Economic Development, Technology & City Light Committee - Public Hearing 4/12/23

Good morning, everybody.

This is the April 12th 2023 meeting of the Economic Development, Technology and City Light Committee.

My name is Sarah Nelson, chair of the committee.

It is 9 32 and this meeting will come to order.

I will note that council member Strauss is Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

I see Council Member Herbold is there, I didn't.

Yes, I heard him.

Okay, great.

And Chair Nelson.

Present.

That is four present, one excused.

Thank you very much.

And I note that Councilmember Lewis, who is not a member of the committee, has joined us or will be joining us, and happy to have him as well.

So there are 11 items on today's agenda, and the first 10 will be appointments to the new Seattle Film Commission, on which we'll hold a briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

And the last item is a public hearing briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120537, establishing a new 10-year business improvement area to be known as the Metropolitan Improvement District, or MID.

All right, absent any objection, the items will be heard in that order on the agenda.

And hearing no objection, the agenda is approved.

With that, we'll move into our public comment on items listed on the agenda.

Speakers will be called in the order registered.

And if you have not yet registered to speak, you can sign up for public comment until the whole public comment period has concluded.

And you can do that by registering online for remote public comment or for in-person public comment.

And there are sheets up here.

And please note that we do have a public comment period in a public hearing for the mid later on.

We will allow public comment if you can't wait that long, but please note that if you do want to speak to the mid, you will not be on the official record unless you speak during the public hearing section.

All right, let's see.

Here's the sign up sheet, okay.

With that, we'll start the public comment period with in-person commenters.

There are, let's see, 11 people on the list to speak for public comment and everyone will have two minutes and then we'll proceed to the online commenters as well.

The first speaker on our list is Kate Becker, and then that will be followed by Reza Marashi and Sean Blackwell.

Come on up.

Welcome, Kate.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council Member.

Good morning, all.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited to be here with you to thank you for your great leadership and work to see Seattle's first film commission.

I once had the honor of serving on the city's inaugural music commission and later served as the director of the Seattle office of film and music for more than five years.

Currently I'm the creative economy director and King County executive Dow Constantine's office.

And I lead the county's creative economy initiative including the county's film initiative.

I have long believed that the city could benefit immensely from establishing a film commission.

Having the knowledge of the film industry directly informing the city's policy and initiative development will contribute to growing equitable opportunities both for businesses and for workers.

I have reviewed the bios of the film commission nominees and this looks to be a very knowledgeable group of people to comprise the inaugural film commission.

Congratulations everyone.

In addition to everything the city aspires to achieve with its new commission, it is a notable moment in time, unlike any we have experienced as long as I've been in Seattle, and I've been here a long time.

With the city launching the new film commission and the state launching the most significant incentives in our state's history for film, and the county developing Harbor Island Studios, the first large scale sound stages we've had in this region since Northern Exposure left in 1995, This is really an exciting moment to collectively drive forward this industry that can thrive when it has public sector support.

There's no doubt that the cast and crews locally are up for the job.

They've proven their resilience, as many film professionals have had to learn how to weather the lean seasons of film work here.

Working together, we can give this industry the focus it needs to be more competitive.

Now that we have this moment to collectively move forward with telling our stories, generating jobs, local economic opportunity, is that my time?

As well as learning opportunities for talent pipeline development, let's not waste it.

At King County, we have a dedicated group of 15 film professionals who comprise the Executives Film Advisory Board and have worked closely with us on the development of the King County Film Initiative over the past three years.

These advisors are deeply committed to growing our local industry, as is Executive Constantine and many of my colleagues at King County.

Together, we can drive forward to create opportunities where opportunities have not existed before.

At King County, we stand at the ready to partner with you at the city in pursuit of a new day for our local film industry.

Congratulations, everyone.

Thank you, Kate.

I neglected to read the line that you will hear a chime and that tells you that you have 10 seconds left.

All right, our next speaker is Reza followed by Sean.

Hello, council members.

My name is Reza Marashi from Kilroy Realty Corporation, and my comments are in support of renewing the Metropolitan Improvement District, which is agenda item 11. As part of my testimony, I'm honored to submit a letter of support from 94 organizations and 116 individuals, all urging the council to renew the MID.

This letter was signed by a broad cross section of folks that care about the future of our city.

It includes the backing of sous chefs CEOs, small business owners, restaurant tours, associate deans, directors and managers, leaders from the low income Housing Institute, Downtown Emergency Services Center, Fair Start, King County Downtown Public Health Center, SEIU 775, and United Way of King County are part of a diverse base of organizations representing nonprofits, public health, hotels, higher education, the arts, developers, and neighborhood groups both within and outside of the mid-boundary.

This letter articulates a unified and clear message.

Success of our downtown depends on the renewal of this ordinance under consideration today.

If for some reason you're hesitant, reauthorize the MID, ask yourself a simple question.

What would downtown be like without the MID?

You don't have to think back very far to answer that question.

Three years ago after the pandemic hit and the city was essentially shut down, encampments proliferated, trash accumulated, and public safety deteriorated.

Everyone here remembers what that looked like.

Poor services provided by the MID seven days a week, 362 days a year have been indispensable to the city's revitalization efforts by removing trash and graffiti, clearing sidewalks, coordinating with agencies and service providers who help our city's most vulnerable population, and providing security for residents, workers, and visitors during a time when the Seattle Police Department faces a critical staffing shortage.

Simply put.

recovery progress would not be at the level it's at today without the MID.

Please reauthorize the MID for another 10 years.

Doing so will ensure a healthy, vibrant downtown for all.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much.

And just a reminder that we do have public hearing on the renewal of the MID.

So I would invite you, if you would like to have your comments registered on the public hearing record, you can basically just say your name and then refer to your earlier comments if you can stay.

And anyone else who wishes to speak to the MID, I encourage you to wait until the actual public hearing, but you don't have to.

So go ahead.

Let's see, Sean and then Tom Graf.

Hello, council members.

My name is Sean Blackwell.

I live in Belltown and work for PDA, Public Defender Association, now known as Purpose Dignity Action, as a lead project manager.

I also work on the Third Avenue Project as a project manager.

My comments are in support of renewing the Metropolitan Improvement District agenda item number 11. As I said, I live in Belltown.

You know, the mid is, you know, a group of folks that I see on a regular basis every day, and the mid improves my immediate neighborhood and impacts my day to day experiences.

perception of the city and my health.

Um, we all have a sense of what downtown would look like if the mid weren't here.

Um, it'd be a completely different place.

Um, and that would be different in terms of our experience, our perception and our wellbeing of the city and our health.

Um, when you go out, the first thing you see oftentimes are made ambassadors.

Um, as folks were saying earlier today, and you always see them busy, they're active, they're.

You know, engaging in their work but if you walk up to them and try to have a conversation.

They're really friendly and engaging that positively impacts your perception of the city, not only in terms of the fact that they're doing really good work.

but that also they are just friendly ambassadors for the city.

They're a constant welcoming positive presence in the city that not only helps keep it clean and increasingly vibrant, but they also communicate a powerful message by doing so.

And that message is we are invested in the city and keeping it safe and in maintaining the wellbeing of the city.

Please reauthorize the MID for another 10 years.

And I'd also like to say as a PDA project manager who works alongside staff with the MID, these folks are like a de facto social service agency and one of the best social service agencies in Seattle.

Thank you very much.

So I remind people, so the public hearing is a legal requirement for the reauthorization of the MID, and so it is important that people who really want to be on record speaking for the MID sign up on the public hearing and speak during that part of the meeting.

As I said, we will allow comment now, but your voice will not be heard, will not be part of that public hearing record.

So there are sign up sheets up at the front there.

The next speakers are Tom, Sam, and Joy.

Tom, go ahead, please.

Thank you, Sarah.

And good morning, all council members.

I appreciate the opportunity to start this meeting talking about the mid-renewal because it is very, very important to those of us that live and work and care about downtown.

I am the chair of Belltown United, a community group working in Belltown to make it healthy and authentic and vibrant.

And I promise you, whatever we're doing in Belltown, I could not do without the partner of M.I.D. Um, poor old Joseph Jacobs and Steve walls get an email from me pretty much every day saying, I want this fixed or that fixed.

And there's no complaining.

There's no, I don't have time.

They come and remove the graffiti.

They remove the filth.

They remove the trash that somehow keeps building up in our center city.

I love Seattle and I want all the neighborhoods in Seattle to be vibrant and authentic and real and a place that we all can live.

The center city of Seattle has a lot more problems in it than Magnolia and Maple Leaf because of the concentration of social services and the intense pressure on the center city for office and hotel, entertainment, sports, and the social services, of course.

And we need the MID to be part of this partnership.

I need the city of Seattle, frankly, to be part of this partnership, but the MID is critical because they are so responsive.

And I just want to thank the MID for what they have done over the last two years of me living downtown and my constant haranguing of them and never complaining and say, we will take care of it.

We need to authorize the MID.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Call up Sam and joy unless you've chosen to speak during the public hearing.

Good morning Council members.

My name is Sam Dick, I am a training supervisor for the Metropolitan Improvement District, and my remark my remark, my remarks are in support of agenda led agenda item 11 reviewing the mid.

I've been with the mid since 2017 in that time I've seen many positive changes, which makes me proud to be part of an organization that is committed to make downtown a safe clean inviting destination for all.

One of my duties as a training supervisor is conducting de-escalation trainings.

In this role, I conduct trainings for large, small, public, and private organizations.

I also pair up with a crime prevention coordinator from the SPD West Precinct to present personal safety trainings.

In my four years of doing these trainings, all these organizations have expressed the same sentiment.

Without the MID services, the environment in downtown Seattle would be far different.

For the past year, myself and Jeff Drager, the Chief Operating Officer of the CLR Mission, have been doing walkabouts in the downtown Seattle area, visiting smaller, primarily public and private businesses to gauge the state of downtown from the street level.

Most of these businesses tell us the services the MID provides are excellent and rely on the MID to resolve a multitude of issues.

I have also developed personal relationships with individuals that are experiencing homeless and or difficult life situations.

On my way to a meeting the other day, I ran into a woman that I've worked with for several years.

She said, Sam, because of you and the MID, my life is now in a positive direction.

In closing, I would like to say I'm very proud to be part of a team that makes downtown a welcoming experience for all and positively impacts the lives of others.

Please authorize the MID for another 10 years.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much.

Joy, and then Michael, please.

Hi, good morning Council Members.

My name is Joy Shigaki.

I'm the President and CEO of Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

It's good to be with all of you and I'm speaking in support of the renewal of the Metropolitan Improvement District.

The MID provides services that are essential to the livability and the wellbeing of our city.

And it really now plays a major role in downtown's recovery and renewal.

As a partner with the DSA and the nonprofit, as the nonprofit working to fund, activate and steward Waterfront Park, which is our new 20 acre park that'll be opening in 2025, we have a vested interest in continuing to see our downtown cared for, activated and reenergized.

and we are aligned in our efforts to do that together.

