missing title

Good morning, everyone.

The March 12th meeting of the Governance and Utilities Committee will come to order.

It is 9.37 a.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Juarez.

Councilmember Strauss.

Here.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Here.

Councilmember Rivera.

Three present.

Sure, there are three council members present.

Awesome, thank you colleagues.

And for the record, Council Member Rivera and Council Member Juarez are excused for the meeting today.

We're gonna now consider the agenda.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We'll now open the opportunity for hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to today's items on today's agenda.

Clerk, how many people do we have signed up?

Currently we have zero in-person speakers signed up and there are zero remote speakers.

Awesome, okay.

Well, the public comment period is now closed.

That was the fastest public comment period.

We're now going to start with the agenda item with a public hearing on Council Bill 12116. Will the clerk please read the title of the public hearing item into the record?

Agenda Item 1, Council Bill 12166, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities declaring King County Parcel 162304905 to be surplus to the city's needs.

For public hearing, briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Awesome, so as presiding officer, I am now opening the public hearing on Council Bill 121-166.

Clerk, how many speakers?

I'll wait, my apologies, I know you're doing that and running back and forth.

Do we have any speakers signed up for the public hearing?

Chair, we have zero speakers sign up for the public hearing.

That is the second fastest.

no public hearing that we've ever done.

So there are no members for the public present for public hearing on Council Bill 121166. The public hearing is now closed.

Members of the public may continue to submit written public comment, emails to council at seattle.gov.

Awesome, all right.

Now we are ready to jump in to the presentation.

Oh, sorry, excuse me.

We're now gonna begin briefing discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 121166. And our presenters, you have made it to the table.

Thank you for being here.

Please introduce yourself and you're gonna jump right on in.

All right.

Good morning, council members, council chair Hollingsworth, council members and members of the public.

My name is Jerry Caruso and I'm the Seattle Public Utilities Real Property Manager and I'm here to present an ordinance requesting authorization to sell a parcel of land outside the city limits to the King County Water District 125, which is a long-term wholesale customer of SPUs.

With me here today is Brian Solmsas, Senior Real Property Agent for SPU, Terry Gregg representing the Waterline of Business, and Karen Gruen with FAS, and Brian Goodnight with City Central Strath.

I just want to let you know that the SPU and FAS have followed the city process for the set forth in 1998 Council Resolution 29799 for the sale, disposal, and reuse of city property, first declaring it excess to the city department SPU and then surplus to all other city departments.

And with that, I will hand it off to Brian, who will take us through the PowerPoint presentation.

Awesome.

Good morning.

So this...

You'll have to speak into the mic, Brian.

Yeah, just pull it close, and then it should be on.

Is that green light on?

Yes, it is.

Awesome.

Perfect.

We can hear you now.

Perfect.

So this legislation is for the Seattle Public Utilities Glacier Well property sale.

Don't worry, we have our information technology folks in the audience who can help, too.

Oh, we're good, okay.

Okay.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, so the purpose of the legislation is to declare a surplus and authorize the sale of Seattle Public Utilities' Glacier Well property located in SeaTac, Washington.

This map shows the location of the property in relation to Seattle.

The property is located, like I mentioned, in SeaTac and it is 28,900 square feet.

Seattle Public Utilities purchased the Glacier Well property in 1986 and drilled a 550-foot well for domestic water supply.

Well tests over the years revealed water quality concerns related to the presence of manganese and hydrogen sulfide, but not to the point of contamination.

In 2022, SPU abandoned plans to develop the well and began the water right transfer process to the Seattle well field.

In 2023, the Department of Ecology grants the approval of the water right transfer.

SPU is hoping to sell the property to the King County Water District 125. Water District 125 has a 60-year contract with SPU for wholesale water supply to SeaTac, Burien, and Tequila.

In 2020, Water District 125 reached out to SPU to request a new water service connection for additional domestic and fire service protection for growing community and future pump station.

In 2021, SPU and Water District 125 agreed to explore a lease slash option to purchase for the property.

At this time, SPU ordered an appraisal for the lease exploration and the Water District determined that the leased portion of it was a little bit outside of their comfort level.

And in 2023, they asked for the opportunity to see if they could purchase the property outright.

At that time, SPU ordered an appraisal for the property and the Water District and SPU came to an agreement on that purchase, to purchase a property in fee.

As part of the purchase, there's city procedures that need to follow for the disposing of surplus property.

And in the end of 2024 and early 2025, SPU and FAS completed this process.

This map shows the Glacier Well property in relation to SPU's 48-inch transmission main along 24th Avenue South.

It also shows where Water District 125 hopes to install a future 12-inch water service and water main and, as I mentioned in the slide before, on the property is where they're trying to put their pump station.

It also shows the property in relation to Glacier Middle School.

Glacier Middle School is owned and operated by the Highline School District.

They've been contacted throughout the disposition process, and they determined that they didn't have any interest in the property.

Glacier Middle School currently has a permit with SPU along the southernmost boundary line of the property, and this permit grants the middle school the right to operate or construct improvements for schoolyard purposes.

The agreed upon purchase price from the Water District and SPU is $280,200.

With this, the fee-owned rights will be sold to King County Water District 125. The current easement will transfer to King County Water District 125, and that easement allows for access to the property along or via South 138th Street.

SPU does have a current permit with the Highline School District, as I mentioned, and as part of the agreement, Water District 125 has agreed to work with the school district to establish a new permit so that the school district's current use of it will continue.

The benefits of this legislation is it allows SPU the disposition of property that it no longer needs.

The sale will help the district supply additional water to their growing area with a new pump station and a water service intertie.

This transaction will not have any adverse impacts to the community nor the school district.

and that concludes the presentation.

Any questions?

Awesome.

Is there anything else?

No?

No?

Okay, awesome.

And then Mr. Brian Goodnight, anything from central staff?

Thank you, Chair.

Just one additional note.

