Council Briefing 4/13/26

Okay, good afternoon, y'all.

Today is April 13th.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

It is 2.04 p.m.

Council Members Kettle, Council Member Rivera, and Council Member Strauss are excused.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Foster?

Here.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Council Member Lynn?

Here.

Council Member Rink?

Present.

And Council President Hollingsworth?

Here.

Six present.

No objection.

Minutes of March 30th will be adopted.

Hearing none.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

We'll jump right into the President's report.

There are no presentations or executive sessions scheduled for today.

There are two proclamations to sign today.

There are 25 items on the introduction and referral calendar, and there are two items on the consent calendar, the bills and minutes.

One thing I wanted to note, thank you.

Last time we had Council Huddle, we had Council Member Kettle participate.

This today, thank you Council Member Saka participating.

Colleagues, you can talk to the Council Members to see how they have received it, but it's a great opportunity to us to interact with the press, very conversational as well, and there are different time slots for people, so they're more than welcome to participate.

I think it's a great way for us to be interactive.

I know if anyone's hesitating, come on down.

It's often, we're gonna have it once a month.

So it's just free flowing and just thank you, Councilman Mursaka for your participation today.

Hopefully it was well worth it.

Absolutely.

Awesome.

Next thing, one note regarding- so there is a change on online public comment.

So last week we had some issues with our meeting on public comment.

It just completely collapsed.

So I want to thank our Information Technology Department for jumping in and fixing this so quickly.

So the city's council's online remote public comment registration form has been updated to comply with city standards.

This update has minimal effects to the public, and the council will be provided with a new link on how to access the list of registered speakers.

So how does this affect the public, which is the most important piece?

The online link to sign up for remote public comment has not changed.

It's the same.

One noticeable change is that the public will not see the remote public comment form directly into the website.

So there's a main public comment page which talks about different ways to give public comment.

It was embedded first within that link, you will now have to access on another link.

So people will be able to go on the main page, they will see it says, click this link to do a public comment, and then it will send them to a form where they can insert their information.

Those who sign up to speak will continue to receive a confirmation email with information and instructions on how to provide the remote public comment.

I know that there's going to be a nice video put out by our comms team walking people through this and just making sure people understand.

So it's very minimal effect to the public.

They'll see just a new interface, pretty simple, but they'll receive the same email to them, just giving them instructions to that.

I don't know if there's any questions regarding that, but happy to answer them.

And IT has been on top of it since last Thursday, since our system kind of failed.

So just update on that.

Other than that, we're gonna move on to the signing of letters and proclamations.

So today we have two proclamations for discussion and signature.

We'll begin with the proclamation from Council Member Rink recognizing October 14th, sorry, April 13th as the 51st anniversary of, what is that?

Thank you that you'll be able to help me pronounce it.

I don't want to butcher that.

Council Member Rink, please lead the discussion on the proclamation and any feedback before I request signatures.

Certainly.

Thank you, Council President.

So, colleagues, before you is a proclamation in observance of the 51st anniversary of the Khmer Rouge genocide.

Now, more than ever, we need to stand by, support, and uplift our immigrant and refugee communities, and so I'm honored to sponsor this proclamation in partnership with many of the organizations working with the Khmer diaspora.

Last year, I had the privilege of attending the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington's first-ever gala over at the Pacific Tower.

It was truly a beautiful event.

The work that they do supporting our Khmer seniors and small businesses, not just in Seattle but across Washington state, is truly incredible, and they're just one of the many organizations that will be speaking to the proclamation tomorrow at full council.

And so tomorrow we'll be hearing from the Cambodian American Advocacy for Peace Organization, Khmer Student Association, Khmer Anti-Deportation and Advocacy Group, and the Khmer Community of Seattle and King County, and Spine Urajana will all be joining us.

So just to reiterate a point, we know that we're a welcoming city.

It's a real special thing that we have a strong and thriving Cambodian community here in the city of Seattle.

and while tomorrow kick starts the first official day of Kamiya New Year, I know our community will be holding events throughout this year, throughout this year for us to join in on.

So looking forward to having folks in chambers to commemorate this important anniversary.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Rank.

Are there any comments on this proclamation before we ask for signatures?

Will the clerk please call the roll for council members to sign the proclamation?

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Six of the insurers will be affixed.

Thank you.

We're going to move on to our second proclamation.

Councilmember Foster has a proclamation recognizing April 11th to be Black Maternal Health Week.

Councilmember Foster.

Thank you so much, Council President.

So I'm excited to bring forth this proclamation recognizing April 11th through April 17th, 2026 as Black Maternal Health Week.

