Good morning.
Thank you for being here for our regularly scheduled council briefing on November 5th.
And we will, um, I'm sure we'll be joined by a few council members as the morning continues.
So why don't we first start with our, um, I'll dispense of the president's report.
I'll wait to say a few words when we get to our preview of today's city council actions, but why don't we have the state legislative team come on up and talk about our agenda and just, uh, by way of process, And I want to thank all of you for your input on the agenda.
Our plan is to have a discussion now, and then to put it on the introduction referral calendar today, and hopefully vote on it next Monday, is at least the plan.
Sometimes plans change, but hopefully this one won't.
So why don't we start with introductions just to walk us through what might be our final document.
Go ahead.
Lily Wilson-Kodega, Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
Christina Postlewaite, State Lobbyist.
Erin Jajek, Contract Lobbyist at the city.
We are here to review the second draft of the city's legislative agenda this morning.
We really appreciate the time you've all taken with us to give us your feedback.
We have worked very hard to incorporate that comprehensive amount of feedback, and this also includes a lot of edits from our department.
I'm going to touch on today, good morning, a few highlights of things that we know are very important to you.
As you will notice in this agenda, oftentimes versus the specific language of every piece of legislation in a very comprehensive agenda, We often try and broaden that language to encompass things and protections that we may want to expand as we move through the legislative session.
So, but we're also going to dive into specific portfolios and talk through some of the individual bills that we've all discussed with you.
Some of those highlights today.
include general support for progressive revenue reform, expanded access to housing rent regulation, partnering with King County on behavioral health funding, statewide statewide just cause eviction language limiting and language limiting Seattle's ability to extend those just cause eviction protections to tenants at the end of their lease term.
We did, absolutely.
Block the Box and expanded authority for traffic lane and camera enforcement, protections for sexual assault victims, misclassified workers, expansion of portable benefits for independent contractors, the Keep Washington Working Act, and expanding the state's recently established legal defense fund.
firearm safety measures generally, including expanded local regulatory authority from the state.
And although we know the Supreme Court recently struck down the death penalty, we will continue to pursue legislation and report back to you all in our regular briefings.
And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Christina.
Good morning.
Good morning.
So again, just a really quick session overview.
We're at a long session this year, 105 days, a budget year as well.
We'll start on January 14th.
And we will obviously have a lot of implications from the upcoming election.
So we're eager to see what comes out of tomorrow.
One of our big priorities, obviously, is around housing and homelessness and the safety net.
That's a big topic this year of mental health funding in the wake of Western State.
Enhanced funding for homelessness services, public health, mental health, and other addiction and important human services.
And Erin will touch on those a little bit later.
We'll be working again on the local option bond bill, fully funding a housing trust fund, additional REIT authority, tenant protections, and we kept, because those are very broad as they're being developed, we did keep very broad language in there, and we can show you in the document where that is.
I was responding to the comments that you were making where you listed some of the tenant protections that we had talked about, including, and I'm looking at, I see the version, those specific items specifically, statewide just cause, did not make it in.
The legislation, so we've been in conversations with Representative Macri about that being an important priority for you.
That's covered under the language that's included, but not specifically named the specific statutes per se because things may change as we move through the legislative session and we wouldn't want to be restricted.
I appreciate your message over the weekend.
I was just, when I heard you list those things, I thought you were saying that they were included.
And that's why I said, oh, so they got in.
But I see now that they did not.
We have language that will allow us to work on those very critical issues.
We just want to make sure that we don't have language that's so specific that ties our hands should proposals change, as they often do working through the legislative process down there.
So we're just trying to be as nimble as possible to respond to changing legislation.
But those are very much priorities for us.
And we look forward to working with you on those as well.
Thank you very much.
We'll also be working on a property tax relief program as well.
And like I said, I wanted to allow Erin to talk a little bit more about the behavioral health realm and let all of you know what we'll be working on this year.
Okay.
Hi.
And I thought I would go into a little more detail of what we know is coming in the areas I work in.
A little more detail on a lot of stuff I work on.
We keep the language broad in some ways, but we have some detailed items.
So I'll do my best to kind of jump between.
But I'll start with behavioral health because it is the big topic of session.
And people are calling it the new McCleary, which is kind of funny.
I hope we don't have new McCleary every year.
But this does stem from litigation, the Trueblood lawsuit with Western State that really came from the courts.
But what it highlighted is that the whole spectrum of our behavioral health system isn't working.
And so when we go into this session, we're going to be working and looking at things from western and eastern state all the way down to community-based and outpatient services.
The whole spectrum's up for debate.
That's very exciting, because it's probably long overdue.
It's also overwhelming, and a lot of the details will be figured out as we get closer to session.
For us, we'll look across the board.
I think we'll be really interested in some of the efforts the governor mentioned this summer about moving more towards community-based treatments.
I think it's important we have stuff statewide that people aren't always having to come into the urban centers to get treatment.
They can be in their community.
This is probably a year where there's gonna be a lot that's of interest to us.
We always wanna stay really tight with the county on this, because a lot of the services are run and hubbed, interfacing with the county, but we have a role to weigh in as well.
It also has a really big capital budget part, probably, because if we are moving towards more community-based facilities instead of large institutions like Western Eastern State, we need more local community-based facilities, and that needs buildings.
So this is one that will play in both budgets.
You'll hear a lot of legislators talk about the capital budget is tight this year because of behavioral health, and that's what they're getting at is some of the money that will be invested.
If you have specific issues around behavioral health that you want us having a lens on as they start to formulate it, I'd love to hear about it offline.
I always have a little list to watch for as they formulate.
There will be legislation stemming from Trueblood, but then there will be so much more, and that all is to come.
And it kind of goes along with opioids, right?