We know the 8 million visitors projected to come to Waterfront Park will flow into the downtown core from Waterfront Park, Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square in Belltown and Soto will experience the positive benefits of the MED and we're already seeing already the real meaningful impact of all the visitors who are coming back to the Waterfront, tourists, residents alike and that is part of our long-term vision of the MID and the investment of downtown.

I ask you to reauthorize the MID for another 10 years.

Doing so will ensure a vibrant downtown for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Michael followed by Avon or Aaron, please.

Hello.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Michael Woody.

I live in District 7 at 809 Olive Way.

I'm here today both as a downtown resident, and representing my place of employment, Visit Seattle.

My comments are in support of agenda item 11, renewing the Metropolitan Improvement District or the MID.

As a downtown resident, I'm reminded daily of the services that the MID provides, and they are essential to the day-to-day livability and health of our city.

Not only are the services provided by the MID important to those who live down in the downtown area and to residents of Seattle, they're important to welcoming the visitors from around the globe and setting the stage for Seattle and sharing this place that we're so fortunate to call home.

The nearly 100 ambassador positions that are funded by the MID are helping to change lives and offering meaningful employment to those who need it most, often employing Those experiencing homelessness or have been justice involved and their hard work and dedication is paying off every day and we're seeing it in so many crucial areas.

The mid team continues to improve cleanliness and including trash graffiti biohazard removal, safety and hospitality, critical to a thriving tourism economy.

and the management of our downtown parks and public spaces, public art installations, production of family events, and so much more.

Every day, we have a lot to be thankful for, and the work of the MID is often at the top of that list.

So my ask is simple.

Please reauthorize the MID for another 10 years.

Doing so will ensure a healthy, vibrant downtown for all.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much.

Next up, we've got Hayden, please.

And then Yvonne.

Good morning.

I'm Hayden Harvey.

I use he, him pronouns and I work at Lime managing community and government affairs across the Pacific Northwest in Western Canada.

More importantly, I live in district three and work downtown.

I'm here today to speak in support of renewing the Metropolitan Improvement District item number 11 on today's agenda.

My apologies for not being able to stay for the public hearing.

A vibrant and thriving downtown that is welcoming to residents and visitors alike is essential for Seattle.

The mid has invested heavily in our downtown recovery and in many ways removing graffiti performing thousands of welfare checks for unhoused neighbors and helping those who visit Seattle, make the most out of their trips to the Emerald City.

Commute Seattle is partially funded by the MID and its work to reduce single occupancy commuting and to our city makes Seattle more livable for those of us who live here.

The MID funds, the work the MID funds is vital to Seattle's continued upward climb and I ask that you vote to reauthorize the Metropolitan Improvement District for another 10 years.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next up we've got a minor Aaron please excuse my mispronunciation I cannot read the handwriting.

Good morning I'm Aaron blankers and with Washington holdings.

I represent Union Square, one of the largest mid rate pairs and I'm here to speak about item number 11 renewal of the mid.

I've worked in the district now for over 15 years, 10 of which I lived in the district, but I lived in the district I lived in Belltown and got to see the last renewal and expansion into my neighborhood, which was a welcome.

welcome thing to see 10 years ago.

It changed the neighborhood overnight with the ambassadors now being on the streets, cleaning, making it safer for all of us.

The MID has been a constant champion for downtown and will continue to be through previous, you know, administrations and changes throughout the city.

We've adapted through the years to make downtown better through good times, bad times, growth, and even some changing numbers for less in recent times here.

Please renew the MID for another 10 years and allow us to continue the good work in downtown that we've been doing, and we'll do it for another 10 years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Danny Cohn, and then our last speaker is Amy Lillard.

Hi, good morning.

Okay.

Yep.

My name is Danny cone owner of Conan Steiner and I'm here to speak in support of the mid renewal.

The long list of services that the mid performs is often more visible than and well known I'm sorry, is often more visible than well-known as we see the tangible effects of cleaner streets, activated parks, helping hands, resources, and more.

But what is even more impactful is sometimes less visible or less quantifiable, and that's the example they set of what positive change can look like.

We've had two stores within mid-boundaries, our Pioneer Square store since 2014, and a downtown store that unfortunately had to close permanently in 2020. Over the past eight and a half years, there are countless times that the MID has made such a difference to me and my employees.

Perhaps the most galvanizing was during the pandemic when the city cleared out and hit our neighborhoods extra hard.

We all know it was a ghost town and issues that existed before became magnified when the streets and buildings emptied out and services were harder to come by.

Long before people began to venture back to our neighborhoods, the MID was there.

When I saw them again for the first time since everything shut down, their bright yellow jackets were nothing short of a true light in some pretty dark days.

They were the sign that we, downtown and Pioneer Square, were not forgotten or left for good.

They return to work as hard and as helpful as ever, and this is so important and so necessary.

Even more so, showing up and being there every day is a most significant and impactful message to these neighborhoods, and it also carries far beyond them to say, yes, we are still here, we do care, and we will bring the city back even better than before.

Thank you.

And our last speaker is Amy Lillard.

Good morning, my name is Amy Lillard.

I am the executive director of Washington Filmworks.

We run the production incentive program in Washington State as well as the official state film office.

I am here today to talk about how it is a great time for film in Washington State.

And I'm here to support the Seattle Film Commission.

As many know, Washington Filmworks increased its funding from $3.5 million to $15 million a year.

We also are now you know in our previous iteration of the program we're able to support three to four projects financially in a year and now we're going to be up to 10 to 12. We also now have the legislative authority to do career connected learning workforce development, and the emerging Washington filmmaker doing smaller budget productions.

I'm also pleased to share that Washington Filmworks is leading the way in a lot of diversity, equity and inclusion practices within state film offices.

The city of Seattle is the largest production center in the state of Washington.

And as Washington Filmworks continues to recruit bigger budget projects and develop a truly, truly sustainable ecosystem for film, we need and we need the support of the city.

I have had the great pleasure of working with many of the people who will be seated on this film commission today.

They are great thought leaders, they are passionate about film, and they know their business.

And so with that, I just want to thank you, Council Member Nelson, for leading this charge in so many ways.

And Washington Filmworks certainly looks forward to building the future of film with this commission.

Thank you very much.

I want to that's the end of our public comment period for just regular public comment and I do ask that if you're here to speak, if anybody is coming in.

Subsequent to now to speak on the mid please wait until the public hearing section, so that your voice is on the record, and I do recognize that y'all came in person.

Which I really appreciate.

And so I understand that seeing a big long agenda before the public hearing that you want to speak to, you know, might have been daunting so I do appreciate, most of all, people being present in chambers to make your comments.

With that, we will move to remote public commenters, and we've got, let's see, we did have two people on the list, but I believe that they will probably sign up for the the mid-renewal.

So we do have Lisa Daugard on our list, listed as not present, as well as Risa Conklin, not present.

There is also Steve Horvath, who is present, and you may speak now if you're planning on speaking to the mid, but however, you can also wait until the public hearing.

So not seeing you disappear from our list.

Go ahead, Steve.

You've got two minutes.

Press star six.

Steve, you have to press star six to unmute yourself.

Okay, well, let's move on.

You are welcome to speak to the MIG later on in the agenda in the public hearing.

I'm getting my point.

And we will now proceed with our agenda.

Please note that the, about the first 10 items, we will be taking them in a group of people.

Would it be best to reserve time to speak later?

What is your preference?

I'd be happy to speak at the hearing later so long as there's an opportunity for remote commenters to do so.

Absolutely, yes.

Thank you very much.

Okay, no additional speakers, please.

Clerk, read items one through 10 into the agenda.

Agenda item number one, appointment 02510, appointment of Lowell Dio as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23rd, 2024. Agenda item number two, appointment 02511, appointment of Tom Florino as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23rd, 2024. Agenda item number three, appointment 02512, appointment of Kat Ogden as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23, 2024. Agenda item four, appointment 02513, appointment of Anthony Tackett as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23, 2024. Agenda item number five, appointment 02514, appointment of Beth Barrett as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23, 2025. Agenda item number six, appointment 02515. Appointment of Laura Jean Cronin as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23rd, 2025. Agenda item number seven, appointment 02516. Appointment of Melissa Mathias Purcell as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23rd, 2025. Agenda item number eight, appointment 02517. Appointment of Champ Enzmiger as member of the Seattle Film Commission for a term to April 23rd, 2026. agenda item number nine appointment 02518 appointment of mark a freed as member of the seattle film commission for a term to april 23rd 2026 and agenda item number 10 appointment 02519 appointment of michael huang as member of the seattle film commission for a term to april 23rd 2026 all items for briefing discussion and possible vote

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here today.

So folks, you've had a chance to grab some popcorn.

The show's about to begin.

Today is the final episode in the long running series of A Film Commission is Born.

So I promised as a candidate that if elected the first thing I would do is start a film commission.

And that was important to me because strengthening the film industry in Seattle would allow more of our creatives to keep living in Seattle and make a living doing their art.

And it was not the first thing I did, but after nine months of working with key stakeholders and OED, here we are.

Council passed my legislation to establish Washington State's first codified film commission last September, and we're on the brink of confirming our founding members.

So we have to say that we intentionally recruited applicants and nominees with diverse backgrounds, lived experience, and industry expertise to put their heads together and help us reinvigorate the industry so that we can put the days of productions supposedly about Seattle but filmed elsewhere behind us.

So that's what we're trying to do.

And it is my pleasure and honor to introduce and present all, I believe that we have nine of the 10 commissioners here in person today to just present this talented group and get to work.

So with that, I want to note that the committee assignments were read in the, the items on the agenda were read in numerical order.

but I believe that our presenters will address the commissioners in the order that they are listed on the position page.

With that, I will ask our presenters to please introduce themselves.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Committee Chair Nelson, Committee members.

My name is Preeti Sridhar.

I'm the Interim Deputy Director with Seattle's Office of Economic Development, and it's a real pleasure for me to be here this morning to present to you a very highly talented and diverse group of members who are seeking appointment to the Seattle Film Commission.

This is really a very, very incredibly momentous time for us in Seattle.

We received a really huge response when we announced the Film Commission and our call for nominations.

really as this is the work of many years and of huge leadership from council that we're able to, you know, do this today.

But before I go further, we're all waiting anxiously to get the introductions of our members and I will turn it over to Chris Swenson from our office.

who will present the details, the role of the Film Commission, and share a short presentation as we move on to the next step in our agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you, Preeti.

Hi, I'm Chris Swenson.

I'm the Film Program Manager with the Office of Economic Development.

We have a deck, which we'll go through before we get to the introductions for all of the Commissioner nominees or appointees.

I want to start by echoing some comments that we've heard about the great work that has brought us to this moment.