I'll be presenting this proclamation to community members at a later date, and I just want to share some information that I'm really excited to do this, not only because of my personal experience with this group and being a black mom, but also because we know that there continue to be disparities in birthing outcomes between black parents and other communities.

as well as a lot of work to do to honor the work and the importance of having black birth workers and doulas and the community organizations that support that work and that network.

So as we think about and work on advancing equity, dignity, and culturally grounded care, I'm excited to bring this forward.

I wanna do a huge shout out to Jackie Vaughn and Serge Reproductive Justice, I know Councilman Berlin had a great conversation with them, and that was part of what allowed us to bring this proclamation forward.

And this will be the first year that the city, the county, and the state all recognize Black Maternal Health Week, which I think is really exciting.

And then I'll just share my little personal bit, which is, you know, I've talked a bit about when I was pregnant and I had my son.

I was on Apple Health, which is our state-subsidized care program, and it was so hard to find a doula that qualified for that program.

and literally impossible to find a black doula that qualified for that program.

And so the work that the community organizations that we're gonna get to honor do is really important.

They've actually made great strides in allowing black birth workers to get additional, what's the word that I'm looking here?

It's not stipend, but additional funding support to expand the pool of black doulas so that folks don't have those same challenges.

So this is really exciting for me to bring forward.

I had a doula.

But I don't even want to know what the old school was.

I'll catch you after counsel and ask you.

Are there any comments regarding the proclamation at all?

All right, so we'll take the roll on signing the pro...

Thank you, Councilmember Foster for bringing this.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Wires?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Six signatures will be affixed.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster and Councilmember Rink for both of your proclamations.

Now we're going to move right into the next agenda item, which is preview of actions, council, and regional committees, and we'll just go to their right.

Is that cool?

Councilmember...

Warren, surprise, you were number one, baby.

Thank you.

Two minutes.

Two minutes.

Let's just get the timer going.

I'm still ruling from the doula thing, but I'm going to let that go.

That is you all.

The old school had to walk to school 20 miles in the snow.

Thank you, Council President.

So this is going to be...

I'm going to try to be brief, but I have a little bit of a long window, but that's going to come in a little bit.

Parks, City Light Committee, Parks and City Light Committee meeting is canceled this week, and the schedule relicensing agreement, which was passed by full council, the $4 billion package, thank you all, is scheduled to be signed on May 12th, and I understand it will be in the mayor's office, and I think we will find out where exactly in the mayor's office.

Last week we met with, Council President was there, Director Chappelle of Deal, Council President and staff and central staff members Jasmine and Tracy, met with our office to discuss how the city can provide more support for our black scholars.

As I said, we met in the Sam Smith Room.

It was a working meeting, two-hour meeting, which was great.

a future resolution, budget items, and work with the mayor's office and deal.

And this is my prepared statement, then I have a little more I want to add to that because I wanted to make sure I got this on the record and I got it correct.

Seattle has a long history of committing to support and uplift historically underserved and under-resourced communities, and this has become even more critical as the federal government continues to cut support for students of color, especially in post-secondary education.

we need to create educational spaces that increase community belonging and support for our amazing and motivated students and foster culturally aligned post-secondary learning communities.

Now this is what I wanted to add more of a personal note, which we can give you some more information later.

We know that institutions, pre-K, K-12, higher education, post-secondary, that when you value the culture, the faith, the history, and background of our children, our youth, when it's expressed in actual brick and mortar, that our children and our youth do better.

They do better academically, where schools celebrate and operate who they are, I'm sorry, incorporate who they are, and research, as you all know, backs this up.

Our children shouldn't have to leave home Seattle to get a first-class education from an institution based on those principles, morals, beauty, intelligence, and what they know to be is what we would call sensibilities.

We need more than just soft support.

We need more than just what's politically palatable.

Accountability and support is expressed in institutions.

Real brick and mortar, a place you can point to, be proud of, that says, I'm here, I belong here, and this is ours.

So that being said, you'll hear more from me and, of course, Council President on our work that we're doing with Dr. Chappelle at Deal.

and exploring more opportunity for a potential HBCU or a PBI, a predominantly black institution, and working with the mayor's office in Oakland, Mayor Lee.

More to come on that.

Also, our office attended the reopening of the Refugee Arson Initiative, RAI.

It's newly renovated in Lake City Way.

and at RAI, artisans overcome barriers to employment through skills and micro-business training and this is a really success story.

I remember the first time I did my very first budget back in 2016. These were one of the first community groups that we funded and now I have that basically not only have a grand reopening, they reopened their space.

I think they went from like four women and two sewing machines to something like 40 women and something like 30 sewing machines.