Behavioral health is about mental health issues and chemical dependency, but then there's a separate body of work that's been going on for years on opioids.
And a couple things we know we'll see this year are a couple bills that didn't pass the last couple years.
There's some definitional changes in the law about medically assisted treatment being a success for ongoing instead of abstinence only.
The other is a bill we supported last year that says, it was called No Wrong Door.
Someone shows up for treatment and they, for 24 hours at least, get to have treatment services while they figure out insurance.
And I think that one will pass this year.
Stuff's hard in a short session.
There's other things like pregnant and parenting women, some services and programs angled at that, incarcerated populations.
And I really am excited about this one, is looking at non-pharmacological solutions for pain.
So this can be something like chiropractic, acupuncture, those types of things instead of opioids.
And that's a little bit more complicated, but there's been some work going on.
So I think that'll be furthered this year of trying to find other ways of dealing with pain.
We also be support, did you have a question?
I wanna wait till you finish this section.
I'm done with the opioid part, yeah.
So as it relates generally to behavioral health, both mental health and health assistance for folks who have addiction issues.
Last session, Ricky's Law was passed and part of the commitments made in that legislation was opening of a couple of new facilities every, I think there were some goals for the next few years.
Is there funding included in this year's session in order to fulfill those commitments?
That's great.
That's a great question.
And it's, I think, a lot of past, not last year, a couple years, because it is been, there's a couple that have been built.
Those are the 16-bed community-based.
It's on a trajectory.
It also needs a lot more.
This is definitely what I was speaking to about the capital budget needing to infuse a lot into probably the behavioral health bucket.
They had a grant program and they had some stuff delineated.
I think not only will that continue, they need to infuse more money to get those beds up and going.
It needs to probably speed up.
There's already some problems with Ricky's Law where there aren't people to send people that are meeting the terms of that.
And so I think that's what needs a lot of money to jumpstart the backlog, because the backlog catches all the way up then, right?
This whole system gets stuck.
Yeah.
Councilmember Herbold, on the community-based mental health issue and the lawsuit, are you guys working from some kind of database that shows us in each county how many beds, because I know this is fluctuating with the Board of Health, we learned this, how many beds are actually available for people with mental health issues so we don't have the situation that we just saw happen down at, was it Linwood, the man assaulted, was put into the house for Yeah, yeah.
Is there some database that we can find or look at?
We can follow up.
I'm sure there is because we often hear reports of the lack of beds statewide for anyone.
There must be one that rolls up.
Yep, yep.
But what we hear is anecdotal and I have never seen like a piece of paper that says here's King County and This is how many beds we have for adults.
This is how many beds we have for children.
Here's the city of Seattle.
Here's how many beds we have for adults.
How many have children?
What we're finding on Aurora and Lake City Way is a lot of our folks, they're just their mental health issues, and we're having to put them into low-income houses that are just are not accessible.
They're a danger to themselves, and I'm dealing with that a lot right now And so even then they and they have been assessed But I've never been able to respond to constituents Why I don't have somewhere to send them where they stay in community that they're not being shipped down to Western State or you know down to Aberdeen or over to you know Ballard I mean, you know, this is where they live.
Yeah, so that's a big problem and we do have that information So yeah, I think I was gonna say we do let me get let us follow up and show you and like I don't know when it's updated to that's a question I want to find out councilmember.
I will also note Christina has done a great job coordinating with the county around some joint legislative asks just given how those funds flow to the county.
And they do have some specific numbers of beds that they'll be pursuing in the session.
We fully intend to support them 100% in those efforts.
And we know exploring a multi-county approach is very important to the council around the behavioral health and housing focus.
So we'll continue to let you know and we can report back.
Let's say you tell us there's 20 beds in King County or City of Seattle or 25. I don't know the process of who gets selected to have those beds.
I still don't have that.
I don't know how you advocate for that in that sense.
Yeah, let us ask.
Yeah.
And how long the waits are for different types of beds.
Yeah.
And I'll echo what Lily said.
We're in contact already with the governor's office and the legislators working on this, because a lot of these urban centers are taking a lot of the folks now.
And ideally, we want to clear up bandwidth here, but also open the types of services they need in their community.
So people aren't always having to come here, so you get to stay in your area.
So we are trying to talk to all partners as they craft.
So let us get you that.
Tell us what you think of how it looks.
I'm curious how much, how live time it is.
I've heard some numbers at times that are pretty, maybe it's monthly we're able to see.
We'll follow up with the county and see.
One that we've supported in the past and we'll be supporting again is funding for foundational public health dollars.
Those are flexible dollars for the public health system to use as needed.
And they have a very large request this year that came from the Department of Health.
And we'll be talking to the county and other partners of supporting that, of course.
And this is similar but a little different, so I want to call it out on tobacco 21, which I'm happy to see is on the agenda.
I think I'm really hopeful this is the year that'll pass, and I wanted to flag that worked in tandem with that is an effort to restore the tobacco prevention and cessation funding for the Department of Health.
which has been cut over the years, and the Department of Health actually had a pretty aggressive ask of $32 million to the governor's office for that.
I'd be great if they got that, but getting that program restarted is a nice thing in tandem.
When you move the age of smoking and vaping up to 21, we want to make sure there's cessation services for those that are in the transition time, as well as the programs that have been hurt over the years with the lack of funding for that.
Thank you for that.
I know this summer, and I, Council President, thank you for, let me just echo or build on what you were just saying.
When I was working with DESC over the summer, we learned that on 3rd Avenue, there was a group that were on the north end of the block, and they were rolling their own cigarettes, right?
And I asked why we didn't have the cessation program available, and they used to have patches, the nicotine.
Yeah, and they said they simply didn't have the funding to do that.