So I do want to thank you, Council Member Nelson, for driving the legislation forward in 2022. Thank you very much.

I want to also thank Mayor Harrell and the administration for supporting and working alongside with that driving of the commission legislation.

I want to also thank Office of Economic Development Leadership, PREDI, and Director Mark McIntyre, who's not here today, for their leadership and support in this work as well.

Before all this happened, we had a wonderful a really special opportunity in 2020 to work with the Seattle Film Task Force, which was assembled with the priority of developing the framework for the Film Commission.

So thank you, everybody.

There are a few members here which we'll introduce, but there are many others who are not here who really drove that work.

And among other real important priorities that they recommended to the city of Seattle.

With that, I will walk into just a little bit about the history and where we are with the Seattle Film Commission.

I'm gonna change my glasses so I can actually read.

And I think you meant to say 2020, the film task force, just correcting the record.

The ordinance was established to advise the city and make recommendations on the development of policies and initiatives and programs to enhance the economic development for the film industry here locally in Seattle.

We it's also other priorities to promote the sustainable growth of family wage jobs for workers who have been historically underrepresented in the film industry.

Its primary goals and duties will be to inform and influence the Seattle government on the best ways to support the film industry and to collaborate with state and county organizations and government entities who we heard from earlier, the King County Creative and also Washington Filmworks.

Its key goal is to address industry disparities caused by systemic racism.

And it will serve, the commissioners will serve as a conduit between city and industry, the city and industry to develop and support the economic development priorities for the film industry.

This means attracting new productions, retaining productions here in Seattle, and building inclusive career pathways into the film industry for those who are interested or don't know yet that they're interested.

Next slide.

Members represent 11 disciplines across the film industry and we'll introduce each of those as we go through introductions to each commissioner.

Five positions have been appointed by the city council and five are appointed by the mayor.

There's an 11th position who is not here because the commission will vote to seat that 11th position.

The commission will meet monthly, it will meet annually with the Seattle Music Commission.

It will elect a chair and a vice chair and adopt bylaws and create priorities, which will create priorities.

And it's established for terms of one, two and three years across the commission disciplines.

It's supported by the Office of Economic Development, which also supports the Seattle Music Commission.

The Office of Economic Development in the City of Seattle opened a nomination process, a public nomination and application process in early March.

It was open for 10 days and the city received 131 nominations.

Some of them were duplicated because there are some people who were nominated several times.

And 179 individual applications for the 11 positions.

Let me just let that sink in for a moment.

In 10 days.

And that shows the depth and the breadth of talent in this town.

It does.

It was part of the, there's a lot of excitement for this in the industry and the community.

And I think that's reflected in the number of applications that we received.

We're gonna go through in the next slide, some demographic or just some information about who, how many in each of these applicants were in each of the different disciplines.

That's very exciting.

The application nomination process was, there was a significant media and advertising purchase or buying process focused on BIPOC and black communities.

And I think that is reflected in some of the numbers here as well.

We're on the first one.

This shows, this is a quick snapshot of the, the race and ethnicity between all of the applicants.

And you'll see, of course, the colors here on the far right, the majority of white or Caucasian applicants, significant number of black and African American and Asian applicants as well.

Next slide.

Gender is shown here, almost a two-to-one male-to-female applicant ratio, which we'll talk about a little bit in the seating.

Next slide, please.

Across the 11 disciplines, this shows how many, or, applied within each sector, and the top two are commercial production companies or producers.

We're a very strong commercial town, so that's shown here, I think.

Film production crew is the other highest applicant pool.

A lot of crew interested in helping and supporting the industry.

We also saw pretty significant numbers in on-screen talent and film organizations supporting underserved communities.

Next slide.

Another interesting part of the applicant pool is that there's a lot of experience in Seattle, and there's a lot of experience around the table.

We, as you mentioned, Council Member Nelson, the selection process included making sure there is diversity, both in experience, which included experience as well.

So while this shows this, I think, is a good indicator of the interest from folks who have been in the industry here for a while.

Next slide.

These show the commissioner nominee demographics.

Again, out of the 10 who are here today, which will then nominate the 11th out of the 10, six are male or self-identify as male, and four self-identify as female, five self-identify as Caucasian, three self-identify as black or African-American, and two self-identify as Asian.

And before actually, we can stay here on this on this slide, but I wanted to pause council member.

If you have any questions before we do our introductions to each of the just note that the last slide there that is the full matrix so people can can refer to that page and see the positions and the names there.

And I will note also one thing that you did not mention is that many of the applicants and our nominees have film experience from outside of Seattle, Los Angeles, international etc and so there was discussion about whether or not we we should bring on purpose, bring in people from other cities that might be able to talk about something new, or if we should really help people that have been working in this industry in Seattle for a long time.

And so that was one of the factors that we brought to the table.

I see that Council Member Herbold has her hand up.

Go ahead.

Thank you so much.

I'm really so excited for this day.

It's been a long time coming and really appreciate the interest of the nominees in serving, their depth of experience, and look forward to learning finding out more of what we will learn from them about how to support this industry in our region.

I did have a question about the 11th position that is a commission nominated position.

I believe it is an individual who is intended to represent immersive technology.

And I'm just curious whether or not the commission is going to be looking for that person from the existing applicants or whether or not there's going to be some different approach.

And just wanting to put in a plug while I wait for the answer to that question about the process for the 11th Commission for hoping that that 11th person is a representative of District 1. I don't see any District 1 representatives on the commission.

Thank you.

I don't think so, Council Member Herbold.

Great question.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

The 11th position for immersive technology and emerging technology businesses.

We received applications through the open application process.

Those will be shared with the commissioners so they can look through those and choose from those.

The commission is also not bound to just choosing the applicants.

If there's someone that they wish to reach out to and volunteer, voluntold to come onto the commission, they can do that as well.

And as a district one resident, I agree.

We'll do our best.

Oh, okay.

Hello problem here.

All right, thank you very much.

If there are no other questions about the commission itself, I will proceed to meeting the folks.

All right, go ahead.

And I have a little introduction for each of the positions and the commissioner positions.

I'll be as brief as possible, but I do want to read it all and then I'll hand it off to you for introductions for yourself.

And then any questions from the council members, will those be individual or should we wait until after?

I think it'd be best to wait until the end.

We'll do that.

For position one, on-screen talent over the representatives, I am proud to introduce Lowell Dale.

Lowell has decades of work on of on-screen work in film, television, commercial, web series, and voice-over productions.

Lowell's credits include Three Busy Debris, filmed here in Seattle, Grimm, Z Nation, The Fugitive, and many, many others.

Lowell is living proof that actors can make a living in Seattle, and we're excited for Lowell to have his considerable on-screen experience on the commission.

Lowell, welcome.

Thank you.

It is an honor to be here.

I am very excited, and thank you, Council Member Nelson, for this opportunity.

As Chris just said, I am an actor who's worked many, many years in Seattle, and I'm excited by the prospect of representing on-screen talent in position one.

This seems to be the dawn of a very important day for on-camera talent especially, whose two burning questions are typically, do I move to LA?

Or do I find a way to somehow get into Canada?

Because, as actors are trained to go where the opportunities are.

And it's heartbreaking because Seattle is a magnificent place it's a marvelous place.

But actors want to apply their trade where they can.

And the fact that Seattle.

is now making a push to make this possible, to reinvigorate an industry that we love so dearly, means that we can embrace this place even harder.

So I am excited to be a part of this journey, and thank you all again.

Thank you all.

Before you go on, I changed my mind.

If council members do have questions for individual commissioners, please, you're welcome to ask them now.

Thank you.

Position two is the, it represents Film Industry and Labor Unions.

I'd like to introduce Melissa Purcell.

Melissa Purcell is the Northern Business Agent of IATSE Local 488. Melissa served on the Executive Board of Women in Film Seattle, was a member of the Seattle Film Task Force, Washington Filmworks' Film Leadership Council, and the Washington State Labor Council's Transportation and Economic Development Committee.

Melissa is a prop master by trade with credits, including Rushmore, forces of nature, the details and smoke signals.

Melissa, welcome.

Thank you, Chris.

Is this on?

Yes.

My name is Melissa Purcell.

I am a business agent of the IATSC Local 488, have been for the last four years.

Very excited for this moment.

I have realized this morning on the way in that I've been working to come to this moment of creating a film commission for the city of Seattle for five years now.

And there are many, many crew members in our industry in Seattle who have been working on this for 20 plus years.

So this is indeed a very exciting moment and super happy to look through everybody's biography and recognize the talent that's at this table.

I'm excited to be working with you all.

And I do come from within the industry and in more recent last four years working as a business agent really see the ability and possibilities of bringing employers and labor together so that everybody benefits.

And thank you so much for nominating me and taking me on.

Thank you, council member.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa.

Position three represents advertising and creative industries.

I'd like to introduce Michael Wong, who is the founder of the Millie Agency with 15 years of experience in creative arts and advertising industries, as well as his eight years, eight plus years of owning and operating his creative agency here in Seattle.

In addition to his professional experience, Michael brings lived experience as a Seattle native and a proud member of the South End BIPOC community.

Michael, welcome.

Thank you, Chris, and thank you everyone, including Council Member Nelson and everyone that has worked to bring us to this point, to have this council.

I know there's been a lot behind the scenes.

And so even in the production world, it's always good to shout behind the scenes, right?

I'm very passionate as a Seattle native and someone who grew up here, knowing Seattle as the creative hub that it has always been, to be able to contribute my experience and perspective in my skills to providing opportunities to the creative industry from a commercial standpoint, from an advertising and broadcasting standpoint, but most importantly to me, to provide young folks, young folks that are underserved, diverse young folks, the pathway and the aspiration to enter the creative industry, and yes, stay in Seattle, if they may please.

As someone who moved to New York and worked on Madison Avenue and did that thing and came back, that's very important to me.

And I look forward to being able to serve and work with all of you.

Thanks, Michael.

Position number four represents commercial producers and or production companies.

I'd like to introduce Tom Serino.

Tom is the head of economic development policy for Amazon's global media and entertainment division, which includes Amazon Studios, Prime Video, Amazon Music, Audible, Amazon Games, and Twitch.

Tom is responsible for developing infrastructure and talent development partnerships with governments and local stakeholders to establish production hubs and elevate underserved and underrepresented communities.

Tom's experience also includes managing government relations in New Zealand for the Lord of the Rings, Ring of Power, and leading policymaker engagement to support relocating that series to the UK.

Tom, welcome.

Thank you.

I just want to thank council member Nelson, fellow council members and committee members and all of the work of Chris and Preeti at OED and the work of everyone that has come before all of us sitting around this table together.

I'm really impressed with the folks around this table and super excited to get to work for the city of Seattle and the Puget Sound region in Washington state to attract more production investment.

Amazon Studios is known for global productions and tentpole productions but Local originals are extremely important to our business, and we were super excited about the launch of our first African original in Nigeria last week.