Ended up doing all the costumes for Seattle Repertory Theater, the opera.

I mean, it's just been amazing watching this.

And we've gone to their dinner and their luncheon just about every year.

So this week, I got a chance to meet, I hope he's watching, with our new director, Director Whitson of Central Staff.

And we'll be meeting again, and we've been in discussions, obviously, with Francisca Mernin, the Tribal Relations Director at OIR.

She's hosting the City of Portland's new Tribal Relations Manager, Gerald Skeleton Jr., at Seattle City Hall on Friday.

and as you know, Portland based their Indigenous Advisory Council on Seattle's.

So that is, it was wonderful for them to reach out to us when we created the IAC four years ago.

Mr. Skelton is a member of the Klamath Tribe.

He previously served as a director of the Klamath Tribes Culture and Heritage Department and also played a key role in advancing salmon restoration on the Klamath River, including international advocacy in Edinburgh and London.

and let's see what else is there.

Oh, now this is not my, well, I'm gonna read what was put down here, but this is interesting.

I am joining to discuss all things city tribal relations and information sharing across municipalities and discuss tribal and urban native engagement.

Basically, I'm meeting with him to talk about how Portland and Seattle can work together.

Boom, okay, we're done.

and just on a side note, I hesitated with this, but then I know that I shared this with Professor, not Professor, Dr. Chappelle and Council President because I thought it was important and I know that we're gonna do something a little bit more formal down the road, but on March 26, 2026, the United Nations, the General Assembly for the first time declared slavery as the greatest, gravest crime against humanity.

It's interesting, it's seven pages long, but of the resolution of all the countries in the world that belong to the United Nations, 123 countries voted yes, 52 countries abstained, and three countries voted no.

I won't tell you the three countries that voted no.

But what's in it, when you read it, besides...

I mean, I worked at the UN, believe it or not, at one time.

I don't know how you can codify or write or put ink on paper to recognize, as they say, how little is known about the 400-year-long transatlantic slave trade, but I think what I found the most provocative and profound is the combining of slavery, deportation, and colonization as crimes against humanity together.

is having it talk about reparations and repair, and not just in terms of what we normally hear when people talk about reparations.

Reparations means repair, which means accountability, which means apology, do something.

And so looking at this and reading it and understanding how they pulled this together and then having certain countries vote no.

But I think the thing that struck me the most is one of the most, well, all of it's powerful.

It's only seven pages if you get a chance to read it.

I think the thing that caught my heart and mind and soul the most is the very end when it says, it calls upon member states individually and collectively to engage in inclusive good faith dialogue, repertory justice, including a full and formal apology.

measures of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, guarantees of non-repetition, and changes to laws, programs, and services to address racism and systemic discrimination.

And of the three countries that voted no, our country was one of them.

So that being said, that doesn't take away from our humanity and what we know to be true and what to be right.

So with that, I hope to, with Council President later on down the road, advance a resolution recognizing, oh, I'm so sorry, recognizing this resolution.

That was just my daughter that I had without a doula.

So that being said, I will end on that note.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

I have to interject some humor.

Sometimes you have to have Indian humor.

You gotta laugh at some stuff.

Thank you.

Council Member Sokka.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon.

On the STEPS Committee front, or more formally, the Transportation Waterfront and Seattle Center Committee, I'm gonna actually accept the...

two-minute challenge here.

I'll be brief.

So on Thursday is our Next Steps meeting.

I have a very exciting, robust, jam-packed agenda.

First, we're going to be hearing briefing and then vote on a resolution.

to name the 2800 block of South Jackson Street after Dr. R.L. Manoway, Sr.

Dr. Manoway has been a senior pastor at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church on the corner of 28th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in the CD since 1983. So we're going to hear that resolution.

The next item, we're going to have another traffic safety briefing and update from the department.

and which I expect a lot of engagement from you all colleagues, really important because I know it's important to you all as well.

And then third and finally, we're going to have just a general overview briefing from the Seattle Office of the Waterfront who have not been able yet to come before committee now that they are under the portfolio and so just general overview to talk about.

They're a great work, mission, role.

organization, et cetera.

So those three things, a minute and 10 seconds.

A little bit of time, I'll just note on the...

I appreciate both Councilmembers Rink and Foster for bringing forth your proclamations on the proclamation that you brought forward, Councilmember Foster.

Good to know about the struggles of finding black doulas.

I didn't even know that was a challenge.

Sadly, I'm not surprised or shocked, because as a parent of kids of African descent.

It's challenging to find pediatricians who are black, especially in West Seattle.

We had one in West Seattle that recently left elsewhere.