So we have very low income folks that some of the things that provide them, you know, maybe the little bit of feel good during a nice summer day is the fact that they are still using tobacco.
But if we could provide them other tools, it might make them feel even better.
So it really is a public health, but also when we come back to that social justice argument, I think it's something that we've got to be paying attention to.
So if you'd let us know what we could do.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because I think there's some real-time stories that to me were really very persuasive.
I agree.
I agree.
I'll keep you posted as we go into session with that.
And the last one I know will be of interest to some of you is I think it might be a big year on health care reform and access to different types of health care options.
And we're already hearing words like a public option, standardized plans, really different types of things than our states looked at before that I think will be worked on in a real way.
There are conversations and research going on right now.
They're very complicated.
But they started early enough that I think we'll see some legislation by January that I'll be happy to brief you guys on once I know details.
But it would be expanding and trying to change some healthcare offerings in our state.
Thank you, Erin.
Who is the champion of those efforts?
Eileen?
Yeah, Representative Cody.
I will say, actually, three or four state agencies are involved as well, because some of the things require federal approval or a waiver, which is not easy.
And some of the things impact federal lines.
And so that's some of the research that's been going on.
The departments have been really involved in it.
And Senate side, I would say it's Senator Cleveland, the chair of Senate Health Care, has been really involved as well.
That makes me very optimistic.
Okay, I think that's it for me.
Any questions?
Thank you.
Do you have a question, Council Member?
No, just nice to see you.
Good to see you too.
We wanted to touch briefly on one aspect of transportation, the transportation portfolio, and then Cody's going to cover the rest, but we wanted to just let you all know we're still very active in conversations around automated enforcement, the authority for us to go forward with that.
That will be continuing.
It's been a really great dialogue we've had ongoing, and we'll continue to work on that and keep you guys apprised of any changes around that as well.
Good morning, Council.
Sorry, I think Council Member O'Brien has a question.
Sorry.
Can I ask a quick question on that?
Of course.
In a recent Regional Transit Committee meeting, as we're talking about the period of maximum constraint, obviously impacts to how buses move through our city for Seattle residents, but significant impact for folks that are commuting from the surrounding cities.
And a lot of folks, a lot of electeds around that table were asking questions about What are we going to do about blocking the box?
So, you know, I'm hoping that other jurisdictions will be supportive of that legislation, even if it's just a pilot in Seattle, because it could significantly reduce travel times for people throughout the region.
Councilmember, that would be very helpful to follow up with you on who those folks were offline, and we'd love their help this session.
Great.
All right.
Good morning, Council.
You know, transportation, it's hard to believe it's been three years since we did that transportation package, but it doesn't seem like it's been that long ago.
You know, lots of discussion, lots of, as always, around transportation.
You know, one thing in the House, it looks like we're, We're going to have a new transportation share for the first time in a decade, so it'll be interesting to see who that is.
I wouldn't speculate right now, I'd probably ruin their chances if I did.
But lots of interest in that.
Also, we're continuing to work on regulatory system around ride share, around Uber and Lyft.
been in discussions with kind of co-leading those with the county and with the companies.
This is at least my, I think, six year working on this.
So hopefully we'll see a regulatory framework come out of these negotiations this year and see something move forward.
Also hearing different ideas about a transportation mini package.
So, you know, somewhere around a nickel, maybe some other funding sources.
I joke, everybody keeps calling it the mini package, but if half the stuff got in it, people would like to, it would dwarf the last package we did.
So, a lot of project-specific driven.
You know, I think there's an overpass up on Highway 2 a certain legislator would like to see get built.
I know there's a bridge to, I think it's Magnolia, though at least one council member would like to see part of a package.
So we'll see how the conversations go and see how it goes having our, having a new transportation chair in the house as well.
Good, love to talk to you about that offline.
Okay, will do.
Thank you, Cody.
Under public safety law and civil rights, we will again be pursuing legislation to repeal the state law preempting local governments from regulating firearms.
I know Council President Harrell has asked us to make that a priority.
Raising the age to purchase an assault weapon to 21 years old and requiring enhanced background checks, that's something we'll continue to pursue depending on a few factors.
I was going to say, Lily, there was a, I don't know if anyone watched 60 Minutes over the weekend, but there was a segment on that that I don't know how you could have watched that segment and not realize assault rifles are bad and cities need the ability to regulate this stuff.
It was a very compelling section on the obliteration.
Yeah, particularly what's happened to our kids in our schools.
It seems like an important moment to continue the momentum around those efforts.
So I did not catch the episode, but I will look for it now.
We will continue to support, along with that, safe storage requirements and required notification from dealers to buyers of potential liability, increased liability for unsecured firearms.
The Keep Washington Working Act, eliminating the failure to respond or appear in relation to a traffic incident as a reason to suspend someone's license or driving while poor.
Eliminating the statute of limitations for felony sexual assault.
Expanding protections for victims of sexual assault including immunity from prosecution for prostitution for those seeking emergency assistance.
Changing the charge of patronizing a prostitute to sexual exploitation.
and changing the classification for a second conviction from a misdemeanor to a gross misdemeanor, and modifying the crime of rape in the third degree by removing the language requiring lack of consent to be clearly expressed.
We know a lot of you have brought those issues forward to us as priorities.
We will also be supporting increased funding to address the backlog of untested rape kits in Washington State.
And then under education, many of you, we have talked to you about the proposal that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction put forward about a $2 billion capital gains tax proposal, half for some property tax relief and half for some of the specific programming called out by the superintendent.
We will continue to support efforts around progressive revenue form and efforts to support our teachers, students, and faculty in the K-12 system.
We also have some interesting opportunities in the higher education space this coming session, including fully funding the State Need Grant, the Washington Promise, or funding college access for all Washington State students, and expanded STEM support for students through the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship.