That's a really important part of our business.

So excited to get to work in Seattle, creating career pathways that reach out to underserved and underrepresented communities and focused on talent and infrastructure development in the city so that we can build the capacity necessary to attract productions here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

Position five represents film schools, programs, or film educators.

I'd like to introduce Laura Jean Cronin.

Laura Jean is a producer and director known for the Emmy award winning PBS show, Biz Kids.

She's an award winner for multiple of her short and feature length films as well.

Laura is vice president of the Women in Film Seattle and lead producer at Real Girl Productions.

Laura taught film studies at Center on Linguistic and Cultural Democracy for seven years, and mentors girls ages nine to 19 on production and video services at Real Girls.

As a leader, as a leader, as a lead producer for Remove the Gap Productions, Laura is helping to usher in a new generation of media makers who have traditionally fallen through the gap.

Laura Jean, welcome.

Thank you very much.

And I too want to say I'm just honored to be a part of this commission and really looking forward to working with everybody and the amazing talent that is here.

And thank you council member Nelson.

My first short film debuted in 1999 and I had the bug, you know, to keep going, but it was a struggle, self-fashioned.

I like really clawed my way to get into making those short films and getting into the industry to support myself to make those short films.

So it's really exciting to now be a part of an organization which is now called Remove the Gap Productions to bring that education to youth, especially underserved youth.

So that's really where a lot of my time and focus is now is that education and we do a path to a career.

So not only do we train them, we then take them out and and produce client videos so they have on-the-job training.

So I'm really looking forward to that part of this commission.

Thank you, Lara Jean.

Position six is a representative of post-production companies and personnel.

I'd like to introduce Champ Enzmer.

For over 10 years, Champ has had a wide perspective on the film industry, ranging from directing short films in his native Thailand to seeing the process of online curation and community management in the Manhattan offices of Vimeo.

Champ has participated in Seattle organizations, including Northwest Film Forum and the Seattle Asian American Film Festival.

Champ has worked on creating content for major brands like T-Mobile, Microsoft, and Amazon through a transition from a traditional post-production house to a creative agency.

Champ, welcome.

Thank you, Chris, Council Member Nelson.

Yeah, I guess as far as our collective message wanting to support Seattle as a place to create films, I am very honored to be in the position to support the message that Seattle's a great place to finish your films.

Having a lot of interface time over the past few years with the workforce that works in finishing and presenting projects that are made in the area, I have grown to really care about composers, colorists, audio post shops, and producer or post supervisors in the effort to get all of the creative work that comes out of the region to look amazing.

And as a filmmaker myself working on a short film produced in Thailand, I knew it was my my goal to have it finished here because I really trust and care about the folks that work from this area.

So yeah, and just kind of coming up in Seattle and also working far field, New York and Thailand, et cetera, really rooting for Seattle as a place to have things get made as well as get finished.

I'm really proud and excited to be working with everyone here on that.

Thank you, Tim.

Position seven represents film production crew.

And I'd like to introduce Kat Ogden.

Kat has worked in the Seattle film market since 2007 as a first, second, and second assistant director.

You can explain that, Kat.

For film, television, industrials, reality shows, and music videos.

Cat's position supports the vision of producers and the director while maintaining consideration of health, safety, and the needs of the cast and crew.

Cat has worked in other markets, including London, New York, Austin, and Los Angeles, and from those experience understands Seattle's film industry and community are unique.

Cat believes that the needs of the individual must be met in a way that benefits the film community.

Welcome, Cat.

Thank you so much.

So much has gone into us sitting at this table and I'm incredibly grateful and wonderfully excited about the work that we're about to do and I just Thank you council member and all of the foundation that brought us here.

I'm well aware that the event actually is always brought about by the hard work of many, many people.

And I'm excited to sit in this position for the wonderful artisans and guild artists that are such a strong community in Seattle.

Seattle is extremely unique.

We are an industry and a community.

This is very different.

I have worked in other markets.

I come from a background of script to screen and feature film and television development based off book properties.

And when I moved to Seattle, I was older to enter in working on set and I landed in a very soft bed.

I was absolutely trained and brought up by the people that work in Seattle into this role.

As an assistant director, I am not the assistant to the director.

support the director's vision and so the assistant director department gets divided into different roles the larger the production becomes.

So you might be a first if it's a smaller and then you get a second assistant if it's larger and then you can get a second second and a key second second and we run all the areas we interface with client, we interface with the director, we interface with production and safety and all parts of the crew.

So I'm very, very excited to share what we do on set to support the artisans and beautiful people that make the projects and support the dream that becomes reality in Seattle.

This is a unique landscape and a unique community.

Next question, does the assistant director do government relations?

We have to be very diplomatic.

We have to not have our opinion in the middle of things.

Our opinion is our opinion, but we are there to represent crew and the director and safety and producers and find a wonderful middle ground.

Moving to position number eight, which represents film festivals or content distribution companies.

I'd like to introduce Beth Barrett.

Beth is as Seattle International Film Festival.

commonly known as SIF.

As the artistic director, Beth is responsible for managing the artistic vision of SIF, including all aspects of programming for the festival, for SIF Cinema's five year round screens and the SIF education team.

Beth secured SIF status as an Academy Award qualifying festival for short films in 2008. Beth currently serves on the board of the Film Festival Alliance, which is a member of, and was also a member of the City of Seattle Film Task Force.

And Beth serves on juries and panels around the world in Palm Springs, Park City, Cleveland, Calgary, Vancouver, and Berlin, Germany.

Welcome Beth.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson.

As the representative of Film Festivals and Distribution, we are the ones that are the connection to the audience.

We represent everything that happens after the film gets made, and it's incredibly honoring and exciting to be able to work with all of you on the creation side to complete that loop, to find those audiences, because films don't get made in a vacuum.

They get made so that people can see them and connect with them.

And in that way, film makes our lives better.

And I'm really excited to work with this commission to help grow the infrastructure here in Seattle, because the more films that get made here in Seattle, the more films that get seen, the more people interact with film and film makes our lives better in so many ways, connecting ourselves to the rest of the world, creating empathy, learning something, entertaining us.

All of the reasons that you all make films are the reasons that we wanna show films are the reasons that we want that loop, that filmmaker audience connection loop to be complete.

So it's really exciting to be here and work with you all to create that here in Seattle.

Thank you, Beth.

Position number nine represents film location managers.

The nominee is not here.

He's actually flying between jobs back into Seattle.

So he's not here to be here in person.

I'll go ahead and introduce him and speak a little bit for him.

It's Mark Freed.

Mark has a 34-year motion picture industry career, beginning at the entry level in LA.

Working his way through several disciplines, including full-time employment at a motion picture studio, Mark began his work for the locations department in 2001 in Los Angeles.

As a film location manager, Mark has led productions for major feature film, television, and commercial work, including Transformers 4, Kimmy, shot in Seattle a couple of years ago, Rampart, Fifty Shades of Grey, also filmed partially in Seattle, and Late Autumn, which was completely filmed in Seattle, and many, just numerous, too many to count, national commercial campaigns.

Mark has lived and worked in Seattle area for the last 15 years, managing locations for major feature film, television, and commercial productions here in the region.

And speaking for Mark, as he's not here, the film office, one of our primary clients are film location managers.

They are responsible for understanding the needs of the film production crew, work very closely with Kat and other positions here to make sure that everybody can land in the right place, do the things they need to do, and then get out safely and then have whatever location they're at, want them back again for the next time.

very complex job.

We know Mark, Mark is one of our, one of our offices, more frequent clients.

He does a lot of the major productions that come in through Seattle because of his expertise and has a really good understanding of Seattle needs and industry needs from outside of Seattle.

So he can accommodate that kind of confluence.

So we're excited to have Mark with us.

I'll speak from a little bit.

I met him on the set of Sex Lives of College Girls when they were filming one of the episodes at UW and got into a conversation with him.

And he was amazing because he knows all the different parts that have to come together.

He knows how many trucks there are that can carry all the equipment.

He knows who to call if they need another one, et cetera, and how long that driveway is.

And that's just one aspect, but those kinds of, logistical concerns that pop up he's able to fix and beyond that.

I just want to also speak in his absence.

Go on, please.

Thank you, Council Member.

Moving on to position number 10, representing film organizations belonging to and advocating for communities underrepresented in the film industry.

I'd like to introduce Anthony Tackett.

Anthony is a filmmaker of 25 years, working on commercials and narrative productions.

Anthony has led efforts for community support and outreach as an instructor, including as an instructor, teaching people from eight years old to 70 years old.

Anthony is currently the operations manager for the Seattle Film Institute.

He is the founder of the African Diaspora Group, bringing together black and person of color filmmakers to create safe space for underrepresented filmmakers.

Anthony was the co-chair of the Seattle Film Task Force, leading priorities of creating opportunities for racial, financial, equity, and education for underserved and underprivileged.

Anthony directed and filmed his first feature documentary, Black June, a film following Black Lives Matter protests that started on June 1st, 2020, after the public lynching of George Floyd.

Anthony, welcome.

Thank you.

I am honored to be here.

It's been a long journey.

I think it was back five years ago with the austerity group, when they talked about what we can do with the city can do the best service.

And since then, I became co-chair, as mentioned, of the Film Task Force.

And this is our vision, to be here in this roundtable with like-minded individuals.

So I'm happy to bring in my piece, which is the NDEI, making sure that as we build this infrastructure of filmmaking, that we are inclusive with people who look like me, who look like You know my man here and and represent Seattle as it should be.

And so I'm, I'm in education.

Mostly, currently I served as cinematographer for a long time, but I wanted to bring other folks in and so I started working with.

with organizations that were BIPOC focused and gender and LGBTQ focused, just so I can be a part of a more diverse filmmaking.

Because my first 20 years were pretty tough.

It was kind of just me on the long of the journey.

And I want to make sure that people who get into the film industry feel comfortable and feel like they have other like-minded folks, not just from the filmmaking aspect, but culturally, right?

And so I'm hoping to do that with the work with Women and Growth Center through Africa Town with the educational component there with SFI, Seattle Film Institute that I do the work with.

And also the high schools that I've partnered with in the past.

There's a number of high schools that have a diverse student body and I would love to usher them through the pathway and maybe one day working in an agency or with Amazon.

And so I'm very honored to be here.

I also have partners across the nation and the world and Ghana and Atlanta and Georgia and LA.

And I love for them to be excited about what's going on here in Seattle because they have large productions that they need a home.

So I'm glad to be here and I hope I can serve.

Thank you for volunteering, tolling me.

Thank you, Anthony.

Thank you, everybody.

Council Member Nelson, back to you for any questions.

I just wanted to note that Anthony, on September 20th, you stayed until the end of the whole full council meeting.

You gave comment and you stayed until the end because this was the last item for the vote.