So I get it.

Struggles are real.

But thank you for bringing those forward.

I'm out of time.

Boom, done.

Drop the mic.

On to the next.

This is Councilmember Saka.

I'm impressed.

Seriously.

All right, Councilmember Lynn.

All right.

Thank you, colleagues.

I will also keep this brief.

This coming week in land use, we're going to have a couple bills.

We're going to introduce the mayor's shelter legislation, so that will come forward for the first time, and then we also have housing opportunities legislation.

So this is legislation that was prepared by the prior administration that had completed environmental review, and so that is coming forward.

It includes a few targeted rezones in certain areas.

There's one in Fremont.

There's one in Belltown.

There's Rainier Beach.

There's also various incentives for Passive House, for Crossland Manning and Timber.

There's an incentive in Lake City for grocery stores with housing on top.

So again, this was work that was prepared by the prior administration, never introduced, and so that will be coming forward.

So excited to have that briefing.

And that's all I got for today.

Wow.

Y'all are fast today.

Don't worry, I got it.

Y'all are making music.

We did have a doula for our first.

It was great.

She about to come for pediatricians next, okay.

Did you just, she acting like she just gave birth on the ground in the backyard?

Old school, old school.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Lynn.

Council Member Rank.

Well, now I feel like it's a competition.

I will also be brief.

The Human Services Labor Economic Development Committee meeting will meet this Friday, 9.30 a.m.

April 17th.

We will have appointments from the Music Commission.

There will be a briefing also on their body of work.

And then we'll have a briefing discussion on the Labor Standards Advisory Board, and then a briefing and discussion on workforce development, the Workforce Development Strategic Plan Overview from the Office of Economic Development.

So really excited for that briefing and discussion.

Just to highlight a couple of community events, my office partnered with the Office of Labor Standards to hold a couple of workshops last week alongside domestic workers who worked with a number of organizations engaged and talked through some potential changes to the domestic workers' ordinance for our city.

As we know, the state took action in the state legislative session.

That state legislation doesn't go into effect until next year, but an opportunity to revisit ours to talk about what it would mean to bring into compliance or explore some new avenues to just improve that legislation.

So I was proud to partner in two sections, one in person, one virtual.

really robust discussion.

I was also able to join at the Refugee Artisans Initiative event.

Yes, it was really a beautiful event.

It feels like it was just yesterday, they were like, I was bashing in a wall at the groundbreaking event, if you will.

But really incredible organization.

Just to put a finer point on that, it was really profound how one of the women who works there actually shared with the audience that she has just been offered a full-time role, full-time employment at another business, which is really exciting and just speaks to, again, the incredible workforce development work and opportunities this organization is providing for women.

I was also able to join for the St. Luke's grand opening, which is out in Ballard.

So we're talking about new family-sized housing opportunity, affordable housing out in Ballard.

Really the religious institutions bonus legislation at work.

Family-sized housing, we're talking one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedrooms.

And notably, families are already moved which is just really exciting.

So we got to take a look at just a couple of the units, but most of the units are now moved in.

And so that's just really exciting when we're talking about affordable family-sized housing out in Ballard.

And I'm sure Councilmember Strauss, when he comes back, will have more to speak to that.

But it was great to celebrate him and also his hard work to bring that project to fruition.

And I'll close with just a community visit that I had that was particularly profound and important for me.

Colleagues, thank you again for Signing onto the proclamation to recognize April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I was able to visit last week with the Community Sexual Assault Program and Crime Victim Service Center at Harborview, and was able to visit alongside just with some of our partners at UW Medicine to really offer their proclamation.

They were unable to join us in council chambers, so I wanted to bring one of the signed proclamations, but also meet with the folks who run that program who really perform a vital role in the criminal legal system when it comes to data collection, evidence collection, I should say, so sane kits.

but also they do a lot of work on the prevention front as well.

And so would just encourage if you haven't had a chance to meet with them or work with them yet, they're doing really important work for our community and supporting survivors.

And those are my updates for today.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rank.

Any questions for Councilmember Rank?

Councilmember Foster.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much.

Actually, maybe I'll just pick up on the St. Luke's grand opening, because I was there as well.

I'm just going to do a shout-out to Councilmember Strauss really quickly.

One of the stories that somebody said on the mic, the Reverend from St. Luke's talked about the, I think it was the So the first week Dan got in office, she called him with three things and this was one of the things.

So it was really beautiful to see that come to fruition and also really beautiful to get to listen to Councilmember Strauss as somebody who grew up in Ballard talk about what it meant to him.

I was totally blown away.

That building is gorgeous.

We got to go up to the roof.

