Council Briefing 3/18/2024

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is March 18th, 2024, and the City Council briefing will come to order.

The time is 2.01.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Morales?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Saka?

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Here.

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Nine present.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, the minutes of March 11, 2024 will be adopted.

Seeing none, the minutes are adopted.

All right, so here's what we're going to do today.

Last week, OIR gave us a wrap-up of the legislative session, and we don't have any other presentations for today.

But we do have one proclamation for signatures, and we'll have an executive session at the end of today's meeting.

On tomorrow's City Council agenda, there are five items on the introduction and referral calendar, including the weekly bill payment ordinance, a grant acceptance ordinance, two surveillance impact reports, and a resolution on an honorary street name.

The consent calendar will consist of the minutes and the bill payment ordinance, as well as five appointments to the Pacific Hospital Preservation Authority, the Ballard Avenue Landmark District Board, and the Pike Place Market Historical Commission.

And it's not five to each of those.

It's five altogether.

And on the regular agenda, we'll have Resolution 32129, affirming and making updates to the list of statements of legislative intent or SLIs that were part of the budget passed last fall.

And then also at tomorrow's meeting, I'll be making a motion to officially make the standing committee and external committee assignment resolutions the city's work plan for purposes of the council rules.

All right, so that's what we've got today and tomorrow.

Moving on to letters and presentation and proclamations.

Council Member Strauss has a proclamation recognizing January 1st, 2025 to be Gail Tarleton Day for signature.

Councilmember Strauss, please lead the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I request signatures to be affixed to it.

Well, thank you, Council President.

Hopefully, Director Tarleton's not watching because I'll say a few things that I'm going to say this afternoon as well.

um colleagues i'm sponsoring gail tarleton day proclamation honoring our director of intergovernmental relations gail tartland's career dedicated public service requesting your signatures today we will be doing one electronically so that we can have it ready for today and then i will also be asking for your actual physical signature at a later date.

It's important for us, you've seen me say these words every time she's been up here presenting about the legislative session because she is one of the most humble servants that has worked in so many different arenas across our world and for our nation and for our region and our city.

We've seen just in this work how many federal grants she's been able to bring to us and that demonstrates her breadth and depth of knowledge and relationships.

My staff wrote in my notes that my staff is devastated at her departure and that they've encouraged me as a council member to reject her retirement.

I don't think this is legal.

You know, I think that it really just speaks to what an impact that she has had.

When you read the resolution, and Council Member Wu, I'll talk to you about, there was one part that your office had suggested that we'd put in, and I wanted to keep it in, but it just got to be so long.

And it really, I had to say that to a lot of people.

I'm sorry, I should have said that before we got out here on the dais.

But when you read the, the proclamation, it calls her out by title in the different times and spaces that she's worked in this world.

And it's just, when we receive the presentations here about the legislative session, it's easy to not realize how many different roles she's had in our world.

And this is a really significant moment, so.

Hoping to earn your signatures.

Council President, do you have anything else that you'd like to share?

You basically covered the main points.

I just wanted to note that Gail Tarleton, still our director officially, has served at every possible level of government, except school board, as I was doing my research, but correct me if I'm wrong.

either as an elected or appointed leader, starting at the federal level working on security issues, then as a port of Seattle commissioner, then Washington state representative, and finally as director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And as such, her career basically defines public service in my mind.

And I would say that we're also really lucky to come at the end of her career so that we have benefited from decades and decades of experience, wisdom, and just knowing how to get things done.

So it is with deep appreciation for her work and also sadness sadness that she is leaving us at some point my higher self will rise up and I'll be happy for her but right now I just have to say it's it's it's an honor to be able to wish her well and thank you very much for bringing this forward thank you and the reason that we didn't do today is Gail Tarleton day is we wanted to make it her birthday oh interesting thank you for that yep If there is no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing January 1st, Gail Tarleton's birthday, 2025 to be Gail Tarleton Day.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Wu.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Aye.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Nine signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we'll now move on to our next and last agenda item, which is the official, that the public can hear, which is the preview of city council actions and council and regional committees.

And the roll call today, this week, starts with Councilmember Morales.

Please take it away.

That was fast.

I know.

It was first just last week.

Time flies.

Okay.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The Land Use Committee meets this Wednesday at 2 p.m.