And finally, we want to touch on some critical environmental initiatives we're working on.
One is around carbon emissions.
So we've been supportive in the past of efforts to put a price on carbon.
Did not move forward with this during session.
Legislative action is likely dependent on what happens tomorrow.
So we'll be keeping an eye on that.
The 100% clean concept is being reviewed prior to session, and we're continuing to actively work with stakeholders on this issue.
Electrification of transportation.
This, again, we've been working on this previously, would provide public utilities with the authority to provide incentives for electrification infrastructure.
This has been a big priority for Seattle City Light for many years.
Working on the residential stretch code issues would address emissions from the residential building sector and would give governments the option to choose from tiers of residential energy code established by the State Building Code Council.
And lastly, revisiting MOTCA.
The city has several large projects that will be eligible for MOTCA funding in the next couple of years, Lower Duwamish, East Waterway.
This account has historically been unstable in recent years with dips in gas prices.
And the use for the account has traditionally been for general fund projects.
MOTCA, Model Toxics.
Model Controlled Toxics Account.
So we are looking to stabilize the account and ensure that funds will be able to cover our matching grants.
Lily, you mentioned at the outset that there were some department heads who had weighed in on the legislative agenda with some additional priorities.
Obviously, this is a great chance for you to hear what our nine priorities are, but Can you talk a little bit about what you might have heard from department heads and whether that was already covered by some of the issues that was outlined or just a little extra time on that would be helpful.
Absolutely.
There is, I think we have hundreds of pages of feedback that we go through a process where all of the departments provide feedback and then we cross check that with the language included in the legislative agenda to make sure that those department priorities are included.
Just broadly, I think a lot of I think Marty Garfinkel in particular has been really helpful in providing some specific feedback around various labor priorities, protecting sensitive information of union members, a lot of interest from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs around the Legal Defense Fund, and priorities from the state around making sure that we are And the fund that they modeled after the City of Seattle is expanded at the state level, particularly after what happened last session with the Department of Licensing records release.
And I don't know if, Christina, if you wanted to highlight any of the City Light priorities that are included.
Yeah, we've had quite a few from Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities.
a lot of departments have weighed in, which was really great to see.
It's helpful to get their feedback.
They know what their big issues are, and they know the detail that they need us to address them.
One thing that we also do is cross-check different suggestions to make sure that one wouldn't necessarily inhibit another department's ability to do what they're trying to do as well.
So it's an exhaustive process that we go through to try and achieve a document that everyone can be supportive of and that we could really work towards this session.
We hope we have it here.
And with a mind to the issues that you all have brought forward to us, we'd be happy to take that broader, very comprehensive document of feedback from all the departments and kind of highlight some sections that may be of interest to you if you'd like us to follow up on that.
Sure.
Thank you.
I have some general comments and suggestions, and then I have some questions.
It's easier for me just to go page by page than the jumping around.
So I apologize if you've already covered this.
So on page one of the document, it specifically, in the second paragraph, last sentence, refers to preemption of local regulations.
And it specifically calls out preemption of local regulations related to protecting tenants and achieving housing affordability.
I'm just a little concerned that that restricts us in terms of where The city has seen some of the more conservative efforts advocating for preemption of local regulations, everything from taxation authority to labor standards, as we know.
There was a big fight this last legislative session around Equal Pay Act and whether or not it should include preemption.
Same thing came up in the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act fight.
And so I just want to make sure that that language is framed more broadly to make sure that folks don't read this legislative agenda as us conceding our ability to advocate against preemption of local regulations in areas that are not inclusive of tenants and housing affordability areas.
Thank you for flagging.
And we can make sure and incorporate that and let you know about the new language and broaden that out.
In the third paragraph, it refers to, in the first sentence, we support strong civil rights protections for all and efforts to protect the rights programs and services provided to immigrants and refugees.
Again, I'd like to make sure that there is language in that sentence that is not allowed to be read in the fashion that would say that it's just immigrants and refugees who arrived in 1876. I'd like to make sure that that includes undocumented immigrants or people who are regardless, immigrants and refugees regardless of their documentation status.
And then on the second page, second paragraph, last sentence, where it talks about we also support additional funding for the State Patrol Crime Lab to address the backlog of sexual assault evidence kits.
I'm supportive of making sure that we allow additional funding sources and opportunities for the State Patrol to test the backlog of sexual assault evidence kits.
What I am not supportive is any type of funding mechanism that would And I just want to make really clear that we are looking at funding sources that are not burdensome or punitive to people who are survivors of sexual assault.
The third page.
The third full paragraph where it talks about we support the expanded use of automated traffic safety.
The last sentence refers to unmanned aerial vehicle or drone and talks about how we support legislation that would define what a UAV is.
I have no idea what this is.
This is the first time I've heard of this.
Can somebody talk a little bit more about what legislation we are purporting to support in the space of UAVs?
I believe this is something that Estat highlighted to us around just what the city's needs would be around regulatory authority and exploring that at the state level, and we can follow up with you on that.
I believe it's a request from Estat.
Okay, I'm going to need more information about this because I think it both may conflict with our existing requirements.
I don't know how it lines up with a surveillance technology ordinance and, you know, whether supporting this type of legislation, whatever this legislation is, would run afoul of the things that we're trying to accomplish through our own city's privacy efforts.
And so if you could give us some more information about that, I'd feel more comfortable about about that language in particular?
I'm happy to do that.
I think it's in the spirit of Estat wanting to make sure that we have authority, that the state isn't changing laws in a way that would negatively impact our ability to make sure that we're keeping people safe and as it relates to the unmanned aerial vehicles.
And there's a lot of technological development in that space.
So I think they just want to make sure that we're continuing to pay attention to any legislation that would be introduced that could impact that.