The purchase and sale agreement for the property also requires the water district to decommission the well within one year.

Mostly, so there's no water rights, as they mentioned.

They've already been transferred away from that site.

But this will, you know, reduce any possible liability in the future for the city.

So just wanted to put that on the record.

Thanks.

Awesome.

Thank you.

and I will pause here to see if any of my colleagues have any questions.

Council Member Kettle, followed by Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

I think this is pretty straightforward and just out of curiosity, you know, the school, the middle school or the school district expressed no interest in it because they already get to use it for the permit, so there's really no need.

There's a saying that I won't say here that, you know, why buy something?

So that's the rationale behind the school, right?

So they're covered.

The school is covered in terms of the permit and everything else.

The Glacier Middle School was just built in 2019. It's a very new school.

And they use that for right next to their track for of bleachers, I believe it is, for bleachers to watch the track events.

Okay, great.

All right, thank you.

That's all, Chair.

Awesome.

Out of curiosity.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair, and apologies for not being in chambers.

I have to be in two meetings at once in about a half an hour.

I want to thank the whole team for bringing this together.

Can the SPU team please remind us of the future utility use that will be operating on this piece of property?

Yes.

Water District 125 plans to purchase or plans to build a new pump station.

That pump station will be used in conjunction with the new inner tie to supply additional water to the city of SeaTac for their growing area down off of I think it's still called Pac Highway.

And as you all know, Water District 125 is just to the south of SeaTac Airport.

And so we are dispossessing of utility land and selling it to another utility for continued utility purposes.

Is that a correct understanding?

That's correct.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

I really appreciate everyone's work, Chair.

This bill coming before us and the disposition of this land just reminds me that we do need to update our property disposition policies so that we can properly have government to government consultation with our federally recognized tribes in the area.

But I really appreciate your work and I appreciate that this is a utility to utility remaining as a utility function land transfer.

Thanks everyone.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

I don't have any questions.

Pretty straightforward.

I know I received a briefing over this, so very comfortable voting on this today.

Glacier Middle School is a really nice middle school.

Don't get it confused with Glacier Peak, which is up north.

I know some people are like, we're meeting at Glacier Peak.

We were playing basketball, and we're meeting at Glacier Peak Middle School, and I was like, no, no, no.

It's way far up north.

Thank you.

So because the committee held a public hearing today, the committee will need to suspend the rules to allow us to vote on the bill.

And if there's no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow committee to vote on the same item as a public hearing was held.

Is there any objection?

Hearing no objection, the rules are suspended and we'll now proceed on a vote.

So I'm gonna move that the committee recommends passage of 121-166.

Is there a second?

It's been moved.

Oh, thank you.

It's been moved and second to recommend the passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments?

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Rivera?

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Three in favor, zero opposed, zero abstains.

Motion carries.

Committee recommendation that the bill passes will be sent to Tuesday, March 17, 2026, City Council meeting.

We're now gonna jump into agenda item number two, which is now a public hearing on Council Bill 121163. And thank you all.

Thank you, thank you, public utilities.

Love y'all.

And yes, and shout out to Bob Hennessy as well.

That is directly from Councilmember Strauss.

Or sorry, I'm sorry.

Councilmember Kettle.

My bad.

Strauss too.

Okay.

Will you please read the public hearing into the record?

Clerk.

Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 121163, an ordinance relating to the cable television to amend the cable television franchise agreement with Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC.

For public hearing, briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

As presiding officer, I'm now opening the public hearing on Council Bill 121163. Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

There are zero.

And so we're now, the public hearing is now closed, okay?

And we're gonna jump into our presentation.

Welcome.

Thank you.

IT.

Yes.

Looking forward, you can jump right into your presentation.

All right.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the public.

Rob Lloyd, Chief Technology Officer for the city.

And I'm John Morrison-Winters, Digital Equity Program and Broadband Manager, and I manage the Office of Cable Communications at Seattle IT.

Tracy Cantrell, Assistant CTO.

And Brian Goodnight, Council Central Staff.

and we're here with the Comcast cable TV franchise extension.

Next slide.

And by way of history, we're maximizing the public awareness on this item and this is the second presentation.

If approved, this item would go to council for a full vote next and pending that action would then go to mayor for signature and CTO for signature after that.

Next slide.

We're going to move pretty quickly through this to get to the content based on the feedback from Council last item, but want to make sure we have a good accounting for the steps and the actions.

This legislation would amend the cable franchise currently on the books and extended between the city and Comcast to extend for seven years through January of 2033, if my vision is good there.

and as part of the city's negotiations with Comcast, it does follow a federal process on this one.

So what is before council committee here is a following of that process and unfortunately what is before council is either acceptance or denial of that negotiation and John's going to go through what is prescribed under that and what the negotiations have yielded in addition to past franchises and also the questions and input that council gave us at last presentation and with that, John's gonna go through that and also Brian's going to also add some commentary at the end.

So John.

Thank you so much, Rob.

So this presentation is very brief and it's just a reminder of what came out of the ascertainment process that we conducted for this franchise.

And so we entered into the franchise renewal process about three years ago identified through several inputs.

We identified city and community priorities, including maintaining all of the benefits that had been previously negotiated in previous franchise renewals.

We did conduct and the city auditor's office conducted an audit of Comcast's compliance with the Cable Customer Bill of Rights.

and we did a technical review of Comcast compliance with electrical codes, and so we identified a priority to address findings from those reviews.

There was strong community support when we went out in community for continuing to support Internet for All and the Seattle Channel as well.

Part of that is maintaining our access for all program that provides free internet for nonprofits and what undergirds all of this and we heard very strongly in community and in our conversations across the city was promoting equity and affordability as we move forward with this with the negotiation which we did and then with the extension of the franchise.

Last time I presented, there was a question about how we compare to other cities, and so we went ahead and did an analysis of our franchise, our current franchise, the changes and updates with the proposed renewal and this proposed legislation, and then how that compares to other cities.