We will have a presentation from Lish Whitson from Council Central staff on Council Bill 120750, the Connected Communities legislation.

We will also have the planning commission present and they will present on some issue briefs that they wrote in 2022 in preparation for the comp plan discussions that we're having now.

So I look forward to sharing that.

It'll be some important context for the discussions that are coming this year.

I do want to share that we have on the IRC, I believe, a resolution that my office is putting forth that would designate 8th Avenue between Seneca and Spring as where Harmon Way is. and that'll be coming to the Transportation Committee.

So I wanna thank Council Member Saka for hosting that resolution.

I'll have more to say about where later, but for those of you who don't know, Ware was the Executive Director of Town Hall Seattle for 17 years.

He really turned it into a focal point for civic life, for culture and arts.

And in 2015, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine named him one of 15 people who really should run Seattle.

He was a musician and a scholar.

He was a huge Mariners fan.

And it happens that our kids went to elementary school together.

So they went to several Mariners games together.

I'm honored to be able to sponsor this resolution on behalf of his family.

and the entire town hall community.

So that will be coming through soon.

District updates.

This weekend, my team joined the street fixers to clear a sidewalk on MLK and Renton Avenue South, cutting down Blackberry that had overgrown onto the right of way.

Technically, it is the responsibility of property owners to manage and take care of that, but since that's not happening, happening on MLK, this group of folks volunteer to clear, so my team went out to support that.

Last night, I joined a group of electeds across the county and the state to attend the annual Ramadan Interfaith Iftar at the Museum Association of Puget Sound in Redmond, and really enjoyed the speakers there and enjoyed just the theme of the night, which was about connection and community and diversity.

I've got a busy week this week of evening meetings.

Tomorrow evening is the District 2 open house for the comprehensive plan at Cleveland High School at 6 p.m.

Wednesday, I'll be joining King County Councilmember Zahilai for an MLK Transit Safety Town Hall to talk with Sound Transit and SDOT.

Thursday, I will be speaking on a panel with Why We, which is an organization in South Seattle.

It stands for Young Women Empowered that really focuses on supporting the mentorship and leadership of young girls in the South End.

Friday, I have in-district office hours at the Rainier Beach Library.

Saturday, I'll be attending the Wing Luke Museum Gala and a community meeting on recreating Henderson Street.

And then on Sunday, I will be sponsoring here in the Bertha Knight Landis room, Persian New Year Nowruz.

Still trying to work out some of the details on that, but I think they're expecting about 700 people, so it will be big.

And that is all that I have.

I'll pass it to Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Last week in the Libraries Education Neighborhood Committee, we had a presentation from Seattle Public Libraries Next week in the committee, we're going to have a presentation from the Department of Education and Early Learning.

And related to the Department of Education and Early Learning, I attended a preschool program expansion event this morning at Cowsey Learning Center across from Garfield High School.

It was really the highlight, I'm going to say, even though it's Monday of my week, because I got to read to the preschoolers It's really amazing to see what our investments in preschool programs do and how important it is to community and to ensuring that we're helping our kids set up for success as they enter post-preschool kindergarten.

And we see that we are really, and DEAL has made a concerted effort in the city community in ensuring that we are supporting youth from preschool through Promise.

And it was a really, really great event.

And I feel very grateful to have been able to participate this morning and read to the kids.

So I'm like beaming from just being with the kids.

Also attending roll call at North Precinct with council member Moore this week, tomorrow actually.

I'll also be meeting with Chief Seattle Club and touring their location at Pioneer Square.

I'll be meeting with Derek Belgrade.

And as well as tomorrow, just we will, through committee, we passed, voted on some great candidates for both the Ballard Avenue Landmark District Board and the Pike Place Market Historical Commission, which will come for a vote to full council tomorrow.

And that is all for me today.

Council Member Sacca?

All right, thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Good afternoon, colleagues, and might I say, Council Member Rivera, you do look like you are beaming today.

I did notice a little extra pep in your step, and I can see how our youth can do that for you.

Well, three things.

Tomorrow, well, one thing, one main thing, and that is tomorrow we're gonna be having our next Transportation Committee meeting, And looking forward to that.

There, we're gonna be discussing three main items and learning more about three main items.

One is the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We're gonna have our very own Calvin Chow, central staff expert, come give us a briefing and update on that from central staff perspective, present some, hear some issue, more about issue identification, So looking forward to that portion.

