SPEAKER_04

Good afternoon.

The September 30th Select Budget Committee meeting will come back to order.

It is 2.01 p.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_05

Here.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Here.

And Chair Strauss.

Present.

Six present.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, and I know Council Member Wu had and was requested and received excusal for a couple minutes this afternoon as she was dealing with personal matter.

And we are going to roll right in.

Parks Department, if you want to come on up.

We've got our third item of business today, the Seattle Parks and Recreation and Metropolitan Parks District.

Clerk, could you read the short title into the record?

SPEAKER_03

Agenda item B, Seattle Parks and Recreation and Metropolitan Parks District for briefing and discussion.

SPEAKER_04

Wonderful.

It is great to have you both, Superintendent Diaz and Michelle, back with us again, Director Eder of City Budget Office and Director Noble of Central Staff.

I'm going to turn it over to you for introductions, take it away with the presentation, and then we'll pass it right off to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

And we have Council President Nelson in attendance as well.

SPEAKER_15

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon, President Nelson and Chair Strauss and members of the committee.

Thank you so much.

My name is AP Diaz.

I'm the superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation.

I'm joined today by Deputy Superintendent Michelle Finnegan, who heads our policy and finance team, and you all know Mr. Dan Eder, who's heading the budget for the mayor's office.

So it's a pleasure to be with you this afternoon and to talk to you about the proposed budget as it relates to parks and recreation.

I want to thank the Budget Committee for the opportunity to present today.

And we understand this is a challenging time.

financially for Seattle, and that you have difficult decisions ahead.

As we walk through the key changes to our parks and recreation budget today, I hope you will see the efforts made to address the city's general fund shortfall and overall pressures of escalating costs while aiming to preserve essential parks and recreation programs and services, which we all know and agree are vital to our community, to your individuated districts, and to the city's health and wellness as a whole.

Today, in fact, we believe that public serving organizations work best when they are purpose driven and guided by defining principles.

And so SPR has adopted organizational affirmations to drive our strategic decisions and the work that we do and to help illuminate our communities to be the shining park and recreation system for all residents and visitors.

As you know, our motto is Seattle shines and we are the shining system.

Even on the dark and gray days in Seattle, the public loves and expects their parks to be thriving.

And so we are focused around three missions.

That's development of healthy people to build a thriving environment and to take care of our climate initiatives and to really create vibrant community where people of all ages, whether you're a child, an adult or a member of the aging population, can enjoy the benefits of parks and recreation.

So these are front and centers as we helped develop our proposed budget and framed our budget priorities.

And in fact, we're excited that we will still have significant resources to continue helping Seattle shine through programs and services such as Swim Seattle, our effort to reduce drownings within the city of Seattle and especially disproportionately among people of color.

We want to continue to advocate and advance that program.

And we're also looking to lean into youth mental health.

which I know is very important to the council, to the mayor's office.

And we have, through funding, the ability to continue to lean into that system for our teens, for our youth, and also an exciting program out at Red Barn Ranch, which we're working to develop a program that will help close nature deficit and will also give children an opportunity to be able to enjoy nature in this nature-focused city.

So a lot of things are coming our ways.

With this in mind, you will find before you a people-first budget that preserves critical services, programming, and our incredibly talented staff through a reprioritization of revenue streams while making thoughtful investments in mayor and city priorities.

This high-level budget summary table shows you the breadth of our combined operating and capital resources across all of our funding sources, which include the General Fund, the Metropolitan Park District, the park fund, REIT, and myriad of other capital funding.

The other funds category includes park district funding, and we'll discuss the park district more in upcoming slides, but you will see how this flexible funding source is supporting the continuation of base recreational programs and services as originally envisioned during challenging budget times, something more traditional levees didn't provide.

And we are extremely thankful that we have the ability to work with you all in utilizing our park district funding for such times as this, when we are facing such a critical budget season ahead of us, that we will continue to focus and support core park and recreation services for our public, and the proposed budget meets that commitment.

We would like to also tell you, and we'll talk more about the Metropolitan Park District funding coming ahead.

Additional information.

No.

Okay.

Going on to the next slide.

So I want to talk about the notable allocations in the budget and continue to center all of us on the fact that we are making notable allocations in the following areas.

We are focusing on keeping parks safe and accessible in the entire city of Seattle and in all of your districts.

That's really important, especially after the pandemic, when we're welcoming so many people back to the parks.

We have challenges that we have to address and so our budget must focus primarily on keeping the park safe and accessible.

Without that we can't do anything.

And so that's our key objective and one of my key priorities.

Second is supporting youth mental health issues.

I think we all know the tragedies that many of our youth face today and particularly in their teen years when we see statistically that kids drop out of traditional recreation programs that parents often sign their kids and put them up for.

And so we really need to make concerted efforts on how our teens are being served through parks and recreation.

And then lastly, we all know the tragedies that we have faced as a city with teen shootings.

TEEN DEATHS AND TEENS BEING EXPOSED TO VIOLENCE ON SCHOOL CAMPUSES, NEAR THEIR SCHOOLS, AT THEIR SCHOOLS, AND SO WE AS A CITY, AND WE BELIEVE WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION AS PARKS AND RECREATIONS TO SHARE AS MANY RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES AS POSSIBLE FOR KIDS TO FIND SAFE ENVIRONMENTS.

SPEAKER_04

SUPERINTENDENT, APOLOGIES TO INTERRUPT.

COULD YOU PULL THE MICROPHONE A BIT CLOSER?

YOU CAN HEAR YOURSELF ECHO IF IT'S WORKING CORRECTLY.

SPEAKER_15

Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04

Can you hear me now?

Is that better?

Thank you.

You must be on Verizon.

What's that?

Bad jokes.

Sorry, don't listen to me.

Back to you, Superintendent.

SPEAKER_15

So we'll be talking about how we're gonna do that.

And then we're also gonna be talking about how we continuously lean into the mayor's downtown activation program to robustly activate our downtown, the core of our city, to make sure that we're continuing to prosper and continuing to come back stronger from the pandemic.

And so we'll talk about some of those key objectives coming up.

So I'd like to talk about one of the key investments that I was just talking about is supporting youth mental health.

And talking about the investment strategy, which includes $15 million from the payroll expense tax funding in both 2025 and 2026 between the Department of Education and Early Learning, my colleagues who are behind me, and Seattle Parks and Recreation for youth mental health prevention, early prevention and treatment.

So for SPR, the budget includes $500,000 of one-time funding in 2025 to design and create and implement an online youth connector program.

This platform will be for teens to improve mental health support and program awareness and reduce barriers to access.

This investment is vital because it improves awareness, navigation, and access to Seattle youth programs, including career exploration, community service, education, Seattle mentors, recreational programming, scholarships and discounts, and mental health support.

SPR will maintain the platform in out years using existing budget.

And I really want to thank the mayor's office for this allocation specifically, because to my point earlier, You know, a lot of youth rely, when they're young kids, obviously the people that are doing the investigation and the signing up and the research and paying for the programs are parents.

They're the ones that are involved.

And as we all know, when you get to those teen years, teens are either don't want their parents involved in signing them up for programs.

They want to be in charge of that.

They want to make the decisions.

And so we have to be strategic and understand that that's the way that our youth work.

So we also know this is a fast age of technology, information learning and traditional flyers or websites announcing all these great programs that the cities has and that the money that we put into them.

They mean nothing if people aren't accessing that information.

So the youth platform hub design model is really unique and vital to have someone who strategically can work with our Office of Innovation partners.

programming in the mayor's office and really come up and create ways that teens can get accessible information.

They speak to them in their quote unquote teen language and that tell them and avail them and pique their interest because we know that the best approach to getting teens involved is to have a variety of programming.

Some things will resonate with some kids.

Some things will resonate with others.

And so it's our our job as electeds and department heads to expose them to as many opportunities as possible.

Not just sports, but arts, music, theater, all of the great things that can pique a kid's interest.

So that's a big investment.

There's also $600,000 of ongoing funding for programming and partnerships supporting youth mental health by providing opportunities for youth to access rural nature experiences at Red Barn Ranch.

This is an SPR-owned property in rural King County in Auburn.

And it's adjacent to some of our native tribal lands and we're working with our partners to help them partner with us.

This investment is a mayor priority with a goal to improve mental and physical health outcomes.

of Seattle and King County youth by connecting elementary, middle, and high school students with the outdoors.

You can see some pictures of activations that we have started with some of our horse programs.

Just a snapshot of things that we're thinking about.

This funding will support activities such as facilitated day and overnight trips by partners offering equine, community gardening, trail building, and environmental restoration programs designed to address the nature deficit experienced by today's young people, especially among youth in historically underserved communities.

One thing that I've noticed in my time here is that As you are all aware, those of you who have grown up here and lived here a long time, the majesty, the beauty of the Evergreen State and the Emerald City is this abundant nature that surrounds us, our mountains and our waterways and all of these great experiences.

But what I have found is there are still too many kids in Seattle that never visited Mount Rainier.

They don't have the ability to go into the mountains and go skiing.

They don't have...

the means or access or opportunities to go canoeing or go visit our islands and things that we often take advantage and think that every person has opportunities because maybe we've had those opportunities or we've been fortunate enough to do those things.

We still have to remember that there are too many kids in Seattle that have never availed themselves of the wonderful majesty of the state.

And so taking advantage of a property that we own in Auburn and to develop it into something where we could take kids easily and get them into nature and teach them all the great things is an amazing program.

And so I credit and thank the mayor for supporting that and prioritizing that in the budget.

And so I just wanted to point that out.

The next thing is investment to support the downtown activation program.

Parks has been an integral part of the downtown activation planning committee and working with our other partners, whether it's the Office of Economic Development, Arts, Transportation, a variety of partners that are coming together to realize this vision.

And one of them announced in June 2023 continues to transform the downtown area as we're recovering from the impacts of COVID-19.

Hopefully you all see and agree that our downtown is in a much healthier state than it was in years past.

There's still a lot of work to do, and that's why we need concerted efforts to come together and come up with the type of investments, programmings, activation, economic development, and really having a big city approach to continue to deliver on this.

So the proposed budget includes $1.3 million in 2025 and 2.3 million in 2026 to reimagine and revitalize West Lake Plaza, which could include the removal of the out of commission fountain, a stage renovation and other needed upgrades to make the area safe and inviting.

And so the reason why we're focusing on West Lake is not only is it the sort of the core of the downtown area, but we are lucky to have a plaza in our downtown area that has not been taken by large development.

But there's a real opportunity there for us to set a stage and create a focal point that many cities have developed, plazas and squares downtown, and Seattle has the opportunity to do that.

We also want to be ready for the World Cup.

We also want to have the opportunity to offer this as a exploration destination, maybe some fun challenge zones during the World Cup, World Cup watch parties.

It'll also be the entree to the entry into Seattle Center with the monorail.

And there's just a lot of opportunity here.

And so this investment will allow us to continue to do that and stay focused on West Lake Plaza, which is owned by Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Next, I'd like to talk about some of our general fund savings to sustain core programs and services while meeting reduced city general fund levels.

The proposed budget, one, utilizes park district funding flexibility, and we'll talk about that in just a second.

Two, enacts efficiencies in various parks and recreational programs.

which is important to maintain the provision of the overall park and recreation programs that we will still be providing to community.

And it supports a citywide graffiti abatement program, which I'll talk about, which is a program that will be coming to parks.

so the general fund savings of in the park district flexibility as i previously mentioned the proposed budget utilizes our most flexible funding source that's the park district to support core programming and people all of you as members of the city council are the overseers and sit on the park district committee fund The primary changes include shifts in planned debt payments to align with current project schedules, that's about $2.5 million, and a one-time use of accrued park district interest income, which is $2.4 million, and modifies a few of the park district funded capital programs, which is about a $3.9 million.

Changes to debt service reflect a one-year shift in planned bond funding for Green Lake Community Center, the Evans Pool renovation, and the 8th and Mercer City Community Center development.

These adjustments are partially sustained by eliminating planned bond funding for facility decarbonization assumed to begin in 2027. Please note the proposed budget also includes two budget neutral realignments related to timing of community center projects.

These one time realignment shift resources identified for Lake City Community Center to the Soundview Athletic Field Conversion Project, $3.2 million of debt service and operating and maintenance, and from the Queen Anne City Community Project to the West End Queen Anne Playfield Conversion Project, which is about $1.3 million.

These changes mitigate cost escalation and recognize there isn't sufficient REIT to address funding gaps in these conversion projects at this time.

I do want to note that we are not NOT DOING THE LAKE CITY COMMUNITY RENOVATIONS OR THE QUEEN ANNE COMMUNITY RENOVATIONS.

IT'S JUST THAT BASED ON THE SCHEDULE AND TIMING, THOSE PROJECTS AREN'T AT A STAGE WHERE THEY WERE COMPLETELY READY.

SO WE'RE USING THAT MONEY TO SHORE UP SOME OF THE SHORTFALLS NOW.

BUT WE'LL TALK ABOUT HOW WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE THOSE.