We got to visit the units.

But what really stuck with me that day was the Reverend's leadership from St. Luke's and Councilmember Strauss's leadership.

So that was fantastic.

I'm glad you brought that up.

Alright, it's been a couple weeks since we've been at the table, since we weren't here last week, so I won't do all of my things, but I'll just share some highlights.

I did a ride-along with SPD in East Precinct, which was a really fantastic opportunity, so I want to thank the officer for spending time with me and the chief in leadership for setting that up.

especially as we hear concerns around public safety it was really helpful to get to spend that time and frankly the officer was very forthcoming and we just got to have some really great conversations so that was fantastic I want to thank Councilmember Juarez and Councilmember Rink your staff for the meeting that we had together in Lake City a few weeks ago with some of the small business owners and community members as well as the Mayor's Office and OED a big focus there on neighborhood investment for the long term and the needs around public safety were very clear and also the community was just really clear about how excited they are and the vision that they have for their small business community there.

So that was fantastic.

Y'all, I did a tour of the zoo, okay?

I think we've all done this tour of the zoo as they're working on their long range strategic plan.

And that was fantastic.

We got to feed the rhino, loved that.

And I got to feed, oh.

Well, everyone didn't get to feed the rhino.

Okay, so that was really great.

So thank you to them for spending the time.

And we also know they've got a long range plan that'll come in front of us soon.

So that was important to get to see some of their facilities and they're gonna be reopening one of the facilities that burnt down a few years ago.

So we got to see that.

So that was great.

Yes.

I had a great meeting with Downtown Seattle Association particularly focused on shelter acceleration and want to thank the Meals Coalition for coming in and meeting with my team about their important work and lastly I spent Saturday on a walk with the ReConnect Fremont folks so that was great we got to see some of the opportunities for better pedestrian connection and pedestrian safety there so Looking forward to getting the update and want to thank you, Council Member Sacco, for continuing to put pedestrian safety in your committee.

Last update, Council Member Lynn already mentioned that we will have the shelter legislation coming up this week.

Colleagues, I wanna make sure that you have the timeline for amendments for that.

I believe my team walked the floor and checked in with folks today, so amendments, if you have them, are due on the 22nd.

We will have discussion on amendments on the 29th, and then we will vote on the legislation in committee on the 6th.

of May, that's correct.

So we'll continue to reiterate those timelines for folks if you have them, but we're excited to bring this up and feel really excited about what we will be presenting on Wednesday.

And I'll talk more on Wednesday about some of the pre-introduction edits that folks will see with that legislation.

Yeah, absolutely.

First of all, thank you, Councilman Foster, for being so good about talking to all of us about the shelter legislation when all this started.

And I think one of the conversations, I don't know if, I don't think you were in that conversation, but we were having with the mayor's office, and one of the questions that was put to me is like, what's it gonna take to get you to yes?

and my response was, I think we're all at yes, we just wanna know how the mayor got there, how the mayor's office got to the factors and how they cite tiny house villages and I think that's where we had the discussion of looking at the maps, looking at how many tiny house villages are in each district, looking at the top 15 neighborhoods in Seattle and whether or not, and most expensive neighborhoods in which they're within a five mile radius, no tiny house villages.

and the expansion from seven factors to 21 factors.

So my answer for everyone listening, for God and everybody, was I have never been at no.

I know my colleagues have never been at no.

We've always just wanted to know how did you get their mayor's office, especially since we're transitioning to a new administration.

Some of the policies I don't completely agree with, but that's neither here nor there, because at the end of the day, of course we want to house people that need that.

But I want to thank you for doing the leadership that I've watched you grow into.

And I'm not speaking in a derogatory or minimizing way.

It's more of a way of really watching you express shared leadership, which you don't normally see in an Anglo-Western concept.

it's mainly hierarchical.

And so to have someone with your caliber taking the time to go in everyone's office, talk to them citywide, districtwide, and also about transportation spines and what services and what transportation spines are there and how close services are not only to tiny house villages, but to permanent supportive housing and other areas of housing private.

So it isn't just tiny house villages that the City of Seattle is overseeing with operators.

It's the county, it's churches.

We've seen that in other places.

A good example is Share Wheel.

They rely on the good worth and faith of religious institutions to allow them to site there.

And also, you taking the time along with Council President, and I really appreciate this, to look at the contracts that the operators have, the critical response incident reports that are required, and also our public record, the good neighbor agreements, which needed to be.

