what was the Seattle Public Library's impact.

And from tallying the market value of the business services provided by the library I'm very proud to report to colleagues that that was valued at $4.9 million annually based on 2021 data.

That includes a quarter million dollars in training and education benefits, $2.3 million in research services, and $2 million in sharing physical space through meeting rooms and what have you on campus, and $332,000 in technology and equipment that is otherwise out of range for so many folks in our community.

I'm really proud to report that information on the extreme value that our Seattle Public Libraries offer to the community and just show how extensive their influence is in our local economy.

With that, Council President, I don't have any additional updates and I'm happy to turn it back over to you.

It goes to Council Member Morales.

Indeed.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Monday.

Let's see, we'll start with the Neighborhoods, Education, Culture and Civil Rights Committee.

We met last Friday and approved Council Bill 120398, which amends five preschool policies of the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy and one homeless support policy.

So that will be coming to us on September 20th.

We also approved several appointments for different commissions.

Those will also be coming to us next week on September 20th on the full council agenda.

The next committee meeting for me will be September 23rd, Friday, September 23rd at 930. Moving on to department updates, the Office of Civil Rights, I will be meeting again this week but want to let you know that for the last several months, we've been monitoring the execution of the participatory budgeting contract.

There was a proposed budget that went out or a budget with the RFP.

The proposed budget that was received was starting to get a little out of line.

So the department has been negotiating to get that back on track and the contract was recently executed.

So excited that that is finally moving forward.

We will continue to seek status updates and and look forward to the executive implementing this process.

The community has been waiting for it for a long time.

I will say it is an exciting time.

There is an interdepartmental team that is coming together.

And if you don't know, King County recently awarded $11 million to 45 community organizations in unincorporated King County.

through their participatory budgeting process.

So I do want to congratulate Executive Constantine and the county departments who really led on that implementation.

And theirs was the first participatory budgeting process, Washington State.

So I'm excited for them and for the community members who will get to help make decisions about how to spend those funds.

I also met with deal last week to discuss possible uses for $9.7 million in FEPP levy underspend.

The the levy oversight committee will be meeting this week and possibly voting on a proposal from the mayor to increase funding for Seattle promise as well as for black investments in black girls.

All things that we have talked about in the past.

I will say that given the strike and the things that we're hearing from educators about their needs, particularly around special education, you know, getting support for students who have IEPs.

We have a very immediate need, and I will go into that meeting just looking to understand a little bit better if there are some more immediate needs for that levy underspend.

I will also say I have not had that conversation with deal, because we spoke really before we were clear on the strike so so there's some moving parts there and we'll be reporting back to you.

We do have to field trips with the levy oversight committee this week.

One is to summer bridge.

and which is a required orientation for new students who are receiving Seattle Promise, as well as Path to UW, which is a similar introduction for Seattle Promise scholars who are going to the university.

This week, I'll be attending the Board of Health meeting.

I did also meet with OIRA just this morning, and we've been having a conversation about how we make sure that community members can connect to all the different resources that the city provides, especially if they are limited English speakers.

I think I've mentioned before, I think before recess.

We took a tour of small businesses down on MLK.

There's a lot of concern about.

In this case, how small businesses can access the police when they call, and the police show up, but they don't necessarily have somebody who speaks Vietnamese which is one of the predominant languages in small businesses along MLK.

And so we're just having conversations about how to make sure that are more resources available, that there is better coordination among our city departments to make sure that community members understand in languages that they understand what resources are available and how they access them.

So for example, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs will be working with the Office of Economic Development on a workforce development position.

And the idea there really is to help community members understand what the options are for accessing workforce training, small business development in language.

Part of the conversation that we're having with OIRA is how to do that for some of the other critical services like the police department.

that neighbors need.

So anyway, lots more conversation will be happening around that, but wanted to give you a heads up about that.

Tomorrow I will be having my first meeting with Director Spatz.

I am Well, maybe I'll give you kudos, Council Member Strauss, for already being out with him on a bicycle.

I will hope to get him out on a bike.

My district as well, I think you'd be amenable based on what we've learned from him in the last few weeks.

We don't have a lot of places to safely exist on a bike in the South End, but I am hoping that our first meeting can take place in one of those few places that do exist so that he can understand some of the challenges that we face down there.

I also just this afternoon had my quarterly meeting with Sound Transit to discuss safety along the Rainier Valley Corridor.

We had a slide from last year asking for a partnership agreement between Sound Transit and SDOT, particularly as it relates to the work they will be doing together to improve safety along MLK.

And so I had the quarterly meeting today to understand what that work will entail, what studies and research they have done already to look into ways that we can change the station infrastructure to really make sure that we are investing in the safety measures that are needed to keep people in the Rainier Valley safe.

And that work continues.

Let's see, district updates.

My staff attended a community stakeholder meeting in the CID along with Senior Deputy Mayor Harrell and Deputy Mayor Wong last week to hear community concerns around the Soto Shelter expansion.

That site, the current site, has 270 beds and is currently operated by the Salvation Army.

The county, using one-time ARPA and city funding that was approved last year, will work to expand behavioral health services 24-7 on-site and build additional pallet shelters and an RV safe lot.

So we'll be joining a tour of the current facilities alongside community members later this month, and our office will continue working with city and county colleagues to make sure that the community receives information in a very transparent way so that they can participate in the decision making process.

And that we are supporting business owners and residents of the neighborhood.

Last week we also met with Casa Latina, Working Washington, Hand in Hand, and others of the Domestic Workers Alliance to discuss their research on establishing a portable benefits program for workers who contract through third parties.

I will be meeting later this week with colleagues in Philadelphia to learn about their work.

They are trying to do something similar there.

And we know, although domestic workers in Seattle qualify for paid sick and safe time, the majority don't actually receive it.