SPEAKER_07

NOT THAT THE SUPERINTENDENT NEEDS A TRANSLATOR.

WE ARE DOING BOTH OF THOSE PROJECTS.

I JUST WANTED TO CLEAR UP THE DOUBLE NEGATIVE.

SPEAKER_15

We are not doing those.

We are doing those.

Thank you, sir.

The proposed budget also includes some ongoing changes to the capital program.

Resources are shifted from our capital major maintenance and asset preservation program to support core department services previously funded by the general fund.

About $2 million of this total reduction is ongoing, with $500,000 in reductions occurring only in 2025. As a result of this reduction, SPR will revise the scope and scale of our asset management major maintenance projects while prioritizing our critical assets like public restrooms, play areas, accessibility, et cetera.

Resources are also shifted from the parks community fund to the operating budget to support core services previously funded by the general fund.

The community fund previously called the major projects challenge fund was increased from 1.5 million to 2.5 million in 2023 as part of the cycle two of the park district.

And this item removes that expansion.

However, funding added for the two staff positions to engage with and support community engaged in capital improvement projects and processes are retained.

We will still be doing the program and we will still offer the ability for park community funding to occur, but we will need to make these decisions in order to preserve the overall program and the other needs.

So we wanted to point that out.

Finally, $440,000 is being shifted from our park acquisition program to the operating budget to support core department services previously funded by the general fund.

The budget, however, retains $1 million annually to leverage acquisition grant opportunities and to support other low-cost priority acquisitions such as green space additions.

So we're not...

out of that business, and we certainly will continue to keep eyes on those important acquisitions that allow for opportunities down the road.

And we have about $1 million set aside to do that, but we need to make some adjustments.

The other way that we're supporting the general fund is through park and recreation efficiencies.

The proposed budget also makes some programmatic changes on the operating side.

The proposed budget before you reduces baseline staffing for park maintenance by approximately 2.4% by abrogating seven part-time laborers and one supported employment position that provides supplemental staffing during peak season.

SPR believes there will be minimal impact on the overall maintenance, and SPR will endeavor to minimize impacts during peak seasons when these part-time positions would have supplemented year-round staff.

There was a time when we were looking at even more cuts.

And while cuts are never easy in the overall general frame of the magnitude of all that we have to do, this is a way that we can continue to do those by abrogating some of our part-time positions and retaining as many of our full-time positions as possible.

The budget removes one position and a non-labor funding for SPR to activate and program outdoor spaces outside the greater downtown area.

This change returns funding for activations in parks not in the city's downtown core back to the cycle one level, but we still will be doing activations outside in specific areas.

The proposed budget consolidates two community granting programs, the Recreation for All and Get Moving, into one program.

The two programs serve similar populations and for similar purposes, which is to provide grants to groups to provide culturally relevant health and fitness-focused programs for under-resourced communities or where health and enrichment disparities are prevalent.

In 2023, the two programs awarded approximately $440,000 in grants, which resulted in groups providing 3,000 hours of engagement and serving approximately 10,000 participants.

This change reduces grant funding available to 400,000 from 600,000.

Therefore, we feel that this change will still provide for similar outcomes.

The proposed budget also reduces staffing levels in three department leadership and support teams, including policy and performance, communications and business systems, and customer service units through the reduction of current vacancies.

Finally, the proposed budget makes an ongoing reduction to SPR's environmental programming line of business in 2026, not 2025, by 50%, or about $1 million.

The department will, however, be seeking public-private partnerships to mitigate service disruptions from this budget reduction, which eliminates operation of the Discovery Park Visitor Center and associated citywide programming.

This is an important program, and again, we have to make some adjustments to meet other needs, and so that's why I want to point out that we have a year, thankfully, the way that the budget was structured.

These reductions won't take place in 2025. They'll take place in 2026, but with that said, we know that there are many, and I've talked to many, strong environmental programs in the city of Seattle community groups nonprofit organizations people that do this type of work and are interested in expanding it and so I want to use my team to explore those public-private partnership opportunities one it's good for local business because we support Seattle businesses and Seattle workers and entrepreneurs and And then if we can get those to fruition, then we are able to continue the services for parents and kids.

So it's a little bit of a strategy that we're gonna have to engage with, but it's an important one that I think public-private partnerships are really important.

I'd also like to talk about some of the citywide efficiencies that help support the general fund savings.

So the mayor's office, through its One Seattle Graffiti Plan, announced in October 2022 a strategy to combine resources available citywide for graffiti removal teams.

In support of this strategy, the proposed budget includes a transfer of the graffiti abatement resources from the Seattle Public Utilities Department to Seattle Parks and Recreation, including SPU's Graffiti Rangers, a dedicated team responsible for inspection assessments, dispatch compliance, and graffiti abatement across various city assets.

This change will save approximately $500,000 annually in general fund savings related to the SPU's overhead rate.

The proposed budget also includes a transfer of about $600,000 from SPU to SBR to support the provision of portable toilets in busy parks.

So I wanted to point out that those are two ways that we are contributing to efficiencies and we have a program in place to receive those employees and to receive the continuation of the overall city service combined with some of the graffiti abatement that we do on park properties.

And then we're going to also do some strategic alignment of other funding sources.

The last category of general fund saving strategies realigns certain programs eligible for other funding sources, including payroll tax and ad tax.

The budget preserves the downtown buskers program by shifting about $224,000 to admission tax revenues.

This program coordinates and funds performers such as musicians and performance artists to perform in and activate downtown parks and spaces.

The budget preserves the Arts in the Parks program by shifting $436,000 to admission tax revenues.

Through this program, artists and art organizations are able to activate park spaces throughout the city in a process coordinated in partnership with the Office of Arts and Culture.

is also shifted to the admission tax revenue.

SPEAKER_03

They're down.

Can you test your mic real quick?

Can you test your mic?

Yeah, they're dead.

Okay, let me turn it off and turn it back on.

SPEAKER_04

We're gonna take a break.

SPEAKER_03

Mic check, there we go.

SPEAKER_04

Mic check.

SPEAKER_03

Let me get yours on.

SPEAKER_04

Let me just double check here.

And Ed down in our award-winning, Emmy award-winning Seattle Channel, are you with us or are we still broadcasting?

SPEAKER_03

Seattle Channel, can you please confirm that you can hear us in chambers?

They can hear us.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

They can hear us.

Thank you.

And just with this brief interruption, I will share Council Member Saka came in before your presentation began and Council Member Wu joined us in the introduction of it at 2.09 p.m.

for the record to reflect.

Back to you, Superintendent.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you, sir.

And for SPR's Teen Programming Arts Program is also shifted to the admission tax revenues, approximately $224,000.

This longstanding free summer program with a focus on youth of color introduces young people to the world of theater.

If any of you have ever been to this, and if you haven't been to this, I highly encourage you to.

I went my first time this year.

It was at Benaroya Hall.

I literally felt as though I was watching a Broadway performance and seeing so many kids of Seattle youth performing on stage with their parents and family and just the most amazing experience.

And I'm just so proud that we were able to support and continue this type of service, which helps launch kids into positive outcomes.

And finally, the proposed budget shifts a portion of the Center City Activation Program to the Payroll Expense Tax Fund.

It's about $186,000.

This program is offered in partnership with the Associated Recreation Council to provide concierges in parks.

And please note the overall baseline resources are retained but due to the cost of doing business for ARC, there will be some reductions in concierge coverage.

Pioneer Square will be prioritized per our contract with DSA.

The remaining will be used to support activation of other downtown parks, such as City Hall Park, Denny, and Hing Hay.

Similar to the city's other funds, the increased cost of doing business also affects the park fund and the MPD.

Again, the flexibility of the Park District Fund was able to mitigate the impact of these escalating costs through a realignment of the built-in annual inflation factor, about 4%, and through the distribution of the inflation reserve included in the financial plan to mitigate inflation in the Park Fund.

rather than proposing impactful reduction to services valued by the community to close the gap the proposed budget addresses the park fund sustainability by identifying fee increases to mitigate this shortfall specifically for aquatic centers and at the amy tennis center special events and facility rentals athletic field permits and revocable park use permits or permits for non-park use of parkland The proposed changes are generally in line with what other jurisdictions are charging.

In fact, in some cases, Seattle is behind market rate.

Most of the fee increases would be effective July, excuse me, January 1st of 2027. Is it 24?

Most of the fees would be effective starting at January 1st of 2025. However, The athletic field fee increases wouldn't be effective until July 1st, recognizing a previous agreement to provide additional notice for field user groups, allowing them to know about the changes, absorb the fees, and adjust their fees as needed, if needed.

Okay, and those are the snapshots of the overview of our budget.

And again, we believe that in this very difficult and challenging time that's before all of us and before you, that this proposed budget allows us to really continue to prioritize parks and continue to deliver services while enacting efficiencies and looking at other revenue sources and then leaning into being creative and strategic with public-private partnerships going forward and utilizing other community partners to support these services.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Wonderful.

Thank you, Superintendent.

And Councilmember Hollingsworth, I'm going to pass it over to you as Chair of the Parks Committee, as well as a couple others.

SPEAKER_13

Over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Director Diaz, Superintendent Diaz, and Michelle, and our entire Seattle Park staff.

When you talked about the play acts on stage, definitely wanted to give a shout out to Isaiah Anderson who does a phenomenal job with those kids.

I saw them practice at Langston in our district and it was just overwhelmingly great to see, like just emotional to see all those kids have something fun to do and just really express themselves.

So really great program.

I know the work that you all do is vital to the health of our city with open access to clean parks, programming, community centers, trails, water.

I couldn't be more proud of our parks department and the assets that our city has.

I think it's a true gift to our city and also comes with great responsibility for us to continue to protect, maintain, and invest.

And I don't think...

Myself and you all, a superintendent has had many conversations, and especially about the maintenance workers and how they are literally the heartbeat of the Parks Department.

I often talked about my dad, 35 years at the Parks Department.

He picked up trash at the same playground that his kids played at.

at Garfield, and he was essentially a park ranger.

He provided kids with lunches.

He broke up fights.

He gave the shirt off his back one time when two of my friends were playing around in the woodchips and got mad at the swing.

He brought snacks to people.

He was phenomenal, and he also mentored some of the current staff who are in the Parks Department now who are now older.

Definitely want to give a shout out to them and everything that they provide to our parks department.

I also want to recognize that maintenance workers also have to endure very difficult circumstances in 2024 than before, you know, they did before the pandemic.

Just because of, you know, a lot of the social services and mental health that we see that you know, are in our parks and they're on the front lines helping take care and maintain a lot of that.

And so just wanted to thank you.

And it also doesn't fall on you all.

We as a community and society need to take better care of our parks using the trash cans, picking up dog waste, you know, just simple cleanup after ourselves.

And so just wanted to share that and also recognize that mental health is also parks and recreation and programming.

And we also need to continue to support our parents Our parents are a big piece to this piece when it comes to our kids and their success, and also wanted to recognize the Red Barn Ranch that, you know, Seattle Parks Department we'll be investing in.

That was a facility given to us by the great Elgin Baylor, who was a phenomenal athlete at Seattle University.

And I think it's really important for us to understand the importance of parks and our youth and how, you know, I had a friend locked up for 17 years and he just got out and we were literally right here at the corner.

I said, hey, do you want to come see my office?

And he said, Joe, I've never been to City Hall.

We're just right at the light.

But he pointed, he goes, but I can tell you the address of the King County Jail.

And we laughed a little bit about it.

But it was a real eye-opening experience for me that he had never been across the street to Seattle City Hall, but he had experienced the other side of that street and how we have to have resources, exposure, and opportunity for our kids.

And we have the resources.

We need to expose our youth so they have incredible opportunities.

REO, R-E-O.

I love acronyms.

I just want my colleagues to know that's my acronym for our kids, REO.

One of the questions I had was about...

the fee increases for youth.

And I know that we're obviously in a budget crisis, but one of the things I wanted to just do a little bit of a dive into is the increases for youth, or excuse me, not for youth, but for the athletic fees for fields.

And I know that we're lower than a lot of our competitors, but how we're going to try to mitigate, when I talk to some youth teams and programs, their issue isn't about some of the fees that they pay.

They, you know, like, hey, it costs our team, you know, fees.

$50,000, but it's more like the condition of the fields that they talk about when they pay.

And it's like, hey, we're paying this, but we have conditions of the fields.

Could you go into a little bit about potentially that impact on them with the increase in the fields and the expectation on the maintenance that they can expect for those fees?

SPEAKER_15

Yes, absolutely.

And it's always challenging.

to your point, to raise fees anywhere, right?

And so we wanted to be strategic.

We didn't want to...

raise fees on a lot of our programming.

And we are still offering, we offer every year scholarships.

We try never to turn down a family that's in true need of attending a summer program or a teen program.

And we'll also still be offering many opportunities, what we call the open fields, where you can drop in and play, you don't need, a formalized reservation.

So this is first looking at some of our more traditional permitting that we do with private sports groups.

adult leagues, youth leagues, and those types of things.

But to your point about maintenance, we are continuing to still do investments in turf conversions where possible.