We'll also have colleagues, members of the Levee Oversight Committee.

The chair, one of the co-chairs, I believe, is coming from the Levee to Move Seattle Oversight Committee.

He's going to come and talk about, amongst other things, the performance of the Levee to date, which, as we know, is expiring this year.

And so I think that will be a really good presentation.

All of you to either join or watch remotely or later.

I also know some of our colleagues are going to roll calls and a number of other things, so totally understand.

All transportation committee briefings are important.

Every last one, this one I'd sort of rank as one of the more important ones that we've had just because of the substance and also an opportunity we're gonna learn more about with respect to sidewalks.

We'll be diving deep and have an SDOT presentation on our sidewalk program to learn more about the range of sidewalk alternatives and the current sort of thought process and how we prioritize adding sidewalks especially new sidewalks new sidewalks so uh really substantive uh thorny thorny if you will but really important meeting tomorrow on the transportation committee front so looking forward to that um as an aside i i i do want to just mention something that's been kind of weighing heavily on my on my mind and on my heart lately and that is the tragic death of Mubarak Adam, Seattle's first homicide, 15 years old, Chief Sealth International High School student.

Seattle's first homicide of 2024 happened in my district.

And...

Yeah, I just want to flag that there is a relevant state law on point that's designed with a well intent and designed to protect minors from being interviewed without legal representation.

It was modeled after and substantially based after, as I understand, an applicable city ordinance and county legislation as well.

As I understand it, the state statute on point goes above and beyond that and provides and is fairly vague and fairly broad and certainly being very narrowly construed in practice, and the net result is some families, including the family of Mubarak Adam, aren't getting the answers that they need and that they so desperately deserve.

So, you know, that is principally a state opportunity, So, but, you know, it's gonna take us all to, you know, to the extent clarification is needed, you know, that it's gonna take us all.

So I plant that as a seed for further exploration, something that's, you know, it's been weighing heavily on my mind and my heart, and, you know, I wanna make sure Families agree, families get answers.

It doesn't matter if they're killed by law enforcement or gun violence across the city that is riveting our entire city.

Families deserve answers.

So in any event, that's what I have.

I will pause or take any comments, questions, feedback.

Go ahead.

Thank you for sharing that, Council Member Saka.

I'd be interested in following up with you.

The legislation you're referring to here at the city level was legislation that I passed in 2021. One, here in Seattle, it's the My Chance Dunlap Giddens legislation that does require the police to ensure that a person under 18 has access to an attorney before they get questioned.

So if there is something related to the case that you're talking about where that was violated, I'd be interested in knowing how we make sure that that doesn't happen again.

Thank you.

My chance, Dunlap Giddens, it was the kid in Federal Way, if I recall correctly, was killed by King County deputies.

Yep.

Thank you.

I just wanted to voice my appreciation for you keeping this, the year's first homicide, but also the lost life of this youth and the grieving family front and center very much.

And yeah, I read that piece by Claudia Rowe in the Times talking about the the difficult situation we're in here.

And so I just, I don't know, what are, do you know what the next steps are?

There's, what are the next steps in this particular case?

Well, I think to the extent, so I'm keen to work alongside you all and our state legislators, right?

We just finished the session.

So I think starting next year, there might be an opportunity to work to advocate and put, I know this is something that the family of Mubarak is probably interested in, and not because it can provide them personally with any solace or comfort for the loss of their son, but families deserve answers, that's it.

And they deserve justice.

And I don't know if accountability would flow from the facts of this specific case, but we won't know because we don't know what happened.

And we just, the families deserve answers.

So I guess long would away council president me saying that I think, you know, starting next legislative session, that would be an opportunity.

Thank you.

All right, council member Strauss.

Thank you.

Transitions from really heartfelt comments into the more mundane are always difficult.

So this is my transition.

Thank you for sharing what's on your heart and mine.

Council Member Saka, because it's important and especially for the families.

We've already talked about Gail Tarleton day today.

So colleagues, as we get more into the budget committee work, when there's legislation coming through introduction referral calendar, I will announce it here at council briefing so that you're aware of it.

And then we talk about it before it comes to my committee.

Usually we have a little bit more lead time with the bill that's on the IRC this week, which is the quarter one grants acceptance ordinance.

