Finance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee 6/18/2025

Good morning, the June 18th, 2025 Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee meeting will come to order.

It is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

The clerk is assisting with our presentation, so I'll call the roll.

Council Member Kettle.

Here.

Council Member Saka.

Vice Chair Rivera.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

And Chair Strauss is here.

Others are excused until they arrive.

And if you all want to come on up now, No need to delay.

We have 11 items on today's agenda.

Nine of them are appointments, so we'll take them all in a batch.

There were two mistakes on today's agenda.

I always like to own my mistakes.

My apologies, colleagues.

Usually elected tribal leaders will go first.

We didn't give people proper notification today, so we're not going to change the agenda.

We do have elected tribal leaders with us in today's agenda so typically they would go first.

Also we had so many appointments that we focused on getting the appointment packets on the agenda and did not get the presentation on the agenda so it's being printed and has been emailed to you.

Vice Chair Rivera is now present.

With that we have four groupings of items.

We have votes on eight appointments to the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.

We have a briefing and discussion on the appointment of Dan Eater as director of the City Budget Office.

We have a briefing and discussion on tribal governments and native communities work, as well as a briefing and discussion on the Seattle Social Housing Developer Loan.

Before we begin, if there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Moving on to the hybrid public comment.

Clerk, do we have anyone signed up in person?

No in person and no online.

Seeing as we have no...

public commenters physically or remotely present we will open and close public comment in the same period and also for the folks who are sitting with your backs we can you can slide around the table you can scrunch in as well as you can move those microphones so that everyone gets a microphone.

Fun facts here at the committee table is that you have to get the microphone really close to your mouth for us to hear you.

So public comment period has opened and closed.

Moving on to the first, I believe nine, first eight items of business.

So will the clerk please read the short title of the first eight items into the record?

Agenda Items 1-8, Appointments 3178-3185, Appointments and Reappointments of Laura E. Nicholson, Angie S. Wood, Billone Aden, Barbara Bacara, Marlisa Mohammed, and Taniko Thomas-Bird as members of the Sweet and Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board for a term of August 31st, 2027. Continuing appointments 0318 and 0315. Appointments of Joey Lou and Yamila Sterian Baker as members of the Sweden Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board for a term of August 31st, 2029. This item is for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Presenters will include Bridget Igoe of the Office of Sustainability and Environment.

Thank you, Bridget.

Welcome.

You've brought everyone here today.

This is unusual and wonderful to have everyone here with us today.

Maybe if you want to introduce yourself, have folks introduce themselves, walk us through the presentation and also share why everyone is here today.

Yeah, wonderful.

Good morning, and thank you so much for the time today, Council Member Strauss and all the council members on this committee.

My name's Bridget Aigo.

I'm a food policy advisor at the Office of Sustainability and Environment, and it is my deep pleasure to introduce five candidate appointments and three candidate reappointments to the Sweet and Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.

I do have a, do I just start presenting?

Okay.

Colleagues, if we can hold questions on the presentation until we get to the end where we're talking about the appointments, that would be helpful.

Thank you.

Can you see my presentation?

Not yet.

Megan, you want to help her out?

That's okay.

If you could, yeah.

It's okay, this is how my whole morning's been.

Can I get out of this?

Presenter mode.

We might just be on presenter mode.

That's okay.

Okay.

Okay.

F11 might make it full screen, but there it goes.

Okay.

Wonderful.

OK.

Over to you, Bridget, please.

All right.

Here we go.

Just a little bit of brief information about Seattle's sweetened beverage tax.

So the city of Seattle has been taxing sugar sweetened beverage products distributed within the city since 2018. This tax is levied on the distributors of sugary beverages, and it was designed to improve the health of Seattle residents by reducing sales and consumption of sugary drinks.

The tax also raises about $21 million per year for programs and services that increase access to healthy food, alleviate hunger, and support child health and early learning.

The same ordinance that created the sweetened beverage tax also established an 11-member community advisory board.

This board advises and makes recommendations to the mayor and city council on the food access and early learning programs that are supported by the SBT.

The board's annual work plan is closely aligned with the city's budget process.

And every year, this board develops annual budget recommendations directed to the mayor and city council.

So in this way, this board plays a key role in integrating community priorities into city budgeting and programming supported by the SBT.

In addition to budget recommendations, this board also develops an annual report about the SBT investments.

These reports are developed in partnership with SBT-funded departments, which include Department of Education and Early Learning, Human Services Department, Office of Sustainability and Environment, and the City Budget Office.

So this board contains or consists of 11 members and has four position types that are outlined in the enabling ordinance.

Three members have experience implementing community programs focused on expanding healthy food access and food security.

Two members represent populations disproportionately impacted by the health impacts related to consuming sugary drinks.

Four members have expertise in public health nutrition, and two members have expertise in early learning.

Oh, no, now my animation isn't going to work.

So here is our current CAB roster, including the candidates that are being considered today for appointment.

And as I opened with, it really is a true privilege to introduce the new and returning candidates.

I think you're going to find that they collectively bring tremendous experience and expertise in food and early learning programming.

So I'm going to very briefly introduce each one.

And then, unless would you all like to go around?

And let's do that.

Bilan, why don't you go ahead?

Good morning.

My name is Bilan Aden.

I am the...

Should I talk about my day job?

Sure.

Tell us who you are and why you're interested.

I am the vice president and co-founder of African Community Housing and Development.

We focus on housing, economic development, food access, and develop affordable housing for home ownership.

I've been on the committee for almost, I think, six years now, and I am privileged to be supporting in providing information on what's happening on the ground.

Our organization runs the Delridge Farmers Market and another farmers market in SeaTac, and it's a place where community members come together.

have access to healthy, culturally relevant food, basic needs, and just be in community.

And our organization has benefited from this program as well because Delridge, a farmer's market, wouldn't exist without the investments that were made from the city.

So thank you.

Thank you, Bilan.

So Bilan is a returning CAV member for reappointment in position four, which is a community seat.

Next we have Laura Nicholson, who is a new candidate appointment in position 10 for early learning.

My name is Laura Nicholson.

I'm the executive director of LAUNCH.

We are a 48-year nonprofit serving children in South Seattle.

We have 13 locations in South Seattle.

And I've had the benefit of actually seeing what this investment can do for our families.

We get food bags for our food insecure families.

And it's been a transformational experience for a lot of the families that are in our program.

So very excited to be here.

Thank you.

Next we have Joey Lu, a new cab appointment in position number one, a food access seat.

And Joey is from the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance.

Hi, good morning.

In my role as a food access coordinator, I get to work with our community partners, state and city local agencies, as well as farmers to implement food assistance programs in our markets to make sure that everyone in our community has access to local food, and I'm excited to join board.

Thank you, Joey.

Next, we have Angie Wood for seat number six, public health nutrition appointment.

And Angie comes to us from Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank.

The name is a mouthful.

I'm the director of food bank programs at Pike Market Senior Center at Food Bank.

I was actually hired about five and a half years ago as the assistant manager at the food bank using funds, new funds, from the sweetened beverage tax.

So this has been on my radar for a long time as a really important...

innovative community funding source.

So when it came open, I was really interested to be involved.

In addition to serving the whole region with our food bank programs, we do about 300 home delivery services here in downtown Seattle every week, as well as we have a no cook program specifically for homeless residents or neighbors.

And that has just been expanding hugely.

So we're really interested in,

um expanding services for that population right now and this on the senior center side um we're open seven days a week and do hot uh hand-cooked breakfast and lunch for seniors every day next we have neuraliza muhammad neuraliza comes to us from rainier beach action coalition and she is a new candidate appointment for position number three food access representatives

Thank you.

Hello, everybody.

Yes, Neuraliza Mohammed with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition.

I currently serve as the Food Justice and Youth Programs Manager at RBAC.

We have a Saturday weekly farm stand for this season.

And we also are launching our CSA box program, which is sliding scale.

We work with young people and black and brown farmers in South King County.

This last year, we've distributed over $300,000 in locally grown food to the community in South Seattle.

And yeah, Rainier Beach Action Coalition has been like an original community organization that has advocated for this sweetened beverage tax revenue to fund healthy food access.

So here to represent my community.

Thank you, Neuraliza.

Next, we have Barbara Baccaro.

Barbara comes to us from UW School of Public Health.

And we have convinced her to come back as a returning candidate for the Sweet and Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board, a reappointment.

And Barbara is in seat number two, food access.

Good morning.

It was an easy decision to come back.

It's an honor.

And what is so interesting about this and the opportunity is to link us in my position in the University of Washington and also in the School of Public Health and as a researcher to bring some of the evidence and the the intervention and the research that we do and really bridge that with the community efforts.

It's really important for these type of policies in terms of understanding the implications of it and also bringing forward all the work around the cab.

So this shared governance model that we have here in the city for the program not only has direct impact on food security and food access, but it's also a model for the country in terms of how a program like this can really fill the gap in many of the safety nets programs that we have.

So it's an honor to be here.

Thank you, Barbara.

Next, we have Tanika Thompson-Bird.

She is a returning CAB member.

She has also been the co-chair for the Sweet and Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board for several years.

She is coming to us from Got Green and is in position number five, community representative.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Tanika Thompson-Bird.

I am currently the campaign director at Got Green, former food access organizer.

I worked with the former city council to help with the sugary beverage tax and make sure that the community was accepting and understood exactly what this tax would bring to them, the benefit.

And I'm really proud to be here.

Thank you.

Thanks, Tanika.

Next, we have Jamila Sterling, who comes to us from Solid Ground as a new candidate appointment.

Jamila would be filling seat number seven, public health nutrition.

Go ahead.

Hi, good morning.

I am the director of food access and education for Solid Ground, and one of the components that we, body of work, is that we support the Seattle Food Committee, that is staff.

that is comprised of food banks in Seattle.

In addition to that, we provide food deliveries to all the food banks in Seattle from Food Lifeline Northwest Harvest.

And also we have a contract with the city of Seattle to provide farm to preschool classes.

And SBT is one of the fund source for that program.

Thank you, Jamila.

We also have Dan Torres with us today.

Dan is not up for appointment or reappointment, but he is here just to support his colleagues.

There are only two early learning seats on this board, and Dan is in one of them.

Yeah, I'm just here for moral support.

I work at the Bezos Family Foundation, longtime member of the CAB.

It's a treat to serve on this committee, and thanks for having us today.

Thank you all so much for your introductions.

And I turn it over to you council member Strauss for any questions or discussion.

Well, thank you.

This is a, at this time I'll take questions and comments from my colleagues.

I feel like this is a committee table that really embodies both vice chair Rivera and council member Hollingsworth with the young early learning as I'm hearing from you, Dan, as well as the food access.

It's important work that you all do.

The colleagues, do you have questions at this time?

Otherwise I can jump in.

Okay.

Uh, council member Kettle.

Uh, thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you everyone.

It's almost like you can have your own meeting right now.

That's where we're headed next.

So that's why we're all here.

Okay.

Well, that's perfect timing then.

Um, I just wanted to, uh, thank everyone.