That oftentimes, one, it's good for the environment.

It helps make access to fields longer and able to offer more opportunities.

So a good example was in at the Rainier Beach play fields.

Parents for years had been complaining about how just muddy and terrible those conditions were.

And we have beautiful new fields there that have just opened the door for more play.

So we want to look at those opportunities.

Some of the fees that we'll take in from increased will go back into maintenance of fields, allow us to shore up some of the gaps.

So we want to continue to keep our eye on that.

And whether it's a synthetic turf field, which still requires maintenance from time to time, or other parts of our field, we still need to work strongly on that.

Also, in our overall maintenance, as you all hopefully are seeing, we really have some amazing folks in our maintenance team.

And I always say they are out there, rain or shine, they're out there before we're even up, they're up there late at night.

There's a lot, I mean, there's so much parkland in this city, which is a blessing, but it's also, to your point, if our citizens aren't taken care of our parks, we have to step in to do that.

And so we really want to strategize most on where the public is, what they see, so that we're not taking away from that, and also coming up with some other efficiencies for maintenance.

So it's a big call to do that, but we do believe that we'll continue.

The public is not going to see.

In fact, some of our early proposals really could have been a lot more daunting, but we really wanted to preserve that and the workers that support it.

SPEAKER_13

Thank you.

And then my second question, could you explain the cost savings between the transfer from SPU, the Graffiti Rangers?

What were they called?

Yeah, Graffiti Rangers.

Yes.

And that...

I'm assuming, and I don't know the process, but I know that there are a lot of parks that get tagged.

And I'm hoping that a part of this program, too, is potentially, and we talked about it when you were at the opening for Be'er Sheva in Rainier Beach, how the bathroom is wrapped around this beautiful, you know, painting and mural.

More of that.

of the preventative care, so it's not just like, hey, we're just coming, putting pain up every time, that we're kind of preventing some of that as well?

SPEAKER_15

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think it's a wise move on behalf of the executive, because it leans into that sort of one Seattle approach.

One, it's economically, it's saving about half a million dollars just because the utility SPU overseeing that program.

Utility has different overhead rates.

So economically, it made sense.

Also, our teams, to your point, taking care of all of our parks throughout the entire city.

One of the things that we deal with is graffiti or vandalism.

And we're already working very closely with the mayor's lead for the One Seattle Graffiti Program.

We're part of the IDT.

help lead out on that a lot.

So we'll continue to do that and continue to focus then strategize.

We'll have all of our workers together and prevention and mitigation is the best approach rather than just responding.

And so we have strategies to do that in place.

And we're beginning to have the talks now with the transfer of the employees coming to SBR.

But we think it'll be a very efficient program.

There shouldn't be any disruption to the public services they're receiving.

If the program works well, we actually hope to provide better service by aligning these resources and not having so many different departments doing some similar things.

SPEAKER_13

That's good to know.

I'm trying to get, I don't know if any of my colleagues have been to the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami of all the murals I see.

Director Noble has.

If we could turn Capitol Hill into our own little Wynwood neighborhood, It would be amazing.

Just beautiful murals and the color.

Seattle's very gray.

It'd just be beautiful.

So anyways, I'll throw that out there.

And last but not least, my last question before I give it back to the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to ask all these questions.

So I read about the community center hours, and two of them, Bitter Lake and Rainier Beach, had about 81 hours.

of operational time.

I'm assuming that's because of late night, those are some of the potential, they just have more hours assigned to them, if I'm correct.

And we could go, this could be something that we could do behind it, because I just dug deep into some of the stuff, but yeah.

SPEAKER_15

Yeah, some of it is late night.

Some of it's also usage.

We're looking at the centers that there's less opportunities around that area.

And that's one of the areas that's kind of a hub for activities.

So we want to make sure to continue to serve the needs in that community.

Understood.

SPEAKER_13

Yep.

SPEAKER_15

No, I got you.

SPEAKER_13

I'll do more deep diving with you later.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Committee Chair Hollingsworth.

We've got Council Member Kettle and Vice Chair Rivera.

Over to you, Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you, Superintendent Diaz and the team, including our two budget directors, past and present, here at the table.

Appreciate it.

Enlightening, getting a better understanding of Parts District General Fund, the interplay.

This is really being borne out in this briefing, so I thank you for that.

Although I have to start off a question with slide one.

Did you actually make it under the conga line in that photo there on slide one?

Just a test here, Superintendent Diaz.

Were you able to make it underneath?

I was able to, sir.

All right.

SPEAKER_15

I've got some Latin roots like Council Member Rivera, so we can do a little conga line.

SPEAKER_05

Saving grace.

I don't have that.

So appreciate how you broke it down to robustly activating downtown.

Very important.

Clearly for a whole host of reasons.

Appreciate your point about Westlake.

And then, and you can see the funding, you know, like with the world cup 26 in mind, you can see it in different parts, like earlier briefings and, you know, 25 heavy lighter than 26. Cause you know, by June, July it will be over.

that period of time so very important so thank you to your point it is kind of like that center point and it's going to be a centerpiece once this is all done but also in downtown you mentioned Denny but you know I think people really need to understand and appreciate the trio of the Denny but South Lake and the Cascade Parks and how they can work together and then also work together with Seattle Center the waterfront and in terms of developing that kind of EXPERIENCE NOT ONLY FOR THE VISITORS PLAYING OFF THE WORLD CUP, BUT ALSO FOR THE RESIDENTS, WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT.

SO THANK YOU FOR THE DANNY SHOUT OUT.

AND IN TIE TO THAT IS THE IDEA OF PORTAL PARK FOR BELLTOWN, WHICH DOES NOT HAVE ONE.

AND I KNOW YOU'RE AWARE OF IT.

AND I RECOGNIZE THIS IS A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS.

So it's outer years in a way but at the same time it really needs to have that kind of Startup work particularly because it's a brownfield site and I'm thinking what can we do?

I mean, it's a former State Route 99 You know, it's you know responsibilities in terms of any remediation that's needed from an environmental perspective You know if we can start some of those processes Sooner and maybe get some state or support, you know, given that it was State Route 99 Really interesting for me.

And that all plays into, again, robustly activating downtown.

And we have to get away from just Westlake, Pike Place Market, and then the waterfront.

We have to build that kind of link to Seattle Center, and I think that's a great way to do it with these parks.

SPEAKER_04

Council Member Kell, could you get a little closer with the microphone?

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Thank you, clerk.

That's why the mic's on this side now, due to the, I just need to be a little bit closer.

Supporting youth section, very important section, so thank you for this.

I have to ask, because we did check in with the team, everything's on track for the uh, big how AKA West Queen and play field, uh, for the start to planning in January 25. Um, so I'm assuming the double, double negative, everything is good with that in terms of pressing forward.

And we'll follow up with the team.

In fact, they probably already are on that question.

Um, And then tied to that is the Queen Anne Community Center.

They all tie in together.

The Queen Anne Pool, McClure Middle School, all these things play in together.

Mentioned South Lake Union Canoe Carving.

I really want to thank the parks for the help related to the Canoe Carving Center.

Very helpful.

Again, one of these things that we need to continue on.

And then also with Smith Cove.

The advantage of being on the Parks Committee, I know these different pieces are moving along, but Smith Cove is really important, too.

Now, more generally, and you talk about tourist conversion, which is very important for Big How, by the way, because that's constantly in a terrible state, water management and across the board.

but Title IX, which only applies to the schools, but from a concept, having that balance between the softball fields and the baseball fields, because they've been out of balance, seeking more balance, and that's really important.

Do you have anything on that, by the way, in terms of, is that kind of captured in terms of what you're doing in terms of planning out that kind of balance, using softball, baseball as an example for that Title IX balance with the girls and the boys?

SPEAKER_15

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that's why I don't want to say, I will say the more turf conversions we do, the more opportunities, if they're multi-use fields, is really important.

So when we do a turf conversion or we build something, we're not just doing a...

football field turf conversion or a baseball field turf conversion.

The best fields are multi-use sports.

So you could use them for a variety of sports.

You can also use them for ultimate Frisbee and all kinds of games.

So to the point, the more that we create those, the more opportunity there is then to serve boys, girls, anyone that's playing and gender parity is really an important thing that we're focusing on in our city.

We have good numbers.

We could always do better, but I think it's really important for any parks department to always constantly look at the programming and make sure that there are opportunities so that gender parity remains high so that everybody has access to sports.

SPEAKER_05

And tied to that, as you were mentioning that, it reminded me as well, like the turf conversion and so forth, and then the softball fields.

Can you speak to the adult programs?

Because the adult programs can leverage that, which is important in terms of revenue.

And I was just curious in terms, you mentioned the fees, but is there something there you can expand on in terms of that flexibility that you were talking about is also flexibility, I think, that could be leveraged by adult programs, which then could bring in fees to help, which may then in a social housing kind of way, help for the younger people?

SPEAKER_15

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, the most challenging...

The provision of public space is really challenging for any city, but especially in Seattle, right?

We're constrained by water, by land.

So we have...

so much demand for our public fields and spaces.

We're also required...

we program all of the Seattle public school fields, and so we are constantly triaging and trying to satisfy a variety of needs.

But to your point, There's a lot of different people that use our fields and a lot of partner organizations that help allow us to be flexible, to fill in the gaps.

We can't do all of the programming ourselves, and we do a lot of it, and we offer opportunities, but also the ability to lean into those partners and say, can you be the ones that can provide the opportunities?

You provide more scholarship for kids.

Can you make it more accessible?

So it's a constant balance that we're trying to do throughout the city.

It's not easy, but it's what we do, and we continue to use our space, existing space, as best as possible, but always keeping our eyes on how can we...

Also be creative, I will say.

And public-private partnerships, I think, are going to be really important to departments such as ours in the next two years.

We have underdeveloped assets, to your point as well, some brownfields.

We have huge opportunities.

at other parts of our city where there's a lot of parkland and a lot of facilities and buildings that maybe we don't have the resources to invest in.

But why not put out the call to the public to say, can you do something that is a park purpose that serves the community?

We can work out opportunities for you to invest in these properties, perhaps to support your business, and then to provide more opportunities for communities So I think we need to be open to that.

I want to explore those opportunities and help deliver them because that's where we're going to really make our park transformational and utilize what we have to the best possible investments.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you for that.

And it's actually your answer, an earlier part, plus that piece at the end in terms of partner, but you also mentioned the school district.

One question I wanted to ask, because as you can imagine, I don't think people necessarily understand the impact of the school districts and our parks.

You know, my daughter learned to ride her bike at Coe Elementary's little park, which is basically a blacktop park.

But, you know, or, you know, Catherine Blaine, the K-8 school in Magnolia, and the whole park system that's kind of, and the school system, it's intertwined.

So when the school district is making decisions, how does that affect parks?

Are you in communication with them?

You know, there's a park near Lincoln High School.

Queen Anne is zoned to Lincoln, and there's a park there that they have, but Lincoln's looking to take it for them.

And this partnership, this interaction between the school district, can you speak to that and the impact on Seattle Parks?

SPEAKER_15

Yes, absolutely.

So we work very closely with the Seattle Public School System, our provider of public education in the city of Seattle.

The way many of our parks were designed in the early days, you'll notice that in many of your districts, you'll often have a library, a park, and a school.

And in a lot of situations, a lot of our schools are adjacent to the parks.

And I think because of that original design, some schools were built with their own fields and athletic facilities.

Some never had them because they had the public park next door.

And then some have lost either...

some of the the land to expanding facilities buildings parking lots other things for schools so there's a huge reliance on and oftentimes kids go to school that play at the park before school after school so the park is in a sense part of the school campus even though we're separated jurisdictionally so we work very closely with them and You know, we have a responsibility.

The kids that go to Seattle Public Schools are our constituents in the city of Seattle.

They're the same families and the same kids that come to the after-school programs or that utilize them.

So we try to be strategic and thoughtful.

We know it's a balance and a relationship with the community.

And oftentimes, the community doesn't see the connection of parks and schools, but really, oftentimes the school system and the children wouldn't be able to do athletic programming if it were not for the park system so while we don't support the educational needs of the city we do provide the recreational opportunity and we do in that sense contribute to their health and wellness education We do communicate with them, and it's very challenging.

And again, it's part of how do we manage all of the needs of students, the school district, the sports teams, the adults with the limited land that we have.

But it's something that we try to do very thoughtfully and intentionally, and at the end of the day, support children as much as possible.

SPEAKER_05

Great, thank you.

And McClure's middle school is a perfect example of that.

And one reason why the Big How project is so important, because McClure doesn't have anything.

And just to follow up, I recognize it's in the chair's district, but as we both share Magnolia, the Catherine Blaine School is such a key piece of the community.

And on the backside, I'm there on Saturdays with soccer games at 9 o'clock.

You know, I don't have the same demand as Council Member Saka, but I do have some myself in terms of early morning soccer games and the like.

So very important.