And as someone has, and again, just because I've been here, is I watched the transition from HSD when the Keene County Regional Housing was created, how some of those contracts migrated over to Keene County Regional Housing, but really weren't changed.

and I said before, and I'll say it again on the record, the folks that we were dealing with in 2015 are different than the folks that we're dealing with in 2026 for many reasons besides fentanyl and meth, but also in regards to crime and predatory behavior, vulnerability, but also for the folks that actually live in those, I was saying encampments, sanctioned, unsanctioned, tiny house, village, you name it.

So I just want to thank you for your leadership.

It really means a lot.

And I got seven months here and I hope before I go that we wrap all this stuff up and we can see success for all of us.

So thank you.

Thank you for that, Councilmember Juarez.

I appreciate that.

And even when you're calling me Councilmember Dula, I don't feel like it's derogatory.

I feel like it's done in love.

No, I'm teasing, but I appreciate that.

Thank you for saying that, Councilmember Juarez.

My team has been, and I will just say I'm really grateful to my team who's been working really hard and just appreciate them and their work and getting into the details.

And we've had some really good conversations with to KCRHA as a KCRHA board member about the requirements that are already in those KCRHA contracts and trying to make sure that we have continuity and clarity, which I think is really helpful for not just, it's helpful for both the providers and the council members to see that we can have that same clear standard when it gets into contracting.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

And I'm going to jump right into Councilmember Strauss's notes.

He gave them to me to read, so here they are.

Let's see if I can do these in two minutes.

The Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee approved three pieces of legislation that will be coming to full council tomorrow.

This includes two pieces of shelter legislation, Council Bill 121184, Council Bill 121185, This deals with FAS Director Signing Authority and budget aspects of the bill.

We will also have Council Bill 121187, which is our standard quarter one grants acceptance ordinance.

Councilmember Strauss held a special meeting on March 30th and April 21st, meeting of the committee.

excuse me, held a special meeting March 30th and the April 21st meeting of the committee will be canceled.

The next meeting will be May the 5th.

Revenue forecast, the economic and revenue forecast council also received an updated revenue forecast.

On Friday, the council adopted the baseline forecast The full Council forecast is available online, and the presentation was recorded by Seattle Channel.

Top line, revenues are mostly flat, but there is a lot of uncertainty due to the U.S.-Iran war, rising oil prices, and some other factors that could increase the chances of a recession.

District 6 and more, Dan also hosted his weekly office hours last week to meet directly with constituents, and that is the update from D6.

Councilmember Strauss.

Our next, now moving, any questions for, well, I can't answer the questions, but sorry.

Okay, the next governance and utilities, I would refer them to Councilmember Strauss.

Utilities Committee is May 14th, 9.30 a.m.

We are going to hear the second stormwater code legislation that is coming down from SPU.

It's an update, so we had the first one.

We're going to hear the second one.

Coming to full council are three appointments for the Seattle Elections Ethics Committee that are coming out of our committee, an SPU easement on North East 91st, and then an SPU pump station property agreement, which is pump station number four.

I also want to thank and big shout out Councilmember Saka for the legislation for Pastor Mantaway, the street renaming in your committee and working with your office side by side.

So thank you for that collaboration early on and getting it into your committee, so thank you on that one.

Also, the Regional Water Quality Committee.

I know I sit on that with Councilmember Lynn.

I'll just be super transparent and frank.

The City of Seattle cannot absorb double-digit increases for the next six years.

for four years and then dropping it to 11%.

It's 25% of your water bill is from the wastewater from King County.

It will double your bill with these increases and completely unattainable, and city residents cannot absorb that at all.

That is just pushing back verbally.

I've done it in meetings.

I'm going to do it now publicly.

It is something that I do not think residents can absorb, and there is no amount of relief for the programs that we currently have at SPU that can help alleviate that cost for residents.

And so that's something that we are watching closely, that we sit on the committee.

It's something that the Regional Water Quality Committee has been talking about just as we're thinking about affordability and that piece.

We cannot handle double-digit increases for the next six years for our residents at all, full stop.

Next, sorry, as we're transitioning.

Sorry, I went a little hard there.

Well, there's not.

It's 20% of your water bill.

And so residents, the first thing they're going to say is, Seattle has raised your water bill.

And that is not the case.

We have rates that are about 5% every year over year, and we vote on rates two to three years, and we have a plan.

what King County is proposing is not sustainable at all.

And so that's something that I'll be advocating and be very loud about as we are trying to navigate this.

Council Member Rank.

Thank you for bringing this up, Council President.

If you can just walk us through quickly, like, what the decision making is.

I haven't sat on RWQC, nor your committee, and so I'm just trying to understand the relationship and decision making.

So does RWQC vote on a recommendation that goes to King County Council?

That is correct.

And then King County Council votes on the rates.