And so the idea here is to figure out how we create a portable benefit system where benefits don't depend on any particular hiring entity, but whether we're talking about nannies or landscapers or house cleaners, that multiple hiring entities can help contribute to creating a shared benefits pool, for lack of a better word, so that these folks do get access to paid time off.

And that is underway.

Hope to have something that we can share with you in the next several months.

I also attended the archers apartment celebration purchased the apartment building was purchased by the Brighton Development Group with support from community members from anonymous donors, the Rainier Valley Development Fund as well as a grant from Amazon.

The purchase means that the property is now off the speculative market and in community control.

And I think it's just a really exciting example of how we can preserve affordability.

We can keep families from getting displaced.

And it means that we just need to, we need to do more to support acquisition so that these properties can remain in community control.

But nevertheless, 25 families now can rest easy knowing that their rent is not going to get doubled.

Um, last two things, uh, this week, uh, uh, my team will be touring Yesler Terrace with Representative Smith's office.

I think that's happening tomorrow, uh, during full council.

And then our office will also be attending the Beacon Hill Council Community Meeting tomorrow evening, um, and the 2022 Salmon Homecoming Ceremony at Pier 62 this weekend.

Um, I don't think I will be able to attend that as much as I would love to be there, um, But my daughter has a folklorico contest, so I am required elsewhere.

That's all I have, unless there are questions or comments.

I will be at the homecoming, and I'll just say quickly, it's our 30-year anniversary, and so I will be there in your stead, Council Member Morales.

I will let everyone know you'll be there next year.

Thank you.

Yes, I appreciate that.

I think I am handing it to Councilmember Mosqueda.

You are.

Oh, wait, Councilmember Morales.

Sorry.

Thank you, Councilmember Morales, for the shout out about our little bike ride with Director Spatz.

I'm surprised people know about that before my briefing.

I will say I did bring up Rainier Avenue and the need for bike and pedestrian safety along there, even though we were in Rainier Avenue.

So I just want to share.

Thanks so much.

Okay, Councilmember Mosqueda.

Thanks so much.

Colleagues, our next Finance and Housing Committee meeting was scheduled for next week on September 21st at 9.30 a.m.

As I noted in last week's meeting, we were going to have a presentation from the Seattle City Employees Retirement System's rates update.

It sounds like that legislation is not yet ready, so we will not have that on the agenda.

And then the only other thing we had as a whole was to potentially vote on the recommendations from the Green New Deal Oversight Board, which we already took care of last week.

So recognizing those two items have been taken care of, we will no longer have a second meeting in September, which frees up time for our colleagues as we head into budget preparation.

Again, we will be receiving the budget from the mayor from his proposed budget on September 27th, and then we will have a briefing from the city budget's office on what the details We have a number of items that we want to include in the initial proposed budget on the 28th.

So last week was our last finance and housing committee meeting of 2022. Regarding the upcoming budget deliberations for the full council, as we head into the select budget committee, we have provided you Thanks to central staff and my team for working on the details of the upcoming budget deliberations on the calendar.

We are currently working with the president's office to switch the public hearing that was scheduled for November 8th to the day before on November 7th.

And then we will have, excuse me, we are working on scheduling the public hearing on November 8th, which was previously scheduled on November 7th.

And instead presenting the balancing package on the seventh that way, instead of having one last public hearing on the proposed budget from the mayor and desire changes from.

public hearing on the 7th.

You will not be able to see the Council in public hearing on the 7th.

Instead, you will get a chance to see you being the broader public, the community at large will get a chance to see the chair's proposed budget on the 7th and then we will use our time on November 8th, Tuesday at 930 a.m.

to have public comment on the initial chair's proposed budget.

You will be able to see that For council colleagues, there's no change to your calendar.

It was still the same time request, but instead, on Monday, November 7th, you'll hear a presentation of the chair's initial proposed budget at 11 a.m., and then on Tuesday, November 8th, we'll have an opportunity for public comment starting at 9.30 a.m.

to get initial feedback.

Okay, in terms of updates, I wanted to send another message of congratulations and solidarity to the courageous workers from our Seattle Education Association who have been on the front line and have been some of the first people to really be asked to go back into their workplaces.

They have been on the front line with less support than ever in terms of workload and increased stress.

They have been on the front line in terms of not only trying to provide needed education and services to kiddos, but also in the midst of a growing staffing crisis and on the front line still in terms of risking and contracting COVID infections and or death.

So these teachers have been told for a very long time to make do with what they've got and what Seattle teachers and teachers across this country have been told to make do with before the pandemic wasn't near enough and it sure as heck isn't enough now.

And they are standing strong on the strike line as you see every day calling for a contract that respects them and is really investing in special education teachers, investing in bilingual, bicultural teachers, making sure that there's appropriate staff ratios, and making sure that kiddos with special education needs get what they need and what those kiddos need is for teachers to be invested in.

So we are hoping that this will be resolved very soon, but I had the chance to stand with SEA members last Tuesday as they continue to call on SPS to finalize the contract.

We hear there's been some improvements in the negotiations, but yet teachers really need to make sure that they are getting what they need in order to make sure that the health and education of all students are met.

So I wanted to again send a message of solidarity for the teachers who are fighting for bilingual, bicultural education, who are standing with black and brown teachers in our education system, and who are really standing with kiddos and families who have special education needs.

to make sure that staffing ratios are appropriate and that the contract respects them and invests in fair wages.

I hope to continue to see reports of progress, but wanted to send them a message of solidarity and also shout out all of the great work that Joint Council 28 has sent in solidarity.

President Rick Hicks of the Teamsters sent a letter saying that they were gonna be honoring the SEA strike and they approved the strike station request from SEA last Tuesday and sent a letter of support and supporting them in their negotiations.

In other labor news, I want to also continue to congratulate the workers of Starbucks United.

There's going to be a rally, as many of you have seen on social media, outside Starbucks headquarters tomorrow morning in Soto.

at 2401 Utah Avenue South from 7.30 AM to 9 AM.