You know, what's interesting cause we do get a various appointments, um, uh, for various commissions, group, you know, whatever it may be.

And, um, As a group, I have to say, the one thing that strikes me, the commonality, is your volunteerism.

You're serving on different nonprofits, groups.

That's something that jumped out in terms of your resumes and the like.

And it shows where your heart is and the work that you're doing and the volunteering of your time.

So I want to thank you.

for doing that, because it takes a lot.

I've done a little bit myself, so I appreciate the demands on your time and your families maybe, or whatever your situation.

So thank you for coming together on this very important topic.

And I just wanted to also thank, and I'm putting my district hat on, One of the things that, as you may know, I've been doing a lot of work related to Pike Place Market.

Usually it's transportation related.

And a lot of the information that, you know, Seattleites think of Pike Place Market as just throwing fish, seeing Rachel the pig, and so forth, and you've got Pike Place itself and the iconic signs.

but I appreciate Ms. Wood, you being on me, and A, your work, but you being on here, because you're highlighting the point when people talk about Pike Place Market being a community, that it's not just that.

There's the senior center, there's actually a preschool, basically it's a village.

And can you speak a little bit more about the work your group does, you know, and maybe touch a little bit broader in terms of, and how that impacts the community.

Like you talk about the elders, you know, and the seniors, you know, that work and what's the impact and how does that translate to having, you know, basically an impact on people's lives?

Sure, yeah, you're so right.

Pike Place Market, that community there, is a really unique kind of ecosystem for people.

There's a childcare center and a senior center and a food bank and an assisted living center and a clinic.

They're all written into the charter of Pike Place Market, run by the Pike Place Market PDA.

And so all these organizations have been around for a really long time, and we work together and are supported by the Pike Place Market Foundation.

to ensure that all of those resources are available for the people who live and work and visit Pike Place Market, because it is such a hub not just for our downtown community, but for all of Seattle and for all of the region.

We try to make sure that whatever issue comes up, we as a community are there as kind of a safety net for folks.

Yeah.

Do you have any other specific questions?

Well, thank you.

Appreciate that.

You know, and I could see from the backgrounds that this is happening in its own way and like Rainier and so forth.

So again, thank you, everyone.

And thank you for your coordination and the like as well.

Chair.

Thank you.

Council President Nelson, I see you have your hand.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you all for, number one, coming in person so that we can meet you in person.

And thanks to the reappointing folks because you have put in your time and you're willing to keep on with the work.

So thank you very much.

And I always think the appointments, whether or not they're reappointed or new, for giving of your time and expertise.

You all are professionals, clearly, in this policy realm, and so thank you very much for stepping up.

And I have a question.

The last time I remember the sweetened beverage tax funding situation being presented, it was either a year ago or so, one of the things, one of the messages or the things that kept coming up was that because the tax is working or either people are consuming less sweetened beverages or they're buying their sweetened beverages elsewhere.

The point is the structural issue is that the revenue is declining.

And so is that an issue that you are, is that sort of always top of mind for how you deal with that?

in your work plan.

Yes, it's something we talked about a lot at our last meeting actually.

Like how can we continue to provide the great programs that our community is benefiting from so much without, I mean it's a, just like you said, trying to figure out how to continue the programs, how to keep them going.

We just started to talk about it and I think it's something that we're gonna continue to try to address and we're hoping that you all will think about it as well and try to find some type of resource that will continue and keep these wonderful programs working.

Thank you.

Mr. No, I mean, it's just, you know, it's hard for communities out there.

Food access, childcare, these are things that everyone needs to be able to be successful, and this revenue is declining, and that's going to be an ongoing issue that is going to happen every single year, and it's probably going to be more acute now, just given some of the ways in which public services are being pulled back federally, primarily.

But so, it's something we talk about every meeting.

Ms.

Right.

Yeah.

May I add that I think for us too is we want to collaborate with all of you in terms to think about how do we support, how do we maintain the resources that we have or the budget that we have, even though we know projections are maybe declining in terms of the tax, but also what if we find other ways to continue supporting this program, right?

And so we hope that this could be also a new phase in terms of continuing the collaboration with all of you.

I would just say, when we had our discussion at our last meeting, we thought about, okay, it's a success.

We've helped kind of curb this sweetened beverage consumption, but also tons of amazing programs have been implemented, and they need to find a new revenue source to maintain and to continue that trajectory of keeping our community members healthy, safe, and active.

So thank you.

We look forward to working with you on that.

Got it.

Just wanted to make sure it was on the radar and there was maybe a plan in the making or some options.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I see Council Member Saka has joined us as well.

I want to give you that, just putting that on the record.

And I see Vice Chair Rivera has her hand up.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you all for being here.

And I had a similar question to Council President in that I know the very purpose of the tax was to make it obsolete, if you will, because it meant that less people and particularly kids were consuming sugary beverages.

And so I wondered whether at the inception of the advisory board, there was a plan for what happens when we are successful in getting folks, especially kids not to consume these beverages, you know, what is the plan for addressing either a ramp down or, you know, there's a lot of, it's always curious to me, we do these things to have an intended impact.

And then when we do, it's hard for us And so I'm very interested to hear if at the inception of the advisory board, the advisory board talked about this, what were the contingency plans for it, if you will, and you don't have to answer this today, but it is part of this conversation that I look forward to getting more information about now that the money has been used for programs that have been successful in community, given our budgetary realities across the board.

And of course we have different departments and in our general fund we also have programs that provide similar services.

So how do we marry all of that, if you will, is really important.

All of that said, the work that you do is so important.

I'm always appreciative that folks are willing to volunteer their time and their expertise to this important work.

advisory boards are volunteer positions and I always say that it's important to recognize the hard work that you all put in for free and it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated so thank you for your willingness to serve and I look forward to hopefully having the opportunity of meeting in person not across the table, but closer and having actual conversations with all of you.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Well, if it's all right with you, I'm just gonna tick around the table and ask each of you a question.

Am I, is Bilan here or no?

I wrote your name down wrong.

That is why I heard Yvonne, not Bilan.

Excuse me.

Here we are.

Thank you.

That's great.

So, I mean, I'll start with you, Bilan.

I mean, you've seen your organization grow up to 30 people in five years.

How, when you apply that scalability and that growth mindset and what needs to be done to how the sweetened beverage tax is deploying funds, what are the things that you see we need to do?

either opportunities or challenges over the next few years.

Well, when we established ACHD in late 2018, before the pandemic, the first grant I ever wrote was through the Sweet and Beverage Tax, and it was around youth engagement around food sovereignty and help them with developing their leadership skills.

And there, Their call to action after hosting community events and leading that was to develop a farmer's market in the Delridge neighborhood where community members can access culturally relevant foods.

There's economic opportunities for BIPOC vendors.

It was once considered that neighborhood food apartheid zone and now it no longer is.

And we don't wanna take all the credit, but we did have something to do with that.

Last year, we dispersed, we gave to the community over 25,000 pounds of healthy, locally sourced produce.

And I think that having that growth mindset has attributed a lot to the expansion of the Delridge.

Now we're in SeaTac, we have over 25,000 patrons who come and you don't have to have money to shop there.

Kids get $5 for free, free $5 kids bucks, we call it, so they have agency to shop for themselves.

So really creating an environment of a sense of community and belonging first.

And then we also add other elements of health and wellness, mobile clinics.

During the pandemic, we did the shots in arms.

So just thinking about all the possibilities of what it takes for a human being to have feel a sense of what belonging, feeling healthy and feeling connected to their community and just reaching out to our partners and our friends all over the city.

Thank you to Councilmember Osaka for always showing up and volunteering at the market and just listening to community and what our needs are.

And I think using the Delridge market has been a model for all of our other programs to think holistically about just being able to live, work, and play in this beautiful region of ours.

Wonderful.

And your first grant was a sweetened beverage tax grant.

Look at how that seed has grown.

Yes, and now we serve over 10,000 people in King County, in Pearson and Snohomish.

Wow.

And Dan, I know you're not up for appointment, but I'm going to turn it over to you.

Why is early learning important, and why is food important in early learning?

So, I mean, the value of those first five years in terms of your overall life development is huge in terms of the amount of neurons that are formed in those early years.

It helps you be more successful in school and in life.

So my work at the foundation is just focused on making sure that caregivers nationally and globally have the best information about brain science and activities they can do every single day to help make sure that children are developing at an appropriate level.

So early learning is a place that I think is under invested historically.

So this fund is a place where we're really, you know, doing some good work.

You know, the nutrition piece and early learning is key in terms of child development too.

So I think for young children, especially nutrition is essential.

Make sure they're growing healthy, strong, and going to be successful adults someday.

Wonderful.

Thank you for all your work.

And Yamila, I'm going to add, you deliver the food.

It's one thing to have some food in the warehouse that's not on a shelf where somebody can get to it.

What do we need to know about the role that you play getting food to the food banks and providing food to people?

What do we need to know as council members today about the situation we're facing?

Usually when it comes to food delivery or transportation, it's something that is not thought about.

It's always thinking about the end user, which is the community member or the client or the neighbor.

Each food bank calls them differently.

but that transportation is costly.

And at times, some of the funders that we receive, it could be city or state, sometimes doesn't cover transportation costs.

And it's really hard to raise funds for that because unfortunately, a lot of the funders or or foundations, they really want to see something more visually appealing, which is, oh, people eating, people thriving, but how the food's going to get there, people always omit that and people forget that.

highlight that the transportation is the hub, is the connector to see that piece of people actually thriving.

And I usually highlight that.

And I think during COVID, I've really highlighted the importance of transportation and how fragile that is when we don't have it.

Thank you for all your work getting the food into people's homes.

I mean, if you can't get to the food bank, you can't get home.

Tanika, you've been here since the start.

What's the impact been on community over time with sweetened beverage tax?

And get real close to the microphone.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well, I can say that I can specifically talk about the Fresh Bucks program.

That's why Got Green became involved with the tax.

So we were able to expand the program and make sure that not only EBT users were able to access the program, but working families as well.

And I personally enrolled over 600 people.

in the community to use Fresh Bucks, and it has been overwhelming.

It has been really successful and great for families.

I make myself accessible to all of those families.

They can reach out and call me.

I delivered Fresh Bucks during COVID to people's homes before they were given cards to use.

And they've just been so grateful.

And there are thousands of families who are on the waiting list to access the Fresh Bucks program.

And so it's just really successful.

Families are thriving and they're really grateful to have it.

I can't thank you enough.

The Fresh Bucks program has exceeded expectations, and this is another place that it started, another seed that is growing.

Thank you.

Barbara, you have the ability to get to sit in academia where you're seeing across the landscape, across the country, across the world about what is going well, what's not, or what are the challenges we have to face with food security.

What do we need to know today about, you know, from across the nation and across the world, and what are we doing well, what do we need to improve on?

Sure.

We're doing a lot of things really well from the city staff, too.

I think that we have a collaboration with them as well as researchers in using that hat in terms of the dedication and the orientation for detail that goes into implementing this program, the Fresh Box.

What I can tell you is it's unique in terms of the longevity, the sources of funding.

and the impact it has in the community.