And so we can follow up with you on those specifics.
Okay, and then on the same page bottom of the third page last paragraph last sentence refers to in addition We support providing school districts with adequate access to on-site child care providers What does that mean?
What are we supporting?
I think this is just the expansion of ECAP facilities and continuing to support the work of early education access.
I know that the Children's Alliance has continued to advocate for expanded funding of ECAP to, I think, 185% of the poverty level.
So I think this is just language to ensure that we're able to continue to support those asks.
Okay, I think we all know that we have continued to hear from both parents and school district folks about the restraints on capacity that on-site child care centers provide or create.
And I think we've been trying to work in good faith with the school district to resolve some of those capacity issues as we continue to go down the path of hopefully being able to expand our own pre-K program.
And there is sort of a opportunity that we're going to explore to make sure that we can leverage the ECAP program to provide deeper subsidies for more affordable child care.
And so I just want to make sure that we're not losing sight of the realities around capacity concerns that we've been hearing from from the school district in this particular space.
So just if you believe that the language is broad enough to allow us to make sure that we're continuing to work in good partnership with the school district and the child care providers, then I'm comfortable with this language.
great.
I do believe so, but we go through this process to make sure that any issues that you'd like us to follow up on that we're ensuring that that language is included.
And we also have as part of this, we understand a priority for you will be making sure that we are looking at some of the outdoor recreational requirements that could potentially limit providers in the Seattle area.
Yeah, that'd be great.
And then on the last page, first full paragraph, the last sentence says the city also supports efforts to guarantee health care and prohibits discrimination against transgender individuals.
That just sort of, after reviewing the entire document, it made me realize that that's the only time we refer to any member of our community in the LGBTQ community.
And while I appreciate the nod in the healthcare area in particular, I would really appreciate it if we could go back through the entire document and where we are calling out communities that are historically marginalized and underrepresented, that we make an effort to incorporate reference to community members of the LGBTQ community in particular, because I think, you know, that's It's a really big priority of mine.
I know it's shared by a lot of my colleagues.
And I was a little dismayed to see that there was only one reference to our LGBT community in the entire legislative agenda.
And this is, again, a thing that I hear from a lot of folks in the LGBTQ community is that they literally feel like they're constantly being erased and have to continue to fight to be put on paper.
If we could be a little bit more conscientious about that.
I'm not being critical.
I think we always have to challenge ourselves to be better in terms of how we use our language.
And in this space, I think language really, really matters, which leads me to my last point, which is language.
If we could also consider including some language on here that sort of recognizes the need for additional language access and resources to promote language access, both as a provider of municipal services, but just as a state as a whole, that would make me extremely happy.
We would be happy to incorporate those changes.
I think that's a really good suggestion and we can review that language and see where we can add in some specific references to the impacts on impacted communities and then happy to review that with your office.
Thank you.
And then the last thing I'll say around the K through 12 space.
And in the early child care space, I think we really need to prioritize at the state legislature a recognition of and a funding of the needs of students who are experiencing homelessness, both in our early learning system and in the K-12 system.
On Tuesday, hopefully, we'll get some good news.
That'll give the city of Seattle, if we have good news, some additional funding to be able to address the needs of students in the preschool and K-12 system who are experiencing homelessness, some some relief and you know, I think the city has been My office and the mayor's office has been engaging with philanthropy and with school board representatives around trying to come up with a statewide strategy around addressing students experiencing homelessness and I just really think there's a lot of interest in this space.
There's a lot of opportunity to have a robust municipal, regional, and private partnership in this space and just really want to encourage us to get the state to come to the table and to really help us champion this particular issue because the numbers around students experiencing homelessness is not unique to the city of Seattle, and it is growing across the state and up and down the West Coast.
Absolutely.
And we'd be happy to pursue that, I think, both at the state level and then at the federal level.
I know that the Office of Superintendent, they receive about $900,000 in the McKinney-Vento funding.
Which is completely underfunded.
And I mean, I think there's like one or two people in the entire Seattle public school system working under McKinney-Vento.
Expanding on those efforts will certainly continue to be a priority.
I can follow up.
There is a report going on between the new department of DCYF.
Don't make me do it.
DCYF and Commerce with Kim Justice's shop that I think is going to drive some work this session around student homelessness.
And I don't know what's in it yet.
I think a draft is coming up soon.
But why don't we follow up and let you see that?
Because that is going to begin the pathway.
So I'd be interested in your reactions there.
I think that'll guide what's going to happen this session.
So we'll get that to you.
I appreciate that, Erin.
And I think if there's any opportunity for us to play a role in advocating for some policy action and commensurate fiscal action in that space, I would certainly be interested in being involved in those conversations.
And again, student homelessness is not called out in the education section, either in the early learning section or the K through 12 space in our lobbying agenda.
And so I want to make sure that we are being intentional, we intend to make that a priority at the state level.
And a lot of attention is being paid to the K through 12 system.
And I don't think enough attention is being paid in the zero to five area.
And we know, unfortunately, that there are children experiencing homelessness in that zero to five space who are trying to access childcare or other services.
or other early learning opportunities like our own preschool program.
And so I want to make sure that we're not excluding that age within that population as we address some of these policy concerns.
That's a great suggestion.
We're happy to incorporate that and then report back on the findings of this study that Aaron referenced.
Very good.
Katsumari Muscata.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Director Wilson-Codega and team.
I really miss you guys, and I wish you the best of luck next session.
There's a few questions that I have.
One is sort of on the administrative side.
I know Aaron and your firm, Cody, you guys have been involved in trying to make sure that the state legislature lead by example and do a better job of creating an opportunity for those who've experienced harassment, intimidation, assault, to be able to report those issues.