And so my ask to our King County Council members and working with them, and they've been great.

Chair Balducci has been phenomenal ushering this.

There's not one person that's like, yeah, you know, rates need to increase.

We've asked for a number of things of planning.

So not just one year, getting rates every one year, having a plan so we can understand, you know, the increases that are coming over multiple years.

But the current proposal that's in front of us of the double digits for the next six years is something that I am pushing back heavily on.

So I don't want to speak for Council Member Lynn or anything.

I know he sits on the committee as well.

Councilmember Lin.

Oh, I was just going to say, this issue is not just affecting Seattle residents.

I mean, these charges get passed on to other jurisdictions as well, so it's certainly a region-wide issue that somehow I do think we collectively need to get our arms around.

I don't think there's any easy answers to these rising costs on drainage and wastewater, but it's certainly, I don't know if we need help from state partners, or what the solution is.

But we, at a minimum, need better long-term planning.

But, yeah, with rising costs, it's directly, you know, going to impact all of our affordability goals.

Awesome.

Thank you for that, Council Member Lynn.

We're not voting on it yet.

We've been getting updates.

We wrote a letter.

So we just want better long-term planning from our county partners, and I know they do too.

It's not easy, any answer.

but I think the current proposal at hand is something that's not sustainable for residents at all.

So I'll say that, yeah, you love writing letters, clearly.

So, sorry.

Last but not least, I will say that I want to thank you all, colleagues, for your work and diligence on the mayor's shelter legislation.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

I know you've been ushering people through.

I know, Councilmember Sokka, you were at the announcement.

and Councilmember Strauss hosted a special meeting to get it through.

You're hosting it in your committee.

This has been a team-wide effort on this process.

This has been an engagement on the Council's part.

We are ready to engage on this topic of getting people housed.

The legislation, to me, is one of the easiest parts.

It is the implementation that is one of the hardest parts that we're gonna see in the next couple months on how this is going to be implemented.

And I just wanted to make sure, for the record, that Council has done everything in its power to move this legislation very swiftly, on a very tight timeline, and we've made a lot of concessions on this council deferring it to committee, finding sponsors, special meetings for committee, making sure central staff was engaging on the process before it was sent down to understand what was being cooked up, before it was sent to us, and us getting it, and just having better lines of communication with our executive, and just, you know, those are growing pains that we all have.

Anyways, I just wanted to say that for the record, because anything that has any comment that could make it seem like council has been slowing down anything, completely pushed back on.

at all.

And you can talk to every single colleague on here, because we have all made a valiant effort to get stuff pushed through and to make sure that we are also getting properly cited shelters that are going to be successful.

I think that is the key.

It's not about the speed of stuff.

It is getting stuff properly cited so they can be successful.

So everyone will say, I would like this in my neighborhood, right?

Or we welcome this.

This makes our neighborhood safer.

We want to get people off the street and house and be successful.

So you gotta, there's a process to that.

So anyways, wanted to make sure that I said that before I ended any comments.

Council Member Juarez.

Council President, you said something, and I think we talked a little bit about this offline, I know Councilman Foster and I did, on the good neighbor agreements.

You had some thoughts about that.

Would you mind sharing just a little bit for...

I'm sorry, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I think some of what you shared with me was pretty, was obviously not only well articulated, but for leadership purposes, gave us some direction, what you were thinking as Council President.

Yeah, so I think we've all had, I don't want to say concerns, but we've all experienced different feedback from neighborhoods when there might be some type of issue going on in the neighborhood.

The first thing that neighborhoods ask, well, who can we contact?

Is there a contact on site?

Is there an email?

Is there a number?

You know, someone that we can say, like, hey, this is what's going on in our neighborhood, to be able to, you know, some issues that are presented.

and our good neighborhood agreements, a lot of them are different per provider.

They're different for department.

They might be different at King County Regional Homeless Authority, might have stuff that's different than our Human Services Department.

They're different at King County.

They're all over the place.

One of the things that we want to make sure that we are doing is who is the point of contact per shelter that is there a 24-hour line that someone can call and get a person, not an AI, but get an actual person if there's issues that are happening in the neighborhood.

How often are shelters or providers meeting with neighborhoods to tell them, hey, here's what's going on.

This is the safety precautions we're putting.

Just giving people update, just having that connection with folks.

This isn't something where we're gonna say, you're gonna get your funding cut if you don't do this and this and this.

That's not what we're saying.

We're actually asking for better open lines of communication with our providers and the neighborhoods, so it's not the council member at 10, 12 p.m., getting a call on your city line regarding certain things, and then you're calling the police.