Luckily, this one's pretty straightforward, which is why I feel comfortable having it on the IRC tomorrow and then also hearing it in my committee on Wednesday.

So I'll talk about it now.

Our next Finance Native Communities Committee meeting will be this Wednesday, March 20th, and we'll be hearing the Quarter 1 Grants Acceptance Ordinance, which accepts funding and then appropriates that funding from external grants.

Council approval of accepting grants is a charter requirement.

Eden Cizek of Central Staff will be presenting.

And this exercise, this bill is very similar in a mirror as to the fall budget.

process that we will be going through where we have one central staffer really managing the overall budget process.

And then each individual central staff analyst is in charge of the departments within their purview.

And so the same thing is true for grants.

We have Eden as our manager walking us through the ordinance of accepting grants.

So Eden has that understanding at the high level.

And then each policy staffer regarding the departments in which they're responsible for has the in-depth information about the grants that are being accepted for their departments.

So, Brian, good night.

We'll know about the SPU grants.

EDIN might not.

And so that's why I ask you, if you are looking through the ordinance and you have questions about specific grants beyond how is it and what is it, how does it work with us fiscally, if you're interested in programmatic information, we will need to bring in the central staffer that is appropriate.

And so if you do have questions about specific grants, I ask that you let us know now.

Eden sent a great memo, I believe it was on Friday, about this whole process.

If you don't flag it early, it's okay.

And if you ask a programmatic specific question at committee on Wednesday, I will ask that we give you the answer on April 3rd so that we can bring in the appropriate central staffer.

That's a high level.

This is a finance and native communities committee meeting.

And as always, all council members are welcome to join.

This will...

So this week, we will brief it on March 20th, and then on April 3rd, we will vote it out of committee, and then it will come to full council.

This will likely be a short meeting.

So that's my Seattle committees.

Regional committees for Association of Washington Cities, I have a bylaws meeting this Friday.

In District 6, I have office hours on Thursday from 2 to 7 p.m., And I got to shovel dirt for a sustainable Ballard program this weekend, where neighbors are growing seedlings of trees to help reforestation projects around Western Washington.

And this Wednesday, I'm very excited to attend the Open Cup hosted by our own national champions, Ballard Football Club, at the D7 Memorial Stadium.

So with that, colleagues, that's my report for the day.

Any questions?

If not, I'll pass it over to Council Member Wu.

Thank you.

So in committee, we met last Friday for the Committee of Sustainability, Arts and Culture and Seattle City Lights.

We went ahead and recommend the appointment of two members to the International Special Review District Board and six appointments to the Seattle Arts Commission, which council will see next week.

to the full council.

We also went and had an overview of Seattle City Lights wholesale energy risk management plan.

And so we will continue to delve deeper into this new plan in the next couple of weeks.

Our next meeting is on April 5th at 9.30, which we'll probably also do a couple of other appointments.

In regional committee, I attended the King County Regional Policy Committee to hear an update on the proposed Crisis Care Center Levy Implementation Plan.

And in, I guess, in the city, I attended a couple of things this week.

Well, in my office, we continue to meet with department heads, met with Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent A.B. Diaz, as well as...

Chief of Police, Adrian Diaz, also met with SDCI Director Torkelson, met with Director Muhammad from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, and attended the community meeting, our office attended the community meeting on the comprehensive plan, as well as Mayor Harrell's public safety forum last Thursday.

Also visited the UW campus to meet with their external leadership group.

And this week we plan to attend, there's a community safety meeting at, Bird Bar Place tonight.

I also plan to attend the Comprehensive Plan meeting tomorrow in Cleveland High School from 6 to 7.30 and attend the Seattle State Light Review Panel in my role as committee chair.

And if there are no further questions, I will hand this off to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Council Member Wu.

Last week in the Parks Utilities Technology Committee, we had an overview from our Seattle Parks with AP Diaz, which was great.

And we also had an overview from our IT department on the process of surveillance.

They gave a very straightforward, crystal clear presentation about the process of surveillance in our city and the different steps that it goes through as well.

Last week also attended this weekend the United Negro College Fund Gala.

It was phenomenal, over 600 people.

It was at the convention center here at the new one, the Summit.

They always raise about a million dollars and they give out scholarships to different kids and students in the area.

I also attended the city safety forum along with other council members at the library, which was the three chiefs and then our head of our human services department, which was great.