So, this is a summary slide that sort of goes over some things in detail.

I may jump back and forth a little bit to this slide that is just the same information with a little bit more detail and in the format of a table.

But the high level that I'd like to run through in terms of the criteria that we looked at, we compared franchise fee rates and PEG fee rates.

PEG, again, is public education and governmental television, and those PEG fees support the capital needs of PEG operators.

And so when we looked across some comparison cities, we looked at Tacoma, we looked at King County, and King County's franchise that covers the areas outside of Seattle and other cities.

We looked at Philadelphia's franchise, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Portland, Oregon, Denver, Colorado, and San Francisco, California.

So in the area of franchise fee rates, the changes that are proposed is to move Seattle's current franchise fee rate of 4.4% up to 5%, and that aligns the city of Seattle with where most of the other cities in the comparison are at.

So the federal government limits and federal law limits franchise fees to 5% of gross revenues, and most other jurisdictions have raised their fees or have fees that are at that 5% level, and so the proposal is to align with that and raising our fee rate to 5%.

The PEG fee rate, we did find that our current rate of 0.4% for PEG fees was a little bit lower than many other jurisdictions, and so by proposing to move from 0.4% to 0.6%, we're more in alignment with where other jurisdictions are at.

There are some different methodologies that different jurisdictions use to calculate a PEG fee, and so some jurisdictions do continue to apply a PEG fee based on an amount per customer per month.

Many jurisdictions have moved away from this model due to the concern, as people cut the cord, those peg fees will decrease and that has been borne out across the country is that peg fees have decreased and so more jurisdictions have moved to a rate that is based on a percentage of gross revenues as we did in our last Comcast renewal back in 2016. And so we are more in line with where other jurisdictions are at.

Based on my calculation, if we were to use that per customer per month methodology, our proposed peg fee of 0.6% comes out to about 80 cents per customer per month.

And that 0.6% is based on the, when we were doing the ascertainment and gathering our inputs, that is based on the capital budget of the Seattle Channel.

We did look at number of PIG channels and how many of those PIG channels are in HD, and so nothing too notable here except I would know this is part of the negotiation and was part of the negotiation for us and is something that commonly comes up in these negotiations is how many of those PIG channels are gonna be offered in high definition.

And so with this being, the proposal being an extension of the current franchise rather than a full renewal, what we asked for was the same number of pick channels in HD.

Just kind of as a little bit of a side note here, UW-TV, which was an educational channel, has ceased operations.

and they were a HD channel and so we asked Comcast to sort of allow the other educational channels that are Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Colleges to be in HD as well.

So they did agree to that.

So the number of big channels that are in HD is maintained at four.

In terms of complementary services, so complementary cable, the city buildings and schools, most other franchise agreements do include this, with the exception of the City of Tacoma, actually, when they recently renewed their franchise in 2023, They did not include complementary service, and that has to do with a change at the federal level that allows the cable operator to count those services against franchise fees.

So they moved away from that model, but most jurisdictions continued to ask for that as part of their negotiations, as we did, and even more recent renewals, most of the cities do include that.

So that's something that we're in alignment with other cities.

The Access for All program, I would say, is that's where, really, our franchise stands out.

That, again, is a program that provides free internet connections for nonprofits in the cities.

When I asked other jurisdictions and staff of other jurisdictions if they have anything similar to that, I was not able to identify a similar program, so we really do stand out in that regard, and it's an important program as part of our digital equity efforts.

There is a row here on Comcast grants for Internet for All.

That was something that we negotiated for and received in 2015. What Comcast told us is that they really are not doing that anymore, and so it was good to kind of confirm that information, and that is actually what we saw.

There's a couple of jurisdictions listed here that got similar grants when they last renewed their franchises, and that was King County in 2016 and the City of Philadelphia in 2015. The jurisdictions that have renewed their franchise more recently have not gotten any additional grants over and above what Comcast is paying in PEG fees, so that sort of confirmed what they told us there.

And then finally, just the franchise term.

This is pretty standard at about 10 years, and that's typically when we renew a franchise.

We have in the past renewed for 10 years.

This proposal is a little bit different in that it adds an additional seven years to the current franchise, but generally speaking, the franchise terms range from between five years and 15 years, so we're within that range.

So that is really what I had in terms of comparison to other cities.

And with that, I'll pass it along to Brian.

Mr. Goodnight, anything from central staff?

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Just a couple of quick comments, mostly about the authorizations that are in the council bill itself and then kind of the mechanics of the bill.

So in addition to authorizing the executive to execute the franchise amendment, the bill also authorizes the city's chief technology officer to enter into other agreements that are necessary for implementing or administering the franchise agreement.

So one example of what this type of other agreement would be is attached to the summary and fiscal note as attachment A, and it's a memorandum of agreement with Comcast.

Specifically, that MOA would commit the city and Comcast to developing an audit program to address infrastructure issues at multifamily buildings.

It also commits the city to pursue code amendments related to the Cable Customer Bill of Rights, related to billing cycles.

and then it also recommits Comcast to many of the public benefits that they specified back in a 2015 letter.

So that's just an example of one of those types of administration agreements.

And then two of the changes that John discussed are actually done via a code amendment, specifically to section 21.60.050 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

And one of those is the franchise fee, so the increase from 4.4% to 5%, so that's done in code.

And what that means is that not only does it affect Comcast, but it also affects the city's other cable franchisee, which is Astound Broadband.

The estimates are that this change is gonna bring in about $400,000 of additional revenue, and the vast majority of that, about 97%, comes through the Comcast franchise, not the Astound franchise.

And then the other code amendment is increasing the maximum term of cable franchises from 15 to 17 years.

And again, this just syncs up with the proposed amendment, so adding seven years to the 10 of Comcast current agreement, so the code change would just increase that maximum to 17 years.

So, thank you.

Awesome, thank you.

Thank you, Brian, and thank you for your detailed analysis and also all of your great memos and everything that you provide us with.