One last, in terms of supporting our youth, and I just ask this in a sense that I know in the Mayor's speech, he talked about, you know, Fort Lawton, and he talked about adding acreage back to Discovery Park, but When we plan out this project for Fort Lawton, it seems like parks, even pocket or smaller, not a big, big how, but maybe a small how kind of park, can be in you know, but into that so would that be part of your planning process in terms of not just relying on throwing 20 acres whatever to Discovery, but then you also have something for that development there and Sorry chair.

This is two things related to Magnolia that I'm speaking to sorry so

SPEAKER_15

No, I think that's really important, and that project is so unique.

It's not just, to your point, adding parkland or throwing more acreage.

It's intentionally looking at how can we best serve families that might come AS A RESULT OF THIS CONVERSION AND MEETING THEIR NEEDS AS WELL AS THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE WHO ALREADY LIVE THERE.

SO THERE IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY THERE.

IT'S A HUGE PARK.

THERE'S SOME PERSPECTIVES THAT WE SHOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING THERE OR DO ANYTHING MORE THERE BUT I THINK WE NEED THAT'S NOT WISE.

I THINK WE NEED TO BE OPEN TO OPPORTUNITY AND SO TO YOUR POINT LOOKING AT WHAT COULD WE DO THAT'S additive to people's health and wellness, and also preserves the integrity of that wonderful, majestic park that we know as Discovery.

And so similar opportunities have arisen in the past at Magnuson Park and other of our bigger regional parks.

There's always opportunity to be thoughtful and to also look at how we can utilize that parkland for everybody.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

My last question relates to public safety and pillar number four of our plan related to graffiti.

Thank you for the slide and the speak to the graffiti ranger program and also the park ranger program.

We'll be following up and anything on that I would deeply appreciate because it's additive.

It's a one Seattle piece.

Public safety is not just SPD and what it's doing, it's the activation of parks, it's bringing people out, but also programs like the graffiti program and also, of course, the park ranger program.

So thank you.

I guess that's not a question.

Thank you.

Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Here you are.

Anything that you'd like to add?

SPEAKER_15

No, just that obviously we agree public safety is vitally important to parks, and it's a citywide team effort.

really involves i think almost every single department as well as our citizens so it's a shared responsibility but it's one that's very important because none of the things we're talking about today can occur or will occur if people don't feel safe in the park or feel like we have some plans and that we think about it and incorporate it So thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Well said.

Up next, we've got Vice Chair Rivera, followed by Council President Nelson, Council Member Saka, and then Council Member Morales.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Parks, for being here today.

I want to thank you for the partnership.

So many opportunities for partnership in all of our districts.

And I just want to personally thank you for the partnership.

in the D4.

Could not agree with you more about the importance of accessible and inclusive parks like the Pathways Park that got recently reopened or opened as a Pathways Park and the district really appreciate that.

And then also want to say I appreciate the partnership related to public safety as regards the park rangers at Magnuson Park.

and the partnership that they provide with SPD as well.

So really want to thank you for all that your team is doing toward those efforts.

I know it's, it's difficult public safety at the parks in general.

And so really appreciate all that your team is doing there.

And then council member kettle, thanks for bringing up title nine and just the blessing, just the relationship with Seattle public schools and the the competing interests with all the park space because not all the schools, as you aptly pointed out, superintendent have parks attached to them and so, or fields rather.

And so it makes it really difficult as the city is competing, kids across the city are competing and grownups for that matter, for the park space that is available.

So just wanted to acknowledge that, no question there, because I know you all are working toward the constant looking at the plan and figuring out how to best serve everybody's need, and I readily acknowledge how difficult that is.

I just wanted to confirm on the park rangers, there is no change because I didn't see any change in the budget that was presented, so I wanted to confirm no changes to that program.

That's correct.

Great, great to hear.

And then the other pieces related to the graffiti abatement and the...

the Graffiti Rangers moving over from SPU to SPR, is that the Graffiti Rangers provide such a huge service across the city and more and more I feel like they have been so helpful in neighborhoods in the district addressing some of the graffiti needs, not just at the parks and at city assets, but just in general in the community because we know that we're not able to address via SPD, all the issues related to graffiti.

And so I know I, for one, have been so grateful for the Graffiti Rangers help Even with small businesses in the district.

So will that continue or we yes?

SPEAKER_15

Yes, it will continue It's just a realignment of where the resources and the bodies live, which is currently at SPU But the programs will continue the services will continue They will just be under the purview of the parks department which saves to the city general fund but also consolidates and combines some of the services because, again, because there are so many parks throughout the city, which is fantastic.

There are oftentimes, I mean, they are part of the community.

So it's, you know, you have tagging on buildings, commercial buildings adjacent to parks or benches or So some of these resources again in that one Seattle approach, I think will allow us to Realize more efficiency and hopefully better delivery of services Great.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you.

Great to hear that that service will continue in that way and then my last question Really, it's well, it's both a comment and a question but teen nights you know we've all talked about the importance of teen nights across the city and I'm very grateful that you all have partnered with me on teen nights at Magnuson Park.

So I want to thank you publicly for bringing teen nights to the Magnuson Community Center for the families that are living at Magnuson Park.

Very grateful for that.

And just really a plug for we need more teen nights, not less.

And, you know, I don't know, I didn't see anything in here related specifically to teen nights, but would love to hear more.

If not today, just at a later point in time, but how we can expand teen nights across the city, because I think they are another, when we talk about youth and mental health, that is another area that, you know, if kids are not feeling supported, that goes toward how they feel emotionally, and I think those teen nights are safe places for them to go, and I think if they have places, safe places to go, that impacts their mental health, it's all related, And so how we can support more of that across the city is really important.

And we're seeing just as we've all said here, and so I'm just reiterating mental health across teens, across the board, across the city and the country is just higher incidence of depression and anxiety and suicidality.

So really important to have these safe places and activations for teens.

during this time post-pandemic.

So more of that, please.

SPEAKER_15

Yes, absolutely.

And in fact, if you look at the entire budget, we strategically, through the provisions provided to us by the mayor's allocations, specifically is not to disrupt programs such as that.

So The reductions, the transfers, the alignments, it was all done under the lens of how can we keep our core programs for our kids, for mental youth health, for access for seniors, to recreational programs, to the centers.

It was intentionally done and shaped that way so that we didn't have to sit here before you saying, unfortunately, we're not going to have 10 summer night elite teen programs.

Unfortunately, we're no longer going to be doing senior outreach programs or feeding programs.

Again, some difficult decisions, but in the overall context of the amount of investments that we're still putting in our public parks, the numbers are just really strong.

And I just want to reassure you that our team has our eye on that.

I call them park professionals, our staff, because all of them...

are committed in all of their specialty areas to really deliver the best park system that we have.

And as you all know, we're now the sixth ranked park system in the United States.

That's a badge of honor.

It's a commitment to how we maintain our parks, to the amount that we spend per capita, to the types and variety of programs that we offer.

And this budget will continue to advance those narratives.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Over to you, Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you very much.

This will be my semi-annual.

pleading to consider or get uh staff from the school district and uh you know you're nodding because you know i'd say this anyway parks fields etc turfing um jenkins park playfield has been a need for a long time it's school property right in the heart of the city and um baseball and football all year long.

It's been a priority of mine, and I believe other folks in the city, so just put it on maybe a to-do list to figure out who needs to get in the same room to discuss what the next steps might be.

I know that this, at least just maybe figuring out if we can put a costing exercise on a calendar at some point, or just see how they feel about letting us do that, that'd be good.

You rightly noted that providing youth access, so now I'm going into the environmental programming.

You note that providing youth access to nature is key to mental health, and yet you're reducing the environmental programming by 50%.

I agree that it's quite possible that the strength of that program could continue with a public-private partnership.

I just don't understand exactly.

Could you please describe it?

Sure.

SPEAKER_15

Let me get you the...

Do we have the numbers on that?

SPEAKER_00

I thought that it was...

It's on page 93. It was my impression that it took youth in the summer and gave them skills so it was a semi-internship.

I don't know.

Anyway.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_15

Do you want to expand on that?

The cost savings?

SPEAKER_16

Yeah, so, and we can get you some more detail about it, but the general savings is a cut of about seven and a half FTE in 2026. And these are staff that currently do visitor center operations at Discovery Park and do citywide programming.

So at Judkins Park, you may attend an environmental program If you think of naturalists out in the field, they do an owl program.

They do things with the school district to support kids' education and sometimes are like a bring the field trip to the school type of program.

So...

SPEAKER_99

Okay.

SPEAKER_16

It's good programming.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

And then just confirming that moving $500,000 from SPU to parks will not result in less graffiti being mitigated, right?

SPEAKER_15

Correct.

Great.

Again, that's a saving.

Did you want to add something?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, it's the same number of staff members doing the same work, just organizationally housed at the Parks Department instead of at SPU.

SPEAKER_00

Can you take a whole bunch more employees?

Just kidding.

Okay, thank you.

That's a big quality of life issue for the people that email me.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_04

Anything additional, Council President?

Nope.

Great.

Over to you, Council Member Saka.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Superintendent Diaz, for sharing this great presentation here with us.

First off, kudos to the number six ranking in the US of best parks and recreational departments and programming facilities in the country.

Hat tip to you, the workers that actually do the work to enable that type of ranking, the mayor's office.

our distinguished chair down the dais from me, Chair Hollingsworth of the committee, so many people, this council for enabling, providing the great resources.

So hat tip, kudos, let us celebrate that.

And look, I'm fiercely competitive, and so let us also do the work to make sure we can rise in the rankings and be number three or two, heck, number one even over time.

But that is terrific.

I want to, I guess, first comment on something that Councilmember Rivera commented on a moment ago, which I thought was very spot on.

But rather than just saying, hey, what she said, you know, I want to add my own two cents.

She talked about the importance of a holistic approach to youth and youth safety and creating opportunities for youth and teens.

And it's not just youth mental health.

Yes, that is an essential part of a holistic approach, but we need to be creative and have after-school programs and the like, which is something that I couldn't agree more with.

And as someone who's personally, someone who, personally someone who's overcome the foster care system to ultimately live in Any number of public housing arrangements and low-income apartments and this and that?

you know I I benefited personally from some of these after-school programs and In in Kent where I ended up going to high school For example project lighthouse was was key for me and at my my apartments gym there was a community program there i think was offered through the city but it was delivered through a number of local partners and you know i i knew after school a couple days a week i'd go play basketball with some friends uh you know get get beat and pick up basketball games but you know they didn't want to see me on the boards i was a beast on the boards guys um but you know and also and also get some uh some some snacks that were generally nutritious And more importantly, above those personal experiences and kind of fellowship opportunities for youth, it was an opportunity for me to stay out of trouble.

And so between that and some of the after school programs and Open Gym on site, And I was looking on the website, the parks website, and I saw, you know, like some of the late night programs that are offered through a number of community centers and teen life centers, which is great.

I would also just encourage you all to think, so, and you talked a little bit about like the planning efforts and like historically and how like onsite versus, well, city property versus school property and the like.

But for some of these open gym type opportunities and, you know, And after, like, teen night programs, late night programs, I would just encourage you to partner more directly with the schools and not just have those solely at community centers.

Because I do think it does reflect a non-trivial, potentially barrier to entry.

You might think, oh, it's just right across the street.

Southwest Youth Teen Life Center, directly across the street from Chief South.

And so they can just walk across the street.

But if someone doesn't normally or would have otherwise know reason to go there, but for this program, you know, that might go into a new space might be a potential barrier.

It might not, but Again, what I would just encourage you to think about is like doing more of these on-site in the school programs, like open gym type of programming.

And if for nothing else, as a potential means to help drive adoption, because we don't need to, we need to be more, we need to be in the business of doing more than just providing new offerings or new programs or new services.

We need to actually be doing the, the hard work of making sure we're driving adoption, and people are actually utilizing these programs and utilizing these new services and, like, actually achieve—ultimately, in the case of these late-night programs, more and more people are going that represent the most kind of at-opportunity youth, if you will.

So we're not just creating a program on paper, we're actually creating an experience people are using.

And so in any event, that is, so kudos to you, Councilmember Rivera, for your great comments.

I couldn't agree more.

I do have a question around something else that has come up a number of times now, and Superintendent Diaz, you mentioned this as well, around the athletic field and turf conversions, and so, you know, which is important to me, and I know Council President and, you know, the Chair Hollingsworth and any number of us on this dais at the council level.

as I understand it parks already has a plan to not only maintain but like at least explore converting more more fields right over time and so you know this is an effort that is again is really important to me for a number of reasons and including gender parity and equity considerations so how does this budget this proposed budget how does that How does the funding allow us to make progress on field turf conversions?

And can you also speak to the potential environmental and health concerns that some people might have about turf conversions?

SPEAKER_15

Yes, absolutely.

So the good thing is that our program, first of all, we are having an athletic field summit.

I think you're aware of that and other members are.

And if not, we can give you more information on that.

But we're bringing back a program, an outreach program that we had a lot before the pandemic.

But there's a lot of people interested in athletic fields for a variety of reasons.

And so we are hosting an athletic field summit where we're inviting the community to come out, ask questions, some of our partner groups, and then also continue to update on our capital plans.