So we have lots of evidence that we can also share with you that it not only speaks to what Tanika was saying in terms of the actual impact of having this additional $40, for example, from the Fresh Bucks program monthly to complement their budget or to actually spend it on healthier foods, but is a sense of dignity.

And now that we have the EBT card, for example, we hear from the customers that they feel much more comfortable going into the stores The fact that we have, you also promote enrolling local small businesses, ethnic stores that also represent the culture of many of these clients and customers also brings, they see themselves seen in the community, right?

Because they're honored by the places that they can go and shop.

And we also have evidence to show, I can talk for hours about this, so stop me.

But that it also has an impact on their mental and social health.

We know people feel less stressed because now that they come with that, then they can bring those fresh produce or even frozen or canned produce to home and to feed the children and their kids and, you know, try new fruits.

It's like, I never tried kiwi before because I couldn't afford it, and now I can't, right?

So those small things, this program, it's like a spark for them.

So I want to emphasize the multiplying effect that the fresh box has in communities.

It's not only the individuals that get the incentive, but then the businesses that they go and serve, the opportunities to let others that may not have the program actually then get food access through emergency food, right?

And then promoting the access through all these different community-based organizations.

Again, I can talk for hours about this, but the impact is great.

And we're recognized globally in terms of how we're doing it with justice, with a fairness in trying to serve the most vulnerable in our cities.

So I just also wanna say last thing is that I don't think the stopping necessarily is like, we've done it and it's gonna keep going.

We need to continue having these resources, right?

Because there's no other place to go, but we need to think about how do we continue finding other ways to continue these stores in terms of funding the programs that we have.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you for letting us twist your arm to return.

Not at all.

Neuraliza, you mentioned that you have delivered over 3,000 pounds of food through your networks in the last year.

Can you let us know what's going well, what's not going well about our ability to get food into homes, into families' homes?

Yeah, we distributed $300,000 in produce, just as a detail.

But I would say what's working really well for us is operating from the Rainier Beach Food Hub.

I would highlight the community stewarded land access as a piece to the puzzle in terms of all of us at the table and advocating for healthy food access is making sure that the communities that are a part of these neighborhoods remain in these neighborhoods.

And so knowing that food justice is intersectional, it intersects with transportation justice, with urban planning, with economic justice and all those things.

knowing that we have a centralized place where we're able to aggregate produce from our local black and brown farmers and community members can be able to count on this place that they can come every single week and have that experience similar to Delridge farmers market or like folks have mentioned just like that sense of community and safety is huge but I think a challenge is that it still is not enough.

As we know, food insecurity continues to rise.

Food continues to get more and more expensive over the years, 10%, 20%, 30%.

And the wealth inequality in Seattle continues to grow.

So I think even addressing the question of even if we're curbing you know, sweetened beverage consumption, all of the community infrastructure that's in place and that's being built has to stay.

And I think that's a challenge is learning how we can do that all year round, year after year.

But it ends up happening and community ends up showing up.

And so, yeah, that's what I'd say is, yeah, success and challenges.

Thank you, and thank you for all your work.

Angie, I'm going to skip you because Councilmember Kettle already asked my question.

I'm going to jump in with Joey.

Joey, if you want to let us know, you're operating a number of farmers markets that's using the fresh bucks, it's getting farmers into our city, it's providing access to fresh foods.

Do you want to let us know what's going well, what needs to improve on food delivery through the farmers markets lens?

Yeah, I'm mentally preparing to have one more person before answering.

But we operate eight farmers markets at seven locations throughout the city of Seattle.

And we have a number of food assistance programs that we can accept, including Fresh Bucks, which is funded by the Sweden Beverage Tax.

And that has been really popular in what we also have in our markets at Snap Market Match.

And that is the Double Up EPT program at markets.

And that in the city of Seattle is actually augmented so that there's no daily cap for our shoppers and folks can withdraw as much EBT as they need and would like to spend at our market.

And that has been a really, really huge success.

And part of that comes from the budget from the sweetened beverage tax and the office of sustainability and environment.

And that has been a really important program for making sure that our markets are accessible for everybody in our community.

And I think the challenge is just with everything going on in the federal, the state level of budget challenges across the board, how can we ensure that everyone in our community can still have access to their local foods to support our local producers and build a community supported resilient food system.

So that's the challenge that we're at is how do we mitigate the upstream effects before they affect our producers and our community members.

Thanks for getting the food out there, and thanks for all your work making that EBT program working better.

That's wonderful.

Barbara, I'm going to finish with you just to say you've been able to get food into families' homes through your network.

What's going well?

What do we need to know as policymakers about getting food into the homes that have kids in them?

I think that the biggest thing that we are seeing is that that continued food insecurity is happening, especially in the programs that we run when there's any food or days that are closure days, breaks, summer, making sure that there's access to fresh and local foods.

And so over the last five years, you know, every Thanksgiving, Christmas, all of those breaks were always handing out between 400 to 500 bags of fresh produce to families.

And something that we're also really excited about and that we've been able to access through this funding is some of the educational components about how important nutrition is in the home.

During the pandemic, we actually ran cooking classes.

So we would provide the fresh produce to families and then did virtual cooking classes.

But something that we continue to see is as costs are rising in the city of Seattle, access to fresh produce specifically has become less of a priority for families as they're just trying to meet their basic needs.

And so making sure that we're continuing to provide those fresh foods on a regular basis is gonna be really important.

Thank you, and thank you for your work.

Colleagues, I see Councilmember Saka's hand to remind me that I'm not managing time well.

We're way over time.

I see Councilmember Kettle, you've got your- Can I do it in two seconds?

Two seconds, and then Councilmember Saka will have last word.

All right, I only have two seconds.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

First, listening to a great, interesting, in terms of the niche, the area of your work and so forth, and filling the gap, whatever term.

I think about the Queen Anne Food Bank at Sacred Heart and so forth.

But my question is, we just recently had a highlight.

I've been in the CD for like public safety, but it was also highlighted like the grocery stores.

And it was just announced, you know, they're losing one.

And I was there with Council Member Hollingsworth, and she brought that up the other day in full council.

And then I was quickly able, just in the radius of my own home, how many grocery stores I had.

and I even forgot one, you know, one that's equal to the one that's closing there in the CD.

Is that something you look at, or maybe this is an ask, like, can you look at that issue because then it impacts you because it forces all your groups to do more?

And I just wanted to, I'm not sure if this is something you're looking at as a group, And, you know, but I just ask that you look at that because of the impacts on your work and ultimately getting food to the families, particularly the children.

I'm sorry, Council Member Saka, I was told it would only be two seconds.

Bridget, if you've got a one second response.

We'll get back to you.

Council Member Saka, over to you.

You've got last word, but we're way over time and that's my fault.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And first off, colleagues, I'll say regrets that I can't be with you joining you in person today.

My wife is working in the office today in the parenting, working parent divide and conquer strategy and deal we worked out today is I'm going to be working remotely because we know that today is the last day of school for Seattle Public Schools.

And it's a half day.

So I've got to go pick up the kids today.

The beautiful struggle of being a working parent in Seattle is real, one of the exhibits.

No questions, just a comment of expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation for each and every one of you all for your devotion to the cause and commitment to serving The city of Seattle, you all are strong leaders individually and within your own communities, broadly and inclusively defined.

But I love, love, love that you all get to come together and be even stronger, more impactful leaders for the benefit of the people of the city of Seattle.

So this is profoundly impactful work.

and i just want to express my again gratitude and appreciation for each and every one of you all special shout out to balan i know firsthand the impact that they're for having in my my council district and district one especially in delridge but um ECHD's case, as I think the case for many of your organizations, the impact transcends council district boundaries and city boundaries.

So just wanna thank you all again, appreciate your commitment to serving our city.

Thank you, council member Saka, and thank you all for your volunteer service to the city of Seattle.

Clerk, will you please call the roll on appointments 3178 through 3185?

Do you need a second?

May I have it?

I move appointments 3178 through 3185. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second.

Clerk, will you please call the roll on the appointments?

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Sacca.

Aye.

Vice Chair Rivera.

Aye.

Council President.

Aye.

And Chair Strauss.

Yes.

That is five in favor, zero opposed.

Thank you.

Thank you all for joining us today.

We're going to transition pretty quickly to our next agenda item, and I hope you all thank you again for your service.

Thank you very much, Chair Strauss.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Director Eder, please come on up.

Our next item of business today.

So we'll now move on to what feels like our second agenda item and is our ninth.

When the clerk returns, she will read in the short title of Director Dan Eder.

This is the first of two presentations.

We've just sent Director Eder the questions.

We have Jeremy Rocca, Chief of Staff, here to walk us through.

Gentlemen, because I have oversubscribed the committee and we've got elected council members waiting for us, if we could be brief and colleagues, I want to make sure to use this opportunity to get his appointment packet on the record that...

serves as part of the two meeting rule.

And if we've got detailed questions, we've got more opportunities.

So just hoping to keep this brief.

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

Yes.

Item number nine, appointment of Dan Eder as director of the city budget office for term of July 1st, 2029. This item is for briefing and discussion.

Presenters include Jeremy Rocca, chief of staff and general counsel of the mayor's office and Dan Eder, interim director of the city budget office.

Thank you.

And Jeremy, I'll turn it over to you if you want to make initial introductions, and Interim Director Eder, if you've got comments, and then colleagues, if you do have burning questions that need to be asked today, the floor will be yours.

Over to you, Jeremy.

Great.

Thanks, Chair Strauss.

I'll try to make this quick.

I have prepared remarks, but I'll read them very fast because I heard that we're running behind.

Thank you so much, Chair Strauss, Council Members, Council President.

Thank you for allowing me to join you today to introduce Mayor Harrell's nominee, City Budget Director, Dan Eder.

As you well know, the city budget director carries considerable responsibility with elected officials.

They are expected to work closely with elected officials, city department, CBO analysts, and central staff to craft our city budget that reflects our shared priorities and guides the operations every single year.

It's a pivotal position, and I know that you all know that.

Director Eder has served on Mayor Harrell's team since day one of our administration, initially as policy director, and then appointed as the interim budget director last year.

Priory served 14 years on the city council central staff, your very own central staff, including as deputy and interim director, and 10 years on sound transit before that.

The mayor recognized Dan Nieder's extensive background working in the legislative branch to be an incredible asset, and I think you will as well.

Dan is keenly aware of the legislative branch processes and council communication preferences when a mayor develops and then delivers his proposed budget to all of you.

As you collectively work through the review of last year's budget, I trust you found Dan to be measured, calm, smart, high integrity, and show tremendous judgment.

He was also someone who I think has shown that he can work closely through your own central staff director, Ben Noble, and I think that is another asset that he brings to the table.

I just want to say from a personal note, I've worked for the city, in fact, with Council President Nelson and Chair Strauss's legislative aides on the City Council since 2012, and Dan was there from day one.

He was always calm and steady and has a tremendous ability to communicate complex information in a very streamlined, simple way for decision-makers to make their decisions.