I always feel very well prepared to take votes on these and great presentation.

Thank you for including that last, I believe that was my question.

Okay, awesome.

And it was really good to see the comparison, not just the summary slide, but the side-by-side comparison with other cities.

I'm competitive.

I want us to get the best as always.

So it's good to see how we're matching up.

Colleagues, I will pause here to see if there's any questions regarding our renewal process or the renewal contract.

Excuse me.

Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to thank, I do appreciate this slide, the comparison slide, and the way I look at it in terms of comparison.

By the way, this is across the board of city government.

You know, on one level, San Francisco, Denver, Portland, and Vancouver, BC, obviously a different country.

You know, this doesn't really apply.

And then obviously with the county, and then I really appreciate Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett.

This is coming up in so many ways.

It's coming up in tax policy now.

So it's helpful to see this and see where the common practice is.

Because sometimes you say to yourself, well, obviously Portland has taken a different route regarding the franchise fee rate and the PEG fee rate.

Is that to their benefit or not?

And just to see these pieces.

is interesting.

And like chair, of course, we want to beat Portland in a fun competitive way, not seriously.

So I appreciate the pieces.

And the other thing too here is just keeping an eye on where technology is going.

and where we are.

And so I could see, too, being mindful of these changes and how it impacts us because people are cutting the cord and so forth.

And at the end of the day, I think of the pandemic.

I think of the schools.

I think of the kids who weren't going to school because some didn't have access, either the hardware, like tablets or whatever, and or the broadband access.

Broadband, in so many ways, is a utility just like anything else, and so we have to ensure, particularly in those scenarios, that we have that ability to have that connection, because it plays out in so many ways.

Obviously, the school district is a separate entity from us, but still, that's like a classic I use it all the time in talking in terms of approach to issues.

I won't go into the details of that, but that was an area where, you know, having the ability for those kids to do remote was so important.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Strauss.

Oh, did you want to respond?

Before you go, Councilmember Strauss, I think there was a response.

Yeah, actually, if I can say two things.

We do share this information with our peers and Our colleagues in Bellevue haven't been able to renew their franchise in 10, going on 15 years.

So this information will be helpful for them.

And then just to reiterate what John pointed out is where Seattle's values are is we emphasize that internet for all.

Other cities and counties are maximizing their take and you see that in that chart, they're really after the revenue.

Our negotiation really emphasized making sure that that equity piece is still built into our agreement.

So that grid that you asked us to put together really highlights that.

I appreciate that answer.

And that goes to kind of the point I was making at the end related to the school and the pandemic.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

I'm sorry, I was just skipping over.

You can't answer that, Council Member.

My apologies.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our IT department team for working on this.

Just wanted to flag colleagues, these declining revenues in cable franchise funding because of people cutting the cable is one of the reasons why we had to take a really hard look at Seattle Channel a few years ago.

I know that we are not out of the woods with Seattle Channel and that we're going to continue to need to find different ways to braid their funding because I know it was intended to be part of the library levy conversation and I'm not exactly sure how that's all landing right now.

So I just use this moment to highlight the fact that we are going to need to find a more stable and dedicated revenue source for Seattle Channel because of the declining use of cable TV.

With that, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for working on this and getting this agreement updated.

Thanks.

Awesome, thank you Councilmember Strauss and really appreciate your work on this.

I know we've talked about it for a long time and had great presentations so I feel comfortable voting on this and I know just looking at my colleagues as well, I think we're all good.

So I'm going to, because the committee held a public hearing, the committee will need to suspend the rules to allow us to vote on the bill and if there's no objections, the council rules will be suspended.

Awesome.

So hearing no objections, the rules are suspended and we will now proceed to a vote.

And I'm gonna move that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 121-163.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

I got scared there for a second.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend the passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments?

Awesome.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Three in favor, zero opposed.

Motion carries in the committee recommendation.

The bill will pass.

It will be sent to Tuesday, March 17, 2026, City Council meeting.

Awesome.

Chair, one quick note.

It has to go to March 24th's full Council meeting.

Thank you for that.

March 24th.

Awesome.

We're gonna go back.

It will be Tuesday, March 24, 2026, city council meeting.

Thank you for that catch, Mr. Goodnight.

Now we're moving on to agenda item number three, my favorite.

Clerk, will you please read the item into the agenda?

Agenda item three, informational item 2854, a presentation on Seattle Information Technology Department overview and work plan for briefing and discussion.

Awesome, we get the work plan.

We know it's gonna be good, of course.

IT don't know how to put up your own presentation?

Hold on.

I'm messing with you.

Actually, I'll get us kicked off.

I'm messing with you.

That's a good one.

It's just a fair mess.

All right, so committee chair, vice chair, and members, esteemed members of the public, I'm Rob Lloyd, chief technology officer for the city here with Tracy Cantrell, assistant CTO.

While we bring up our presentation, and on behalf of the nearly 600 talented and committed team members of Seattle IT, and we're gonna give you the greatest IT presentation on strategy and work plans that hopefully you've ever heard.

And we bring good tidings on our IT overview and hopefully for the committee's consideration and input.

And next slide.

I've bought just enough time.

So by way of the background, Seattle IT is the central IT provider for the city.

By city code and ordinance, we provide the information communications technology and cybersecurity and with a carve out for operational technology where there are plants, for example, utilities and transportation, we are here to make sure that the information technology for the city supports all operations and needs.

It's an important and meaningful work and IT is how we connect, collaborate and work across the city.

And there is a more digital workforce and more digital public and we bridge across six generations as a city.

and hearing our peers in public, we have to lead with mission.

So starting with that mission, when we did our IT strategic plan process at the end of 2024, that is what we heard, and we created a mission that is less about doing technology well, about a paragraph of technology-based language, and we said just simply we're here to make sure that we unleash the brilliance of our people in service to community through technology and that's it.

So next slide.

We want to make sure that you know who you're working with and how we're making a flatter organization.