As we know, over 200 Starbucks stores have officially unionized across this country.

Here in Seattle headquarters to Starbucks, there is an ongoing call from all labor allies to join the Starbucks Workers United partners outside of Starbucks headquarters to call out the union busting attempts and to call for contracts for all.

of the Starbucks workers who are seeking to unionize.

Again, the rally in Soto is taking place at 7.30 a.m.

and it is taking place during the Starbucks Executive Investor Day meeting.

Thanks so much to Starbucks Workers United folks in partnership with MLK Labor, who is co-hosting this and really driving turnout for tomorrow.

And continuing with labor news, I wanted to really thank the tenacity of Teamsters 174 members who were part of the months, if not year long, strike from the concrete workers.

They have been calling for adequate wages and a cost of living increase.

And they have been met with very intense Well, strategies from the employer to try to break their strike and they agreed to go back to work in large part because they care so much about affordable housing and public works projects across this region, but they continue to negotiate since April, when they went back.

The agreement that Teamsters 174 members reached over the weekend addresses most of the main priorities for membership, including medical coverage for active employees, pension increases, and work rules that will solve workplace issues and safety needs.

The one piece missing from the final agreement was an improved retirement medical plan that would have helped retired members afford medical insurance until they reach Medicare eligibility.

But they are going to continue to fight for this and the Teamsters members Again, recognizing that this was a proactive fight, that they got most of what they fought for, and they continued to stand together in the call for a fair contract.

The final agreement was ratified by 77%, so I want to send them a huge note of congratulations and appreciation.

And we know that the tactics have led to more public works projects seeing higher costs.

And we know that the there must be more accountability for some of those employers who have continued to let those costs increase.

But congratulations on a very long effort and a now successful contract.

And lastly, as you saw from my email to the floor, to the legislative department last Tuesday, we were thrilled to welcome to our team Melanie Cray.

Melanie Cray has started in our office as legislative assistant, and she is part of Team Teresa as of Tuesday last week, so has not been with us a full week yet, but we're thrilled that she's gonna be here.

She's gonna be focusing on issues related to public safety and public infrastructure projects.

along with other policy issues and outreach and communication via social media from our office.

So really excited to have her perfect timing in advance of the budget session wrapping up.

And thank you all for your warm welcome to Melanie Cray, who has joined us as we head into budget.

And just by way of background, Melanie is a recent graduate from the University of Washington Law School.

She originally comes from the suburbs of Chicago and graduated earlier this year, has served as the sole rule nine legal intern for the University of Washington's Law, Race, and Justice Clinic.

She helped manage cases in various stages of post-conviction proceedings, which is an extension of her work as a student in the clinic in this last year.

Melanie joins our team with a passion for dismantling systems of oppression and investing in life-affirming solutions whereby every person can thrive and have their basic needs met.

and she has deep experience in researching a diverse array of policies and precedents and their impacts, including adolescent dating violence in schools, extrajudicial immigration deportations, racial trauma, and criminal legal system reform.

I'm really excited to have her as part of our team, and I want to thank all of you on the Ledge team who have reached out and made her feel warm and welcome in our office.

If you haven't yet met her, we will be around tomorrow and look forward to introducing you to anybody who is on the second and third floor on Tuesday.

Thank you, Madam President.

Any questions?

10 minutes.

Thank you.

I timed myself.

All right.

I'm going to hand it off to, oh, Council Member Herbold, I believe, has a question.

Council Member Herbold.

I just wanted to thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for adjusting the public hearing calendar as it relates to your proposed balancing package.

I really appreciate your accommodating that shift.

Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Originally, I think I was thinking that was the last opportunity for folks to comment on the proposed budget from the mayor, and then we would have the chance to hear comments on the chair's proposed budget from our committee.

the next public hearing, but I think it makes more sense to switch as suggested.

So really appreciate that.

And we will stick true to the times that we had already put on council members' calendars.

So to try to be respectful of your calendars, but also of the community who would probably like to provide earlier feedback.

Okay.

Budget just around the corner.

Good times.

We'll see you all then again at our Select Budget Committee meeting and again, the Finance and Housing Committee meetings for this year are now complete.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody.

There's nothing on tomorrow's agenda from the Economic Development, Technology and City Light Committee.

We do meet this Wednesday, September 14th at 9.30 and we've got a full agenda.

We'll have the second discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 120412 establishing a Seattle Film Commission.

We'll have the second discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 120411 amending Seattle City Lights rates that were set forth in the strategic plan and rate path that was resolution 32061. We'll also have two reappointments to the Seattle Music Commission and those are appointments 02369 and 02370 and three reappointments to the City Light Review Panel appointments 02371, 02372 and 02373. In addition, we'll also have a briefing from OED on investments they've made in neighborhood recovery and a briefing by Seattle City Light on the results of its annual independent audit.

Okay, going back for my committee report back to August 22. Staff and I met with representatives of the Fremont Chamber, the Ballard Alliance, and the North Seattle Industrial Association to discuss SDOT's proposed Route 40 Transit Plus multimodal corridor program.

And also that day staff and I met with s.director nominee Greg spots, I appreciate that he reached out for this one on one meeting, which gave us the opportunity to hear from each other about our priorities and also geek out on maintenance resource planning.

Not only is he a big picture thinker, he's also gets really in the weeds.

I like that.

I was also happy to have a chance to meet with, speaking of nominees, the OPA director nominee, Gino Betts.

I similarly appreciated getting to hear his priorities.

There's a lot of meeting of the minds there.

And I look forward to going forward with that in committee.

On the 29th, we, Steph and I met with representatives of the Downtown Seattle Association for an update on the Metropolitan Improvement District and their renewal process and what's being considered for potential rate changes and additional cleaning investments.