And then also this weekend, I spent time doing a mock city committee meeting or city council meeting with our young men's service league, which are ninth graders that are from all the various high schools across the city.

We had two council bills that we discussed, which was eliminating school dances and prerequisite classes that we discussed, and that was very fun.

Those bills did not pass out of council.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

The other thing is this week we have the Board of Health meeting, and I'm attending that with Councilmember Kettle and Council President Nelson.

We also have the regional transportation committee, which I'm on there with council member Saka.

I'm also hosting a public safety meeting on Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

This is part of our outreach for public safety that we've been doing the last very aggressively with our meetings.

Every couple of weeks, we've been rotating them around the district.

This one is gonna be at the Seattle Central College from 6.30 to 8 p.m.

And also working with Garfield High School, President Hart, our superintendent, Dr. Jones, and a lot of the community organizations.

Unfortunately, there was a young student that was shot at the bus stop right after school at Garfield High School.

And I made a comment last week at the...

that when students are not safe and, you know, children are obviously impacted by gun violence, that that's a failure on us as adults.

And so we have to do a better job of figuring out how we're gonna continue to keep our, if we can't keep our kids safe, you know, that's like the bottom, that's the baseline for what we need to do in our city is keeping them safe.

Anyways, working with our Seattle Police Department and a bunch of organizations to ensure that we continue to uphold public safety.

And with that, I think it's a great segue into passing the mic to Councilmember Kettle, the chair of our Public Safety Committee.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

And thank you to everyone who's been supportive of my time away from the office due to my COVID.

I'm really appreciative of your support.

I'm also appreciative of the fact that I can do this remote, which allows me to participate and still be good regarding the protocols.

But I do intend to be in the office tomorrow.

In terms of, well, coming off of Council Member Hollingsworth's comments, Thank you for that, and thank you for your work on public safety.

In fact, everyone who's been working various public safety aspects within their districts or issues.

Speaking of that, last week's Public Safety Committee meeting was focused on SBD staffing, which is a pillar within the strategic framework to address the permissive environment that really underlines our public safety challenges.

And that was...

We have participation from the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, the PSCSC, along with members from the Office of the Mayor and SPD to include Deputy Mayor Burgess and Chief Diaz.

So really appreciate that support.

Next week for our public safety meeting, we're going to have basically a law-based focus.

It's going to start off with the Seattle Municipal Court with presiding Judge Chess.

And then following that, we'll have the city attorney's office with city attorney Ann Davison.

So I look forward to that.

In regional, as mentioned, we'll be attending the King County Board of Health meeting.

And separately, I just wanted to note on a more district basis.

This Friday will be our first District 7 Neighborhood Council, where we're bringing organizations from within District 7 together to talk about the issues facing our district and the city overall.

I'd also like to say thank you to those that, speaking of District 7 stalwarts, those that supported the event on Saturday in honor of Paula Mueller, who's been leading on so many fronts out of Queen Anne.

And so I just want to thank particularly Council President Nelson and Council Member Wu for participating in that event and honoring her and her work, that community work, which is so important, particularly in public safety.

So thank you very much.

And with that, I will turn it over to Council Member Moore.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much Councilmember Kettle.

So last week in Committee Housing and Human Services we had a very informative briefing from the Unified Care Team and Councilmember Rivera joined us and I just wanted to make it state here that there's an open invitation to any Councilmember who wishes to attend any of the Housing and Human Services Committee.

Always welcome to attend.

Just give us a heads up.

But that was a very lively discussion, and if you missed it, it's actually interesting viewing, so I would recommend that.

And we also had a briefing from the Seattle Housing Authority, which was also very interesting.

They are I'm about to embark on a major rebuild up in the Northgate area right across from Northgate Mall, and that's going to bring a lot of units of affordable housing as well as market rate housing.

So it's an exciting time, I think, from their perspective and also District 5's perspective.

Tomorrow, we did vote to recommend unanimously an appointment to the Pacific Hospital PDA, so I'm hoping that that will pass tomorrow.

In terms of, I wanted to do a shout out to Councilmember Saka for bringing the sidewalk issue forward tomorrow.

I had an opportunity to look at the presentation and it's certainly very helpful.

And I would note that pretty much all of North of 85 is missing sidewalks.

So I'm a broken drum here in talking about the need for sidewalks in District 5 and I will continue to beat that drum until we get them.