What's important is that we give clear signals and we heard clearly from our city employees, leaders, heard from you, the public and partners, and we're rebuilding IT to meet that call that you gave us.

it's a flatter organization that enables our people we have to be more reliable we have to deliver projects that are faster without being so costly you need to know that your investments will pay off that we are strategic in our technology direction and not haphazard and that each request is taken on as a one-off and then ultimately that we show that we care and show results and in the next slide what you're going to see is that our previous IT organizational structure, we had 300 people, but the structure was really about what came up, what we were kind of good at, and what we had kind of evolved into over many years.

we redrafted how we were structured to say, strategically, what has the council, what have the departments told us through the budget process, through the trends that we see, through audits, so that we're building for what we see now and into the future.

And through meetings with over 400 people from departments, with council, with community technology advisory board, and public partners, we said this is where we're going to be and we created a set of pillars and across roadshows for input we didn't hear any dissension from that direction.

So this direction actually is where we need to be structurally to meet the call that we heard.

And that third party review that we set said that this is actually an affirmation of a strategic approach that is city based on priorities.

and that work structure should not be based on what just comes up, but should be based on what we need to accomplish as a community and a city organization.

Next slide, I just wanna go through some of the numbers, and it isn't just saying we do a lot, but it should be what we're trying to accomplish.

So as we go through some quick baselines, what's important here is that for the first time we're saying what should we accomplish, what are performance benchmarks, and what are the numbers and trends that matter?

We have 2,900 products.

That's a lot.

Your average city has less than 900. Your average state has 1,900.

We've wandered our way into 2,900 because we have the old, we have the current, and we're acquiring the new.

And we have some direction to set with our work plan to say, how do we de-bloat and rationalize what we have so that it's less expensive.

The lack of visibility and metrics, saying yes to everyone and trying to please everything is a very expensive approach.

So we're taking a very intentional direction with our technology heading forward based on the priorities that the mayor and council and departments set.

And that direction is going to be very intentional heading forward.

And some of these numbers are things that we're focusing on.

Where should they be?

The next slide shows you how that is gonna be much more intentional.

So outcomes and impact matter more than just measures of widgets and activity.

So customer satisfaction, we implemented the first customer satisfaction survey in the city for IT.

We also said, how are our projects doing on measures of schedule, cost, and scope delivery, as well as do the departments say we're actually delivering the value they need to do the job that council and mayor say they need to accomplish for the community.

We also want to say are our services staying up and available because that's a core trust measure.

And then ultimately are our employees staying and saying they can do a phenomenal job for us.

So those are the four core measures and these are all new but we want indicators because can you really serve well if you can't listen well.

and these are all factored into our strategic plan and we'll track these along the three years.

I want to show you where we did in the first year.

So customer satisfaction, our first survey was 69%.

That was a four point scale.

The second time we did it was actually a five point scale where we added a neutral option.

The neutral option took 17% of the scores and yet we still got 67%.

So if we had stuck to the same scale in theory, we could have done better.

And that was with a $21 million operational budget decrease and reducing 61 staff.

So altogether, We kept our customer satisfaction with major reductions.

If we hadn't changed our scoring scale, we probably did better on customer satisfaction, even with those budget reductions and staff reductions.

On project success, we went to a 78% project success rate.

from a roughly 10% project success rate by implementing a lot of good professional practices and working with our staff.

And then on service reliability, I'll give you a core sub-measure on this one.

We had over 240 priority one outages in the first year.

That was down 41% by some focus on improvements.

98% means we have significant outages where people can't do their job.

getting to 99% and then in the future 99.8 and 99.9 and keep on heading in that trend means that people can do their job and not suffer the disruptions in their day-to-day work.

So core measures focus on them, continuous improvement.

And then employee engagement.

We've never actually measured the engagement of our staff.

We've had quite a few stories, but there's opinions and then there's a trend of truth.

And so in our employee engagement survey, we actually have a 64%.

That means people believe that they can stay, they can do a good job, and that the trend line is 64% of people say that they're good to excellent, happy with their ability to do their jobs in Seattle IT.

Moving on.

So we also want to celebrate our successes because that matters too.

For the first time since 2017, we took top four place in Digital Cities Awards.

That's the Seminole Awards in local government.

And they evaluate with proof, do you perform in a way that engages your public and your staff, shows operational excellence and innovates, and bless you.

And we took top three, top four in the last two years in a row.

So beating out like the New Yorks, the Houstons, the Phoenix.

So we're kind of punching out of our weight class, but we want that kind of third party validation.

I want to celebrate Civiform.

That's a long-time investment, but it took a Time Magazine Best Inventions of 2025. So a lot of people get to own that success.

Seattle Channel is the first time we've seen a public channel win the regional Emmy Award.

Usually that's media channels, like the big companies win that.

But we won it and we want to celebrate their success as well.

And that bottom picture is people in tuxedos and nice clothing holding up Emmy Awards.

And that's coverage of the community, its history, its messaging and conversation with itself.

That's to be celebrated.

and then also digital equity leader.

You heard how we carry ourselves and our values in the decisions and programs we create from the technology matching fund to the cable franchises we have and the investments that we make.

That's something we also celebrate.

And we've got the Visionary Digital Inclusion Trailblazer Award for many years.

2025, we're at the top of that as well.

But just some of the many awards that our team wins and that we celebrate.

and this is in partnership with all departments as well as partners in the community.

Next slide.

And then we also put out a report.

So this is just a quick slide and link.

So where does this come from?

And one of the things is Anyone can put out a list of maybe five goals per division.

Where are we focusing on?

You can be surprised by what comes up.

But what we're trying to do is map out a process by which IT can perform and accomplish the things that mayor and council departments need on a consistent basis.

And so first up is we need to be able to listen and hear what mayor and council tell us is important.

and you tell us that in the budget process.

And you tell us that from the dais.

And unfortunately IT is too often in the past said, hey, where did this come from?