On August 30th, staff and representatives of Seattle IT met with staffers of the office of US Senator Maria Cantwell to discuss expanded broadband deployment efforts.

And on September 1st, I joined Cascade Bike Club on a bike ride to learn more about the plan to convert a section of a general purpose lane on West Marginal Way to a bike lane.

And I have to say, It's always great to get out and actually see or tour or see firsthand the projects and potential policy changes that are coming down the pike, because I came away with a much better understanding.

On September 2nd, Stephen of my staff did an eight-hour ride along with SPB officers from the East Precinct during a third watch to observe them as they perform their duties.

And he said it was an educational experience.

And I want to personally thank SPD for graciously accommodating the visit.

On September 6, I met with Alona and Lori, who is, as of today, officially the new president and CEO of the Greater Seattle Business Association.

Congratulations.

GSBA is doing critical work with small businesses in our community.

And I was particularly interested to learn about their new business Academy, which is the umbrella program for all of the ways that GSBA helps entrepreneurs build, expand, and improve their businesses.

Before I leave last week, I want to thank Councilmember Morales for being so accommodating last Friday in her committee.

for recognizing the crowd of 11th graders from the downtown school who were there.

And if you heard noise in the hall, it's because after a Q&A, I led them and showed them a little bit of where the sausage is made at City Hall.

So thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

All right.

Finally, this past weekend was the 9th Seattle Film Summit, and it's been annual except for two years during the pandemic.

This was my second time to attend, and it was a great opportunity for me to learn and speak about the creative economy and promote my Seattle Film Commission legislation, I can tell you there's a lot of enthusiasm out there.

On Thursday night, before it all started, I attended their press junket, and my favorite interview was with the student filmmakers with Rising Reels, a Black youth film mentorship program in Renton focused on connecting children from communities of color who are interested in film with industry experts who provide mentorship opportunities and access to hands-on learning with real film tools and instruments.

And they conduct a mean interview, I can tell you that.

On Saturday morning, I shared the stage with a bunch of people, let's see, getting my program, Amy Lillard, Kate Becker, Steve Desmond, who's from LA, he's a screenwriter, and Tom Skerritt, a local actor, you might have heard from him.

And it was moderated by Ben Andrews, and those were the opening ceremonies, and I was humbled to be in their presence.

And then that afternoon, I shared, I participated in a public leaders of the creative economy panel with senators, Bob Hasegawa and Lisa Wellman and moderated by tour force of nature, Trayana Holiday.

That was a lively discussion.

And I just want to say thank you and pay tribute to Seattle Film Summit founder, Ben Andrews, who's not only an organizational powerhouse and a hub of the film community, he's also, I don't know, he's also a change maker who puts his heart and soul into this.

And I just wanted to read a little bit about something that he wrote in the program, because it does demonstrate that this isn't just a networking of the, you know, it's not an elitist filmmaking networking opportunity.

He says, this isn't just about film, this is about our souls.

We need to inspire, provoke deeper thinking and give audience to other artists.

We need to be the first to champion the work of our peers.

Use this weekend to challenge how you think about yourself.

Embrace your worth and strive for excellent.

find and support your creative brothers and sisters.

The time is now to come together, learn, and build something new.

And there was a sense that we were on the brink of building something new in film with the incentives and Harbor Island and all these exciting things going on.

So just want to thank Ben for throwing his heart and soul out there.

And lastly, I want to congratulate Selena, who is a member of Detective Cookie's Chess Club, who won the first prize in the U 1400 in the Washington Women's Championship last weekend.

And she is 10 years old and competed against a lot of women who are much older than her.

So congratulations, Selena.

All right, that's all I've got.

Are there any questions or comments?

All right, seeing none, I pass it to Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are seven items from the Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

The transportation item that most people are interested in is the Mayor's nomination of Greg Spatz to become the new Director for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Our committee last week unanimously recommended Mr. Spatz.

If you have any final questions about the nomination, feel free to contact me directly or contact out of your memory, the Mayor's Executive General Manager.

For the benefit of the viewing public, a quick history on this nomination.

As with all recent nominees from the mayor, we followed the vetting process outlined in Resolution 31868. On July 27th, Mayor Harrell announced Greg Spatz as his nominee to be the new director of SDOT.

On August 4th, my office circulated the mayor's confirmation package to all the council members.

August 16, we had Mr spots and his nomination packet before us at the committee for an initial introduction.

We gathered over 30 written questions from council members for the nominee to answer and on August 23 my office circulated Mr sponsors responses.

We also posted the Q&A on our Legistar website as part of his appointment packet, appointment 02333. My office also checked in with some former colleagues of his on the Los Angeles City Council, all of whom provided very positive feedback on Mr. Spotts.

On September 6, Mr. Spotts came back to our committee for a Q&A session, then our committee unanimously recommended his appointment.

I've personally been very impressed with this response throughout the vetting process.

I know many of us appreciated the thoughtful answers to our questions about Vision Zero, bridge safety, collaborating with transit agencies, and the transportation needs within our own council districts.

I hope you'll join me in voting yes for Mr. Spotts tomorrow afternoon at the full city council meeting.

And yes, Mr. Spotts is planning to attend our meeting tomorrow to offer brief remarks after our vote.

On tomorrow afternoon's agenda, we'll also have six council bills to authorize SDOT to accept the conveyances of several slivers of property from various transactions.

Our central staff confirmed that the ministerial actions of accepting these easements and deeds will fulfill legal requirements associated with the transactions and occur at no cost to the city.

All six council bills were unanimously recommended by the committee.

Our next committee on transportation Seattle public utilities is scheduled for next week, Tuesday, September 20 at 930am, but we're still crafting the agenda.

We expect to vote on nearly 30 appointments to the Transportation Advisory Boards.

We also plan to consider a more permanent program from SDOT on the use of public sidewalks and streets for the benefit of restaurants.