A good thing about our athletic field conversion program, capital money is not specifically reliant on general fund.

It comes from the MPD through the various cycles, and so we have a number of existing renovations underway in progress that will continue to go forward.

To your point about environmental concerns, there was certainly a time, I know this from my previous job and experience, when some of the materials that were used in the development of athletic fields had some health concerns.

I will say before I got here, Seattle Parks and Recreation had moved away from that type of infill.

That was not the most sustainable and healthy of product.

And I'll just point to the most recent when I did the field opening at Rainier Beach.

I was so proud to announce and did some pre-inspections and work with the development.

That infield is actually cork, and it's a natural, environmentally safe, people-safe product, and there's other types of products on the market.

So we do not use any harmful products in the development of our fields, which is really good.

and also implements the best environmental practices and then to council member kettle's point earlier we have to really be mindful of how we use water in this city and looking at when you're the largest landowner of land in the city of seattle you can Water will be the highest.

So one, financially, it makes sense.

Two, it's environmentally good.

And we'll continue to invest in this program as much as possible.

where appropriate throughout the city.

And I just will say for the record, we also recognize that community does also need value and loves grass and open fields, and that's important.

And so nothing in our program will ever take away from the the magnet enormity of those ability to touch those natural spaces.

We deploy them in areas where we want to increase access for kids of all abilities to support schools and to support other needs that come up through community involvement, I will say, by the way.

And the athletic field summit will be another opportunity for a community to give input.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, no, thank you, Superintendent Diaz.

Appreciate your comments there.

And on that issue, to close it out from my perspective, the athletic field turf conversions, I am aware that Judkins Park is a good sort of candidate project.

I've seen that one firsthand.

My daughter had a few, or at least one softball game that I'm aware of there.

And me and Councilmember Hollingsworth were talking about that.

So, and I also initiated a, just an informal survey, sent it out to my constituents in District One a few weeks back, and out of the eight projects, potential candidates, potential, that we sourced, by the way, having conversations with all the five or six neighborhood community recreational baseball organizations and leagues That didn't include parks because we we know how to connect and contact you so we sourced that candidate a candidate of eight or candidate list of eight potential options within district one and Fairmont Park Elementary of those eight that were included was was the We heard the strongest support for converting that one.

So I'll just say I'll just note that and my next question relates to water fountain access and just as an aside uh yesterday so council member kettle mentioned like he basically knows what i do in the weekend yes uh it all relates to kids use sports and activities and events and this and that and right now just so happens to be soccer season so three kids in soccer plus other activities it's So I spent a lot of time at various games and practices.

Yesterday, one of the games that I was at was at Hiawatha Playfield.

I had some parents come up to me because I am just another parent.

attendee at these games and and uh but i'm also their humble servant and council member so and they know that too so uh so i hear all kinds of stuff there um but in any event i had i had a few parents come up to me and and complain that the water fountains at hiawatha playfield were not functioning uh and i asked my team to kind of follow up offline with you i So I don't want, you know, I'm not expecting a comment on that issue.

Let's work offline.

My sense is it's probably related to some of the ongoing construction there.

But regardless, how does this budget...

position us to do more?

Because there's a whole winter weatherization efforts that kind of ties into some of the closed restrooms and closed water fountains during certain times of the year.

How does this budget position us to continue to make progress on those efforts?

SPEAKER_15

The budget specifically prioritizes certain core services, and among them is a focus when we looked at our maintenance and our approach to whether that's major maintenance, repairs to existing facilities such as water fountains, community centers, shelters.

The focus continues to be on areas that are most used so public restrooms really important to the public also addressing the highest need area so making sure that we're fixing things and keeping a priority on that that's still part of our plan.

And I think there's opportunity as well, we can talk more offline about it, but I want to explore some opportunities with our utilities on how we can perhaps.

implement hydration stations in various parks, using money from the utilities as a reinvestment back.

One, it's a better use than a traditional water fountain, and it allows people to have access to water more, and I think there might be some opportunity.

It's a similar program that I worked on in my previous job.

I'D LIKE TO EXPLORE THAT OPPORTUNITY HERE WITH SOME OF OUR UTILITY PARTNERS AND SEE IF WE MIGHT DEVELOP THIS ONE SEATTLE APPROACH, BE INNOVATIVE, AND SERVE OUR COMMUNITY BETTER.

SO THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE'RE LOOKING AT.

I'M HAPPY TO TALK MORE WITH YOU ABOUT IT OFFLINE.

BUT TO YOUR SPECIFIC QUESTION, ALTHOUGH WE'RE MAKING ADJUSTMENTS IN AREAS, WE'RE GOING TO PRIORITIZE ON THE VERY THINGS THAT YOU TALKED ABOUT.

SO IN THAT SENSE, THE PROPOSED BUDGET DOES NOT AFFECT THAT.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you.

And I'll just finally note that, you know, I think we have an opportunity.

I don't want Seattle to ever be a childless city, big city that some other cities, bigger cities across this country are experiencing the challenges of associated with affordability and the amount of programs and amenities for families.

San Francisco is, some would say that, hey, that's largely a child of the city.

I lived in San Francisco before during law school.

And so I think we have a policy responsibility to make sure that this is an...

I've heard time and time again, oh, yeah, I used to live in Seattle, and once we started having kids, we moved out to the suburbs.

So we need to make it more for any number of reasons, including public safety, by the way.

And I think we have a...

opportunity to make Seattle an affordable city that working families can actually live in today and tomorrow.

And then also, like, creating adequate programs and services and offerings, whether it's youth after-school programs or, you know, more field athletic turf conversions and, you know, whatever it is to make sure that once people have made the decision to to start a family here and and stay here that you know that this is a place they continue to live and thrive and and and raise their families.

So I think we have an important policy obligation from a working families perspective to do exactly that.

Parks is less centrally involved in the affordability aspect but you are the tip of the spears in making sure we have great healthy parks that are open safe welcoming accessible to all excellent programming like delivered in an extraordinary way etc etc so that is all i wanted to ask and and state for the record no further questions mr chair thank you superintendent anything you'd like to share there all right just yeah we agree with you fantastic uh councilmember morales

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

I think in the interest of time, I'm just going to read through my questions, maybe for central staff to note, and then we can follow up.

I do want to start by thanking you for acknowledging the importance of field trips and all of the assets that we do have in this city for our young people.

It is so important, particularly for kids who are growing up in low-income neighborhoods whose schools don't have the resources.

My daughter went to Aki Kurose for middle school, and she did not have a single field trip in three years.

So the things that you're able to provide are really important.

So that said, that is the lens through which I'm looking at these reductions.

And so I do have questions about some of the things that we see.

So I know you have efficiencies that you are trying to provide.

The challenge for me is that you're providing them by eliminating, for example, the big day of play, which is really important in the Rainier Valley.

It's one of the few free activities for young people all year long, and especially in a part of town where they don't get to go on field trips at their schools.

Things like that are really important.

Um, the budget also proposes reducing activation programming for parks.

So I would be interested to know, um, what resources will continue to be allocated to maintaining activated to compare that to what is being invested in activation in the downtown area.

I would like to know how much is being retained for the park concierge program and if that is also predominantly for downtown or for parks outside of the downtown area.

I understand the community funds granting program is reduced from 600 to 400. As you noted, these programs are really important for communities of color.

They are specifically for providing green space and programming for neighborhoods that are the highest need.

The recreation for all and get moving programs have a real successful track record for providing culturally relevant programming for neighborhoods with the highest needs.

So it is problematic for me to see any reduction in those programs.

I want to understand better the switch to the ad tax.

So you mentioned Art in the Park.

You mentioned, I think, some programming for MOHAI.

There were several other things you mentioned that would be switched to the ad tax.

And I want to make sure that...

What I think that says is that whatever that totals to would be reduced from the Office of Arts and Culture budget and their ability to program money and grants.

So I just want to make sure I understand that.

Oh, okay.

And then in terms of FTE reductions, I think I understand that over the biennium, you're reducing the third shift maintenance workers by 25 FTEs.

Is that wrong?

SPEAKER_16

I think you're seeing some of the original proposals that didn't get selected.

I'm happy to report.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Okay.

Well, that's good to know.

SPEAKER_16

Big day of play is not impacted and-

SPEAKER_01

Okay, that's good to know.

Yeah, I was looking through some of the budget documents that are provided as background, so it's possible that the proposals that you submitted there were not part of what was packaged.

So that's why I look through those, and that's why I ask the questions.

Okay, and then I do want to ask about the proposed increase in aquatics fees.

And I have some questions about the...

the swim equity program which I can ask later but I do find it troubling that we are increasing prices for swim lessons particularly for low I'm particularly concerned about low-income families and kids in a city surrounded by water where we do know that it is black and brown kids who drown the most in this city anything that makes it harder for them to access that resource is a problem for me, and I understand that the increase in revenue would potentially be used for scholarships, but it just doesn't make sense to me to raise the fees and then increase scholarships.

So that doesn't seem like a sustainable strategy here, and I will want to dive into that a little bit more and understand it.

Those are all my issues for now, Chair.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Moore.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you very much, Chair.

So thank you for the presentation.

And I too echo the comments of many of my colleagues about the importance of parks for youth and youth programming.

But being at the other end of the spectrum, I also want to shout out the incredible programming that you're doing for seniors and people who are 50 and over.

critically important to our community.

There's an epidemic of loneliness and disconnection for people 50 and plus.

So I just want to shout out to Parks for the really important programming, particularly around your dementia programming.

That's also been incredibly important.

And I was able to utilize that resource with my mother, which was really a lifesaver.

So thank you for that.

And my only plug there would be, could we expand the hours?

Because right now, they're really morning and early afternoon.

It would be nice, when we have more money, to look at actually having those opportunities available for people later in the afternoon and early evening.

we would really see a huge increase in participation.

And certainly there could be some fee base involved in that as well.

And then my last shout out is, thank you for teaching me how to play pickleball.

SPEAKER_04

That's it.

Was it at Green Lake?

SPEAKER_02

It was at Magnuson.

SPEAKER_04

All right, there we go.

I believe that was the last council member with their hand up.

Seeing no other questions, I'm gonna share my reflections and then I'll pass it to Council Member Hollingsworth to close this section of our budget presentation.

Similar to the way Council Member Morales shared, I'm gonna read out the issues that I've come back to.

So for CBO and Central staff, if you could key in here.

Although the first one I would like to discuss, which is maintenance and activation outside of downtown.

It is really...

I've seen the absolute benefit of the activation that has occurred at Ballard Commons Park, in part because my district office, you can see the park from there, and the transformation that having a concierge there and having the...

yoga in the park and the movie nights on the new trailer that you've got.

I mean, it's just, it's been incredible.

The work that you all do transforms people's daily lives in ways that probably folks in your department don't fully realize because it's that lived experience.

It's that built environment that makes or breaks a person's day.

Can you help me understand, are we really, in this budget, are we really just trying We don't have activation outside of downtown.

SPEAKER_15

The proposed budget still allows for activation outside of the downtown.

So there is reduction in some of the ability to reach all parts of the city, but there is still going to be activations, concierges, and other opportunities that are outside what we define as the downtown core.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

That's helpful.

And then just for both central staff and CBO, I'm hoping to do a...

position-by-position review of every position that is termed to be closed or abrogated through this budget.

And so I'm not going to go through those positions within your department right now.

And for anyone watching, please know that I'm going to be doing that.

SPEAKER_06

The fee...

As a follow-up to the question you posed to me earlier, we do have that request into CBO, and we'll get information hopefully shortly.

SPEAKER_04

Fantastic.

Yes, it's not just Director Noble asking.

I...

It's coming straight from me.

Looking at pages 92 and 93 of the budget book here, coming back to the cost, the fee increases, understanding that the aquatics program the revocable use permits, the athletic field, special events, the tennis center and community center rentals are the fees that are looking to be increased.

Are there others or is that, are we gonna increase the fees for pottery class or for an after school programming or is this the full list?

SPEAKER_16

So the pottery classes are fees that are done in partnership with the associated recreation councils.

They're not in the fees and charges.

So we can get back to you on whether or not we think that is gonna increase.

I do know that we're talking with ARC about childcare fees potentially being raised next summer.

So for the school year, they would not be changed.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

It's a hard choice, right?

Because when we increase fees, we do limit access at a different rate than if it's a very low fee.

But at the same time, we can't provide some of the programming without these fees.

And what's most important for me is that I have a full comprehensive understanding when I'm going into these budget issues.

SESSIONS AND THE BUDGET DECISIONS, BECAUSE IF THE ARC CLASSES ARE ALSO GETTING THEIR FEES RAISED WHILE WE'RE ALSO DOING THIS, I NEED TO JUST KNOW THAT INFORMATION.

AND KIND OF TO WHAT COUNCILMEMBER MORALES WAS ALLUDING TO WITH, YOU KNOW, I THINK YOU WERE PROBABLY READING SOME OF THE BIPS THAT WE RECEIVED THAT HAVEN'T BEEN COALATED NECESSARILY, AND IT JUST DEMONSTRATES THAT When everyone started their budget exercises in January, this could have been a lot worse.