It's a surprise.

So we have to have the structures and the mechanisms to listen to you.

And so what we did was in the budget process, we said, we're actually going to go through the entire budget and make sure that we see everything that's there and that we account for it and we touch base with departments and say, what does that mean in IT terms?

So no more surprises through the year, you told us.

And when you have a good strategy, you know where we need to go in the one to three year timeframe.

That needs to match with an IT work plan that we know in the one year to one and a half year timeframe what we're going to do and how we're going to execute it.

And then we need a structure inside IT that every single person knows what we're working on and why and how it all connects.

So good strategy, good planning, good execution process.

And today everyone in IT knows, unless they choose not to, what they're working on, why it's important, how it connects, and what's funded and why it impacts the community.

And there's actually a link so everyone sees the dashboard, we see how we performed, where we hit, where we missed, but we're all connected to those goals and we see the vision.

So on the next slide what you're going to see is One take, so there's a couple different views of this, but you know what the city's priorities are.

The budget process is as much a moral and a character-based process.

It shows how a city operates, its voices, where it puts its resources, and you see some themes that come out of that and those initiatives.

And we have to match that in the IT vernacular and how we execute projects and what we maintain.

and so you can see from here how we go from city priorities to IT pillars because we're making sure every IT employee knows what and why.

and then we have processes in IT on the how.

But this is just a map of the two.

You don't have to dive too deep in this but it's just the mapping between the two.

Because what you say matters and that connects then to departments and there is an execution piece of this then we have to say we're showing you that your investments actually then are delivered to impact to the community because There is a reality that every day you hear things from the community of the way the world should be.

Things should be easier.

Things should be faster.

We should be kinder.

We should be more responsive.

And staff live in this world as it is, right?

I have certain limitations.

I only have so many staff.

I have this many things on my desk.

And we have to bring those two things together.

And we do that by good management.

So this is the structure we've set up.

Next slide.

So this is one view of that, where we went through the entire budget, and as mayor and council have new priorities, we put those up there, and we say, all right, what's funded, what's not, what gaps do we need to close, what's shifted, what's changed, what's provisoed, and no surprises, we know how to manage this, and we're applying professional practice and good management, and then we can deliver.

And if there's any gaps and any questions, we can bring those to mayor's office or council and say, can we have a little more clarity, this is where the gap is, there's some conflicts here, but this is how we're going to make sure we deliver for you.

And with that, Tracy's gonna take us into the dashboards and execution, but all to say, once we get to the end, you're gonna be able to trust three things.

One, we care, one, we show results, and three, that in the end, the investments you make in IT show the things that you need to show to the community.

So I get the honor of listening to Rob and working with Rob and looking at how we listened, we looked at the budget, we look at strategy, and so now it's time to implement.

And so what we have here is a dashboard, and this is how we're organizing the work within Seattle IT so we can execute on the vision that we have as a city and a department.

So the mechanics of this happening, we do have a dashboard, we enable all of our employees to see this, we have work assignments that are logged, people are assigned, due dates are there.

Those are the mechanics of making this happen.

I do love that it helps our employees understand the big vision and their piece of how they fit into the overall picture.

That's very important when you're trying to build culture within the staff.

Our staff love to be part of things.

This dashboard and the work plan helps them feel connected.

They are part of making change happen at the city that aligns with the mayor and the council's vision.

The other piece here, talking about taking one step down into the detail, is you look at IT strategic pillars.

Again, this reiterates some of the points that Rob made.

We want to make sure that we provide consistent services, responsive and secure.

We want to be able to innovate.

We want to have equity.

We need to be excellent at the essentials.

So much of our staff and our city rely on the simple, can I check my email?

Excellent at the essentials.

The other piece of this is the culture of our people.

How do we help everybody move forward together in a very collaborative manner?

Other pieces here are that masterful partnership.

And again, that listening element, how do we partner with our departments, our vendor community, the technology industry?

Those are all elements of moving our work plan forward.

When you look at how the dashboard is organized, we have three different categories.

Really, one is maintain.

I like to say that's the magic that happens.

Those are the pieces that need to be put in place that you rely on each and every day.

Then there are projects that are delivering perhaps new functionality or exploring new ways to do things.

And then the assess and plan, how do we be strategic about moving ahead and understanding how we're measuring.

There's a little more detail here on the work plan key metrics.

Part of this is, okay, we've got a work plan that's listed.

How are we doing when we're measuring?

So a big piece of this is measuring appropriately and fine tuning our response, or improving.

So responsive and secure, that uptime that Rob mentioned, that survey that we did, yes, we want your systems to be available.

IT services, we know that we are a central part of businesses conducting their operations.

Little things like how long you need to respond or receive services from IT are really important.

That customer satisfaction, again, we want to listen, we want to serve.

Other areas, we know that we're doing privacy and security work, for example, right now, using our systems and being safe and secure.

These are all elements of IT, and we are measuring those with the work plan.

IT projects, how we deliver, because that enables departments to grow their business operations with new applications, new functionality.

We want to help drive change in a very positive way for the city.

And of course, those basics like cybersecurity training, that's something that we all have a vested interest in making sure that our city and our employees know how to use tools appropriately and safely.

and then of course innovation.

I don't know if you've ever heard anything about the AI, but there are many elements to innovation that we want to move forward with.

Now, some of this is another layer of looking at those IT innovations.

I'm not gonna read all the elements of the slide, but you'll get the theme.

We want to serve.

we want to have cybersecurity and privacy moving ahead.

We want to be able to say yes, not tell our customer departments that we can't do something.

We want to be innovative.

The ability to help departments grow is part of our mission, that brilliance of coming to life.

And then most important is how do we lift our culture?

This is within the Seattle IT, our departments, Culture is a big piece, and technology is woven into everything we do.

And then, of course, the AI plan, which is the buzzword of, I would say, the year.

Last year, it's part of how do we leverage this technology in a way that's safe and effective.