And as a lawyer, I can tell you that we, as a professional, often fail to do that, but Dan does not.

We have a challenging budget situation before us, uncertain economic outlook at the federal level.

And I think we can all agree it's more important than ever to have a strong budget director in place that can clearly guide the ship through those times.

Mayor Harrell, we'd like to thank you all for your consideration of Dan.

And with that, I'd like to turn it over to him to make his own opening remarks, hoping that he will, like me, cut some of his prepared remarks out so we can get through the agenda as quickly as possible per the chair's direction.

Thank you.

Over to you, Dan.

Thank you very much, Chief of Staff Raqqa, for the kind words and warm intro.

I appreciate it, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here before you, council members.

At the front end, I want to say how grateful I am to the mayor for his confidence in me, for nominating me for the director role, and for his leadership of our great city.

I also want to, at the front end, acknowledge the smart, hardworking, and seasoned team of professionals who I work with at CBO.

It's a privilege to work with them every day.

Council members, during the past year, and for some of you for a lot longer than that, I've had the good fortune to work with every one of you.

I know from my years of work staffing the city council directly on central staff how hard a job it is that you do, so thank you.

I appreciate you considering me for the permanent director position, and if confirmed, I would do my best to live up to the trust that the mayor and council members would be placing in me.

When I joined CBO, the city was facing a projected $250 million deficit in the general fund.

I'm proud of CBO's work supporting the mayor, in doing the hard work to come up with a fully balanced proposed budget for 25 and 26. I'm also proud of CBO's role supporting the council's deliberations and ultimately adoption of the 25 budget and endorsed 26 budget.

In the time since the city adopted its balanced budget, we've been given some hard news.

We have lower revenues because of change in economic conditions.

that came out in the Economic and Revenue Forecast Office's April forecast.

We also are looking at the threat of reduced federal support for city services and for the services of our partners in the region.

And finally, we're looking at inflationary cost pressures that are threatening to increase the costs of doing the city's business.

We are therefore again rolling up our sleeves to get back into balance with our budget.

It'll be necessary to make some hard choices, including spending less.

I don't expect that we'll be able to balance our budget purely through reductions in spending.

We will also need to look at new progressive revenue options, such as the $100 million of public safety grants that I advocated successfully for in Olympia and that were passed into law during this year's legislative session.

And finally, I'm convinced that there are ways that we can work smarter and better to deliver services to the people of Seattle.

So in closing, thank you again for your partnership, past, present, and future.

I thank you for considering me for the director position, and I'll be happy to address any questions.

Mr. Thank you, Director Eder, and I know that my colleagues will have many questions about all of what you just shared, and I know that we're taking that work up throughout the summer as part of the budget process.

Council President, I see you've got your hand, and colleagues, now is the time to ask your questions, but if we could be brief.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

I regret having to be brief because this is one of the most important appointments in the city because you tend to our coffers and that's especially important.

And so getting into the detail of how you approach our budget and how you're gonna be thinking about efficiencies, revenue, potential cuts is very interesting to me.

So I would like it if you could send your comments if you did, omit anything, I'd be interested in reading them in entirety.

So one thing I would like to note is that I did have, so we're going to be considering the carryover legislation in this committee at some point.

I believe it's imminent, I don't know what dates, but in order for me to really think about some of those carryover expenses from not just 2024, but also 2023, it would be really helpful for me to have the response to the slide that I requested, which looks at historic underspins and also looks at the top three departments that have external contracting.

And when those contracts began, it's reminiscent of the conversation that we had earlier today in here with a lot of those commitments that we have out in the community.

So just a shameless plug.

from the dais in public to say that was due in May, and I think that the extension was into July, but I would really appreciate having that information sooner rather than later so I can think about the carryover legislation in that context.

Thank you.

Council President, I know that we are busy at work trying to get you a response to that slide.

That is work that we, the administration, also is deeply caring about and wanting to make improvements in how the city does its business.

So I commit to getting you that information as soon as we possibly can.

I'm interested in it as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kettle and then Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Chair Strauss, Mr. Eder, Director Eder, welcome.

Mr. Rocca, thank you for being here as well.

Obviously, you're a known quantity here.

I have many meetings in my office and I appreciate all of them.

I appreciate your style, leadership, that kind of steady, confident approach.

I recognize that.

Thank you for bringing up the 100 million public safety piece.

There are a couple public safety pieces out there on the revenue side that we need to look at.

And I do think it's important to, as I have nine entities, departments, commission, office that report to my public safety committee, that they be in that 2% band, because it's one ecosystem.

One of the challenges that we're facing is a functional criminal justice system, and every piece needs to be working on it.

Soon we're gonna have a King County Day at committee.

They're part of it too, and the state, as you noted with these revenue examples.

And so I just want to reiterate that point.

You can speak to it if you like.

I know we've had some discussions about it, but it's really important.

But also important for two things.

One is the potential revenue options.

Another thing, too, that I acknowledge is that traditionally it's been about 50 percent of the general fund.

But the general fund's been shifting.

you know, particularly with levies and so forth.

And, you know, that percentage, it can't be like a hard marker.

You know, we need to be looking at what the needs are, because ultimately that's what enables the other things to happen.

So you can speak to that, or we can speak to it next week, but I really appreciate the opportunity.

And one thing I really appreciate, too, Chair, out of this process is that you get to meet people, you pick up little pieces here and there, and so forth, and then you see the resumes, and then, oh, okay.

So I should say, bonjour, bienvenue ce matin.

Thank you.

Anything to share?

Well, I look forward to diving into answers to those questions in more depth when we meet again, I believe on the 2nd of July.

I will just say with respect to the .

Those are to create a menu of options.

I would ask that you just give us a little bit of time to process the decisions that we'll have to make.

Those are going to be hard trade-off questions.

The proof will be in the pudding when we propose a budget, and you'll see which departments have contributed what amounts in terms of helping balance to the lower level of revenues that we now have for the general fund.

That's when it counts.

The menu of options is the the starting place, if you will, the finishing places, the proposed budget and ultimately the adopted version that, uh, that comes through this council.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Vice chair Rivera.

Thank you, chair.

Um, I, I too wish we had more time.

So I'm going to officially request a one-on-one meeting to talk about your appointment.

Um, I want to acknowledge, and I very much appreciate that when I reach out to you directly, you are very responsive.

very quickly, which is important in the context of all that we need to do related to the budget and finances.

I also want to acknowledge this is a position that reports to the executive, and yet we as council, because we are responsible for passing the budget, rely very heavily on your services and that of your team.

So I have a lot of questions about how you toggle between answering to the executive and then helping us be able to make wise decisions about the budget.

It is not an easy position to be in.

And so I have a lot of conversations and want to have a dialogue, a robust dialogue around that.

your take on how you service the council versus the executive whom you report to and your team.

And I have to also say, by way of transparency, that I've worked with CBO for many years now in my prior role as operations manager for the prior mayor, Durkin.

So I have a built relationship with some of your staff and I've always gotten very good service from the folks that are there that are still there.

And the leadership is important there.

So your role is really critical because though I may have relationships there, they answer to you.

And so I want to make sure that I am clear as to what your vision is for the department you've held now the role for not that long.

And so I want to know what you've noticed, how better you can work with the second floor.

You know, opportunities for working better together is always important, again, in the context of you don't report to us, you report to the executive.

So this is all that I have in mind and that I plan to raise with you when we're able to meet one-on-one since we're not able to have the conversation here.

Though I will say it's really important for transparency to the public that I wish we had more time to dig into this publicly.

But I will say I will be doing whomever is watching from the public my due diligence as this appointment is being discussed.

So thank you for being here, and thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

And this is one step on a multi-step process where we received the appointment packet.

My office and I asked for questions of colleagues to formally ask Director Eder.

We sent those questions to Director Eder this last Friday.

You are here today in committee to put the appointment packet on the record to make sure that all colleagues know that this is coming, the discussion portion is coming in two weeks.

And Director Eder, I'd like to ask just if you could reach out to each individual council member to offer an opportunity to meet with you one-on-one between here and there, that would be very helpful.

In two weeks from now, we will have more time for discussion because we will also have the answers from Director Eder to the questions that we've asked.

And we'll take a vote at that time.

Colleagues, if you need more time at that point, that's also something that you can share.

So this is not a rushed process.

This is just one step in a long process.

With that, thank you, Director Eder.

I will share you were an interim director last year through our budget process, and it felt like you'd been here forever.

So thank you for your service.

Thank you for all your work getting the balanced budget passed last year.

Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership, and thank you to all the council members.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

And thank you, Council Member Socker, for holding questions for your one-on-one.

That lets us move on to the next item of business.

We'll now move on to our 10th item of business that feels like the third.

Clerk, will you please read item 10 into the record?

Yes, presentation regarding tribal governments and native communities update for briefing and discussion.

Presenters include council member Donnie Stevenson of the Muckleshoot Indian tribe, council member Jay Mills of the Suquamish tribe, Francesca Muron of the office of intergovernmental relations and Lydia Fatala of the Seattle department and neighborhoods.

Thank you, and to Council Member Stevenson and Council Member Mills, thank you for allowing us to be your guest today.

And also my direct apologies for not having you first on the agenda.

We will not make that error again.

With that, I'll turn it over to you as elected leaders, and then we'll pass it over to Francesca and Lydia.

So either Councilmember Stevenson or Councilmember Mills, anything that you'd like to say to start us off, or we can just kick it over to the team.

I guess I'd like to say no apologies necessary.

It was a great listening end of your meeting this morning.

Wonderful.

Good morning.

Uh, my name is, uh, Donnie Stevenson.

Uh, I am, uh, Muckleshoot, uh, a member of the Muckleshoot Indian, uh, tribe and elected member of the Muckleshoot tribal council and, uh, uh, proud member of the Indigenous Advisory Council for the City of Seattle.

I would just like to take the opportunity to thank you, Chair Strauss, council members, council president, for your continued leadership and the opportunity to be here to speak with you this morning.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, council members.

I'm gonna turn it over to Francesca and Lydia for introductions and we're gonna tick through this whole presentation and then we'll take questions at the end just because there've been a number of changes in the roles and the work.

So over to you.

Thank you, Chair Strauss and Vice Chair Rivera.

We appreciate the invitation to come before this council again and share some updates from the Tribal Relations Program and the Indigenous Advisory Council Program.

And to complete out our introductions, Council Member Mills, would you like to share a little bit additional introduction for us?

Yeah, sure.

Honorable City Council members, my name is Luther J. Mills, enrolled member of the Suquamish Tribe, 28 years serving as our Suquamish Tribal Council, 48 years employed with the tribe, and my current position is the Portland-Madison Enterprise Ambassador.

And I really look forward, I've been a founding member of the IEC Board, and I look forward to the additional work.

And I miss being in your office, your chamber.

We'll have you again soon.

Thank you.

And Lydia?

My name is Lydia.

I'm Tongan and Samoan Oceana.

I have the honor of serving as a civic engagement manager in the department of neighborhoods under the community partnerships program with Daniel Sims leading.

And I have the honor of serving the indigenous advisory council.

Thank you very much.