And, you know, we're cutting the middle folks out so folks can have direct access to these providers and people on site so they can address their concerns.

And I don't want to belabor the point, but I do want to point this out because you brought this up before, Council President, and this is what briefing is about.

And I'm enjoying that we're back at the old style of briefing where we can actually be conversational and talk and talk to Council Member Foster about this.

On the critical incident report, there are two schedules.

In Schedule 1, you have to report within 24 and 48 hours, and those are like serious crimes.

And Schedule 2 are also serious, but they're quarterly.

And I want to thank Council Member Strauss for taking our amendments and incorporating them that the committee passed them, that those should be reported monthly to the district in which those tiny houses are situated.

But I think as electeds and with our constituents as well, we're not just protecting, obviously, the people who live around tiny house villages, but those that live in them who are the most vulnerable.

and are preyed upon.

So drilling down on the critical incident reports in the type of Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 reporting requirements, which are required by law of the operator because they signed the contract, I want to thank both of you for taking the opportunity, taking the time to look at the material that I provided you to say this is what's required and not making it sound like we're adding additional requirements or you're going to get your funding cut if you don't do that.

because these are serious crimes that are happening inside and outside of the tiny house, besides sex trafficking and homicides and gunshots and all that.

By law, there's certain things you must report.

But before this, we weren't aware unless we asked.

Nobody just, no one gave them to us, even though they're public records.

So that's all I was trying to drill down on is live up to the contract that you signed and the reporting requirements to the city in that particular district, like you said.

So you're not getting that call as a council member on your work phone saying, hey, there's been a shooting.

What are you doing about it?

And this happened and nobody's there to pick up the phone.

So thank you.

I thought you were going to say something.

Oh, no.

Yeah, I was going to jump in on this.

I was like, oh, good.

Thank you.

Yeah, sorry.

Okay, thank you for that.

I just wanted to say, and I sort of felt like I alluded to this earlier when I was mentioning confirming things with KCRHA, because we had that conversation with them about the critical incident reports, and those are things that the providers do report to, as you mentioned, already report to KCRHA, but I think part of the challenge has been that if you're a member of the public, you probably go to your council member, not to the KCRHA administrator.

And so I think through council members having that information available, we can then respond to folks and be better able to do our jobs and shorten down that constituent response time when we do get those inquiries.

and then I just wanted to say, because I don't think you were implying this, so I'm just gonna say it anyways.

You know, I think, well, let me back up.

You know, there's one, two, I would say that can walk to three tiny houses from where I live in South Seattle.

And one of them's about to open, so I'll count it though with three.

And I think it's really important, like we've walked, some of them have moved around and we've walked and brought things over there.

There's tons of kids who live in one of them.

The kids are always out playing.

We'll see them out.

So I think it's important to say a lot of the different tiny house villages have different populations and different communities within them.

Some may be serving high acuity, some may be serving lower acuity, and that's just gonna be different across the board.

And so I do think sometimes one of the things that happens inadvertently is when we're talking about the critical incident reports or some of the places where we've had violence or other things happening that it may sound like we are implying that happens at every location, and we're not, right?

But we're saying we want to make sure that we have that information available so that we can then be responsive.

So it just felt important for me to, like, state it that way.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I think, and I'm so glad you said that, because we know how people take our words and they, you know, whatever.

But I will say that, from my understanding, the first 500 shelters are reserved.

Not to say are reserved, but, you know, a priority is high acuity folks.

And so that...

I even changed my amendments to families and children for the first 1,000 shelters, so we wouldn't bind the executive on, you know, identifying those for the first 500, but just giving a little bit of runway as we were building these up.

But from my understanding, you know, prioritize their people.

Mayor's office is prioritizing high acuity.

It's very different, that demographic.

And so that's why there were I know I had questions about, hey, how are we implementing these and what what precautions are we doing to make sure that we have the wraparound services for folks?

Because there's a great tiny home village in South Seattle right behind the Rainer Valley Food Bank that is women and children and families.

So every tiny home is very different, the population, so I'm glad you pointed that, Councilmember Foster, and then understanding what has been prioritized by the executive or has been said prioritized for the initial first 500, which those are what we were talking about, what was in front of us right now in terms of expediting those.

I just wanted to clarify.

They're all different, and I know it's a lot.

We're talking all wonky stuff, so anyways.

Any other follow-up or anything?

Awesome.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so is there any other business to come before the group before we end our meeting?

Okay, awesome.

Y'all, I'm very shocked.

Two minutes per person.

Y'all, you can count.

Council member Saka came through.

He came through, put on a timer, and sat it down.

Okay, it is 2.54 p.m.

Our meeting's adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.