This next slide, I know that you would love to look at every 600 line piece of the work plan, but what we've done here is just highlight a few things, just to kind of illustrate the types of things that we're working on.

We know we have the World Cup games coming, so there is a lot of work within Seattle IT to help prepare from a technology piece.

Every department has their role here, but that is a big piece of our work plan.

Looking at how we do the business and operations tax implementation, another example of taking an action that is a city priority and making the application to enable that business operations.

Police and fire timekeeping systems, again, another illustration of delivering services in a new way for our departments that need new functionality.

I won't read the rest of these but you'll get the theme of how we are delivering services in the overall strategic plan for the city and for IT.

There's more Here we look at, we just spoke of the Comcast franchise work.

So again, that's an illustration of work that's happening.

The Technology Matching Fund, something that we are able to do with our partner, the Department of Neighborhoods, and making a technology investment for the community.

Talent modernization.

There's a theme of investing in our people.

Future of Seattle IT or the channel was also mentioned today.

Other things listed here are just examples of investing in our people and our departments.

Interns, fellowships, customer satisfaction scores, responsible AI, and reports to the council for AI.

So these just illustrate many of the different items that Seattle IT has underway looking to serve the city.

A final piece here just to highlight is the race and social justice work.

You see equity as a very important piece of the work that Seattle IT does, and it shows up in many, many places.

So this is just an example of the workforce equity aspects.

And I went through that quickly, but I think it illustrates the work that we're doing and how pleased we are to be here today.

And with that, we're here to answer any questions.

You'll also hear from us next with an AI quarterly report.

But with that, this will be my final report to you, and I leave you in wonderful hands because Tracy will be the acting CTO once I depart on the 27th.

Yes, and thank you.

I was going to mention that as well and give you a chance to say anything that you wanted to, but I first want to address the presentation.

Thank you.

It was really, really good, and you all must coordinate with Councilmember Kettle because a lot of those deliverables were public safety-driven.

I'm just playing.

I know he saw that and saw city attorney's office, saw the police are fired, you know.

It looks like the Bob deliverables.

Anyways, but I will pause here to see if any of my colleagues have any questions.

I have a couple of comments, but Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair.

It's not by accident.

Clearly.

Just joking.

No, serious.

I do want to thank, leveraging that point, I do want to thank the focus on the public safety pieces, because it's important, because at the end of the day, we do need to be successful, and this is where people don't really understand necessarily, you know, it's the back office work that that needs to be done, and IT often resides there.

But it's crucial in terms of being successful.

So thank you for the support related to the technology programs, to the Real-Time Crime Center, all the help related to the implementation of the various ordinances.

Each of us electeds have taken an oath to the Constitution and the ordinances of the City of Seattle.

It's an important point, just note that.

and it's paying dividends, by the way.

So your work in order to enable that to happen is paying dividends in terms of our public safety posture and for our first responders to be able to do their job.

And so please go back to your people and say, hey, there's a certain, you know, appreciation and a, you know, satisfaction of a job well done when you could say, hey, the first responders can do their job better.

So please pass that.

Thank you.

Also, not as in the press, if you will, but the relationship between the city attorney's office and Seattle Municipal Court.

is huge, and this pops up every now and again.

Again, it's one of these back office things, doesn't necessarily get the attention that it should, or sometimes maybe attention's a bad thing.

But this really goes to pillar two of the, not to turn the Governance Committee into a Public Safety Committee meeting, but pillar two of our strategic framework plan is a functional criminal justice system.

and sometimes this is like getting positions like magistrates or whatever, maybe prosecutors for the city attorney to prosecute DUIs because we're working really hard on the Olympia bill that soon should be signed by the governor, relegated to toxicology labs.

But if the court and the city attorney's office are not able to work and pass these data sets that's not a functional criminal justice system.

So the work there is hugely important.

We just had a very interesting meeting in public safety related to alternative response.

It garnered some attention in the papers and other media.

And it's important to note that, again, a functional criminal justice system but also a functional public safety system really requires the ability of and that space of police, fire and care being able to talk to each other and the non-profits and others that work with them.

And then you have additional kind of restrictions.

So that just adds to the challenge for the IT side of things.

So thank you for that.

And also thank you for the timekeeping.

This goes to police and fire.

They have unique job schedules and the program probably wasn't designed for them at the base.

And so, you know, squaring that circle, as I like to say, is really important.

And that's another area that really makes a difference in the lives of the first responders, and in this case, police and fire.

Separately, I appreciate the points about AI.

I take in there too augment versus displace because government service often you don't get paid as much as the private sector and sometimes the offset of that is stability which in the tech sector doesn't really have it and the ability to ensure like the mission set doesn't change I mean we have to provide these services and so having an IT workforce that is committed to that and part of the ability to do that is that stability.

So I appreciate saying it out loud that you're looking to augment versus displace.

Am I right in saying that?

Yeah, it's actually core.

I'll say it in two ways.

The AI plan says two things very clearly.

One, for our AI, it is augment not displace.

and we're gonna focus on three things with our labor partners and our employees, which is where can AI help unburden people in their work, make smarter decisions faster, and be responsive to the community and each other in ways that we can't currently.

and if we focus on that layer, there's a lot that we can agree on, that AI doesn't get into risky or dangerous places.

And with our union partners, they're pretty receptive to that space.

Yeah, another very important point too, our union partners.

Question, when you were at the award ceremony, for the Seattle Channel.

Was the programming that centered on Council President being a guest on various inside-out additions?

Was that the driving force for the win for the Seattle Channel?

I don't know.

I wasn't cool enough to get invited, but we can check.

She's really popular.

Just double-checking that.

But that is an important, you know, it's interesting because it's a very important piece and it has direct and indirect.

You know, the direct numbers are, it's not like huge, but the indirect piece is really important from various pieces of the news media world leveraging it.

So there's that piece.

Because local newspapers, everything else is being shrunk to almost nothing.