And my name is Francesca Murnan.

I'm a citizen of the Shawnee Tribe and of the Cherokee Nation.

And I now work at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations as the Tribal Relations Director for the city of Seattle and have previously been before you as the Indigenous Advisory Council liaison.

So very grateful for the opportunity to continue this work in a new way with our tribal leaders and our urban native leaders.

So we'll just jump right in.

As a quick refresher, the city is situated in a region with many federally recognized tribes and is home to a diverse and thriving community of American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian people from hundreds of distinct cultural affiliations nationwide.

Tribal and urban Native communities have interest in local policy that extend well beyond the geographic boundaries of our local jurisdiction.

city policy, services, and utility infrastructure have far-reaching impacts for tribal nations, urban Indian organizations, and Native people that live, work, and play, and exercise sovereignty and treaty rights in and around our city.

We'll start with a few updates from tribal relations.

As a reminder, the city approaches our tribal and urban native engagement through two main pathways, tribal relations and the indigenous advisory council.

These were reestablished, tribal relations was reestablished in 2021 under the tenure of Tim Raynon Puyallup and the indigenous advisory council was created by the city council the same year.

As a result, we continue to see positive shifts in engagement of tribal governments across city projects and plans.

By strengthening our city-tribal relationships, we're on a path to more consistently engaging tribal nations as sovereign governments and as regional partners.

There are now more opportunities for tribal nations to work with the city on critical issues impacting our region and their interest, including trust and treaty rights.

The Indigenous Advisory Council fulfills a long-standing gap in our ability to engage with a diverse range of Native people through advisory support.

It's a supplemental avenue that strengthens our ongoing and unique relationship with tribes, and it works to fulfill the legal, political, and racial obligations to Native people in the city.

It's critical that both of these pathways exist, and oftentimes our work is separate.

And as you can see here, occasionally we do collaborative efforts that support our tribal and urban Native communities.

An example of that would be the city's Tribal Nations Summit, where we collaborate together to organize and convene that event.

Tribal relations is one of five portfolios at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and our work is to work collaboratively with city officials and leadership and staff of tribal governments to ensure that tribal sovereignty and treaty rights are recognized throughout the many projects of interest.

The single most important concept to tribal relations work is recognizing and respecting the political and legal relationship of federally recognized tribes and the US federal government.

Treaties that were signed by tribal nations in the United States require the federal government to protect tribal lands, assets, resources, and other reserved rights.

The federal trust responsibility spans issues of housing, health, nutrition, economic development, and education.

Indian law is not race-based policy.

It is rooted in the political relationships of sovereign nations.

While native people are often categorized as a race from a colonial perspective, we often carry a political status, an inherent right to fulfillment of the federal trust responsibility as citizens of our nations.

In an era of policy-making, an era of self-determination, we see that tribal nations and many urban Indian organizations play a role in fulfilling that federal trust responsibility through provisions of services.

And so a short example in the Seattle area is that many tribal nations contract with the federal government to operate their own culturally-attuned health services for their members and often for their surrounding communities.

And in Seattle, that role is fulfilled by an urban Indian health program that provides health care services to Native people in urban areas.

There are many federal and state laws and executive orders that outline the obligations to consult and collaborate with tribal nations.

These overarching orders offer clear guidance for regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration.

Here at the city of Seattle tribal relations is most often happening in the form of consultation and engagement.

There are many definitions that can vary between the federal state and tribal governments on these terms and how they should best be practiced.

But generally speaking, consultation is a formal process.

It's often outlined in federal and state law and it requires two way dialogue and meaningful engagement of tribal priorities.

Consultation happens early and often in the lifespan of a proposed action and it should result in meaningful integration of tribal priorities.

And consultation can also include engagement of elected leaders from both governments.

Tribal engagement encompasses a broader range of interactions with tribes and other governments to seek guidance, feedback, and involvement on a wide range of projects, plans, and actions.

It can include information sharing, relationship building, and collaboration.

Regardless of if we are consulting or engaging, these interactions are separate and distinct from all other stakeholder engagement out of recognition for the political distinction, political class of tribes as nations.

On a regular basis, tribal relations occurs across over 15 city departments who are actively outreaching and engaging tribal governments in the design, planning, and implementation of a wide range of city work.

To share a few examples with you, the Office of Arts and Culture seeks guidance in partnerships with tribal nations to identify artists for the 1% for Arts program.

The Parks Department outreaches and engages tribal nations in cultural resource management and integration of indigenous language and culture into the design of capital projects and park facilities.

And the Human Services administers the Area Agency on Aging for King County, where they consult with two tribal nations to provide the administration and support of services for elders and people with disabilities.

Tribal relations can also take the forms of meetings among elected leaders of tribes in the city or attending tribally driven conferences and events, all of which help us learn about tribal priorities and bring that back into our work.

To share one recent example, four city departments collaborated to co-present at the 18th Annual Cultural Resource Protection Summit last month at Suquamish.

We co-presented with the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

This is the conference that draws over 200 attendees nationwide, and it's the only tribally-driven cultural resource conference in the nation.

It brings together practitioners from tribal, state, and local governments, as well as those who work in cultural resource management.

to discuss and consult around issues of preservation and restoration of tribal cultures, such as artifacts and cultural landscapes.

The presentation spoke to our efforts to improve tribal engagement on a variety of city projects, ranging from public art to relicensing of the hydro projects on the Skagit River.

We discussed our progress in expanding consultation engagement, going well beyond legal compliance and towards good governance.

And we also had to name that we have a long way to go and that we will continue to do this work.

Which brings us to the last part of this section.

Looking ahead, the ultimate goal for us at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations is to ensure that the city honors and respects tribal sovereignty by building up the capacity and confidence of our leadership and staff to consult and engage with tribal partners.

We want leaders and staff, both the city and the tribes, to have strong relationships with one another so that when questions or concerns arise, we can work collaboratively to address those issues in an inappropriate and respectful manner.

To achieve this goal, we're focused on our internal capacity building, internal coordination, and systems change.

In the year ahead, we'll continue to advise city staff on educational resources on working with Native communities as we build up our own curriculum.

We will also continue to advise city staff and convene partners to create tools that improve our interdepartmental communication and coordination on the dozens of outreach efforts that are active.

And finally, we will invest in creating meaningful engagements that include tribal nations in city work, such as the Tribal Nations Summit scheduled for later this fall, as we work towards building a strong and effective government-to-government relationship that is codified and systematized across our city institution.

Now we're going to go ahead and talk about the IAC.

The IAC is completing our third year as a city commission.

Yes, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

Sorry, I was going to interrupt because I asked, but let's take a moment to just talk about the roles and how they've shifted because I don't know that the committee has met you yet, Lydia.

Thank you.

So Francesca was promoted to OIR.

And then right now, we are currently recruiting for a replacement for Francesca as a liaison for IEC.

So I oversee four commissions in Department of Neighborhoods, and IEC is one of them.

I support the civic engagement programs in Department of Neighborhoods, and I hope that's helpful.

Are there any other questions, Councilmember Strauss?

Thank you, Lydia.

Just clarifying that Francesca has joined our committee many times in the past in her role in Department of Neighborhoods, being the facilitator for the IAC.

You're here in a new role as the Tribal Relations Director under Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Just one.

There you go.

Over to you, Lydia, and then I'll butt out.

Absolutely, Council Member Strauss.

Any other comments or feedback?

Okay.

So thank you for having us.

The IAC is completing our third year as a city commission and appreciate the opportunity to share our work from 2024. In 2023, the Indigenous Advisory Council set out three shared goals with corresponding priority activities to guide the collective work of the commission.

Excuse me, let me back it up a little bit.

Here we go.

The Indigenous Advisory Council was formed in 2021 to create the pathway for native representation and indigenous knowledge in local public policy.

We are the only city board or commission comprised entirely of native people representing a diverse range of perspectives and experiences from indigenous communities.

As a culturally grounded advisory body, we act as a trusted advocate, advisor and connected among city partners.

Today we will share more about our approach to policy and systems change that we hope will move government and community partners towards transformational relationships rooted in respect, repair, and shared power with indigenous communities.

In 2023, the Indigenous Advisory Council set out three shared priority goals and corresponding priority activities to guide the collective work of the commission.

The strategic plan and annual work plan are submitted to the mayor's office and this committee annually.

You can expect our next annual work plan and annual report later this summer.

Our first goal encompasses a lot of work to date, which includes developing shared understanding and foundation of a sustainable and productive group of culturally grounded advisors that act as connectors on issues impacting native communities.

Our second area of work includes setting up goals, priorities, and action steps that drive our work forward and can be evaluated.

Our third goal focuses on setting collective policy priorities that build trust, treaty, and racial equity obligations to native communities.

We recently adopted a set of policy priorities for 2025, and we'll be sharing those through individual meetings with city council members and in the coming months.

Last week, the Indigenous Advisory Council adopted a set of budget and policy priorities for 2025 that will be shared with you electronically.

The policy priorities can be grouped into two key themes.

The first, items listed under honoring political relationship features legislative and administrative actions that recognize that tribal nations and tribal citizens are beneficiaries of unique federal trust relationships.

A second, a set of priorities aligns with the city's race and social justice initiative to undo institutional racism by centering culturally responsive and community defined programming.

The priorities in the section include a variety of health, social service programs administered by city departments.

The recommended funding levels seek to maintain city investments during this challenging budget environment.

The next few slides feature a through project led by the Indigenous Advisory Council.

As a convener, the Indigenous Advisory Council saw a unique opportunity to educational webinar to discuss innovative approaches to culturally responsive, affordable housing.

The first webinar showcased the work of two urban Indian organizations and a tribal nation in Oregon that partnered to leverage the tribe's right to apply Indian preference to affordable housing units in a way that does not violate fair housing laws.

The creative partnership has brought the first of dozens of Indian preference units to the affordable housing sector to Portland, Oregon.

The urban Indian organizations involved in this projects are partnering to create housing that addresses the cultural needs of native people through onsite health and social service, including behavioral health services.

The webinar drew more than 40 policymakers and practitioners from tribes, city and county governments, as well as urban native organizations and groups across the affordable housing sector.

Through the leadership of our youth delegate, the Indigenous Advisory Council attended a Native youth listening session and a Native youth political empowerment summit.

These events were led by Urban Native Education Alliance and Native Action Network, two urban Indian organizations that foster strong civic education and engagement among young people in our community.

Both events focus on intergenerational learning, leadership development, and promotion of healthy civic dialogue around issues most important to Native youth, including access to cultural education and third spaces like libraries, creative arts, and green spaces.

the National Civic League Award.

This past year, the Indigenous Advisory Council and Tribal Relations were featured in the city's bid to be named in All-American City.

Through our application and presentation to a jury of national civic leaders, Seattle was awarded the prestigious All-American City Award by the National Civic League for exemplifying the power of civic participation and innovation in local government.

Following this national recognition, we were featured in the National Civic Review, a nonpartisan publication read to civic researchers and leaders nationwide.

The article titled, More Than a Land Acknowledgement, Authentic Tribal and Urban Native Engagement by Mayor Harrell and Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Profile the city's efforts that we have discussed today.