But thank you for that opportunity to be briefed and to bring that discussion forward.

In terms of, I too attended the regional committee, policy committee and her presentations about the crisis care levy implementation.

I'm just wanting to make sure that through that implementation legislation that the interests of the city and making sure that we have access to funding for the mobile unit services and increasing access to both treatment INSTANTANEOUS TREATMENT AND LONG-TERM TREATMENT IS ADEQUATELY PROTECTED.

I NOTE THAT THE CITY DID PUT IN A RESOLUTION REQUESTING PLACEMENT OF A YOUTH FACILITY IN THE SEATTLE AREA, SO I WAS ENCOURAGED TO SEE THAT.

WE WILL BE GETTING AN ADDITIONAL FACILITY SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY, AND THAT'S STILL UP FOR DISCUSSION, BUT CERTAINLY WE'LL BE WITH MY COLLEAGUE COUNCILMEMBER WU CAREFULLY FOLLOWING THAT legislation that will be coming up for adoption the next meeting.

In terms of, I just wanted to touch base on the public safety piece and share the comments that Council Member Saka has made.

Last week we experienced two additional homicides in my district.

We had a killing at a murder at 105th and Aurora.

And earlier in the week we had a shooting.

And the police department, they agreed to put additional emphasis patrols up along Aurora, but this remains a deep concern of mine as a District 5 representative and also as a representative for the city.

And I had the privilege of listening to the Maiden podcast of former Councilmember Warris, whose shoes I'm attempting to fill, as well as Enrique Cernay and Omar Salisbury.

And their program is called Unfiltered, and I'd highly recommend it.

It was very entertaining, very thought-provoking.

But one of the things I talked about was, again, the proliferation of of gun violence and also really how this has been an issue in the south end for a very long time and now that it's moving to the north and the white community, we're becoming much more concerned about it and I think that's a fair criticism.

But what they also talked about is the need for, there's a lot of talk about community, but not a lot of talk about how do we actually support community and how do we support families who are really struggling and so much of that family piece that's where kids are falling through the gaps because of their insufficient family support and community support and some of that's being played out I think in the case that we see in West Seattle so just being mindful of that as we go through these discussions and the mayor's going out and doing these public forums in each district and they're Not admonition, but their encouragement to make sure that when we go out there that we are prepared to really listen because there's so much trauma in the community that really has not been able to be vented or heard.

And so just being mindful of that as we go through that process.

But anyway, thank you very much.

I'll pass it on to Council President.

Quick question.

If I may, thank you, Council Member Moore, for your leadership on all those topics, particularly with respect to representing our city's voice and perspective from the council perspective on the crisis care decisions, center location decisions.

So thank you for your work on that and your leadership on that.

As I understand it, As part of that crisis care levy package that voters approved, we are, there are four or five centers that were sort of promised to be built and Seattle is guaranteed at least one of those.

I mean, it is my personal view that one is a great start, but I think we need ideally two of those, whether it's the youth specific one or something else.

And so where are we at in those siting decisions?

And as I understand that is the city's role is like helping advise with the siting and implementation decisions.

Where are we at with that process?

And yeah, I'll stop there, thank you.

Sure, thank you.

So under the terms of, as I understand it, under the terms of the initiative that was passed, there will only be five and they will each, there's a high risk zone and that's divided by the different jurisdictions within King County.

So each one of those jurisdictions will get a facility by right.

The one facility that is up for negotiation is the youth facility.

And so that's where we're in the process now of having put forth, the city has put forth a resolution announcing its desire to have that cited here and its support to do so.

That citing decision I believe will be made once we've actually passed the implementation plan, which is what will be coming forward.

But a prerequisite of the siting decision is active and public support from the jurisdiction for the siting.

And so we've at least met that first step in being vocal about we are requesting the youth facility.

Beyond that, I don't know, but I am certainly keeping track, as Councilmember Wu will be as well, of making sure we are vocal in that.

And in terms of where we wind up with the siting in Seattle, that's a broader discussion about where is the best maximum use, I guess, and benefit to where it should be sited.

Thank you.

I mean, personally, I'm agnostic today about specifically where in Seattle that if that were granted, but I do see a need and thank you.

So thank you, Council Member Moore.

Thank you, Council Member Wu for your leadership.