So, truly committed and you were there on stage at ArcLodge Cinemas when we had our press conference to rally support that afternoon.

All right, I will not say anything more.

And I will first open the floor.

I didn't say any more at all.

I would like to give my colleagues a chance to ask any questions or make any comments.

So I am looking at the screen.

Not seeing any.

I want to reiterate something that was said before is that the time is now here because it forming a film commission, we already know what that will do, but it is building on the foundation that was set by the increased incentives.

Thank you very much, Amy Lillard in the audience.

and all the investments that King County has done, thank you, Kate, in film, in the creative industry, in Harbor Island Studios.

And so this is kind of a third step in really putting Seattle back on the map.

And I want to note that one thing that's not on the list of things that the Film Commission is going to do and the duties on paper is that y'all have networks.

And you go to conferences and you hang out with people and you travel etc and so your very presence those informal networks and connections will help elevate Seattle film, let the world know what the rest of the country know what's happening in Seattle, and you'll be able to bring bring best practices back.

So I think that there's no understating the importance of those informal connections as well as your training and your knowledge and your years of experience.

So thank you very much.

Is there any...

Council Member Herbold, would you like to say anything?

Ask a question.

I would.

Thank you so much.

I just want to thank you, Madam Chair.

I had already thanked the commissioners for their willingness to serve, but I really appreciate your work as well as OED's work in seeding this film commission.

Back in 2019, I requested recommendations from OED on unseating affiliation, and the need has greatly increased since then.

Excuse me, with creative industries being the hardest hit by the pandemic.

Really appreciate everybody's work to move forward this legislation.

I'm thrilled to participate in confirming our first cohort of film commissioners.

And so I just want to say it was really great to hear about all of the fantastic work being done here in Seattle after all of the hullabaloo about The Last of Us taking place in Seattle but being filmed in Vancouver.

really wonderful to hear the flip side of that picture, which is a lot of really fantastic work is happening right here in Seattle.

So thanks again.

Thank you for that.

And also thank you very much for your early work.

I mean, your work preceded mine with the Film Task Force meeting before that.

So thank you very much for your advocacy and leadership as well.

All right, I don't see any other questions or comments.

No more hands raised.

I will simply ask, now that we've come this far, Chris, what is the next step?

Do we have any meetings scheduled?

What happens next?

And then we'll go on to a vote.

The next step will be vote here to move the commissioners forward, and then full commission or excuse me a full city council vote vote to approve the nominations, which is expected next week.

The week after that we are.

going to be starting work.

Hopefully we're slated for the first commissioner meeting the last week of April, so everybody will see each other again very soon.

And then there is one public, actually not public, but the very first event that the Seattle Film Commission will be a part of, we'll be hosting the local filmmakers meet and greet with CIFF.

which SIF hosts every single year.

So that'll be a public opportunity.

And then from there, the commission will build their plan and keep moving forward.

Excellent.

Making my point, we're not wasting any time from here on out as long as the votes go well.

Okay, would you please, I will now move these pieces of legislation.

I move that the committee recommends confirmation of appointments 02510 02511, 02512, 02513, 02514, 02515, 02516, 02517, 02518, and 02519. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointments 02510 through 02519. Are there any comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to confirm appointments 02510 through 02519. Go ahead, please.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Sawant.

Yes.

Council Member Herbold.

Yes.

Chair Nelson.

Aye.

Four in favor, zero opposing.

Excellent.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that appointments 02510 through 19 be confirmed will be forwarded to the city council for final consideration on April 18th.

And you don't have to be present, it will be part of the consent agenda.

So this will not be called out individually during that meeting.

So with that, thank you very much for coming today.

Congratulations.

And here we go.

So appreciate your dedication and passion.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Yay.

Had a full house for that audience vote.

All right.

Will the clerk please read item 11 into the record?

Agenda Item Number 11, Council Bill 120537, an ordinance relating to downtown business improvement areas, establishing a new 10-year business improvement area to be known as the Metropolitan Improvement District, levying special assessments upon owners of commercial property, multifamily residential property, and mixed-use property within the area, providing for the deposit of revenues and a special account and expenditures therefrom, providing for collection of and penalties for delinquencies, providing for the establishment of a ratepayer advisory board, providing for an implementation agreement with a program manager, disestablishing the existing Metropolitan Improvement District that was established by Ordinance 124175, the 2013 MID, suspending the issuance of assessments and providing for the continuity of services under the 2013 MID.

providing for the transfer of any remaining funds from the 2013 MID account, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Public hearing, briefing, and discussion.

Thank you very much.

And because I'm chair, I get to do this, which is remember to say that I really appreciate the work of Chris Swenson, who is All Things Film for the Office of Economic Development, and also my chief of staff, Jeremy Moen, who, and both of them together with Chase from the mayor's office, really ran a disciplined, rigorous selection process.

I regret not saying that when I should have.

All right, so imagine downtown with no lights during the holiday season.

Imagine Occidental Park with none of those human-sized games.

Imagine no activation of many of the public spaces anywhere in our downtown core.

And also think about the let's see I have the numbers think about the 2400 pounds of illegally dumped material or the 500 graffiti tags or the hundred and five gallons of trash that were removed.

last month.

Imagine that was not removed last month, or that your uncle who's visiting from out of town couldn't find his hotel and nobody was there to help him figure out where to go.

Well, that to me is downtown without the MIT.

And so what we're going to be doing today is briefly discuss, we'll be discussing the legislation that will reauthorize for another 10 years, the MID and all of the services that I just mentioned.

And I just have to say that here we have property owners that are willingly charging themselves to contribute to the stewardship of downtown for the benefit Not just to the neighbors that live there, but for the workers and the visitors and everybody else who who passes through downtown and so I think that the city should be very grateful and business improvement areas are designed to provide supplemental services, but in fact.

oftentimes they end up providing the lion's share of city services that really make the neighborhoods livable and improve the quality of life for everybody else.

So I just wanted to make that note that I personally, I'm very grateful to all of our BIAs, but especially the MID because you do so much for so many people, the engine of our regional economy and the residents that live there.

And I don't know if, It's not easy for the people in TV land to see the audience here, but we've got a full house, lots of ambassadors in bright yellow.

And so I just really want to thank you all for coming and showing your commitment to the reauthorization in person.

So it's it.

I, I appreciate that.

Okay, so I will, that those are all my introductory remarks.

Thank you very much.

And we will have, we'll begin with the presentation so that our presenters can come to the table.

If they are here, come on up and we've got central staff and leadership from the Downtown Seattle Association.

And then after their presentation, we will proceed to the public hearing.

And this is on purpose in case there are things that you feel were not mentioned in the presentations, you're welcome to add.

And I want to note that we are joined by Council Member Andrew Lewis, who represents downtown.

All right, you are welcome to begin.

Okay.

Thank you committee chair Nelson and other members of the committee for inviting us to meet with you this morning.

I'm Lisa Nitze, principal of Nitze-Stegan and I chair the Metropolitan Improvement District.

We come before you today to seek your support for reauthorization of the Metropolitan Improvement District for another 10 years.

It's been an honor to lead the MID over the past couple of years and to experience in depth the extent of the impact it has every day, as you were referring to earlier, in supporting the return of the downtown post-COVID and addressing the needs for downtown safety, cleanliness, economic and social vitality.

The downtown community has been working on the MID's 10-year renewal for the past year.

It's been gratifying to see the tremendous support for the work of the MID from all ratepayer types, condo owners, apartments, hotels, offices, retail, and voluntary ratepayers such as the Seattle Art Museum.

While we needed written support from 60% of the rate payer assessment base, we've already received over 67% and climbing.

When meeting with rate payers, what I have most commonly heard is along the lines of heaven help downtown if the MID disappears.

There's strong interest in not only sustaining the work of the Mid-Downtown, but requests for it to consider further expanding its service boundaries and the number of public parks that it's managing.

It would be difficult to go anywhere downtown without seeing the yellow vests of the Mid Ambassadors, many of whom are here today, which is so great.

They are cleaning the streets, directing tourists, assisting with disturbances and the ambassador outreach with those on the streets now has the mid partnering with the city's hope team, KCRHA, the third avenue product and DESC leveraging private sector resources to further achieve longterm public sector goals around homelessness, safety and security.

So today we're going to be covering with you the MID services, adjustments to services over time due to the evolution of needs downtown, the MID business plan, the MID reauthorization process and timeline, proposed MID budget and rate payer assessment formula, And we'll show you a quick video that will start now, or perhaps after you tell us whether we can start it.

One moment.

I will leave it up to Philip Sid of the Office of Economic Development.

You are going to present something that kind of contextualizes what BIAs do in the city, et cetera.

Would you prefer to present that now, or would you like to wait until afterwards?

I think for the purpose of this presentation, I think OED was going to take the first eight minutes and then give the floor over to the MID.

So I think, Stephen, you're going to be driving the slides presentation, correct?

And as the committee chair mentioned, OED will be providing a high level overview of the BIA program and also our review process as in regards to this MID renewal.

And I'm sorry, I should have interjected sooner.

Stephen, I think this is the mids portion of the presentation.

Would you be able to pull up the OED one?

Thank you.

We'll give him one second here.

But in the interim, I'll let our deputy director kind of reintroduce herself real quick because we do have a new audience behind us.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good morning, Committee Chair Nelson and committee members and council members.

I'm Preeti Sridhar, Interim Deputy Director of OED, and this morning we'll be discussing the Metropolitan Improvement District mid-renewal.

The MID, like many of our business district organizations, plays a critical role in supporting communities, especially during the pandemic.

Downtown has been especially hit hard, and OED works with our communities to support downtown, the revitalization and the renewal of MID, will support efforts to create opportunities for new and existing businesses and to fund activities for visitors, families, residents, workers, and have a clean and welcoming downtown core.

I'll turn it over to Philip Sitt, who's our business improvement advocate, and he'll give a short presentation.

We already have that up on screen on the overall mid-renewal process.

And then we'll have, we'll turn it over to our representatives from the Mid and the Downtown Seattle Association who dig deeper in to provide the specifics.

Thank you.

All right.

With that, good morning, committee chair and council members.

My name is Philip Sid.

I am the business improvement area advisor for the Office of Economic Development.

Steve, next slide.

Thank you.

Just to quick overview of the current business improvement area program.

We currently have 11 business districts that are under this BIA model.

And as mentioned, they provide a number of enhanced services and programs to our neighborhood business districts.

As of this, in last fiscal year, it's over $30 million annually.

And I think one of the value propositions for community is that the funds are locally managed and controlled.

So a level of self-determination that a lot of our business districts have taken note of during the heights of the pandemic.

Just a couple quick examples, you know, I think we've seen some of the work by like the Ballard Alliance, working with Department of Transportation on creating the safe start permits and what makes sense for small businesses and residents, and also like the Soto BIA and West Seattle Junction distributing PPEs when there was a limited supply chain issue during 2020 and 2021. With that, as we emerge out of the pandemic, OED is working with a lot of different neighborhoods that are interested in trying to revisit the BIA concept.