In 2024, the 10th anniversary of Indigenous Peoples' Day in Seattle, and it was the first year the Indigenous Advisory Council took an oversight role in supporting the city's efforts to mark this day of celebration of Native cultures.

The Indigenous Advisory Council invested in four inter-tribal community-led celebrations across Seattle.

These events included celebratory marches, song, dance, poetry, meals from Native chefs, and gifting from dozens of Native artists.

The Indigenous Advisory Council also commissioned an update to the 2014 gifted image by Louis Gong to create a commemorative event poster that was shared across the day's festivities.

A final component of the work included commissioning a Native journalist to create a four-part series featured in the South Seattle Emerald and Rise that explore Native art through music, filmmaking, podcasting, Indigenous fashion, and amplify the dozens of events and places to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day throughout our Before I move on, I would like to look at council member Stevenson and council member Mills for any of your reflections.

I'll defer to council member Mills as a senior council member and my elder in life.

Thank you, Donnie.

Like I say, I think the work that's been done with this advisory council, I guess the first thing that I'd like to point out is, you know, the summit with the mayor and the city departments took 165 years to take place.

You know, so obviously I think that there's a lot of work that continues, needs to continue to be done.

But I think that, you know, that summit really proved to me that the city's willingness to understand more about, you know, the tribal relations, you know, learn more about our treaty rights, our treaty rights protection.

And I can't thank the mayor, Harold, for getting that summit set up.

know we talked about you know some of the work and you know that we're able to provide with the you know the city parks department that was one of the first meetings that the tribes had met and I was lucky enough to be able to provide a lunch to bring some of our native foods to that to that workshop and I guess you know in sharing that it those native foods and explaining how important it is to protect the Salish Sea because what runs into Elliott Bay runs into the Salish Sea.

And I always tell people I look at the Salish Sea as a food source.

Far too many people look at it as maybe transportation or recreation.

But the shrimp, the clams, the salmon, the geoduck, all these things are harvested that we grew up with.

Listening to the food sovereignty, talks this morning about what your beverage tax is promoting is incredible.

I think that we need to add some of our Salish seafood in there too to go along with some of that produce.

But I just really appreciate the opportunity working with the city.

I know our chairman and our council would really like, and I know we talked to Francesca about having a one-on-one with the city council.

So I'd like to just put that out there.

Someday in the future, we can do that.

Then I'll turn it over to Donnie.

Well, thank you, Jay.

It's, again, an incredible opportunity privilege and an honor to be able to share this time in this space and appreciate the opportunity to be here to speak to this really important work and to talk about some of the initiatives that the Indigenous Advisory Council has been able to accomplish in some of the areas that we would like to and plan to accomplish into the future.

First things, you know, just sort of taking a step back and speaking from a global perspective, I think it's incredibly important to acknowledge some of what Councilmember Mills opened with, that some of this work and some of the formal engagement that has resulted, the Tribal Nations Summit is a perfect example, that that was literally the first formal meetings that had taken place between the Independent Sovereign Nations, Tribal Nations in this region, and the City of Seattle since treaty times.

That and sort of really taking a moment to just sort of breathe that in is important that, um, we're engaging in ways that are meaningful and set the bar and set an example.

I think also when you, when you look at, um, that opportunity that this is a, a completely unique, um, uh, team and group and the council, which is made up of, of, um, independent sovereign tribal nation representatives, as well as our non-profit indigenous urban program leadership, youth, elders, that when you put that in the context of the work that goes on within the city, that this is a one of a kind and a unique organization that really works to help sort of decolonize the relationship that exists between the city and indigenous peoples therein and in the surrounding areas and to help indigenize the way that the city engages and operates with all of those folks.

And that's a model that if you look nationally, there just aren't any other places that you can look to to find examples of what we're doing.

And I want to really characterize in this moment, in this moment, how incredibly important that is. that Seattle, the city of Seattle, and you as leaders of the city have really always taken a proactive approach to, you know, the idea of individual liberties and human rights and racial equity and justice.

And groups like ours are...

an incredibly important and unique opportunity to place that work at the forefront and to do it in a way that's tangible and meaningful and has the ability to have real and meaningful impacts.

I think when you couple that with the added component of the government to government function of relationships between the tribes, the federally recognized tribal nations and the city of Seattle, that we really are a national leader in terms of setting an example for the rest of the country to follow.

And I don't think that the importance of that can be overstated.

And I also don't think that we should forget how incredibly meaningful that is, especially when you look at some of the challenging history that's taken place in this region over sort of the colonial process and sort of the things that have shaped and impact tribes in this country.

And so, For that, I'm incredibly grateful.

I raise my hands to each and every one of you as leaders for being here today to participate in this conversation and this dialogue.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with each of you moving forward.

I think that especially in this moment where people are concerned about their relationship and treatment, of their government and especially, you know, sort of when it comes to things like individual liberties and racial equity and justice, that for us to be at the forefront and setting an example and setting the bar is very, very powerful and it's very, very meaningful.

And I look forward to the partnership and collaboration of us being able to continue to push the things that are right and to continue to be an example of positivity and the way things can work because it's needed right now in this moment more than ever.

So thank you for that opportunity and thank you for allowing us the opportunity to speak a little bit about that today.

Thank you very much, tribal council members Mills and Stevenson for your feedback and your leadership in our communities.

At this time, council member Strauss, we hope this provides you with an overview of our work and we look forward to continuing to provide culturally grounded advisory support with city partners.

Thank you, Lydia, and thank you, Francesca.

Colleagues, I'll open it up to you for questions now.

I will share in the transition earlier this year with Tim moving on and Francesca moving up, we have not been having the tribal relations aspect in committee every month.

Moving forward, except for during budget, we'll have them back with us each month to dive deeper into each of these sections.

And I know, One of the questions that I had for you is for one of these early next meetings is about the updates from the tribal nations summit.

Each department had action items.

And so I'm just stating on the record what I stated to you in private that I expect those updates by July 2nd committee.

And if departments aren't able to provide those reports at this time, then I need to understand what are the barriers and what are the timelines for overcoming those barriers for the committee to receive a report from the departments regarding their action items from the last Tribal Nations Summit.

So just putting all of that on the record from what I shared with you privately, and I see Vice Chair Rivera has her hand.

Over to you, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to thank Francesca and Lydia and the council members for being here, and thank you for prioritizing putting this back on the agenda.

I wondered where we were in this transition period.

So glad to know that we will be having you more frequently in committee now.

And I really want to thank you for the partnership.

I was really happy to visit with you, Donny, recently.

And so thank you for having me.

And this is a relationship that's really important.

to all of us and to me in particular I will say and so I'm happy that we are back on as you say not that we were off because I know Francesca you were very closely partnering and Lydia you as well and we see each other and I know that IAC is on my calendar and again we haven't met because of the transition period I suspect but I look forward to starting back up and having continued conversations on how we can be supportive.

So really just wanting to thank you for being here and glad to see this is back on our agenda.

Thanks, Chair.

Mr. Wonderful.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Colleagues, any questions?

I can jump in.

I see Council President.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you very much for this presentation.

Councilmember Stephenson, you met with each council member individually with elders and leaders of the Muckleshoot Tribe, and that was profoundly educational and meaningful to me, and I have followed up on a couple of items that came up of mutual interest between us both, and I just have to say, One thing I always hear in forums like this is don't just invite us to the table, don't just invite the tribal community to the table or leaders as a check the box exercise bring us in well before anything gets to the table or why don't you just do what we want you to do.

you know, to put it bluntly.

And so that's just a constant reminder I'm putting out in the air that I think that we all as leaders have to think about.

And I really appreciate the chair having this item on the agenda today, and I look forward to more formal talks, especially as, and I've been reaching out in particular around addiction treatment and other concerns in that realm and continue to want to be kept informed on new initiatives that are going on that I wouldn't know about or new asks of the city that I should be aware of as we enter budget season, et cetera.

That's always going to be a priority for me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Anything further or?

Well, now, you probably don't want me to ask, so how about you tell me now?

But offline, you can let me know.

And all of you, and Council Member and Luther, Jay.

Thank you.

Council Member Mills or Stevenson or the committee table, I just opened the floor.

No, I think we just appreciate the remarks.

I do see Council Member Mills raised his hand there.

Thank you.

Take it away, Council Member Mills.

Oh, you're on mute.

There we go.

There we are.

I'd just like to thank you for the opportunity for you asking the question about, you know, the substance abuse, you know.

You know, I have two kids that were suffering from addiction.

And I'm happy to say that just yesterday, we were all out on the water, exercising our treaty right, harvesting the indigenous crab.

They are both doing well.

We got some money from the state to acquire an opioid treatment facility here in the city of Poulsbo.

So we'll be working on that.

You know, the state helped us out with about $18 million in funds to get this facility up and running.

But I'd just like to thank you for your question and interest in how things are going.

Let's be in touch more.

Yes.

I'd add, I appreciate the outreach.

One, the opportunity to sit down and just share time with those of you who I've had the opportunity to do that with, which is a majority of the council individually.

And council president, your interest in the recovery programs and sort of treatment options that the Muckleshoot Tribe has sort of put to work.

As you, I'm sure, are aware after some follow-up conversations, I think we have two clinics opening within the city of Seattle, weed care clinics, one on the north side and another being explored in West Seattle.

So that brings us up to a total of five weed care clinics in the region.

And that's work that we're We find incredibly important and that we're going to continue to sort of push to do everything we can to be a part of the solution.

That the opioid epidemic certainly impacts our community at a ridiculous rate, but we recognize and see that that's a problem that we all have in common.

And being a part of the solution and healing our collective peoples and community is a commitment that the tribe has made in a very real and tangible way.

And we will continue that work until there's no more work to do.

So thank you for that interest.

And again, just thank you all for your support.

for your time and consideration.

It's great to be able to engage in this way as a member of the Indigenous Advisory Council and within the structure of the City of Seattle, but I also really appreciate the government-to-government relationship that that we've formed with each and every one of you and that time that I've had the opportunity to spend with each and every one of you is really meaningful and building those relationships and rapport you know so that when issues that impact all of the people who we serve come up that we have the ability to just you know come together and talk as peers and colleagues so If I've had the opportunity to sit down with you already, Councilmember Rivera, Councilmember Strauss, President Nelson, Councilmember Kettle, and for those of you that I haven't, I look forward to being able to do so in the near future.

So thank you very much.

Well said.

Council Member Kettle, I see you've got your hand, and Council Member Rivera, is that an old hand or new hand?

That's a new hand.

I just have something quick.

We'll go with Council Member Kettle, and then over to you, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, everyone, for being here.

congratulate the move from Ms. Merman to the OIR and Ms. Vitalia to the DON position, the changes that are under a foot.

And I look to continue to work on the different issues.

And this is also here locally in City Hall.

on the issues.

And for Council Members Stevenson and Mills, I do welcome the opportunity to meet.

I do regularly do so, like Council Member Stevenson, when we had the opening of what I call the longhouse artwork by the ferry terminal.