I'm not saying any of the reductions to any of the programming is good.

I'm not saying that any of these are happy choices to be made.

But this could have been a lot worse, and some of these hard trade-offs that you've made, like with fee increases, buoy us a little bit from some of these other reductions in services and programming.

And so I just wanna acknowledge that.

I know that park rangers are funded in the Metropolitan Parks District cycle.

At least that was where we got the 28 additional to the two that we had while we at the same time negotiated with SPOG to get their jurisdiction outside of downtown.

Do we have any plans of now to bring on another 28 or another two?

I mean,

SPEAKER_15

We definitely should talk about that for the next cycle, which we're gonna start planning probably at the end of next year.

But we thankfully have, that was an allocation that was made and we filled all the positions.

So we would love to hire more, but we don't have the funding or immediate plans to do it.

But caveat by saying, I think, and I'm just assuming you all agree the program is key and crucial to the park system.

We need more park rangers, so let's figure out how to get that in the funding, because now that we are citywide, the 28, which was factored around a downtown map, now have to look at serving our entire city.

We probably need a 50 park ranger unit.

SPEAKER_04

Or at least two sets of 28, or three sets of 28.

SPEAKER_15

Sure, 56.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, I really appreciate them.

I've had really good experiences with your parks rangers.

I'm the secret shopper that doesn't tell them who I am.

And I've just watched them navigate some kind of challenging situations in a really graceful and professional manner.

SPEAKER_15

I did that once with the park concierge program in it.

It was like undercover boss, and it quickly made its way back.

People said, you can't do that anymore.

I just went up to it.

But it's a good way to see how people interact with the public.

SPEAKER_04

It was an amazing situation.

In the interest of time, I won't share more about that.

And then just to be clear, Lake City Community Center, still happening.

SPEAKER_15

Yes, to be clear, and not using a double negative, as my budget director pointed out to me, Lake City Community Center is still going forward, the development of the housing and the recreational center.

SPEAKER_04

Fantastic.

As you've seen up here, Council Member Kettle advocating for things in District 6, Council Member Strauss advocating things in District 5. It was a decade ago that I went on my first community walk trying to get a new community center, so...

There we have it.

Chair Hollingsworth, over to you.

I'll follow up with you all with some more questions as well.

SPEAKER_13

Okay, I'll be super quick.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Superintendent Diaz.

I did look up.

You're absolutely right.

We are in the top 10 for park systems, so that's amazing.

For competition, Council Member Saka, Washington, D.C.

is number one, and their parks are pretty phenomenal.

But we could...

but we could get there.

And Minnesota and St. Paul were number two.

They also have the best state fair, and shout out to my Aunt Heidi in Minnesota, makes the best apple pie.

Seattle Parks, incredible asset to our city.

I think we have an opportunity as we continue to grow as a city to continue to maintain it.

Thank you, Superintendent Diaz.

I see the love and passion that you have every time we're at an event, every time you're posting, every time you send an email.

The Seattle shine sunglasses and shirts, like every time you just really embody what Seattle Parks is and just so grateful for your leadership and looking forward to working with you.

And thank you, Michelle.

I know it was a lot to do all these budget and numbers and work behind the scenes and get all this together.

So thank you as well.

Looking forward to working with Parks.

I'll have some behind the scenes questions just to ask while we're doing a deeper dive.

But just want to thank you for all your work and all of the Seattle Parks Department.

We love you all.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_15

Thank you so much.

I just want to say thank you, council members.

It's a pleasure to always be before you.

It's a pleasure to have gotten to know you the past year and a half.

We are at so many events together.

You all love the community.

You love parks.

And I echo everything that you're saying.

It's a privilege to be the superintendent of one of the greatest departments in the city.

At the end of the day, you have my commitment.

We got to keep our eyes on our kids.

We also have to help our adults stay healthy, and we have to take care of our aging population.

Those three things have got to be our North Star, and I'm just privileged to lead a department and to also have a mayor that really believes in the power of parks.

So thank you for your leadership and your partnership and your governance.

of this great city.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Superintendent.

And as we're bringing up Department of Education and Early Learning, we're going to say thank you to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.

And clerk, will you read the short title under the record?

SPEAKER_03

Agenda item four, Department of Education.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, keep going.

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03

And Early Learning for briefing and discussion.

SPEAKER_06

If I could, as the next speakers are coming up, I wanted to provide just a little bit of technical clarification.

As we went and visited you all, we made it clear that we were going to get you a list of all of the potential budget proposals that had been rejected by the mayor in his work on the budget.

And due to some technical issues, we've had the full set of changes, but we haven't had a way to distinguish those that had been incorporated into the budget and those that had been rejected.

Moments ago, we sorted that technical point out, so we are very shortly, I think by tomorrow, be able to get you the list that we had promised, which is really the set of budget changes that departments considered or brought forward to the mayor's office and to the budget office, but that were ultimately rejected and not incorporated into the budget.

I say this because I think Councilman Morales had been looking through the full packet and had seen some that she thought had been incorporated, but in fact had been rejected.

And I didn't want any of you, the rest of you, to be in that place.

And we have, I think, again, just about solved that problem.

And we'll get you this full list again by tomorrow, if not sooner.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Director Noble.

And as the Parks Department is walking out the door, I will also just thank them and the upcoming presentation for your focus on all ages and abilities, both in the classroom and in our parks.

With that, Director Chappell, I'm going to turn it over to you.

We'll take your presentation, and then I'll turn it over to Councilmember Rivera, the chair of your committee.

SPEAKER_11

Over to you.

Thank you.

It's an honor to be here.

Thank you all for this opportunity to be in front of you today.

I am Dwayne Chappell, and I'm joined by my amazing colleague, our CFO, Jonathan Swift.

And we look forward to going over the 2025-2026 proposed budget with you.

Okay, so just to get started, as with any investment we do, this is our mission.

And so what we do, we deal, we aim to transform the lives of Seattle's children, youth, and families through our strategic investments in education.

And the vision is where a city, where all children and families have equitable access to high-quality education services, support, and outcomes.

Our key impact areas are access to affordable, quality childcare, kindergarten readiness, college and career readiness, and post-secondary degree credential or certificate attainment.

SPEAKER_04

And Director, just for process point, Council Member Morales is taking the meeting from her office.

So for anyone viewing, she's still with us, just not on the dais.

Over to you.

SPEAKER_11

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

So to track our progress towards our impacted areas, here are just high-level results that come from our 2022-23 annual report.

So what you'll see is that with Child Care Assistance Program, with our Child Care Assistance Program, Deal, we supported 853 children providing access to affordable childcare services.

And for those families that are enrolled in the program, they've seen an average savings of $6,500 annually.

For our Seattle preschool program deal, we've served 2,042 children this year, and those have achieved a 9% to 14% gain in kindergarten readiness among our Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, and Black and African-American children.

For our K-12 services deal, we've provided support to over 24,000 K-12 youth, where we've seen a 6% gain in English language arts and math proficiency among participating students in the 2022-23 academic year.

And for the Seattle Promise, we've enrolled 12, 1,250 scholars in the program with a 34% completion rate for students earning a degree within three years and supporting their transition into further education or career paths.

To achieve these results, we implement performance pay contracting with our providers.

This really ensures that we're making progress towards our results.

We recently presented to the library's Education and Neighborhood Committee on our results and evaluation findings to date.

If you didn't have a chance to see it, these reports, they are available on our department's website.

In a moment, you'll hear more about this contract accountability structure and what happens when providers do not achieve the agreed upon deliverables, as well as the reason for the small underspend resources.

So our deal budget covers, which I'm excited about, are three of Mayor Harrell's budget priorities.

As we know, the impacts that COVID have had on our young scholars, the first priority is student well-being, where expanded investments in the student mental health resources, It covers youth programs, which are sustaining investments for youth development and summer learning.

And then we have the post-secondary success, as I just mentioned.

And with this ultimately maintains opportunities for schools to complete or should I say for our students to complete a four year degree.

Please know that.

Within the post-secondary success, one of the priorities is to ensure that our Seattle Promise Scholars have the ability to transfer to UW, University of Washington, in which we made sure this was possible through our path to UW investment.

So with that being said, what I'll do now is I'll pass this over to Jonathan to take us through the rest.

SPEAKER_12

Pleasure to be here with you today.

I'm Jonathan Swift, again.

I'm the CFO for the Department of Education and Early Learning.

It's nice to see you all.

I'm going to talk about just the overall budget picture for DEAL, and I'm going to touch on a few key investments.

I'm going to spend a little bit of extra time on our youth mental health investment, because I think there's a lot of interest in that, as there should be.

And then touch on some continuation of services that we really want to highlight within the budget.

And then we'll end with some questions and discussion after that.

So as you can see, Deal's proposed budget from 2024 to 2025 actually shows a reduction in general fund services.

What that really truly reflects is a discontinuation of some one-time investments that were in the budget.

So for example, we had childcare, worker bonuses that were contained with the budget, and that was only meant to be a one-time investment.

There are a couple of other things that are illustrated in the reduced resources that are available for general fund, but we have no service impact from these changes.

So we've shifted a couple of investments, like restorative practices, as well as some investments in culturally specific and responsive programming from the general fund to some available resources within our levy funds.

I do want to just highlight, and I'm going to repeat this several times just because it's easy to overlook this.

Our budget is a continuation of services.

We do not have reductions to direct services.

So a lot of things that you're seeing in our budget are simply shifts to available resources, oftentimes with available fund balance.

In the payroll expense tax, you can actually look at the change from 2024 to 2025. I think that all the council members know that at the end of 2023, a lump sum amount was included in DEAL's budget of $20 million without a design or a plan on how we might use that.

And so over the past, I would say year, we've been working on that plan.

And this actually just reflects a right sizing of that budget to what the ongoing types of services that we're gonna be providing.

And of course, I'm gonna talk about that in quite a bit of detail in just a moment.

I think that the other piece to emphasize here, too, and especially as you're shifting from looking at 24 to 25 to 26, is you'll notice that in other funds, the largest amount of funds that we have in 2025, there's a reduction.

It's a reduction of a little bit over 40%.

And that really is to reflect the sunsetting of the current FEP levy.

So the current FEP levy sunsets in the 25-26 school year.

And I think that folks are aware that we are planning, doing a lot of internal planning on that levy replacement.

There'll be a lot more discussion with council.

with the mayor's office starting into 2020. Was that just me or was that?

It's a fly.

I thought he was swatting at me.

We will be bringing back lots of discussion on this upcoming revised levy in 2025. So go to this next slide.

So I do want to talk about some of the notable changes.

And I'm going to spend most of the time on youth mental health.

I'll talk a little bit more about four investments that are in our K-12 and our post-secondary division that are really a continuation of either pilot programs or added programs that have had a lot of collective positive impact.

So our budget and DEAL's budget, as well as you heard from Parks and you'll hear from Human Services tomorrow, really addresses significantly youth mental health needs.

So I'm going to talk a little bit about what the purpose of this is, just to remind folks.

I think you are all very in tune to this and understand what's at risk here and what our opportunities are.

And I'm also going to talk about some of the, touch on some of the key findings and recommendations that have come from our innovation and performance office.

So fundamentally, the proposals you're about to see are based on a lot of outreach, a lot of work, not just with members of the community, but with our partners, such as public health and Seattle Public Schools, as well as community-based organizations.

And I do want to emphasize just the importance of this existing and ongoing partnership that we have with Seattle Public Health, Seattle King County Public Health.

They are a cornerstone of this implementation.

They have a presence, a strong presence at the schools.

They have a strong presence in the community.

And we are really going to leverage that partnership in order to make sure that we see results and we see results quickly.

I also just want to mention that we've actually had some really good just direct experiences with a small-scale pilot.

And so we'll be finishing up with seven schools, a mental health pilot, in the 25-26 school year, 24-25, 25-26 school year, and we've seen a lot of very positive results.

We're learning from those findings.

What's really important to emphasize is that we're taking those two pieces of knowledge, the outreach and our own experience, and we're combining that together to really scale up what would be a youth mental health investment.

So what you're seeing on the screen takes from the report, A Student-Led Approach to Mental Health Services.

I'd encourage you to take a look at that if you haven't already.

This was created by our Office of Innovation and Performance.

And I'm gonna use this framework as we're going through it, and it's these prevention, early intervention, and treatment.

So DEAL's budget focuses on all three of these aspects.

And so in terms of the prevention and early intervention, you can see sort of on the left the research insights they had and the types of recommendations that are made, not just by our staff or other organization staffs, but by the community.

These are the things that they're asking for, they're demanding, they're saying this is what we really need.

So on this slide, I'm going to talk about this, again, this framework of prevention, early intervention, and intervention.

And I'm going to start with the top portion of this, by really talking about what these mean.

So when it comes to two of the five investments, which are Reach Out Seattle and universal screening, these are really helping our kids, our youth, get past the barriers, get past the barriers in order to receive services.

Under intervention, we actually have three additional pieces.