Our committee next week will also vote on the solid waste rates that we already discussed at our September 6 meeting.

And another piece of legislation from Seattle Public Utilities will enable us to streamline how the city accepts the pass through rates that were required to accept from King County for the treatment of wastewater.

Regarding other transportation items, I know many of us are looking forward to the reopening of the West Seattle High Bridge this coming Sunday, September 18. Reopening the regional bridge will finally bring relief to over 100,000 residents, buses, and freight that all rely on that bridge to fully access our city.

I want to thank all the engineers, SDOT staff, and construction workers who've been getting the job done to restore this vital bridge.

So it's also been a great pleasure to collaborate along the way over the last two and a half years with Council Member Lisa Herbold on this issue.

Thanks to everybody who voted last week in favor of resolution 32064 to phase out the use of harmful gasoline fuel-powered leaf blowers.

Now we'll look forward to the executive to get it done.

I'm confident that they'll adopt a can-do attitude by leveraging the experience of over 100 cities that have already made progress on this environmental and public health issue.

I look forward to working with them on that.

This past weekend, my office participated in several community events in District 4. My staff attended the opening of the low-income housing project, Cedar Crossing, the 250 units that sit conveniently on top of the new light rail station in the Roosevelt neighborhood.

I also attended three other community events, the Wedgwood Community Picnic, Community Barbecue in Inverness, and the View Ridge Party in the Park.

and those three events were back for the first time since the COVID pandemic, so it's great to see so many smiling neighbors reconnecting.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we move forward to Council Member Sawant?

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson, and good afternoon, everybody.

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

The meeting of the committee regularly scheduled for this Friday at 9.30 a.m.

has been canceled.

For the past several days, myself and community organizers from my office and members of Socialist Alternative have been walking the picket line at public schools across Seattle in solidarity with the striking rank and file members of the Seattle Education Association.

We have heard from dozens of Seattle educators about the shameful way the Seattle Public Schools, or SPS, and the political establishment has treated them in their contract negotiations.

I urge SPS contract negotiators to listen to educators' essential demands and offer them a decent contract that meets the needs of educators, students, and families.

The delayed start of the school year has been caused by SPS's failure to bargain in good faith.

The strike authorization vote of the Seattle Education Association with 75% turnout, which is historic and 95% voting to authorize the strike shows a staggering outrage among the teachers and other educators over unacceptable conditions in our public schools and is a real indictment of the Democratic Party's leadership of this essential public service.

The pay increases of 6.5% of the district or SPS claims to have offered published on their website falls very short of the brutal rate of inflation, which is over 10% in Seattle in the last year.

You do not need to be a math teacher to understand that in the real lives of school workers, this means a vicious de facto pay cut.

SPS needs to offer at least a 10% pay increase immediately this year and actual cost of living adjustments each subsequent year so Seattle educators will not fall further and further behind.

Appallingly, SPS is also attempting to cut staffing for already under-resourced special education and multilingual instruction, forcing educators to do more with less.

This type of ruthless tightening of the screws is forcing teachers to leave the profession and a historically high rate nationwide.

The National Association of Social Workers recommends one social worker for every 250 students, yet social workers in Seattle schools can be responsible for as many as 700 students.

The student to nurse ratio in Seattle is at a shocking 1,000 to one.

Washington State also has one of the worst rates of inclusion in the nation for students with disabilities into the larger classroom setting, even though research on inclusionary education shows better academic and social outcomes for all kids.

Seattle schools, like schools across Washington State, have been severely underfunded for decades, even though the city is home to huge and profitable corporations and a number of multimillionaires and billionaires, and this is true statewide.

Many of these elites have also increased their wealth at an eye-popping rate during the pandemic.

This underfunding is fundamentally the responsibility of the Democratic Party's political establishment that has dominated Seattle and Washington State politics for years.

decades.

Democrats have controlled the Seattle City Council for decades.

They have also controlled the Washington State Governor's Mansion for 30 out of the last 30 years, the Senate for 20 years, the House for 23 years.

Yet, shamefully, Democratic politicians in both local and state office continue to refuse to fully fund public education by taxing the rich.

Just last month, the majority of the Democratic Party City Council members in Seattle voted to end the $4 an hour pandemic hazard pay for grocery workers, gave $30,000 hiring bonuses to police officers, and now the district is asking Seattle educators to accept a de facto pay cut and even more damaging understaffing.

Sadly, I think this shows the real priorities of the Democratic Party, and this is why I am a socialist.

I urge all council members to show your support for our education, walk the picket line with them and discuss with them the conditions they face in the classroom.

The union is asking members of the public to write to the school board to urge them to meet the needs of the Seattle educators.

I'm going to be doing that from my office.

I urge all council members to do the same.

Do council members have any questions before I end the report from my office?

I don't see any, so I will pass it on to Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great to see you, Council President, colleagues.

This last week and over recess and district sticks, my staff and I continue to hold our regular operational public safety and public space meetings with community leaders, social service providers, mayor's office, city departments, the city attorney's office, and King County prosecutor's office, as well as SPD, to move action plans forward at the Leary Triangle, addressing homelessness in the Ballard Industrial Area, and implementing the 22nd Avenue Plan in downtown Ballard, as well as our D6 case conferencing meeting.

Each of these teams is operational by design and is tasked each week on delivering next steps to improve public spaces and public safety in District 6. If you, District 6 members or residents, have issues you want addressed, please do let me and my District 6 District Director, Amy Enbisk, know.

You can email her directly, and her email address is on my website.

This last week and over recess my staff also attended the Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Council, North Precinct Advisory Council and Wallingford Community Council meetings.

My staff represented the city at the National Nordic Museum meeting with a Finnish company focused on sustainability and green infrastructure, as well as I attended the north end parks Metropolitan Parks District Board public hearing.

at the Northgate Community Center in D5 to hear from Seattleites on their feedback on Mayor Harrell's proposed parks district spending plan.