And I really appreciate those times, but I do look forward to having direct meetings.

Like this afternoon, I'm having a meeting with Director Belgarde from the Chief Seattle Club.

I welcome these opportunities because there are definitely, you know, subjects that we need to work.

And I think about public safety, for example, you know, to work the issues that relate to public safety.

and to have that dialogue and see about opportunities where we can bring that into the committee, where we can bring it into maybe a specific topic to ensure that the Native community is covered, because I think that's very important.

And so I welcome those opportunities.

separately also as a district hat.

Now we've talked about this in the past because I heard quite clearly oftentimes the native community tribal governments are contacted at the end of the process.

And as I noted with in district, Portal Park and Belltown that you can be there at the beginning.

Well, we just had a survey done.

This goes to some of the prep work related to that in terms of because it's the viaduct was considered an industrial kind of, you know, so they had to do a survey and some work and that's been completed.

So we're kind of in that point where we're transitioning and this is a great opportunity to bring in the voices from the native community as it relates to Portal Park as an example.

And I made that commitment last year, so I'm bringing it up because we're at that kind of inflection point now, kind of starting that transition.

And I think it would be really important to do so.

So on district issues, whether it's things like parks or transportation, those constituent affairs kinds of topics, but also the broader citywide, in my case, particularly public safety.

But I will say, too, in some ways, Chair Strauss, I very much note your point that we should have led.

with this, but at the same time, it also allowed you to see what was going on with the commission earlier and the food and the pieces.

And so there was value in that.

And so like, again, how can we ensure that the native community in terms of that program is well covered?

And just having you see the people who are part of the commission, the topics that were coming up as part of the review, I think was very educational, very valuable.

So as it turned out, I think the agenda worked out well in that respect because it also highlights hey, how can we ensure that the Native community is represented, is accounted for, is reached out to outreach, again, early, not at the end.

And so I just wanted to say that.

Friends, that's good looking at you and Portal Park, for example, but for the council members and others, definitely on the public safety side and look forward to that.

Chair, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Mills or Stevenson, anything you'd like to share?

I just always like to open the floor.

It's okay if not.

All right, I'm gonna see Council Member, Vice Chair Rivera has her hand up.

There you are.

Thank you, Chair.

I just, again, Council Member Stevenson, I really appreciate all the touch points.

I think the ongoing, not just the occasional touch points are really important.

And to Council Member, so I wanna thank you for that.

Council Member Stevenson and Council Member Mills, we haven't had as many meetings.

I welcome that.

And I will say that, to your point, Council Member Kettle, though the tribal governments and native communities sits in the finance committee, it's also something that cuts across all the committees.

For example, Department of Neighborhoods sits in the committee that I chair, and I welcome an opportunity to bring IAC, who sits in the Department of Neighborhoods space, to come to committee and do a deeper dive.

And I know that I don't think that that in any way takes away from the fact that the tribal governments and native community sits on this committee.

It's just another touch point and another way to say that this cuts across all committees and across the city.

So I welcome that.

And Lydia, you and I can talk about what makes sense.

But just to say, I welcome the conversation at my committee as well.

This is something that's really important.

And I just wanna reiterate that commitment.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

I'll share just a few comments.

I'll turn it over then to Lydia and Francesca and then Council Member Mills and Stevenson.

You get last word and then we'll move on to our last topic, which is gonna be a little bit shorter than expected.

Sorry, colleagues.

This might actually be the first time I run over in a meeting.

Just wanted to check in again on Tribal Nations Summit.

Do we have a date set or are we still in a range of dates?

When's the next one?

We're looking at September of 2025. So we'll be in touch with council offices soon and we look forward to hosting you all.

Wonderful, that's just in a couple months and that is in part why, I'll say it on the record again, I'm expecting from you a report in committee on July 2nd with the updates from each department that had tasks in the last Tribal Nations Summit.

If that's not able to be presented on July 2nd, I'm happy to provide an extension as long as I understand what the barriers to providing the report are and what the timelines to overcoming those barriers are.

just to get down to brass tacks.

If there is no update, that no work has been done, I sure hope that's not the case.

But that is an update in and of itself.

And we're not trying to get anyone in trouble.

This is not saying you didn't do your job well.

It's not doing anything of that.

It's just grounding our feet so that we're able to achieve outcomes in the next few months.

So no one's in trouble.

We're just looking for updates.

So if you need to show this part of the recording to the departments so that they know that I'm serious, please do.

Wanna also share colleagues, I'll be practicing some of this government to government and I'm not even sure if it's engagement or consultation with Council Member Mills and Council Member Stevenson on a few topics.

And we're waiting to take action and to start these processes until we have these meetings, because it's important to be in partnership from the first step.

And so colleagues, just a couple of these items, something that Council Member Mills was talking about, the water body being a source of food and really an indicator for our world's health and the fact that there's not a jurisdiction that oversees our oceans.

We'll be having one ocean week this coming October with a sailing ship that is sailing around the world to bring attention to this.

And so Council Member Mills and Stevenson will be asking you how you'd like to participate.

in that, and I think that you've got a good story, good knowledge to bring to us in leadership there, as well as Council Member Kettle, the emergency access in Magnolia.

I'll be asking for feedback from the council members.

And Council Member Mills, I see you've got your hand.

Yeah, so maybe we can have one of those canoes greet that ship when it comes into Seattle.

whatever you want to do, we are going to stand behind you.

And also, I guess, you know, again, my request for the Suquamish Council to be able to meet with the City Council, you know, to get that time that Donnie's taken away from us.

You know, we want equal time.

So I appreciate your willingness to do that as well.

And I know Chairman Forsman would like that as well.

So thank you.

And I'd like to say thank you to Francesca and Leah for all the work that you've been doing.

Your hands are up to you.

Thank you and I know I've got time, I'll be visiting your tribal council on July 8th.

And I know council member Stevenson, we're still working out a time for me to come down and talk to Muckleshoot on those items.

Last plug I'll put out here is the article that Francesca and Tim really created because we couldn't talk about the body of work without it being created.

and that in the National Civic Review was really amazing.

We'll pass that around as well as Council Member Deborah Warr has sent me an article about what's going on in Portland and how they're starting to look at us as a leader here.

So we'll be sending both of those articles around.

With that, I'm gonna give Council Member Stevenson and Mills last word and we're gonna get through the next item in five minutes.

I would just like to say thank you to the city council and thank you for what all the work that you do do you know it doesn't go unnoticed and you know just take care uh yeah I would echo uh the settlement the sentiment of uh uh council member Mills that the uh the

spirit and space of working together and collaboration is work that I'm incredibly proud of, that I think that we are in the midst of creating something with the Indigenous Advisory Council in the City of Seattle that is brand new.

It's progressive.

It's something for which there is no roadmap or guide.

but that's what makes it so compelling.

That's what makes it so important.

And that's why articles show up in places like the National Review and it helps to first to the city of Seattle to receive recognition like an all-American city.

It's because of the progressive nature of the work.

And to be able to be a part of that And to do that work in collaboration with incredible leaders like yourselves, it really is a true privilege and an honor.

In our language, there's a term that we use that it literally translates to good work.

It's that it carries the connotation of a deeper meaning.

It means that it's something that is ingrained in sort of the soul of the individuals and the people and for the people.

And so I raise my hands to each and every one of you and I thank you for your health CIOs.

And I look forward to continuing to engage in this kind of work with each and every one of you moving forward.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

Thank you for your commitment and leadership.

Again, especially in a time in this country that feels very, very transitional and important.

I was talking to my community just yesterday, and what I was ultimately expressing to them is that we're not watching history unfold right now.

We're creating it.

And I look forward to continuing to create history with each and every one of you.

So thank you.

Inspiring words.

Amen.

Let's go.

That's my reaction.

Thank you, council members.

Thank you, Lydia and Francesca.

With that, we'll move on to the next agenda item.

Council member Mills, I'll see you in a couple of weeks and council member Stevenson, hope to see you soon.

With that, if the clerk could read the final item into the record.

And colleagues, I am going to ask for 15 extra minutes and give the presenters a cutoff with 10 extra minutes, if possible.

Clerk?

Presentation on the Seattle Social Housing Developer Loan for briefing discussion.

Presenters include Jamie Carnell, Director of Office of City Finance, Chris Trevias from the Mayor's Office, Roberto Jimenez, CEO of the Seattle Social Housing, and Jen Labreck of Council Central Staff.

Thank you, and just before, and Megan, I think they might need some assistance getting that up, so I'm gonna do a little bit of brief overview, colleagues.

This item has been transmitted to us today, so this is an informational item.

We will not move on it until everyone is comfortable, so don't feel like today is a rush.

It is also important that we were able to finalize the agreement last week, which is why we have it as an informational item today.

And we are trying to move as quickly as possible with the understanding that you all need to have your questions answered before taking a vote.

So all things are true and this is an opportunity for Krista and I'm trying to find everyone else's names right here, but for everyone to introduce themselves, their role in this project with this loan and to move on from there.

With that, the presentation is up and Krista, I will pass it over to you.

Good morning, council members.

You got a mic.

Good morning.

It's still morning, barely, but Krista Baez, Deputy Director of Policy in the Mayor's Office.

Roberta Jimenez, CEO of Seattle Social Housing.

Jamie Cornell, City Finance Director.

Hi, Jennifer LeBrec, City Council Central Staff.

Thank you, so I think we'll just dive in.

So as Chair Strauss just mentioned, this is informational today because the legislation hasn't been transmitted.

We are transmitting the legislation today.

There was a slight delay because the legislation includes the actual loan agreement and we wanted to give the CEO, Roberto, time to review the agreement and make sure he was okay with it.

So today we're gonna just give an overview of the agreement and then you will have the legislation in hand and central staffs actually had it for a couple of weeks as well.

So with that, I'm gonna just dive right into this.

I'm gonna start with a little bit of background here.

So in February 23, The voters approved Initiative 135, and that created the social housing developer.

And social housing is housing that is developed, owned, maintained, and leased by the social housing developer.

and is mixed income housing with a range of incomes up to 120% AMI.

The initiative also required the city to provide startup support for the first 18 months of operations.

And the city, in doing so, entered into a contract with the PDA to provide $850,000 approximately for 18 months worth of startup cost.

In addition to that, in the early days, the city provided $20,000 in consulting assistance and also worked as a pass through for the state for $180,000 that the state had appropriated.

So the last tranche of funding under the current contract with the PDA was provided to the PDA this past March.

And there is going to be a gap in funding without further support.

And so this is why we're here today proposing to provide the PDA with a loan.

So I'll just quickly go over the most recent initiative that passed, Proposition 1A or Initiative 137. That initiative passed a couple years later to actually fund the PDA operations.

The first initiative did not have any funding attached to it.

This second initiative provided a funding source for the PDA, a 5% tax on employers doing business in Seattle.

for any employee compensated above $1 million.

The PDA has projected that that could amount to approximately $50 million a year.

But since the first year of revenues, which starts this year, will not be collected until next year, we won't know for certain what that might look like.

But it's very similar to our PET revenues, this revenue source.