Some are community-based, school-based, as well as telehealth services, and I'll go into more detail about that.

For prevention and early intervention, so Reach Out Seattle, we've had some initial planning work that we've been doing to have really a full throttle reach with kids so that these types of things that are barriers right now, especially when it comes to the negative, I'll just use the big word, the negative aspects that people often see with seeking mental health services.

At this point in time, we've done some planning, but we're actually going to move to scale to actually do a community-wide impact that's really focusing on some actually the same things that the Parks Department talked about, reaching youth where they're at, not using posters and things on, I'm sorry to say this, on Seattle Public TV, but things like app-based pushes, using influencers, really using a full-fledged, more youth-enabled approach approach to removing some of the stigma that's associated with mental health.

The other piece that I think is really exciting is that we are going to focus on universal screening and expand that significantly.

So right now, all kids in middle school and Seattle Public School are screened for mental health, but no high school students are.

It's not a part of the design of the program.

And so what we are hearing and what we are going to enable is to actually move to universal screening, full universal screening, and go up to scale within 2025 in order to do that.

Universal screening is important because you detect problems early and often.

You can actually divert kids or give them the best resources before things become crisis, which is really what early intervention is almost always about.

The third area, intervention, is really the on-the-ground work.

This is where we can have a positive and direct and immediate impact with kids.

So again, we are using the leverage of our partnerships with public health, with Seattle Public Schools, to really provide additional services.

We will actually serve a lot more kids, and I'll actually talk about this in the next slide.

And we're not just doing it with existing sites.

We're actually looking at doing community hubs, and really expanding out the reach for kids of where they want to be.

So a lot of times, you know, the inconvenience of only having these types of services at a limited number of places is the barrier itself.

But combining these different things together, prevention, early intervention, and then the intervention can help significantly change that tide.

The other area, the fifth area, is around telehealth services.

And it's been a really interesting and exciting thing to actually look out into the United States particularly.

We are seeing a lot of small and large-scale interventions focused on telehealth services.

There are a lot of ready models that we can actually easily literally piggyback on.

in other cities and other jurisdictions, as well as other states.

And there are evidence-based practices that use a suite of services.

Sometimes it's direct mental health services, the typical sort of talk therapy.

Other things are simply coaching or having availability to apps and education.

So all these things work in tandem.

So of course, I am the CFO, so I'll talk about the money for just a moment.

So this is a sort of two and a half year investment total with the PET funds.

What you can see is that the vast majority of the resources actually go towards treatment.

I'm just going to read off a few statistics in terms of the impact that we're anticipating.

Keep in mind that this is very early, that we don't have some of these services on the ground in the way that we will have them later on when we scale it up in 2025. But these are sort of estimates of the types of impacts we're expecting to see.

So actually, with universal screening alone, this should have an impact of screening an additional 14,000 kids.

That really is the intention, and it's all high school-based.

With treatments such as telehealth, we're looking at, and this is, the models usually say that about four to eight percent of active high school kids, especially with the schools you're reaching, it's about four to eight percent, and so that's the equivalent of about 2,200 to 4,000 kids that would be served through telehealth services.

With school-based and community hubs, we're looking at an additional 3,500 kids that would be served, directly served through those services.

Of course, everything is a concept until you put it into action, and so I just wanted to basically touch on some of the status and next steps.

We're very early in this work.

We've been working very fastidiously with our partners, negotiating contracts, putting things out for RFIs and RFPs and all sorts of technical contracting things, but important part of the process to have a fair and transparent process.

So we actually have already released our telehealth RFP, and we're going to actually release our school-based in-person request for proposals in October.

We actually have been negotiating the scope of work, how we're implementing staffing, different things like that with public health.

And we actually anticipate that we will be moving into scaling up in Q1 of 2025, particularly when it comes to the telehealth and school-based services.

And then the community-based services will take a little bit more to implement because some of the infrastructure just is not in place and we need to do the hiring and the facility pieces in order to get this up to scale.

So we expect to have that up to scale and running in fall of 2025. That was the short presentation, I hope, on mental health.

I know there were going to be some questions.

We've already been given a couple of signals about what those might be.

I appreciate that.

I do want to talk about these other sort of continuation of services.

Duane mentioned that we use a pay for performance model in the vast majority of our contracts.

What that means in terms of resources, if the service is not delivered, we do not pay for it.

And if the performance is not achieved, we do not pay bonuses.

And so what that means every year is we have about 2% to 3% of resources that are committed that end up in savings.

And then we, by council, by council legislation and by our implementation evaluation plan.

The path for using that money is to go to our levy oversight committee.

They make an endorsement of recommended proposals and then those come back to you with the regular budget.

So that's where this money is coming from.

It comes largely from the resources from FEPP.

So these are all continuation of services, and so I just want to highlight a couple of things just to maybe toot our own horn when it comes to how well things are actually going here.

So we have an allocation of continuation through the end of the levy, youth leadership and educator diversity.

Youth leadership serves roughly 1,300 people annually.

It's focused on skill building and mentorship with kids in the schools.

And it roughly serves about 84% of the kids, BIPOC kids.

Educator diversity creates a pathway for BIPOC teachers to teach in public schools.

Over and over again, research shows that a child who has at least one, just one, it's really amazing, at least one person who is the same color as them increases their potential for finishing high school exponentially.

It's an amazing and astounding thing when people see people who are them at schools.

The other piece of this is with K-12, and we actually serve about 250 all BIPOC teachers through that.

Summer learning is a continuation of really a fantastic sort of experiment that we started coming out of COVID.

It was to really give kids summer opportunities to be BOTH EDUCATED, ENTERTAINED, AS WELL AS TO POTENTIALLY LEARN NEW SKILLS.

WHEN WE STARTED THIS A FEW YEARS AGO, WE WERE SERVING ABOUT 800 TO 900 KIDS.

WE'RE NOW UP TO ABOUT 1400 KIDS THIS PAST SUMMER OF HIGHLY REGARDED PROGRAM.

THE PROPOSAL IN THE BUDGET IS TO CONTINUE THAT K-12 SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM THROUGH THE END OF THE LEVY.

And of course, last but not least, maintaining post-secondary programs.

So we have two really important investments.

And again, they are just continuations of services.

As we are asked to do, we piloted a program called the Path to UW.

It's for our Promise Scholars.

And I'll talk a little bit more about our Promise program and just how great it's doing.

But the Path to UW has been a magnificent success.

We have more than double the enrollment that we anticipated.

The scholars who participate in Path to UW, 71% of them go on to four-year, we haven't gotten to completion yet, it's a fairly new program, but they are enrolled in four-year programs at the University of Washington.

So it's going gangbusters.

I shouldn't say that.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

So and then the other piece of this is with Seattle Promise.

So Seattle Promise, we have both equity enhancements and a very high enrollment in this program.

Our enrollment is hitting closer to about 1,400 right now in Seattle Promise.

So this pays for both the sort of wraparound equity scholarships as well as the higher THAN INITIALLY ANTICIPATED ENROLLMENT IN THE PROGRAM.

SO WITH THAT SAID, WE'RE ON TO QUESTIONS.

THAT'S THE END OF OUR PRESENTATION.

SPEAKER_04

WELL, THANK YOU TO YOU BOTH.

I'M GOING TO TURN IT OVER TO THE CHAIR OF YOUR COMMITTEE, VICE CHAIR OF THIS COMMITTEE, COUNCIL MEMBER RIVERA.

SPEAKER_09

THANK YOU, CHAIR STRAUSS.

AND THANK YOU, DEAL, FOR BEING HERE.

FULL DISCLOSURE.

Director Chappell and I have had the pleasure of working together for the last six years and with the team at DEAL.

So I'm really happy to be continuing to work with this team who've had a lot of work to do with this Families and Education Preschool Promise Levy, the FEPP Levy.

You know, in Washington State, as we all know and have discussed, education is a state responsibility.

The city provides supports, though, to kids via this FEP levy every year.

As you heard from Deal, these investments include child care and preschool for eligible families to get kids kindergarten ready.

K-12 wraparound services to get kids college ready.

And I want to underscore the K-12 investments are not things that Seattle Public Schools is responsible for or on the hook for students.

But they are just that, to help kids with some supports around that K-12 piece.

And then the Seattle Promise, which is the universal two years of free college.

And then, as you heard Deal say, they partner with the UW to have some of these Promise kids go on to get a four-year degree.

which is very exciting, and it was an add-on.

It was not part of the original Seattle Promise proposal, but as the program has gotten underway, there have been these great partnerships and pieces, including providing some supports to the Seattle Promise students as well by way of wraparound services to help them complete those two-year degrees and then to help them transition to UW for those that would like to do that.

So it's really been a really great program.

And Seattle Promise, as Jonathan said earlier, it's really a program that a lot of kids have availed themselves of.

And I think a really important piece to point out is that this particular program is heavily utilized by kids who are from marginalized communities that might not have the opportunity In theory, it's free to any kid, Seattle public school kid in the city of Seattle, and we know that the bulk has actually been utilized by those BIPOC kids, and so that brings me a lot of pride and joy to know that those kids have access, and that's really who's utilizing the program.

was not designed to be that way and then that's how it's working out because those are the kids that need the help the most and so that's really great and I really appreciate all the work deal has done in terms of all of these programs but particularly promise because that was a newer program to them in the and you also know that deals budget is primarily funded through the FEP levy as Jonathan said earlier and it's really great to hear director Chappelle that all of your programs will be funded into 25 and 26. And then there's just a small less than, I think I saw in your budget less than, but you can confirm, less than 4 million is being backfilled by FEP levy underspend.

And every year's deal has a certain amount of FEP levy underspend.

This is actually common, what we've seen.

And so they're able to repurpose it back to those programs.

So that's great to see that small reduction of general fund is really being backfilled by just the overage that has not been utilized by the levy.

In 2024, DEAL was tasked, as Jonathan also said, with a new line of business, the mental health services to support students with the PET funding.

Again, I want to remind us that the state is also responsible for mental health.

Nevertheless, the city has consistently supplemented mental health via its budget, I believe through actually the Human Services Department in general.

But this particular funding was for youth, particularly post-pandemic, as we were seeing and we've all talked about when we were talking about or with the Seattle Parks and Rec.

about the needs of youth post-pandemic related to mental health.

And so the mayor has proposed this 19.5 million investment in mental health for 25 and 19.5 million in 26, of which 13.9 is under deals purview and about the 1.1, as we heard, is in parks purview.

And then as you heard, you know, Deal will be doing prevention through an awareness campaign, the intervention, the universal screening, and then the telehealth and in-person providers to kids.

So that is the proposal, and it is an important one, and I appreciate all the work that Deal did with this new investment.

It took some time for them to figure out how to implement the investment.

Because this is a new line of business and something they weren't doing, but with the help of public health and the UW and various other mental health providers, they were able to come up with a proposal, which is part of what you see here and working with the mayor's office and the innovation and performance team at the city.

So that is really all great because it's grounded in evidence-based solutions.

And so looking forward to 2025 when this is really robustly implemented.

And then again, as I said earlier, these investments really are meant to supplement and not supplant the state's responsibility.

I'm going to keep saying that.

Because while these investments are robust, we all know, you know, they're not necessarily, there's always more and more need.

And we really need to look at the state to help.

with things that they are actually legislated to be responsible for to make sure that the city is getting what they need from the state as well.

I just want to keep underscoring that because we keep asking Seattle locally for more and more from our Seattle residents for this levy and all the other levies that we run.

So I want to make sure that we are, I'm going to keep talking about how this state is responsible for these things and we need to make sure that we're getting our share back from the state to help do some of this stuff.

Anyway, that's what I wanted to say.

And I actually did not have any questions for Deal because we work so closely together.

I really just wanted to flag some of these things.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Vice Chair Rivera.

Colleagues, any questions, comments?

I've got some, but is that...

Council Member Saka, take it away.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Director Chappelle, for this presentation here.

Love the deal department and your terrific innovative programs and services that you offer.

Yeah, I'm proud that my kids were a part of one of the member programs, preschool providers for the Seattle Preschool Program.

So, you know, I know firsthand some of the great work that you all do.

And this year, so up until a few months ago, they were part of that preschool, which is part of the SPP.

But my youngest has since aged out, and so is in kindergarten now, but...

Really important work and really important program.

So thank you.

Just one question related to childcare, the childcare wait list.

So as I understand it, there's currently still a wait list for the childcare assistance program.

And so I'd just be curious to better understand how big is that wait list exactly and how much funding would be needed to meet the current demand?

FOR THAT PROGRAM.

SPEAKER_11

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION, COUNCILMEMBER SACA.

I'M GOING TO LET JONATHAN ANSWER THIS ONE.

SPEAKER_12

YEAH, SO WE MOVED TO A WAIT LIST JUST SIMPLY BECAUSE WE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES TO SERVE THE DEMAND.

THE WAIT LIST GREW TO ABOUT 350 KIDS A FEW MONTHS AFTER WE ENLISTED THAT LAST YEAR.