As well, last Thursday, I held my weekly office hours for D6 residents.

I met with D6 residents, two from Green Lake, three from Fremont, five from Ballard, and one from Freelard.

We discussed homelessness, public safety, RVs, the interloop of Green Lake Park, Ballard Avenue Industrial District, changes to Ballard Avenue, and no parking signs on 65th Street, as well as noise issues in Freelard.

I was able to take our new SDOT director, Greg Spatz, on a biking and walking tour of District 6. We only got halfway through the tour, so we focused on Fremont, Finney, and Green Lake.

We're also in Upper Fremont.

Thank you for joining me, Greg.

I look forward to sharing the second part of our tour, Greenwood, Crown Hill, Ballard, and the Brewery District.

And last week as well I joined teachers at my alma mater Adams Elementary on their strike line this week.

I'll take this moment to thank all of our teachers, especially our counselors and therapists who are too often asked to work with more students than there are hours in the day.

This coming week in District 6, In coordination with S dot and the Ballard Alliance, I'll be hosting my second Ballard Avenue design charrette for most of the day on Friday.

The goal of this charrette is to discuss what is working well and what could be improved with the current interim designs on Ballard Avenue, inform near term refinements to the street design, create updates to the street cafe design standards for pergolas, both structural and aesthetic.

and we'll be reviewing block by block and intersection by intersection of what the future of Ballard Avenue can be.

Ahead of this design threat, we sent a survey to Seattleites about their perspectives on the changes, and we received over 1,300 responses with overwhelming approval.

So I want to take this moment to thank SDOT, Elise, Aditi, Jonathan, and Joel for making this work.

I want to say thank you to the city council for making this happen.

Thank you to budget chair Mosqueda and everyone on city council who supported my budget item in last year's budget to make this a reality.

In other D6 events this week, my staff will be attending the Green Lake Community Council meeting on Wednesday.

I'll be hosting a meeting with residents from Seaview Avenue to discuss their safety concerns and board meeting that has been scheduled this Thursday during my normal D6 office hours.

I will be meeting with as many residents as possible after the meeting.

I know we're going to go a little bit later than usual.

As well, we are currently in the budget discussion for the next six-year spending plan for the Metropolitan Parks District.

I'm working hard to make sure as many D6 parks have some level of programming or improvement as possible.

My current top priority is the Green Lake Community Center to avoid another renovation.

because we've already had renovations.

We need the expansion that has been in discussion since before 2016, as well looking at bathroom improvements at Gilman and Salmon Bay Parks, improving the hill climb at Golden Gardens Park.

We have to investigate and find out what happened to the turfing at Ballard Community Center playfield as it was previously promised and not yet implemented, as well as If you have an idea of a program or a project you'd like included, please do email me and my D6 district director, Amy Inbusk, directly.

We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Last week and over recess at City Hall and around the city, my team alongside Office of Intergovernmental Relations, SDOT, met with Liquor and Cannabis Board State Legislative and Rulemaking Directors on potential ways to improve outdoor dining by creating greater flexibility for SDOT and local businesses.

These recommendations like allowing a coffee shop and a restaurant to share a street cafe come from working directly with businesses across our city to implement our outdoor dining program and lessons learned, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We've also received requests from brewers in the Ballard Brewery District to allow for greater flexibility within the spirit of LCB regulations, so we continue to work on that.

I continued my work with Association Washington cities on its state legislative priorities committee, and have joined a separate group to find common ground on housing solutions before the legislative session in January, and last week I attended the transportation policy board meeting for briefing on the draft regional transportation improvement plan program.

As well I met with state representative Frank chop on aligning city and state priorities in the coming budgets from affordable housing to the mobile crisis team and crisis shelter funding as well I already mentioned met with Greg spots got to go for a bike ride with him it was great.

This week in City Hall and around the city have a sequence of meetings regarding the Metropolitan Parks District will be attending the economic development, as well as the governance and Metropolitan Parks District communities committees.

I'll be attending AWS Association Washington City's housing solutions group, and several meetings regarding improving the permitting process here in the land use committee.

First, I'd like to welcome our new Land Use Committee Clerk, Naomi Lewis, to our team.

Previously, she has worked for the Nevada Conservation League, U.S. Senator Jackie Rosen in the cities of Las Vegas and, colleagues, Henderson, Nevada.

as a city planner.

Since Monica Martinez-Simmons left, we had to replace her Henderson connection.

Naomi has extensive urban planning and transportation experience, and we're excited to have her on board.

So this next meeting of the Land Use Committee will be this Wednesday, September 14th, and there are six items on the agenda.

Crown Hill design guidelines, townhouse density limits, the omnibus Land Use Corrections Bill, the Virtual Design Review Bill, Comprehensive Plan Docketing, and the Roosevelt Contract Rezone.

Between now and budget, we will have one additional meeting, a special meeting scheduled next Thursday, September 22nd at 2 p.m.

to finalize our land use work before budget.

With that, thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, that is my report.

Council President, I forgot to time myself.

Hopefully I made it within 10 minutes.

Colleagues, do you have any questions?

Seeing none, Council Member Herbold, great to see you.

Hey, you too.

Thanks so much.

Let's see here.

So there's no items on the full council agenda tomorrow from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee is meeting tomorrow morning.

At 930, and the agenda will include the following items.

We're going to be hearing the appointment of Dr. Faisal Khan as Director of Public Health Seattle in King County.

It's listed for briefing and discussion.

The Director of Public Health in King County is duly appointed by the executives in both King County Government and Seattle City Government, so they and County Executive and the Mayor, and both councils act on the appointment.

I just want to bring something to folks' attention.

There was an oversight as this item was entered into Legistar, and as a result, the appointment was not added to the introduction and referral calendar in time to allow official committee level vote tomorrow.