And then associated with this new initiative is that city is responsible for actually collecting the tax revenues and transferring them to the PDA.

So there will be another agreement with the PDA following this one that sets up that relationship and how that's going to work.

And as I mentioned, those taxes for this year, which start this year and are required to be collected this year will not actually come in until the first quarter of next year.

So we do recognize the need for the PDA to have some bridge funding so their operations, which are really just getting underway, are not interrupted.

So the mayor's office is in full support of providing this $2 million loan request to them.

And I have Director Carnell here who will be the one that you will be authorizing to enter into a loan agreement with the PDA.

And she's going to provide more details of that loan agreement that the finance department worked with our attorney's office on.

And again, as I mentioned, Roberto here did have an opportunity to review the agreement and he is okay with it as written.

And that will come attached as part of the legislation for your consideration.

So if there aren't any questions there, I will turn it over to Director Carnell.

Let's finish the presentation and then we'll take questions.

Okay, great.

And once again, we are thankful to the mayor's office and to the social housing group and Roberto for working with us on this piece of legislation.

So the proposed legislation that's coming to you will authorize the director of finance to enter into a loan agreement with the PDA.

This allows the PDA to continue operations as Krista discussed until the tax revenues start coming in.

And through the work of the staff between the mayor's office and the PDA and city finance, we believe that this city loan is the most efficient and fiscally financially responsible way to provide an interim funding to the PDA to enable it to carry out its mission.

And so the next slide really just goes through the proposal on agreement that it's not to exceed the 2 million with disbursements request from the PDA.

The loan will be drawn on several disbursements and the balance cannot exceed that 2 million.

And then there's interest earnings that will be charged, which is right now the city's consolidated cash flow rate.

Today that rate is about 3.65%.

How this will be repaid is the city is going to automatically deduct those amounts necessary to make all the payments due with respect to the loan from the tax revenues as they come in.

And then those tax proceeds will continue to be intercepted until the loan principal and interest has been fully repaid.

We expect that the principal and interest to be repaid fully from the 25 tax proceeds collected in January 26. The loan maturity is December 1, 2026, just to give time in case that there's needed to be extra time for those collections to come in.

So that's the basics of the proposal and agreement, which is coming, being transmitted to you today.

Thank you.

Just to repeat back, and then I'm going to call in Jen and then Roberto.

We have cash on hand in the city that accrues interest.

We are going to provide the PDA with the some of the tax revenue that they're collecting today or that is being accrued today that will be collected in the future.

We will then intercept the funds because we manage this tax collection on behalf of the PDA to be repaid at the same interest rate that we would have received had that cash been on hand.

Yeah, we're utilizing our cash pool to create this loan, which then would obviously we would want to have the same interest rate that we would be earning should that cash pool remain the same.

So the cash pool is going to create the loan and then we're gonna be charging the interest rate that we would be earning.

And we, because we collect the tax, we are also able to ensure that we're being paid back.

Yes.

Great.

I'm gonna call on Jen from our, Jennifer, sorry, from central staff.

And then Roberto.

I don't have a lot more to add.

I would just second, you know, I did my own analysis of the social housing developers cash flow and the executive is correct that they will really, even with the bare bones operation or the most bare bones operation will need this loan in order to be able to continue operations into the second half of this year.

just to sustain bare bones.

And I know they have an intention to do more than that and to begin to prepare for expanded operations next year.

And so this money is essential just to maintain what they have, but also to meet their goal of being able to expand and sort of prepare for the larger amounts of revenue beginning in 2026. And then just the second point, which Director Carnell just made, which is that this loan will be repaid directly from proceeds, which are collected in January of 2026. But you'll note the loan maturity date is 12 months after that in December.

And again, I think that's just to provide a little bit of cushion in case of the unexpected, which I don't think anyone is expecting, but is logical in order to avoid a difficult situation.

Thank you.

And Roberto, I believe this is your first time before city council.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

I'm sorry to keep it short.

We will, I promise to have you back.

All right.

Um, anything that you'd like to share about this and then we'll take council member questions.

Yeah.

Uh, just quickly, I want to respect your time.

Um, greatly appreciate mayor Harrell pushing this forward for us.

And, and, uh, also the council, or the committee for also agreeing to take up the issue.

I've had a chance to meet with Councilmember Strauss and Councilmember Nelson, and I've talked with Councilmember Saka's staff about an exciting opportunity in his district.

So there's a lot out there.

I'd look forward to talking to the rest of you, and I welcome any conversation.

Wonderful.

And colleagues, just so that we understand the next steps here, we will have this back in committee on July 2nd.

If you're able to have all of your questions answered between here and there, we'll take a vote.

I would recommend we take that course and use the intervening time to have your questions answered offline.

We do want to move quickly, but if you are not comfortable on the second, we will move.

still bring it forward so that you can ask more questions and we'll hold it until you're comfortable voting.

It does seem straightforward to me though.

Colleagues, are there any questions at this time?

Council President.

This is not a question, it's a statement.

I just, and I'll say it again, I am fully prepared to support this loan and it is, I believe it's in our best interest as council, even though we did put an alternative on the ballot.

It is in our best interest the PVA's best interest and the people of Seattle's best interest that we do everything that we can to set you up for success.

So thank you very much for coming today and I look forward to working with you down the line.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

I would respond that based on the article that was in the Times yesterday on the state of affordable housing, which is not just in Seattle, it's happening around the country and something I've been very concerned about, that's why I chose to come here.

and take over leadership of Seattle's social housing.

We can do a lot to help and support the industry as it is in the city.

And I just want to add on your point, Council President Nelson, in terms of setting them up for success.

I do also want to clarify that the social housing PDA absolutely is eligible for the affordable housing bonus contained in the mayor's proposed comprehensive plan.

I think there's some confusion around that, but we are agnostic around who participates in that bonus and the social housing developer is more than welcome and eligible to do so as long as they meet the affordability requirements that are outlined.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Rivera and then Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all for being here and nice to meet you and I hope I get to meet you.

one-on-one in a different setting or just in my office.

Well, one, on the mechanics of it, where's this money coming from, the loan that we're giving?

Yeah, so this is coming from the cash pool that we have.

So this is...

Is that reserves when you say cash?

Reserves out of the general fund, yes.

Sorry?

Reserves out of the general fund.

Okay, so general fund reserves.

And then obviously voters have spoken, and so, you know, we want to help set the PDA up for success because voters have spoken very clearly that they want this, and this is why they voted to have this...

revenue source for the PDA.

Roberto, would you mind telling us, just by way of background and anyone who might be watching, because there's a lot of questions around this, and I've heard you have extensive background in developing this type of affordable housing.

Can you talk a little bit about your background there?

Sure.

Since we're having this conversation, I just want to make sure that folks are aware of all the things that you've done, I think is important.

And also whether you think that the PDA will be able to stand up housing next year.

Like what are the, not extensive, because I know we don't have a lot of time, but just I think it's important.

I wanna do my due diligence to constituents by making sure we hear a little from you on this.

Thank you.

I've been in affordable housing for 20 years as a CEO and executive director.

I've worked in rural housing in Oregon, primarily with farm workers, and in California, in the capital district of the state, where I moved a very small agency, which is arguably one of the least productive affordable developers in the state to being number five at the point when I left seven years later.

They're currently at number three.

So high production is what I've been focused on for the last eight years, and I think that there's sufficient funds coming forward through the tax to leverage to do some serious real estate development within the city and to support this affordable development industry.

I've also been a property manager, and I've done that for 20 years.

I've only ever self-managed properties, and I spun off a property management company from a nonprofit into a separate nonprofit so that we could provide third-party services.

And I've also, all three of the agencies that I've run for the last 20 years have a board composition that's very similar to what this one is. 60% of the board are residents.

And in the case of these other two, there are residents who live in the housing.

And that will be the case going forward with Seattle Social Housing as well.

Thank you.

And I have other questions.

You brought up the article yesterday, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that and how we set affordable housing up in a way that is sustainable and successful long-term and not subject to some of the pitfalls we're seeing.

So I will schedule a meeting separately, Chair, because I know we don't have time today, but I think all these conversations are really important.

And thank you for sharing the extensive experience you have in this realm, and because I don't sit on the Housing and Human Services Committee, I'm not as well-versed and have the information, so I will hopefully have the opportunity to schedule something with you separately to find out more on this important, because I know we need affordable housing, and we want to make sure what we do fund is successful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

And yes to all of that, I'd definitely recommend requesting a meeting with every council member.

Council member Kettle, over to you.

We've got two minutes left on my extension, so my success is in your hands.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

I just want to welcome back Director Carnell, Ms. Vallis, and, of course, Ms. LeBrecq from Central Staff, but also extended welcome to our new chief executive, Jimenez.

Welcome here.

I think it's important that you be here and to start this dialogue and the relationship because, you know, I support social housing clearly.

I was in support of a different option.

So just be blunt about that.

But I've already met with Ms. McCoy from Housing Our Neighbors.

I shook her hand, I congratulate her.

Okay, let's make this happen.

And let's learn to be blunt from the mistakes of KCRHA.

And that's what we need to avoid.

And that kind of goes to setting up for success.

And that's why we passed the reform last fall related to KCRHA.

And I just wanted to also highlight, since I'm under very short time, is to highlight that I think that we really do need a Seattle Housing Plan for OH to go through the same process that SDOT does with the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We went through the budget process last year about creating a Seattle Housing Investment Plan.

because then this is how we can go through this, looking at revenues, looking at the options, affordable housing, social housing, all the different places, and then do it in a way that it's really clear to the public, kind of like how SDOT had to go through its different elements and so forth.

And I think this would be very helpful, because at the end of the day, we need to have the mix, social housing is part of that, and we need to be set up for successes.

And I often do this looking at this from public safety perspective with my committee, but we need to do it here too.

And so with that said, and that belief to set up for success, I welcome you and I look forward to any opportunity to meet with you and hopefully I'm under two minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

You are under two minutes by five seconds and Council Member Saka, I see you've got your hand.

Don't worry.

It's my fault.

Anyway, so back to you, Council Member Socke.

Mr. Chair, and I'll just be brief.

Unlike a few of my colleagues.

No, I just really wanted to thank everyone at the table today.

And just to note that you know, with respect to social housing, look forward to supporting and helping to implement from a city perspective, this new voter approved initiative.

CEO Jimenez, I note that, or you noted rather that you met with my office recently about a potential opportunity in D1.

Would love to, if you're a medical to have just a general intro meeting between me and you.

But anyways, just look forward to continuing to partner with you all to help us do more and deliver upon these commitments from voters or requests from voters.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sarkin.

I just want to say that it's through partnership and collaboration and strong communication that we can address this problem, and I really, again, appreciate Council Members being open to talking, and I look forward to talking with you.

Thank you.

With that, we're looking forward to continued conversations.

With that, there goes my perfect streak on having my committee end on time, and it's all my fault.

I will just say for the record that this does conclude the Wednesday, June 18th, 2025 Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee.

Our next Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governance Committee is Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025. Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Seeing none, we are adjourned.

Thank you.