I'm very interested in continuing to learn from what you're doing at the state level.
We do have a draft piece of legislation.
We're going to be considering amendments and advancement on December 6th.
So we'd love to continue to get ideas from you as you see the state legislature create a body for staff, for electeds, and for those who work in that environment to be able to come forward.
So we'd like to bounce some ideas off of you.
So I just want to put a pin in for that.
As you do come back, if there are other issues related to assault, intimidation prevention, harassment, that you could continue to brief us on, that would be great, even though I know it's more on the administrative side.
Number two, I really appreciate the language in here, and thank you for taking some feedback on strengthening our commitment to getting dollars for affordable housing in any way that we can.
I appreciate the three scalable efforts that might be available.
And the House Democratic Caucus released their agenda specific to housing.
It says, build more.
We need to build more affordable housing statewide, which means new state and local funding.
We need to build up.
We need more density around transit centers.
Number three, we need to build better.
We must create an opportunity to cut bureaucratic red tape that's holding us back from reforming, planning, speeding up construction, and incentivizing local action, which I'm really excited about.
And number four is build stronger communities, increase housing stability for everyone, especially for our lowest income, those at risk of falling into homelessness.
So I just wanted to double check that you feel that you have everything you need in this agenda to accomplish all four of those pillars.
Absolutely, and we reviewed the agenda that you sent over to us.
Our team has been very engaged with many of the Housing Coalition advocates, and so both an additional rate, the local option bond bill, you know, really getting the housing trust fund up to, I think the goal is over $200 million to make sure that we are able to build So we are going to be doing a lot of work to make sure that we have the tools that we need in local communities, that whole array of tools and then also the various tenant protection measures are going to be high priorities this coming session.
All of your ideas are welcome and thank you for advancing those.
And then lastly, we are interested in figuring out how we can have a more equitable tax system.
Just looking on page five, I see there's language around making sure that we work to protect existing state and local shared revenues, including liquor revenues and revenue from the state marijuana to preserve all existing local revenue authorities and controls and support new local revenue options.
Do we need to expand upon that, especially if we're interested in creating both major macro level tax reform changes, if that's possible, this legislative session, and also micro changes.
One of the things I would love to put back on the agenda is the opportunity to look at menstrual hygiene products.
We were talking about diaper exclusion from our local tax code here.
We know that you all were involved in the tampon tax conversation a few years ago, and that making sure that the calculations work out for our budget are critical.
But as we're trying to both reform our tax system at the macro level, I would love to know if you also could include in this agenda advancing a conversation about what's possible on the micro level to exempt products that we know disproportionately impact And since we make 76 cents on the dollar here in King County, especially disproportionate impact on our inequitable tax system.
So, suffered from our inequitable tax system.
So, anything that you could do to help advance that conversation at the state level would be very helpful again.
Absolutely.
And although we've built in a lot of flexibility around various progressive revenue measures that we know are important to the council, we had not included those specific micro measures.
So, happy to incorporate those.
Thanks for bringing it up.
Thank you.
Councilmember Herpold, did you have a comment?
I do.
Thanks.
So on the last point that Councilmember Mosqueda made, I understand there has been a bill in the state legislature related to diapers.
And just like we're talking about here through our budget process, expanding the Statement of Legislative Intent that was originally crafted to address specifically menstrual hygiene products to include diapers, thanks to Councilmember Juarez's great In the reverse, it would really be good to see if that existing diaper bill that is sponsored by, I believe, Fitzgibbon's, be expanded to include menstrual hygiene
Absolutely, great suggestion, and happy to look into that.
A couple other points.
As it relates, again, I want to thank you guys for giving us the extra time, given that we are in budget process.
You know you're busy.
have deadlines that are not of your own making, so thank you for giving us the extra time.
Absolutely.
As it relates specifically to the eviction reforms for renters, I too have been in touch with Representative Macri as well as the Washington Low Income housing alliance, and I was given the impression that a little bit more specificity would be of assistance.
So I'm circling back.
Yeah, happy to work with you on it.
We'll make sure that that is prioritized.
Absolutely.
And then lastly, this is something my staff noticed.
Even though I know we passed a lot of great legislation, in the state legislature last year, thanks to the leadership of council members at this table, especially Council Member Gonzalez, the legislative agenda has removed reference to future reforms related to voting rights.
Is that because we're not anticipating any new bills coming up this year or?
I don't know that we intentionally took out the language around voting access and happy to add that back in.
I think there is always work that we can continue to do and advocate at the legislative level, whether that's expanding, you know, funding for Dropbox locations, paid postage efforts, et cetera.
So happy to just add that broad language back in.
And as those efforts start to crystallize, report back to you on the different things that we could do to support increased voting access.
I did see, Council Member Herbold, I did see, I can't find the exact page right now, but I do recall seeing in here reference to ongoing efforts to support civic engagement and access.
to civic engagement, that might be broad enough, but we- Oh good, I thought we didn't take it at all.
We sort of checked a lot of things off in the voting rights space, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we won't be playing defense, for example.
My staff just brought to my attention, maybe it was a different version of, but that voting rights reform was actually taken out, maybe in lieu of civic engagement.
Yeah, happy to add that back in though.
Related to that, have we thought about explicitly being supportive of efforts in the state legislature to address additional transparency objectives related to campaign financing.
Specifically, I think there's been talk of a bill requiring that the sponsors of ads be listed on the ads themselves.
I think there is some interest around that and also looking at how independent expenditures are, how those are treated as well, and some of the lack of transparency around funding of those efforts.
Transparency, I think, is the next best thing to regulating limits.
We can't regulate limits, but if we can make sure that it is known.
who is contributing to those efforts.
I think that is a really good step forward.
We can certainly pursue those.
Thank you.