Next slide.

And just a high-level overview in terms of a development process, in terms of the city and public-private partnership is that the proponents do need to demonstrate 60% of support.

If there is a rate pair that represents over 25% of the assessment, our city policy does require a higher level of support.

In this situation, we did not have one rate pair that was over 25%.

The city review process includes OED, Treasury, the city attorney's office and the clerk's office.

And we've been kind of working internally over the last six, eight months reviewing this proposal.

Lastly, the city authorization lives with the city council in reviewing these proposals from communities.

Next slide.

In terms of the MID, they were originally established in 2013. As mentioned by Lisa, they have received nearly 66% of support in assessment petitions.

Next slide.

There is a modest expansion to the mid boundaries, which the proponents will expand on in detail here shortly, but that does add additional 20 parcels into the repair base, and it does align with the historical Pioneer Square boundaries.

Next slide.

In terms of the assessment formula, I will note that most of our recent BIAs are established based on data from King County, based on two factors.

One is readily available to the general public, and second, that it is annually updated.

One of the things I do want to mention is that we have created a MOU with the King County Department of Assessments in order to better capture this data on an annual basis to support not only building transparency, but also just keeping track of the ever-changing landscape of downtown property ownership.

As mentioned, again, the proponents will get more into the details, but these are kind of the high level details in terms of how the assessments are going to be generated and how that will impact different assessment class of rate payers.

The last bullet I do want to note is Through recent renewals in the U District and other BIAs that are using property data, we have updated a number of things to ensure that equitable assessments are being developed, both by the proponents and under city review.

So, for example, you know, buildings that are under MFTE or assessed at market value, they don't get a nonprofit discount.

Buildings that are land leasing from state and local governments are assessed as full rate payers and not part of the exemption class.

But I'll defer to the proponents once they get to their slides on some of the granular details on the assessment.

Next slide.

In terms of programming, I think we mentioned a lot of the things that the folks in this room do from the ambassador program to managing public parks in partnership with the city.

And as mentioned, as we go through kind of downtown revitalization, the mid will play a critical role in that work.

Next slide.

And this is kind of a contrast in terms of the budget from this current fiscal year to the next fiscal year upon if the MID is successfully renewed, kind of in main large buckets.

For the purpose of time, I think we were gonna kick off, Stephen, next slide, please.

We were hoping to hold questions until the MID has a chance to present their presentation, just in order to have some of the questions that might be coming up answered by their presentation.

Thank you very much.

And thank you very much for allowing this to go forward because a lot of people out there who don't understand or are not familiar with what is a BIA now have that information.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I understand we're going to get into more details with the following presentation, but I did have a technical question.

I was hoping that help with as far as legislative requirements for the proposed boundary expansion.

I understand it would add an additional 20 properties and I understand that.

There are threshold requirements that require 65, well, I'm sorry, require a threshold of 60% of potential rate payers supporting it.

Is there a threshold requirement for the additional expansion separate from the entire area or is the threshold requirement for the entire area.

Just wanting to understand a little bit more of what we're hearing from those 20 new properties, whether or not it's 60% of them that are supportive or some other response and outcome from the idea of expanding that boundary.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold for your question.

In short, there isn't a separate process in terms of weighted petitions for the expansion area, but expansion of boundaries or reduction of boundaries by BIAs are typically based on community inquiries and wants and needs, but I'll turn it over to Lisa and John to answer that question because I know they've been in long-term discussion with some of those property owners and community groups on South Pioneer Square bound subsets.

I would also like to add that we do have other presenters here.

So let's just introduce everyone, and then whoever can field that question the best is free to go ahead.

Can the other, Scott or Brian, would you like to introduce yourself?

Well, I've introduced myself.

I'm Lisa Nitza, and you can introduce yourself.

John Scholes, the president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, which has acted as the program manager of the MID since 1999. Good morning, council members.

And I'm Brian Scott with BDS planning.

I'm a consultant who specializes in business improvement areas in Seattle and across the country and been involved with BIAs in Seattle since 2007 and worked on most of them.

Council member, you're actually creating a new district.

that begins at the end of the current district.

So in fact, you're not expanding the district, you're basically ending one district and creating a new one in the same day.

So the threshold would apply to all the rate payers.

But we wouldn't have done this if the rate payers in that area hadn't asked for that.

And I'm sure John will touch on that in his presentation.

So at this point, at this point, we had a video that we would love to show that would also help get everybody grounded in the mid.

Thank you.

you

Well, thank you again, Councilman, it's the opportunity to be before you today.

Thank you, Councilmember Nelson and Councilmember Lewis for your strong support of the program and getting to know its aspects and services over the last several years and for the strong support that you provide to our ambassador teams.

I know both of you, when you're out on the streets, you're expressing your appreciation and I know they appreciate that.

It's my privilege on behalf of our team and the 35 member board to share with you today a little bit of the basics and then what's of how the MID is operated and existed and then what's being proposed in the in the new 10-year plan.

You first formed this in 1999. You last renewed it in 2013 for a 10-year term.

At that point we expanded services into the Belltown neighborhood.

This current fiscal year will generate about $15.5 million in assessments paid by property owners to support a variety of programs.

Commercial properties downtown, including residential hotels, retail, surface parking lots, are assessed.

We have some voluntary rate payers as well.

The RCWs in the state of Washington don't allow us to assess government-owned properties, but we have some publicly-owned properties, including the Pike Place Market, Benaroya, the Convention Center, Seattle Art Museum, and the Port of Seattle that pay annual assessments on a voluntary basis.

And the Downtown Seattle Association has served as the program manager, the employer, and the deliverer of these services since the founding in 1999. Phillip covered the range of services and programs that are being deployed and invested in on an annual basis.

And I'll speak a little bit more on the next slide to the Employment Opportunity Program that was a really intentional act back in 1999 by the property owners at the time and how this was structured.

Services are provided across 285 square blocks, seven days a week, 362 days a year.

We're not on the streets on Christmas, Thanksgiving, or on Juneteenth, but the other 362 days of the year, we are out there from about 7 a.m.

till 9 p.m.

And this work is overseen by a 35-member board of property owners representing the diversity of property types and diversity of neighborhoods within the district.

And if you look across downtowns and other urban neighborhoods throughout North America and the U.S., you'll find districts like this that are either assembling and assessing business owners or property owners to provide, as you noted, Council Member Nelson, supplemental services to what their city governments are providing in these urban areas.

There's about 2,000 or so in existence today across North America.

You can go to the next slide, Steve.

Thank you.

In 1999, it was a real intentional act by the founding property owners to set this program up in a way that provided employment opportunities to those who were struggling living on the streets or were justice involved.

And we've operated the program in that way for more than 20 years.

Our starting wage as of July of this last year is $20 an hour up from 17 an hour.

And all of our team members receive the same robust benefits package.

It doesn't matter what you do within the organization.

If you're a first week ambassador or somebody on the executive team, you're getting the same benefit package.

We also provide housing support to our team members that don't have stable housing when they come to work with us so that could include first last month and a deposit.

And as folks may experience housing instability during their employment with us, we're also providing that support.

We've had a great range of employment partnerships and pipelines with other nonprofits in our city, including the Seattle Municipal Court.

So we're very intentional about forming deliberate partnerships with nonprofit organizations that might be providing emergency shelter or housing for individuals that don't have employment opportunities but are looking for work and we've got jobs to offer.

So the credit here goes to the property owners who are super intentional about how they built this.

More than 20 years ago, there's a lot of programs around the country that will contract with a third party vendor to provide the on the street services.

We built an in-house program to deliver broad benefit for our community members.

The next slide just gives a sketch of the 10-year impact of what these investments and what some of the services and activities have added up to.

I won't go through these in a lot of detail, but you can see that it's a lot.

These are things that wouldn't be happening over that decade, but not for these investments.

And then just taking a snapshot at March of 2023, just last month, this is what was accomplished by our cleaning team, our safety hospitality team, and our security team as well.

We, you can go to the next slide, Stephen, sorry to not cue you there.

You can see again, this is just over a 30 day period here, the month of March, and what, What's been achieved in June, we began carrying Narcan and you can see in the month of March, it was administered 17 times.

Our ambassadors and our contracted security team carry that on a voluntary basis.

And since June, when they began carrying it in 2022 through March, we've administered Narcan 111 times within the district.

And you can go through these next slides here, Stephen, this is just some of the visual evidence and an indication of the programs and services that are being carried out on a daily basis from graffiti removal and removing illegal dumps and cleaning up alleys, other sidewalk cleaning, and also the production and management of a number of events and other programming activities like the annual tree lighting celebration in downtown.

And we've had, as was noted earlier, a really successful partnership with Seattle Parks Department over the last seven or so years to program staff and provide activations and events in both Westlake Park and Occidental Park.

And all of these activities and investments have translated into significant amount of growth and investment and economic opportunity in our downtown over the last decade.

We have the largest residential population that we've ever had at about 104,000 people living downtown.

50 plus percent growth over the last decade.

Employment jobs assigned to downtown over the last 10 years has increased by 31%.

We've had a lot of new investment and new buildings of low income housing and market rate housing offices, retail, et cetera, a 42% increase in the total building square footage in downtown.

And today downtown accounts for about 50% of the city's economic activity and about half of the property value within the city is located within the three square miles that comprise downtown Seattle.

Now we certainly have our share of challenges as we continue to emerge from this pandemic about 47. percent of folks are back in their offices compared to the same month in 2019. We've had 500 closures of our ground floor businesses.

Our hotel occupancy is still 15 to 20 percent short of where it was where we'd expect it to be in the same month in 2019. We still face significant challenges and one I know this council's very familiar with.

Last year as we, you can go to the next slide, Steven, as we embarked on the renewal process with the rate payer board, we took the opportunity to look at how downtown had changed and been impacted by the pandemic and what are the adjustments and shifts in operations and investments and programs we needed to make to respond.

And the board directed a number of changes to our operations, which we've implemented over the last year or so.

A significant one was investment in unarmed security.

provided by Iron & Oak, a private contractor through us.

We're investing about $2 million a year annually in those services.

And we made the decision largely based on the input and feedback of our own ambassador teams who were dealing with a significant number of verbal and physical assaults out on the street over the last two and a half years or so.

In fiscal year 2021, we had 48 assaults on our ambassador team.

And since we've invested in this security, we've seen those numbers cut in half.

Our verbal and physical assaults are way down over the last year or so since we've been making this investment.

The security team also provides general presence and responds to ratepayer concerns as well and interfaces with the Seattle Police Department.

So that was a significant new investment and change to our services in response to the conditions on the street.

There was a response to the input of our team and to the realities of the significant reduction in the Seattle Police Department staffing in downtown and other parts of the city.