Dr. Khan will be joining us tomorrow to talk about his work and answer questions from committee members.

We did distribute the answers to council members' questions to committee members in advance.

And I do intend to call for sort of an unofficial voice vote So that on has the reassurance as well as both County and the mayor's office has the reassurance of the committee's.

Preferences before it moves on to full council.

We don't want to lose any time.

in the process, and as we know, our time is short with budget upon us.

So, as originally intended, the appointment Assuming that we have a favorable voice, informal voice vote tomorrow will be sent to full council on Tuesday the 20th.

Also on the agenda, we will have a vote, an official vote on Gina Betts as Director of the Office of Accountability.

the public safety and Human Services Committee.

And then we will have a analysis that we're waiting on from the executive on the risk-managed analysis of 911 calls.

But it is a really important update.

We've been talking for months now about a shared body of work between the council and the executive.

And so we're going to have a brief update from Esther Handy, our central staff director, focused on what we're calling a term sheet, memorializes the operative work moving forward at the mayor's office and central staff have worked on our behalf to develop an action plan for implementing 9-1-1 alternative response.

This is linked to the committee agenda.

It was not sent out when we sent out the committee agenda last week, but it's now linked for folks who want to review it and also shared with committee members by email shortly before this meeting.

We are aiming still, though, for the full risk-managed analysis at our second committee meeting for September before we move into the budget process.

So I'm really excited about that.

I know folks have been eagerly waiting.

Also, moving forward on other departmental updates, just want to share from the Human Services Department, Seattle Youth Employment Program has opened applications for young people 16 to 24, One is called the Foundations Program.

The other one is called the Pathways Program.

Participants receive one-on-one support, weekly cohort sessions on pre-appointment soft skills.

Foundation is for folks with limited or no job readiness, training or backgrounds.

Pathways is for folks who have some previous job training who need intermediate certified trainings, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship internship opportunities.

Applications are open through September 23rd.

For more information, you can email hsd underscore syep at seattle.gov.

As far as a few regional committee updates, last week I presented the Council on the Lead Policy Coordinating Group.

Really appreciated the opportunity to be there with the other members of the Lead Policy Coordinating Group, including representation from the City Attorney's Office, the King County Prosecutor's Office, as well as the King County Council, and also the providers who also are so important in delivering LEAD services.

coming up this week as far as regional committees.

We'll be attending the King County Regional Homelessness Authorities Governing Committee meeting on Thursday.

The agenda for that meeting includes RHA's encampment resolution strategy using state right-of-way funding.

I think as we all are aware, the RHA's encampment resolution strategy is a little bit different than the strategy that the city is using.

We'll also be hearing more about Partnership for Zero.

emergency housing vouchers, a great success of that program as compared to other jurisdictions.

And we'll also be discussing some additional new implementation board appointments and hear about severe weather event actions of recent days.

I'll also be attending the Board of Health on Thursday, and there we will receive it's on monkey pox and harm reduction.

and board recruitment and restructure of the Board of Health.

other events, both last week and coming up this week, that are not regional committee meetings.

I just want to flag, I attended a South Park Public Safety Forum last Wednesday with Captain Rivera, Chief Ghez, and community stakeholders to discuss an increase in recruitment in South Park.

I also, like many of us, met with Scott director appointee Greg spots and was.

Only he heard that I nerd out on constituent services and I was so excited to have him tell me that he shares my passion for getting in the weeds on constituent services and will be working together on a West Seattle listening tour.

I also met last week with each Southwest Precinct Captain Rivera and Inspector General Judge.

And then finally, on the last week events, just want to highlight I think what we all know.

Last week, Mayor Harrell announced three finalists for a permanent Chief in Seattle, Interim Director Adrian Diaz, Seattle Assistant Chief of Police Eric Greening, Tucson Assistant Chief of Police Kevin Hall.

I want to uplift the fact that four public safety experts administered the test, including Seattle Police Department Chief former Seattle Police Department Chief Kathleen O'Toole.

The examination was made up of written and oral assessments.

And as a result of that examination, the four assessors, they both assess the oral and the written examination and they unanimously identified three finalists for the merit selection.

a Q&A on Thursday that will be televised on the Seattle panel, and community members can submit questions for the candidates.

And I just want to take a moment to thank my fellow search committee members, including President Juarez, rolling up sleeves in the work, and such a great job representing our communities in this process.

Let's see other events coming up this week.

We all know the West Seattle Bridge is scheduled to reopen on Sunday, September 18. This is a long awaited day for everyone in West Seattle and the surrounding Duwamish communities.

a press event is planned for Friday.

Just for folks' general awareness, the remaining items before the opening of the bridge are load testing, inspecting the repairs, and mobilizing the site.

I want to thank Councilman Mosqueda earlier in the meeting for highlighting the Teamsters 174 Concrete Mixer Drivers Agreement, their willingness to return to work before an agreement was reached, I think that was critical for the bridge to be able to be open and simply could not have happened without their willingness to do so.

I also want to thank Councilmember Peterson for his steadfast commitment as chair of a this project and the ongoing service both on the West Seattle Bridge Advisory Group and our ongoing work as part of the SDOT client group.

Doing our best to watchdog this really incredible and important work for the district.

On Wednesday, I'll be joining the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle to discuss the recent legislation, prime sponsored by Council Member Morales on abortion access and some new protections that we're working on.

And I think that's all I have.

Does anybody have comments?

Not seeing any, I will pass it off to Council President Juarez.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

I'll be brief, because we have an executive session and two matters on that right after this meeting.

So there are no items from the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee on tomorrow Council's Tomorrow's council agenda, we will be meeting this week at nine thirty Thursday.

The committee will consider the appointments of Kimberly Loving as the city's human resources director and Summer Hepburn as the newest member of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Council.

We will then hear and hear or see a I'm sorry, a presentation from the office of labor standards on their race and social justice initiative.