And Seattle Channel allows the ability to...

Leveraging Seattle Channel gets more out of the lower numbers that we have in the news media world, the traditional news media world.

But it's also helpful in the new places too, like podcasts and the like.

So people should be thinking about that.

But also, it's the little things.

I had a developer that I met yesterday and we're coming through the entrance to the council offices and Seattle Channel had a story about Pioneer Square and the development of Pioneer Square.

So here we are, I'm talking to a developer who has property in Pioneer Square and I'm saying, hey, here we go, right here on Seattle Channel, which looked very professionally well done.

and this is the kind of thing I'm sure that contributes to them winning those awards, so thank you to that.

I really appreciate the budget pieces because that's, you put your money where your mouth is and that's where the pieces are and that goes back to public safety, so thank you for that.

The last question I have in addition to the comments is, you know, cybersecurity, in my former life, redundancy in those pieces.

Not necessarily a foreign threat, but in terms of shakedowns and the like.

What are we doing in terms of really ensuring that we are in a good cybersecurity posture to ensure that we don't have things that happen, like to a library or to some of these other jurisdictions across the country?

I appreciate the question, Councilmember.

Let me answer your question in a couple different ways.

I'll speak generally and then say we should have that conversation maybe in a closed session because cybersecurity is like Fight Club.

We don't talk about Fight Club in public.

This is a period where we have to re-engineer how we do our cybersecurity program.

With Claude and OpenClaw, we can't see the risks like we used to, and our tools don't work as well as they used to either.

So we're entering in a very risky period.

and all cities, all companies are and you're seeing that expressed in the market as well.

So your sense of risk and your intuition is well placed and we'll be coming together with a program for that and reevaluating how we're built and the best answer I have for you is 2026 and 2027 is a period where we're going to revamp and refresh and refactor the cybersecurity program and we have to be ready to do that multiple times over the next year and two years.

because the ground is shifting so quickly underneath our feet.

But glad to have a partner and a champion in you.

I get it, and it's also highlighting that I probably should get a briefing or a group of us in some type of proper forum, but myself at the very least, so thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

I will say, number one, great Great presentation.

It was awesome, obviously, to see where we currently are, what the current goals are for the department, and then where we're going and what's on the work plan.

Love the dashboard.

I love anything dashboard.

Seriously, anything dashboard.

I'm a dashboard freak and a map.

I love maps.

just to see that type of accountability but also visually be able to see track progress I think is huge because oftentimes you might get so caught up in the work and you just, you know, you're finishing projects and you don't look back and like, oh, you know, I did all these things or look forward to progress.

So just wanted to highlight that.

I love seeing in quarter four the permitting piece on there, figuring out, you know, just looking at permitting, don't really know many details into that, but understand that technology could be a big piece into making stuff more efficient, more easier for folks.

So I love seeing those two things as well.

And then a timeline.

So understanding that there's stuff that prioritizing stuff that we need to get done before the World Cup.

And then obviously, as I've told, because a lot of folks in Seattle, they love hearing about the World Cup, but they're like, Joy, we're tired of hearing about the World Cup.

What are we going to do after the World Cup, life after the World Cup?

you were able to see what we're gonna do life after the World Cup.

And looking at that, understanding that it's a great opportunity for Seattle to be on the world stage, but also life after World Cup.

We don't want the momentum and progress to die down.

We wanna continue pushing forward because people still have to live here.

And I think that's really incredibly important as Council Member Kettle would say.

I also wanna note, so thank you both for that.

I also want to note that this is Director Rob Lloyd's last meeting and we are, I will take a point of privilege to say a few kind words and then we'll, we'll actually, do you want to say any words before I lay it on?

Just how grateful I am for the ability to serve Seattle.

Council President, you were part of my selection group, so I remember you from the process, and there is such a wonderful group of people in the City of Seattle, so dedicated to the community.

It has been a gift, and I'm grateful for it.

Awesome.

Councilmember Cattle?

I just want to simply say fair winds and following seas, which is a Navy way of saying goodbye and job well done to Bravo Zulu.

And so thank you for your service to our city.

Yes, I was on the selection committee.

And I will say, Director Lloyd, it has been a true honor and a pleasure working with you and your department and all the great people at ITD.

And then also, too, the one thing that I really appreciated about you from the start was you were never comfortable with the status quo.

You always wanted to push.

You always wanted innovation.

The work that you did in San Jose and the Bay Area, I knew we had the right person for this job.

When we sat down and we talked about Hey, what are some of the council's goals?

And I told you, okay, here are my goals, better interface with the public, making sure that when they went online, they could have great service, they could connect, they could, you know, follow along to get city basics better, that they could be able to have, that they didn't feel like government was clunky, right?

That we lived in a city that had some of the best technology companies in the world.

This is the birthplace of, we know, a lot of these amazing companies.

And why should Seattle not have the best?

And talking about that standard of excellence, and I truly believe every single conversation that we had, every time that you presented to our office or gave us information.

It was the best.

And we were so lucky to have you for the time that we did.

And we are truly going to miss you, but I know you're going to be incredible director, executive director at the Center for Digital Government.

they are lucky to have you and I know you're gonna go on to amazing things and continue to improve and I do believe that we are on the right path with our department so thank you for your service thank you for trusting Seattle and thank you for moving your family up here as well and for them and then trusting the city and I know that you will do great things so looking forward to following your career thank you Okay.

Well, now you got me sad.

All right.

Okay.

Well, are there any other final comments or anything else for the good of the order?

Okay.

Awesome.

Well, guess what team?

Thank you everyone.

Thank you committee colleagues for all your work with that.

There's no further items on today's agenda.

This concludes our March 12th meeting of the governance and utility committee.

Our next meeting because we are once a month on this meeting, okay?

It's Thursday, April 9th at 9.30.

Hear and know for their business.

It's 10.50 p.m.

or a.m., good God, a.m., thank you.

We are done, and you will be an hour.