We also increased our use of trikes.

You can see one here, electric trikes.

We've got about 40 of these now so we can move about faster.

They've also improved just the job satisfaction of our clean team members who aren't having to drag a bucket up a hill anymore but can move faster with some electric assistance.

We embarked on a new recruiting and retention initiative.

We had about 38 vacancies in our ambassador team in August of last year.

We have about five today.

Thank you.

Thanks to the changes that we've made to how we recruit and how we retain and the increase into with our entry level wage.

We've taken some other steps as well, just how we use technology to track our activities, increasing our engagement and visibility with our customers, making it easy for folks to report issues and connect with us and better understand our services.

And then I noted earlier the deployment of Narcan in response to the fentanyl crisis in downtown.

Our folks can carry that on a voluntary basis if they so choose.

And most of them have made that choice to carry that and provide that services to folks in need out on the streets.

So that's sort of where we've been the basics of the program and some of the adjustments that we've made to our services as we headed into renewal and I'll turn it over to Brian Scott who supported the process to develop the next 10 year business plan working with our ratepayer board and helping us connect and reach out to other interested stakeholders within our community to shape the business plan and that's being proposed and that's before you today.

Thank you, John.

Brian Scott with BDS Planning.

Again, I'm a consultant specializing in business improvement areas, helped with the renewal of the MID 10 years ago and worked on most of the other business improvement areas in Seattle.

Sorry, I can't be there with you in person today.

I'm in Rochester, New York, helping them create a business improvement areas as we speak.

The process over the last 18 months to get us here was guided by a renewal committee of property owners and members of the mid board.

This informed the outreach to rate payers staff.

stakeholders and city staff which we did extensive outreach to inform what we were doing and John talked about some of the program adjustments that were made immediately in response to that input.

The business plan that is before you and is the basis for this renewal was approved by the mid-board and the Downtown Seattle Association Board in October.

We briefed the mid board throughout the process at meetings that were open to all mid rate payers.

Petitions were distributed to property owners, all the mid rate payers in November.

And as Lisa said at the top of the presentation now, Rate payers representing 67% of the assessment were received, have been received.

I've been doing this for decades.

I've never seen as strong a positive response and rapid return of petitions as we saw this time, as John mentioned, in the feedback we got that comment about where in the world would we be without the MID was prevalent.

Next slide, please.

We formed a mid-renewal committee which met about monthly since the beginning of last year.

Employment engagement included facilitated meetings and focus groups and a survey, one-on-one interviews of ratepayers and property owners.

a focus group with peer organizations, several of whom you heard from at the top of this meeting, mailers to all mid-rate payers, printed and online materials, virtual and public meetings, online surveys and newsletters, and outreach to each of the property owners in that small expansion area in Pioneer Square.

Next slide.

As I said, just super strong support and appreciation for MIDS services, especially During the pandemic people were just you know downtown's in tough shape, but oh my goodness, where would it be without the mid.

lot of concerns about safety and security and downtown Seattle surprising no one that's listening today concerns about the homelessness crisis its impact on downtown desire for more cleaning services and strong.

desire for the city to recommit to providing a higher level of core services downtown.

Next slide.

John.

The MID continues to review all of its program services and budget in order to ensure that it's achieving maximum impact.

It's one of the things I have found most impressive about this organization.

A number of new approaches to market needs are being piloted.

Some adopted budget priorities are shifting and impact metrics evolving as needed.

These are reflected in the MID business plan that John is now going to address.

And this business plan, council members, was what was distributed to about 1,250 property owners with a petition packet and additional information back in November and serves as the basis for the plan going forward over the next 10 years.

So we're proposing here another 10-year term.

So we'll be back before you in 2033, should you renew and act on this legislation.

As was noted earlier, and we'll talk a little bit more detail about this, minor modifications to the southern boundary to align with the Pioneer Square Historic District and the Alliance for Pioneer Square's boundary as well, but maintaining the boundary to the north at Denny Way and to the east at Interstate 5. Most of the new investment is focused on increasing our cleaning services, so a 10% increase in total cleaning hours going forward.

That reflects the outreach and input that we received, that people are grateful for the cleaning we've got down on the streets today, and they just want more of it.

Later hours and additional cleaning services during those times of day and in those locations where we just don't have the level of service that we need to meet the needs.

We are proposing an additional increase in our ambassador wages of another 5% increase that would take effect in July at the start of our fiscal year.

investment to sustain unarmed security with our contract with Iron and Oak.

I can say that I think property owners look forward to the day that they don't have to be in that business and making that level of investment.

But given the realities of the staffing shortfalls that we continue to see with the Seattle Police Department and the challenges that presents to small business owners, property owners, property managers and our own team members, we are committed to continuing to make that investment at least in the near term.

We're creating a new customer service and advocacy position that would serve as an interface between small business owners rate payers residents that want to have a one stop shop to reach us.

And we also want that person to be helpful in helping property owners and other stakeholders reach the city as well.

Sometimes it might be our services that aren't meeting the need or we need more cleaning or need some action to take on that block face in front of a condo building.

In some cases, it may be an action that City Light or SDOT or SPU or somebody else needs to take.

We want to create a position that anybody can go to and they can help navigate to get an answer and get a response.

We would sustain the investment in park activation staffing and management and look to expand that beyond Westlake Park and Occidental to Bell Street Park and Pioneer Park in Pioneer Square.

We are having conversations with the parks department around a separate management agreement that would likely come before the council later this spring that would effectuate that.

But there's a commitment from the property owners in this business plan to be making investments around those services should the city desire to continue that arrangement with us.

Then there's a few technical modifications to the ordinance as well.

So in regards, you can go to the next slide, thank you.

In regards to the boundary area, again, a slight expansion down to the south, just at the north end there of T-Mobile taking in the Silver Cloud Hotel.

As Brian noted, this is in response to interest within this district from residential communities, including the gridiron condos, office owners, and retail owners as well.

I don't have the number on the specific number of petitions turned in for this area that we can follow up and get that information to you.

You can go to the next slide, Stephen.

The total budget for the first year of the new 10-year term, which will begin again in July, would be $18.3 million, so a $3 million or so increase from the current fiscal year.

So property owners are stepping up to provide additional investment to expand these services and to really sustain and increase, particularly the cleaning services that are reflected in the current business plan.

And also respond to a high inflationary environment that still is challenging for everybody's operation, including ours, anybody trying to buy anything and and provide supplies and other things, and also increasingly competitive labor market.

And the majority of the budget, you can go to the next slide, Stephen, is really distributed to the majority of that 18 plus million is to on the street services, individuals performing services, those 362 days a year.

So it's the cleaning services, our largest expenditure area.

a community safety and hospitality team of about 30 individuals that are doing street-based outreach, wellness checks, really serving as that point of contact with other social service organizations in downtown, including Partnership for Zero, LEAD, the Third Avenue Project, DESC, serving as that That team that really understands the folks who are unsheltered downtown and can help them connect with other service providers that have housing and emergency shelter and other services to offer.

And again, continued investment in our parks activation and programming, as well as other public realm events and activations, including our our concert series in the summer.

So that is what is proposed to be paid for and invested in over the next 10 years.

And I will turn it back to Brian to discuss the proposed assessment formula and how all of that will be paid for and how assessments will be structured across property types.

Thank you john my job to take you into the weeds, but it will be brief, I promise.

The basic assessment formula that pays for the $18 million that john mentioned is a combination of the value of the total appraised value of the property and the size of the lot or the land square footage.

Value relates to how much benefit the property is receiving and how much load it's putting on the district.

The size of a lot or land is a pretty good proxy for how much sidewalk there is.

There are caps in place for all properties to limit the total amount that residential properties pay or hotel properties or even the building square footage.

The basic principles of this new 10-year assessment plan is to support the $18.3 million budget for the first year that John mentioned, to make some minor adjustments to rebalance equity among different property types that had emerged over the last 10 years as property values had changed.

to achieve predictable cost escalation over time in a strong inflationary environment, and most importantly, to sustain the services over the 10-year term.

Next slide.

So specifically, the total assessment on appraised value is $0.37 per thousand dollars of total appraised value plus an assessment on land square footage.

The land square footage a factor is it was increased by 15% to 45 cents per square foot.

So each property is appraised 37 cents per $1,000 of total appraised value plus 45 cents per land square foot.

Nobody is assessed by more than 24 cents per building square foot.

That's also a 15% increase.

Basically, those increases are related to raising the budget.

We're eliminating a ceiling on total appraised value because it was having basically no impact.

We increased the ceilings on hotel and residential units.

Hotels, the ceiling is increasing from $97 per hotel room per year to $125 per room per year phased in over two years.

Residential properties are assessed.

The assessment is increasing for $152 per unit per year to $195 per unit per year.

Those increases are somewhat more than the square footage increase because inflation has been growing faster than the number of units so that those properties were paying less proportionally than the the office and other commercial properties.

During the input to this process, there were suggestions that there ought to be a profound change to the way these ceilings work on residential and hotel properties.

And the Renewal Committee and the Mid-Board gave some careful consideration to that and decided that this basic formula that had been working to everybody's satisfaction over the last 20 plus years made sense.

And so we just adjust the rate and did not make an adjustment to the way the formula works.

We also the over time then so this all describes the first year assessment and then each year over the 10 year life of the district the assessments will increase by the consumer price index first in the Seattle area.

But.

by a minimum of 2.5% or a maximum of 5%.

So if inflation is more than 5%, as it has been in the last couple of years, the assessments will only increase by 5%.

And if inflation, hopefully, drops below 2.5%, costs would still escalate by 2.5%.

we would do one recalculation of the assessments during year five based on updated property values from the King County Assessor, and those would impact the assessments on year six.

In this last 10 years, we did two of those readjustments, so we're doing one less.

So basically all this is making some minor tweaks to the way the assessment works to rebalance equity and slightly simplifying the overall process.

Next slide.

Thank you.

So to wrap things up, the Metropolitan Improvement District program services and ambassadors clearly represent an extremely impactful and powerful way that the private sector can partner with the public sector and the people of Seattle to get and keep downtown Seattle thriving.

We ask for your support in reauthorizing this terrific organization so that it can continue to make the difference that it is every day downtown.

And I would just conclude and to thank the executive staff and the mayor's office, the city attorney's office and our partners at OED for their support of bringing this proposal before the council.

Thank you very much for that explanation of all the things that you do.

And again, I'll note the full room here and many of the ambassadors present.

Our office received 92 emails and they weren't all form letters.

So you will hear public comment, but I also wanted to note for the record that council members have been receiving written comment as well.

Council Member Lewis, would you like to say anything?

Thank you so much chair Nelson and thanks for the invitation to come to this committee today to participate in the presentation.

I don't typically serve on the committee but given that this legislation has massive implications for district seven which includes most of the mid catchment area.

particular priority to come here today to participate in this.