The microscopic language at the bottom is a little tough, right?
Great points.
Outstanding points.
Logistical process question.
In light of this conversation, this feedback, We were trying to get this on the IRC, but we gave you some more work to do.
We could just talk offline about whether it's going to be ready for today or the week or so.
But I don't know if you have any knee-jerk thoughts.
I think we will be working very quickly to incorporate your feedback from today.
Ideally, we would love to have an approved agenda.
We're coming up against the Senate committee days on, so gosh, next week.
So if we were able to approve that on the 12th, I think that would be our hope.
We will be working throughout the week to make sure that we're including all of the issues that you'd like us to incorporate, reporting back to you on things to make sure that that meets the needs that you've articulated to us today.
And then I think our goal would be the 12th.
The 13th.
The 12th is a holiday.
13th, yeah.
I put all the blue line versions of the changes from the last one.
Obviously, we didn't need it for this conversation.
So we were continuing to...
Right.
Okay, Council Member Werse.
Real quickly, just a housekeeping matter.
Can you let us know when all committee assignments, or without you trying to...
Like, I know Representative Clyburn's stepping down.
When all the committee assignments come in, when does that normally happen?
It'll probably be third week of December.
We'll know about that when the last RE-ORG meeting happens.
That would be nice to get an email ASAP the minute it's all lined up so we know we have particular brick and mortar and some major...
I'm working with our state-led delegation on some buildings for North Seattle College and money built into the budget as well for additional housing.
So the minute we know who's in charge of what, that'd be great.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'm happy to pass that along.
Yeah.
Go to my favorite part.
To your favorite part.
When the mics are off.
Thank you.
Just a quick process question.
You mentioned receiving feedback from SDOT and Seattle City Light.
Do each of the departments have their own legislative agenda?
Do they have something that's a formal document they've submitted to you?
No.
What they do, we send out a request early, I believe, or late in the summer to all the different departments asking for their legislative goals.
And we get a wide range of them.
We get a lot of them.
from a wide range of topics.
And we work to encompass all of those into this agenda in some form.
And that also is when we kind of start the legwork around some of the larger proposals that'll take more time in aligning our allies on these big issues.
Great.
And then I know that Seattle City Light used to have some dollars that they had allocated for some lobbying activities.
Is there any other department, including City Light, is there anybody else that is down there as a representative of Seattle?
No, no.
For the full team.
So Seattle City Light does have someone who will be spending time in Olympia as well working on their issues because they do have such a broad portfolio where we work very closely with them on that.
And it's an in-house position.
It's not her full time.
I'd be happy to connect with you if you'd like.
Yeah, that'd be helpful.
I just want to make sure that all of our pieces are represented in here.
And since we're used to you and the whole team and have a huge amount of trust, when we get reports back, I think I made an assumption that you're the full team down there.
So if there's other people that are down there representing city issues, It'd be great to have a briefing on that.
Happy to make that connection.
And as Christina mentioned, while we do go through a process where all of the departments don't necessarily articulate individual legislative agendas, those priorities are then incorporated into this document.
And then as we move through new legislation that is introduced through session, they do all, though, have a legislative liaison who does that specific review and helps us stay within the parameters of this document as well.
That makes sense.
Well, good luck, guys.
Appreciate you being here.
Thank you, Erin.
Thank you, Christine.
We'll talk later.
Thank you, Lily.
Again.
Hi, Cody.
Nice to see you.
See you later, buddy.
I want to sort of forewarn all of you that we have actually two executive sessions, and we're scheduling nearly an hour for the executive sessions.
They're fairly comprehensive, so we're going to need some time.
We only have one item on today's agenda.
before we go around the table and talk about what's on the agenda, and that's one item that myself and Council Member Herbold will address.
I'll just sort of tee it up, and Council Member Herbold, you could chime in.
So we have one sort of technical correction to an ordinance, the ordinance dealing with the Seattle Arena Company for the redevelopment and operation of Key Arena.
Council Member Herbold, during those discussions, had a successful amendment passed dealing with the admission tax revenue.
and the language simply wasn't carried forward on the change that we had all agreed to, so we're making a technical correction on that language for the redevelopment and operation of Key Arena.
Customer Herman, did you want to say anything else other than that?
I appreciate you bringing this forward, and I think I don't have anything to add to your explanation.
It's a clerking error, and I'm happy to clean it up.
Okay.
So that is the one.
agenda item we have this afternoon during our budget process.
Having said that, let's go around the table and reminding you we have two executive sessions.
I will be fast.
One minute.
Council Member Schwartz, you have the floor.
Thank you, President Harrell.
Good morning, everyone.
No items from the Human Services Equitable Development Renter's Rights Committee for full council.
And since we are in the budget process, committee meetings will be scheduled after that.
Excellent.
Council Member Herbold.
Thank you.
No items at full council beyond the one already mentioned.
No CRADA meeting.
And the only two things I have to report out are attendance at the Watershed Resource Inventory Area 9 meeting on Thursday and the Sound Transit 3 elected leadership group.
Oh, it's not the meeting.
It's a pre-briefing on Friday.
So I don't even need to talk about that.
Good, very good.
Customer Warris.
One minute.
I'm putting a stopwatch on.
I got nothing this afternoon.
However, Tuesday, November 20th, 2 o'clock, be there.
We got our Metropolitan Park District meeting.
We will hear from the Department of Parks and Recreation for a briefing on Portage Bay.
Park, Bryant site, and the Arboretum Loop Trail, number two.
On Tuesday, November 13th, there's a park district's meeting immediately following our full council meeting here in council chambers.
There's a friendly reminder that we need a quorum of five.
Council will receive the Seattle Park District midterm report.
Boom.
Give you a quick update.