SINCE THEN IT'S ACTUALLY SHRUNK SIGNIFICANTLY BUT NOT ALL THE WAY.

We're at about 200 to 250 kids.

We're actually working through a portion of the wait list.

In order to actually serve everybody who is on the wait list, we estimate that it would be something about 1.5 to 2 milliliters per year.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you.

No further questions, Mr. Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Council Member Sackman.

Anyone else?

Otherwise, I'm happy to dive right in.

Yep, we do.

Council Member Kettle and Council Member Hollingsworth.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you, Director Chappell, Mr. Swift, and of course, Directors Eder and Noble for persevering there at the table.

Really appreciate the...

the work that you're doing.

I don't have quite the direct experience that some of my colleagues, but I see it in other ways too.

Like this weekend, I was at an event for the Boys and Girls Club of King County who does fantastic work.

And previously, I've been associated with the Southwest Youth and Family Services.

Great team there.

And it's these kinds of things that really make a difference.

So I appreciate it from that perspective.

I wanted to say to what council member Rivera was saying, you know, mental health, I support what we're doing, but as she noted, really should have been on the back of years and years of advocating Olympia to be doing it.

And so we cannot let them off the hook.

We need to keep that press on with OIR, us as a council, us in combined with the county to ensure that we get that support that we need in terms of education and mental health.

It's so important, but I do appreciate the fact that we're augmenting early in terms of that process.

So thank you for your work on that.

Thank you.

Regarding...

You know, one of the things that we've learned in this new economy, you know, one section regarded post-secondary success.

Obviously, I'm a son of a welder, came to America, and then my mom came over as well.

So I kind of grew up in the trades world, and I recognize the value of a four-year degree because basically I'm sitting here.

And so I see that, but I also see the need for that diversity of training because not everybody's the same, something that you learn in these early education pieces in terms of how the kids learn.

It's very different, and what can set somebody for success in the future may not be that four-year degree, but there's opportunities to use other programs.

So my question is, the slide said four-year degrees, but is there anything that you're looking at in terms of alternative, and for these career paths, as one who lives and owns a home here in Seattle, it could be very lucrative in terms of those kinds of trades, in terms of having as a career.

SPEAKER_11

Yes, thank you, and excuse me for jumping in before you finish, but thank you, Councilmember, for noting that, and that's one thing that We've always been excited about is what the Seattle Promise is that though we just highlighted how we built out the opportunity for young scholars who aspire to attend a four-year university, as we partner with Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Colleges on the Seattle Promise, we do wanna make sure that our young scholars are exposed to the opportunities within the trades that are being offered at the Seattle Colleges.

So we do work with them hand in hand.

to make sure that young people have an opportunity to explore the various trades that are being offered up there at the colleges.

I don't have the data specifically offhand, but I would be happy to follow up with you to share a little bit more about, since our partnership, the number of young people that have been taking advantages of those post-secondary certificates within Seattle colleges.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I would be interested in that.

SPEAKER_11

Okay, I'll follow up with you with that.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

And along those lines, for my next and last question, is, you know, I see the Seattle Promise Program and the opportunities that it brings.

I've seen it with my own family, my brother, my nieces or nephews and the like.

Not here in Seattle.

But how important that is as a bridge, again, particularly if you're not ready for the four-year experience and so forth.

But I also see it as a great opportunity to...

to bring in that diversity that we need, to bring in those people that have an understanding of our neighborhoods, into the police force.

And, you know, I see the Seattle Promise Program as, like, potentially as a great way to create a pipeline or perhaps a police version of ROTC to, you know, into the police academy pipeline, you know, to do that and to do the Before the Badge program and then, you know, to become a police officer.

Is that something that, you know...

could be, you know, actualized?

SPEAKER_11

So, I'll say that the good thing about our partnership with Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Colleges is I think it's that it's, we're pregnant with possibilities, meaning, like, you just talked about the trades for whether it's HVAC or whatnot.

Now, you're talking about an opportunity for pursuing young, for creating opportunities for young people who are interested in becoming into the law force.

And so I'm only saying that, that we can always explore things to see what's actually possible.

So yes, to answer your question, a long way of saying yes, there is an opportunity to explore, to see what is possible.

SPEAKER_05

I'd like to follow up on that.

Don't worry, that won't be a surprise to people upstairs, because I've mentioned this before.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_13

Thank you, Council Member Raquel, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just had a quick comment.

Thank you, Director Chappell, or Dr. Chappell, D.D., D.D. Chappell, and definitely want to give a shout out to Dr. Fajardo.

I know you're in the back.

It's the most quiet I've ever seen you back there, so I just want to...

I'm just playing.

And CFO Swift, right?

I said that right.

I'm just highlighting the amazing program of The Promise.

I know some of my colleagues have said it.

I had a chance to meet with Dr. Bradley Lane, the...

President at Seattle Central and then the Chancellor, Rosie Raimondo, who gave me some stats about the Promise Program that I thought I was just completely blown away by.

2023, they had 2,500 applicants.

60% of Seattle Public High School graduates, that's homegrown talent, 1,400 students were enrolled in that.

60% students of color year over year over year.

That is the dopest thing I've ever heard.

And that is definitely a blueprint.

I know that has been trying to be emulated across the country and couldn't be more proud of that program that we...

you know, have as a city and just continuing that.

And I know that Council Member Rivera and you all are gonna be working together closely with the levy and all that good stuff.

So just wanted to highlight that, cause that I think is amazing.

And then obviously my colleague, as he was talking about the trades, we've always talked about that.

And one thing I'm interested in and You don't have to answer this now, but it's going to be interesting to see how we invest in early childhood education for this, well, Gen Alpha, who is right now, they've been born with a cell phone in their hands, all they know is technology, all they know is TV, and how we're going to, you know, adjust to that and what does that look like and how we're going to invest in their education.

I think I was lucky to be an older millennial and being raised by a grandmother who was from the greatest generation.

Colleagues, I think that was the great, they are the greatest generation, right?

She was born in 1920, but it's gonna be interesting to see how we, you know, really invest in these young kids who all they know is a cell phone.

They don't know a book or how to look up stuff and to navigate that.

So really interesting to see how we're gonna invest that as a city in your department, kind of take that on.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

You're right.

Who's going to teach them how to write checks?

It is next to my ELKS membership card.

Director, Dr. Chappelle, I like that, the word phrasing that Council Member Hollingsworth used.

My colleagues, Council Member Saka and Council Member Rivera asked the questions that I was gonna ask you.

In the interest of time, I'm not gonna double down.

I will ask you to reflect on a prompt that I'll give you in just a second.

And I think you've got a special place in the city where we ask you to do somebody else's responsibility with a dedicated funding source.

And I've said this to you in private and I'll say it to you on the record.

I can't have favorites up here.

And what I've seen from you is that you are one of the most respectable administrators in our region.

And that came from when you were a principal in the school district to coming here.

You're always collected and present and see a pathway forward even if there's barriers in your way.

We've asked you to do a lot.

When you came to the city, it was the preschool levy, and it was the education levy, and we bundled that together and added two-year college.

Now you're putting kids on pathway, youth, young adults on pathways to four-year educations and career technical education.

And award-winning Seattle Channel, if we could put up the...

PowerPoint and I'd like to go to the deal results page just to reinforce this and You know as I looked through the 2019 2024 summary of your work Your general fund has stayed the same if not taking a little dip.

It's hard for me to see some of these numbers and We gave you some jumpstart fund with the mental health funding last year.

And just look at these numbers.

853 children supported, over 2,000 children served in the preschool program.

What I'm gonna ask you to expand on is specifically regarding K-12, because that's the state's responsibility.

And we're lucky enough here in the city where, and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that we are the only city in this state that has a Department of Education.

We're the only of the 280 other cities to step up where the state is not doing what they need to be.

Can you help me understand from your perspective, having been an administrator in the school district, from being an administrator here, and stepping up in a way that other cities haven't, what more do we need to be doing with K-12?

What gaps do you see that our current levy is filling that would otherwise be holes for our youth?

Because it's a state responsibility, but here we are.

SPEAKER_11

So let me first start by thanking you for the compliments and accolades of our amazing department and the great work that we've done over these past almost a decade.

Right.

I'll start by saying that, yes, to answer your question, we are the only department in the state that's providing this type of robust support for students.

all of our young people here in Seattle.

And I'll say, as one thing that's reflecting on my mind, I'm taking myself back to being a high school principal.

And I'm seeing, watching these young people walking to the school building, 14-year-olds running to class, excited to learn.

And then, I'm also picturing myself on the stage, watching them graduate from high school, right?

And when you're on stage, you kind of take that panoramic view and you get a chance to see, you know, some people throwing up their caps saying, hey, you know, Seattle Promise, here I come, or UW, Washington State, wherever you want to go, right here I come.

Then you also see others, as Councilmember Kittle recommended, was speaking to, trades, here I come.

And one thing to just paint, just thinking about it from that visual, and answering your question, the support that we're providing right now to our scholars around wraparound support services, making sure that there's year-round programming for them to participate throughout the summer and during the school year.

is the right stuff that we're doing right now.

And one other thing that I'm thinking about is that I'm just thinking about like one of our providers that I had a chance to go visit.

So a moment ago, Superintendent Diaz said how he was the secret boss, undercover boss, right?

And I'm just thinking about Over the summer, through all of our robust, amazing summer programming, I had an opportunity to visit all of them.

But there's one that stands out to me, is Empowering Youth and Family Services.

And it's just the work that they are providing to all of our young scholars when they walk in there.

What I saw was them providing 21st century skills for young people.

I saw them providing college and career readiness activities for those older scholars in their program, but I also saw them supporting families, right?

So that's just what I'm thinking about, and that's what I love about working for the city of Seattle and us, and all of you up here, is that we take the one Seattle approach, and we make sure that families have the necessary support they need in order for their young people to thrive.

So that's the hope.

I hope that picture or that story answers your question.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, and I think as a role that you've served as both a principal but now here at the city, I mean, I remember my principals.

I mean, Eric Benson from Nathan Hale, he made a really big impact on a lot of people's lives.

Thank you.

So thank you for your service to our city.

SPEAKER_11

Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Over to you, Vice Chair, to close this out, and then I'll close out the meeting.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you, Chair.

I will say, you know, And Director Chappelle and his team and I have had a lot of conversations about this, but in the K through 12 space, we're not seeing the results that we would like to see.

And so that is an area that we will be looking deeper at.

There was not the review.

I will say that there could have been more robustly to the K through 12 wraparounds.

And this is just like whenever the departments have a program, and then they usually hire external consultants to do a review to see how well these programs are working.

And in this space, that review happened later, and it wasn't as robust.

as we would all have liked to, including Deal, it to be.

And so we're going to continue to have the conversation because we are making this huge investment and we're just not seeing the outcomes that we would like to see.

So what is missing?

And so this is what makes the state not stepping up to its responsibility even more challenging because we just don't know what is needed to really make the impact here.

despite the fact that we've made this investment.

So I will say that and say that to say that I will continue to work with Director Chappelle to get more information and data around that.

And then otherwise, I'll just say that, you know, one of the things, and you've said, that makes working with Director Chappelle on all of these investments is he was a principal at Rainier Beach High School, and he has that.

wealth of knowledge that he brings to the work on what the kids need, particularly in the BIPOC community.

And that is really important to have someone that understands and has worked one-on-one with the kids to know what they need.

And so I'm very appreciative of that.

Dr. Chappelle, I'm glad you're with us.

And then, like I said, I just look forward to working with Deal as we move forward here into the next biennium on what changes we can make to really have the robust outcomes that we all want for our kids in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you all.

Very well said.

This is, we are now moving towards adjournment of our second day of department presentations regarding the 2025 budget here.

Thank you all for coming down today.

And tomorrow we're gonna start public safety.

Council Member Kettle will tell you every meeting is a public safety meeting and tomorrow it is true.

We've got the Care Department and SPD in the morning and Human Services Department in the afternoon.

Human Services Department does quite a bit.

On October 2nd we'll have Office of Housing and the Seattle Fire Department in the morning.

We're reserving the afternoon for overflow in case it occurs or we'll give you some time back in your day.

Remember also by the end of October 22nd to start having your priorities that you would like central staff to address during their presentations, not next week, the week after.

That will be helpful for them.

Again, thank you to my father.

You've raised me well enough to be here before all of you.

Happy birthday.

Again, it's Babe Ruth hitting 60 home runs in a 154-game series.

And the only, maybe not the only person, but one of my favorite players to play for both the Yankees and the Mets is one Mr. Yogi Berra.

So hopefully the Mets...

pull out well in their double header today.

And I'll just quote Yogi Berra in saying, since we'll be here back tomorrow, 9.30 a.m., it's deja vu all over again.

I'll see you at 9.30.

We have reached the end of today's meeting.

This next select budget committee is Tuesday, October 1st at 9.30 a.m.

We will be receiving written public comment the next public meeting.

A verbal public comment will be October 16th.

If there's no further business to come before the budget committee, we will be adjourned.

Hearing no further business, we are adjourned.

Thank you all.

Let's go Hawks.