So looking forward to those items on our calendar Thursday.

Last week as Councilmember Herbold shared, we did come down to the three final candidates for the chief of police.

And as you know, Council Member Herbold, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, we've been serving alongside community members.

And I just want to give a quick shout out to the other 12 members of our work group, starting with Bishop Reggie Witherspoon.

And we also had Natalie Walton Anderson from the city attorney's office.

We had Reverend Harriet Walton, Mothers for Police Accountability.

We had the chief executive officer, Mary Ellen Stone, from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center.

We had Rachel Smith, who was the president and CEO of the Metropolitan, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

We had attorney Robert Saka.

We had former SPD chief of police, Jim Pugel.

We had the CEO of Seattle Indian Health Board, Esther Lucero.

We had the Executive Director, Eric Goodman, of the Soto Business Improvement Area.

We had the Managing Lawyer and Partner, Gabe Galanda.

We had the Commissioner, Parachi Dave, from the Public Defender Association.

And last, we had Lieutenant Scott, and I hope I'm saying his name right, because I don't think I said it right before, Batchelor.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, Counselor Herbert, Batchelor.

What is it?

Is that what it is?

OK.

He's from the Seattle Police Department.

Thank you.

He's from the Seattle Police Management Association.

And I just want to echo what Councilmember Herbold shared.

12 members plus us two.

And I think we got there.

And as Councilmember Herbold shared, the mayor's office will be letting us know.

There's not a location, but it will be on the Seattle Channel for the forum.

And there's an opportunity through the mayor's office to be able to submit questions.

Moving forward, last Wednesday, our office attended the North Precinct Advisory Council meeting along with Kate Hoffman from Council Member Strauss's staff.

The NPAC heard reports from North Precinct Captain Grossman, the City Attorney's Office and King County and the King County Prosecutor's Office on efforts to address the precinct's three top priorities, starting with violent crime, prolific offenders and crime hotspots in the district and citywide.

There's a emphasis patrols have begun on North Aurora and retail theft hotspots throughout the precinct.

In addition to new crime prevention officers have started at the North precinct and will be providing security assessments and personal safety classes to neighbors.

We also attend the park district board meeting and public hearing at Northgate Community Center in District five.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis, where around 150 neighbors came together to hear each other's ideas and provide public comment on the mayor's budget proposal.

Finally, on Saturday, I attended the open house for the Aurora Commons and their There it's actually been expanded and I don't know if you recall, but since 2016 we've had many Seattle City Council's have annually funded operations and aurora commons.

In two years, we helped fund a feasibility study towards the development of a permanent building with housing as well as $1.7 million for property acquisition to be coordinated with our Office of Housing.

I want to thank my colleagues, this council and the ones before.

This was a big day for Aurora Commons and a big thank you to CEO Elizabeth Dahl.

Aurora Commons board and the local community because starting in 2016 we have greatly expanded their services and having the clinic now and having double the space and helping them acquire the building has given them an opportunity to provide more services to women experiencing sexual exploitation and other matters not just on Aurora, but citywide, and we hope to continue to focus our area, our energies in that area.

I was on the phone again this morning with Elizabeth Dahl and the other opportunities that we're looking forward to in the next year.

to combat sex trafficking in the issues that we have seen that are getting a bit more violent on Aurora.

So thank you for that.

Coming up this week, our office will attend the what we have learned from Department of Interior and locally the seven weeks of action for seven generations.

in support of the Senate Bill 290707 and House Resolution 544, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools.

We've been lucky to work with our local representatives, that is Deb Parker and Teresa Shelton of Tulalip, who run the Native American Boarding School Coalition organization.

And we have put together a working group with the Indigenous Advisory Council, the executive and folks in our office, Sarah Mays, and how we are going to work with them to address this issue and hopefully have our listening session in the Pacific Northwest.

And that is working with the tribes, not taking the place of tribes, for an opportunity for those to come forward and provide public comment and recollection about the the genocidal practice of boarding schools and its effects on many generations.

Moving forward, as I shared earlier with Council Member Morales, this is the 30th anniversary of the Salmon Homecoming celebration on the waterfront.

It's hosted by the Salmon Homecoming Alliance, which is mainly started with the tribes in the city of Seattle 30 years ago.

I remember being that old, going to the first one.

Anyway, it will take place on pier 62 this Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

I think with the run of show, I will be presenting or speaking around two or 215 for the blessing of the canoes when the canoes come in and the rest of the rest of the groups.

So we have Tim Raymond from Office of Intergovernmental Relations, the tribal director, he will be there and he can provide you with more information as well as our office.

It's posted on the mayor's website as well as our office website.

I hope to see you all there.

As a reminder, we have a council member group photo tomorrow at one o'clock.

So please come to work looking photo ready.

I don't know what that means for some of you but.

We now need to get our pictures taken.

Joseph on our communications team will be coordinating.

These photos will update the group photos we are we are using not only in city hall lobby, but many of our online sources of information as well.

So I'm hoping you all will all be there tomorrow so we can all be photo ready.

And with that, is there any question?

Oh, nice picture.

Thank you, council member.

I don't think you saw a council member Peterson's picture that just came up.

Thank you.

So with that, that concludes my report.

Is there any questions before I do the legalese to bring us into executive session?

All right.

Not seen any.

Let me go ahead and make the comments that I need to do to move us forward.

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

Um, we will now move into executive session as presiding officer.

I am announcing that sales city council will now convene into an executive session.

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

The council's executive session is an opportunity for council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorneys as authorized by law, a legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session.

I expect the time of the exec, it's supposed to be 30 minutes so Whatever time that starts, when we say when we sign off, tack on 30 minutes.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, that is beyond 30 minutes, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

Yeah.

At the conclusion of the executive session, this council briefing will be automatically adjourned and the next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 19th at two o'clock.

So with that, we will conclude and go into executive session.