We had a wonderful work session this Saturday and Sunday on our budget.
I will be having a balanced budget to discuss with each of you beginning tomorrow.
Many of the things that we've all been talking about last week have been included.
We'll be able to discuss the detail tomorrow.
Then I will also spend a little bit of time at the mayor's office offering to her what we've looked at.
And then, of course, we will have our session on Wednesday to discuss everything and additional changes, of course, we expect.
But I think that what I'm really pleased with is that it was all in the green by the time we were done, $746 for 2019 left over.
Yay.
That's my mosquito.
Thank you, Mr. President.
There are no items from the Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers' Rights Committee on today's full council agenda.
Again, our next committee meeting will be on December 6th at 930. It's Thursday.
It is the first meeting possible after we conclude with the budget.
And my intent is to bring forward any additions or clarification that's needed, as we just mentioned, to the anti-harassment protection legislation, creating the Office of the Ombud, and the investigation unit.
So I want to make sure that folks have that date on their calendar if they're interested in participating in that.
On Thursday this week, I'll be speaking to a group of women who are part of the Women Donors Network.
It is a conference that they're having here in Seattle from a national group that does a lot of great work with philanthropic giving, especially for women and people of color.
to make sure that people can get more engaged in self-determination and public life and fighting for programs that assist those, especially communities who are under attack under the current administration.
And then on Saturday, I'll also be speaking at this Sabere Sin Fronteras fundraiser at the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program at the University of Washington, my alma mater, and that's the program I graduated from.
Happy to be going back.
And that's it.
Excellent, thank you very much, look forward to that program.
Council Member Johnson.
If you're watching the Seattle Channel at 10.30 on a Monday morning and you haven't voted yet, I'd be surprised, but just a reminder to get out and vote tomorrow.
That's very good.
Thank you We know you know that but people other people might not know that So I would also like to remind people that tomorrow is your last day to vote when you have to vote tomorrow Okay, Tuesday, November 6 by 8 p.m And where can you put those envelopes can put those in King County ballot drop boxes all around King County?
For free you also don't need a stamp.
Just flip it to your outbox any any mailbox will do
after you put your letter in the mailbox.
Because if it doesn't get picked up and it doesn't get stamped, it doesn't count.
That's really confusing.
Just put it in a mailbox.
No, it's not.
Council Member Gonzales, I beg to differ.
This is one of those things.
If the last pickup is at 2.30 in the afternoon on Tuesday.
Put it in before your mail person comes.
That's it.
That's the point.
But look at the time.
That's what I'm going to say.
That's much clearer.
Thank you.
OK, so now that we've done our get out the vote push collectively as a unit, I just wanted to remind folks that I will be absent at today's full council meeting at two o'clock.
I will be in attendance at the court hearing status conference that Judge Robar has asked the city of Seattle to attend regarding the tentative agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
So that is at 1 30 p.m.
today at the federal courthouse and I will be attending, representing the city, as a city council representative, not representing you as a lawyer, because I can't do that anymore.
I mean, I can technically, but not technically.
Okay, and then, sorry, I'm really droning on right now.
And then just lastly, just wanted to mention a couple of things I'll be doing later this week.
Saturday, November 10th at 10 a.m., I am gonna be joining one of the PACE sessions.
So PACE is a effort to more civically engage folks in our community.
It's done through the People's Academy for Community Engagement and under the Seattle neighborhood.
So they asked if I would be willing to spend an hour and a half with them.
doing a mock council activity, and I'm really excited about being able to join them on Saturday to go through that exercise.
And then on Friday, November 9th, as some of you might have heard, One America lost a member of our family, and his name is David Ayala Zamora.
He was organizing director for One America for several years, and comes from the labor movement, and was a refugee himself, fleeing from a tremendous amount of violence and torture in his home country.
And he passed away a couple weeks ago now, and we are going to miss him dearly.
He left a long legacy of strong organizers and movement builders, both inside One America and outside of One America, and he will be having a memorial service and celebration at the St. Therese Parish here in Seattle.
And he's a huge loss for the immigrant rights movement locally and nationally.
And so if any of you want to join us in remembering his contributions to our community here.
I would welcome you all on behalf of the One America family to join us on Friday at 6.30 p.m.
at St. Therese Parish.
Happy to get you more details if you're interested in, but there will be lots of good folks there coming together in community to remember and to mourn together, but also to celebrate the legacy of his life.
Very good.
Thank you for sharing with that.
Council Member O'Brien.
The sustainability and transportation committee has nothing on this afternoon's agenda.
We did not meet this week.
Wow.
All right.
As you go first to set the pace.
Councilmember Johnson was actually faster.
OK, I'm going to move us into executive session and read the script for executive session.
In executive session, I may chat a little bit about the participants rule and who should be in executive session.
I'll do that in executive session.
I sort of raised that publicly, but it's appropriate.
I've been told to talk about that in an executive session.
So having said that, as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene in an executive session and the purpose of the executive session is to discuss spending, potential or actual litigation.
And this gives us an opportunity for the full council discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.
And a legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to make sure that we are concise, we are articulate, we don't talk too much, and that we reserve council questions of policy for open sessions.
And I expect this session to end in 50 minutes, and someone will tell me What that means, that will be at what?
11.23.
At 11.23.
And if the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I'll announce the extension and the expected duration.
5.0 maybe?
5.0 or 1.5?
50. 5.0.
11.53?
No, that's not right.
How many minutes do you want?
50 minutes, 5.0.
OK.
Yeah, why don't you say, yeah, that's 11.33.
11.33.
Sorry, 23. 11.23.
11.23.
OK.
OK, that's a clear record.
And I'm announcing, if it goes beyond that, I'll announce it in public session.
Having said that, let's move into executive session.
Yeah.