I know our city's voice and perspective is well represented from the council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would say equally as important as where it's also who is awarded the contract to operate.

And there will be, I believe, five separate contracts.

It's not just going to be one organization that operates all five.

And I think that we do have competition for the youth facility as well.

Yes, I think you're right.

And yes, that will be a question about who becomes a provider as well as once the facility's been built.

And it's a limit of three.

One provider can only serve as three facilities.

So then it becomes a question about who are the other providers going to be, which jurisdictions want which providers, so all big questions going forward.

Finally, I wanted to follow up on what you said at the end of your comments about gun violence in District 5 and just around the city.

And not that I only get my news from the Seattle Times, but that does recall an op-ed that Reverend Harriet Walden had in the Times as well, talking about...

We have to be concerned about everybody who suffers gun violence, not just gun violence at the hands of police.

But also, her main point was that the trauma to the family and to the community ongoing is something that must be dealt with.

And I certainly agree.

We have programs for community safety, the community safety initiative, and I think that healing the family and the immediate community should be part and parcel of that, just to plug.

Anyway, all right.

Anybody else have any comments for Council Member Morris?

Okay, so let's see.

The next meeting of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee will be on Thursday, March 28th.

More details about that to come, and it will build on one of the presentations that was in the meeting this past week.

The committee met on Thursday, and we not only approved...

the acceptance of a federal grant to join with our $50,000 to combine to make $100,000 to help defray the costs of repairing the broken windows at Wing Loop Museum.

But we also had a presentation from David Jones from the Office of City Auditor.

That was really interesting.

If you've ever wanted to know how how certain audits are chosen to go forward.

There are more requests than actual audits.

So that was interesting.

And more of the mechanics of how they are conducted.

You can check that out on the Seattle Channel or look at the presentation attached to the agenda.

But we also had a presentation from the, Seattle Department of Human Resources, huge department, that performs work that touches every single department and employee, as well as delivers all of the HR functions for certain, I think it was 20 or 24 smaller departments in the city.

So that is interesting.

And then this coming at the next government governance accountability and economic development committee, we will have a kind of a part two discussion that looks at the processes by which positions are changed or modified because there is a budget component compared to, you know, or a fiscal component that is associated with those changes.

So we'll wrap up that discussion and then have other things on our agenda to be announced.

Last week, on Tuesday, Councilmember Wu and I joined the mayor for the Seattle Fire Department's launch of a program allowing paramedics to administer buprenorphine in the field.

That was very interesting.

Hopefully that will have a chance to be expanded.

On Wednesday, I gave an insider's look at the city council at the Seattle Women's University Club.

And on Thursday, I joined the mayor at the Fifth Avenue Theater for an event to launch a $20 million project fundraising campaign to save this beloved Seattle cultural institution.

And then later that evening I addressed the Rainier Club.

Over the weekend, as has already been mentioned by Councilmember Kettle, I was the stand-in for Councilmember Kettle to present the proclamation that we signed last week to Paula and, well, to Paula Mueller, but for her and her husband's sort of graceful exit from the front lines of public service in Queen Anne and Seattle at a farewell party.

I have a, if I have my way, I'll still be able to get some tidbits of her wisdom over the years coming up.

In any case, that was this weekend.

And then the thing that is that I'm looking forward to this week is the King County Board of Health's meeting on Thursday, because we'll have the first of two briefings on the ongoing efforts to address the opioid crisis.

So that is at this Thursday's meeting, part one, so.

I'll report on that probably next week.

And that's all I've got.

All right.

Well, there is one other business.

Happy birthday, Council Member Hollingsworth.

And Patty.

Oh, and Patty.

Thank you very much for reminding me of that.

Thank you.

All right.

And hearing no further business, we'll now move into an executive session.

As presiding officer, I am announcing that Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session.

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

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with the city attorneys as authorized by law.

A legal monitor will from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open session and I expect the time of the executive session to end by.

All right.

I'm going to allow for 10 minutes of transit time.

So let's say it'll go for an hour.

So that would make it 4 o'clock.

Let's say I expect that the executive session will end by 4 p.m.

If it is to be extended beyond that time, I'll announce the extension and expected duration.

And at the conclusion of the executive session, this council briefing will automatically adjourn.

And the next regularly scheduled briefing is on March 25th, 2024 at 2. Thank you, everybody.