I too wanna acknowledge the presence of the MID ambassadors who are here in this room, as well as I ran into Sean Blackwell earlier with the PDA who contracts through the MID, or the seeing Kirk here who does the commute and transportation work for the MID.

Just seeing all the folks in this room and the community that has really gelled over the last several decades is the service has evolved and really build a following and made a massive difference downtown, as reflected here and probably the biggest turnout we've seen in chambers since pre coded and.

We would be nowhere in the city without the contribution that the NITMID provides.

I was telling Kylie before the committee started today that I walked to City Hall today from Bell Street Park, where I had some meetings with constituents in Belltown in the morning and saw no less than 12 NITMID ambassadors on my walk from Belltown to City Hall, all in the midst of doing work.

all in the midst of helping people in crisis, of remediating graffiti, of cleaning up and washing down the street, work that is fundamental to building a city that is fun to live in, fun to spend time in, and productive to work in.

And without that contribution, I think you see when you go to parts of the city that aren't fortunate enough to have a community like this to form a BIA, it makes a huge difference in the perception of the community, in the vibrancy of the business district, in the potential for partnerships to solve long-standing and calcifying civic problems.

And what we're really getting here by renewing this agreement to have the MID is maintaining, building, protecting, and expanding that community that is making a positive difference in the core of our city.

And there is no downtown recovery without the MID.

So we're at the beginning here of a broader discussion and process to get into some of the details that were alluded to in the presentation and really appreciate the thoroughness of the Office of Economic Development and Philip being here to walk us through that process.

And looking forward to continue to go through this as a council and on the end continue this partnership that has made a stronger downtown and a stronger city as a result.

So thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember her bold.

Thank you.

I just like to start my remarks and questions with recognizing the march.

report on impacts and the life-saving use of Narcan 17 times in one month alone, it appears, and likely saving 17 lives.

I really want to thank you for equipping your representatives with Narcan.

I didn't hear a specific number as it relates to the Employment Opportunity Program.

You may have given it, I may have missed it.

Could you give us a number of how many people are actually employed through the Employment Opportunity Program?

Another question I have is the activities described on the March 2023 impact slide described as outreach engagements and conditions of entry sit live violations.

I'm just wondering what.

what that engagement looks like and what the outcomes are likely to be in instances where you are coming across folks who are In violation of the Entry to Lie Ordinance here in Seattle, what is the outcome of engagements with folks doing that?

And then lastly, super interested in how unarmed security works generally, what situations people are trained to intervene in, and how they partner with law enforcement.

Thank you.

Thanks for the questions, Councilmember.

In regards to your first sentence, the total number of ambassador positions, we've got about 130 or so full time positions today, and we'll increase those by 10%.

So another 13 in the in the first year of the renewal.

And over the last decade, I think safely, we can say we've provided employment opportunities to well over 500 people that have come with a background of experiencing homelessness and or being justice involved.

And so our Our greatest source of referrals and new positions is through our community partnerships with organizations like the Seattle Municipal Court and other nonprofits in the community.

And that's where we're really leaning in for the positions that remain open.

We've got five, I think, still today.

And then any additional hires through the renewed MID.

And then in regards to your second question, our outreach is largely focused on connecting people with the resources and housing that's necessary to help them find a better place than a doorway, a park, a sidewalk, or a plaza to spend the night.

We do focus on folks who are in doorways and maybe blocking a doorway to a small business or an office building to avoid conflict with the folks then that are showing up to either work there and or patronize the business.

And our intent through that engagement is to help them move out from that situation so that business can open its doors.

Sometimes that area needs to be cleaned if someone had spent the night there.

And then ultimately to connect those individuals to services, shelter and housing.

So they've got a better place to be than the doorway.

or a sidewalk.

And as I noted earlier, that team is working very closely with the other service providers out on the street.

And we're really trying to be an extension of their efforts.

So Partnership for Zero and RHA certainly, but also the Third Avenue Project and the Public Defender Association and others who have a significant presence on the street and have other resources that we may not have to offer.

And then in regards to the security, the unarmed security, they're providing additional presence generally in public areas where we believe it's necessary based on incident reports and calls for service.

They're shadowing our clean team members primarily in areas where we know to have significant challenges, alleys that are dark early in the morning, other parts of town where we've had recent incidents, either incidents directed to our team or just general incidents involving the public.

They're also providing medical assistance often.

Often they're the first ones on scene, so they've assisted folks who've been shot in certain areas of downtown.

Thankfully, nobody recently, but about a year ago or so, they were providing on-site aid before EMT officials arrived.

They are interfacing and reporting crime, interfacing with SPD, and have been responsible for facilitating a number of arrests I don't think would have happened Otherwise, they will break up assaults and disturbances between individuals.

But again, they are unarmed.

It's about 800 or so hours a week, which translates to about a dozen folks a day or so that are out deploying with our team.

And I'll just reiterate, we got into this, the property owners directed us to get into this work because our team members themselves didn't feel safe providing the services, the other services within the program.

And we had the highest level of assaults, both verbal and physical that we'd ever had in the 20 plus years of operating this program.

Anything else?

Okay, so we will now, now that the presentation is over, and we'll now begin the public hearings section of this meeting on Council Bill 120537. And remember, we're actually holding two public hearings combined, one set by Resolution 32091 on disestablishing the current MID, and a second set by Resolution 02090 on establishing a new MID.

The online registration to sign up at this hearing opened two hours ago before this meeting.

And for remote speakers, sign up for, that was for remote speakers, I believe we still have two, we will begin with our remote speakers.

And for a sign up for in-person speakers that was opened up 15 minutes prior to this meeting, and I will call on speakers in the order.

of registration, and we will, because we have so many people I apologize, but we will be, I will be giving one minute to speak.

And let's see the rules applied to this public hearing are the same as those that were mentioned in the past.

With that, please only speak on Council Bill 120537. You missed your chance to speak about the Film Commission appointments.

And as presiding officer, I am now opening the public hearing on that Council Bill 120537. And we will begin with remote speaker, Steve Horvath, followed by Risa Conklin.

Whenever you're ready.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Great.

Thanks so much.

This is Steve Horvath.

I live in Belltown, which is one of the neighborhoods of five neighborhoods that make up downtown Seattle.

And, uh, you you've heard a lot of testimony today, especially earlier about renewing the mid and support for it.

And Reno, there's really little doubt in my mind that the city council is going to renew the mid for another decade.

What's not clear and what's really the concern is whether the council and this committee will act to address concerns that have been raised about the equity of the assessments, discrepancies, and how those assessments are levied, the quality of the data that's being provided to the program to make everything work.

And there's been a lot of data collected by myself and some other folks who live in and around downtown It's work that hasn't been provided to anyone else.

And I apologize, I didn't get to speak earlier.

Do I have my time from earlier?

I just heard a ding.

That is, we are allocating one minute of public comment.

We do have 35 speakers signed up.

So if you prefer to send in the rest of your comments or all of them in entirety, you're welcome to do so.

Okay, moving on to our next speaker is Dale Christie, followed by Julie Holland, please.

Pardon me, what?

Oh, I'm sorry, wait, oh, hold on, hold on.

There is one more comment, excuse me.

Risa Conklin.

Yes, hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Risa Conklin.

I'm the executive director of the Freeway Park Association, and my comments today are in support of agenda item 11, renewing the Metropolitan Improvement District.

The services that the MID provides to the city are critical to the future of downtown and the livability of Seattle.

Freeway Park is a center city park that spans I-5 from 6th to 9th Avenues.

And while we're not technically within the MID boundaries, we are still very much impacted by all the good work the MID provides to our neighborhood.

The outreach support, care for the urban environment and simple goodwill to the city and its visitors is felt across all boundaries.

Staff from the MID and DSA are regular contributors to the work that we do at Freeway Park.

MID ambassadors and leadership attend our quarterly safety and social services committee where we meet with SPD and surrounding security as well as social service providers to share best practices, troubleshoot difficult situations that we encounter working in public space and discuss overlapping outreach efforts.

Thank you very much.

Our third speaker Lisa Dugard is not present here so we will proceed to our in-person speakers.

First on the list is Stephen Bullock, followed by Dale Christie and Julie Holland.

I do need to extend a request to my colleagues.

Are you able to stay past, we're already 15 minutes past, are you able to stay until 12.15?

That may mean that we will have to shorten our public comment.

I'm seeing nods.

Okay.

Let's go ahead and shorten our public comment to 45 seconds, please.

and go ahead.

Good morning, Chair Nelson and City Council.

I'm just here to support MED.

I am the Deputy Director for DESC, Downtown Emergency Service Center.

We occupy two blocks on 3rd from Yesler to Cherry on 3rd, and the work that MED has done is incredible.

Earlier this year, we had a MRSA outbreak and a hepatitis B, and when that team came in and they cleaned the alleys, removed the trash, our employees were able to come into the office without dragging merch on their feet and not feeling like they were going to have hepatitis B because of the cleanliness that they provided.

Our team also really respect them.

The way they engage the clients that we serve that are very vulnerable and marginalized, they do it with dignity and respect.

We really appreciate that.

So thank you for providing and continuing to support the man team.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Dale, Julie, then Paul.

Good morning, dear council members.

My name is Dale Christie, and I'm here representing Kleist Properties and Reef Parking, and my comments are in support of renewing the MID Council Bill 120537. I've worked directly with MID for over eight years.

Steve Walls and his fantastic crew do a wonderful job replying to our needs.

to clean up downtown core and provide same day service with graffiti removal.

MID provides an essential service to downtown core, ambassadors talking with citizens, fall leaf cleanup, daily litter pickup, and graffiti removal as needed.

The individual, the invaluable services shows our great city of Seattle at its best.

Please reauthorize another 10 years doing so will ensure a healthy, vibrant downtown core for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And if you could be sort of near the microphone when you're next up, so Julie, Paul, and Ezekiel, go ahead.

Dear council members, I am Julie Holland, the president of the South Lake Union Community Council, speaking in support of renewing the Metropolitan Improvement District expansion.

You may be asking, why is the South Lake Union Community testifying today?

SLU shares a lengthy border with downtown, a portion of which overlaps in the regrade area.

The SLU neighborhood can testify that MID's success is not exclusive benefit to downtown.

It is not contained by borders.

Its influence is amplified to the surrounding neighborhoods, and we are grateful.

Please reauthorize the MID.

Thank you very much.

And we'll just maybe save your applause until the end, because we are trying to make sure that everybody can be heard.

Go ahead, Paul, Ezekiel, then Kimberly.

Is Paul Evestik here?

Okay, you're up next.

Hi, good morning.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

I'm in here support of the MID renewal.

I am the GM of the Westin Seattle and a resident in the downtown district at the Stratus apartments.

I've experienced, uh, what this team of ambassadors does the year and a half I've lived downtown.

They are essential and valuable.

Everybody's saying the same thing.

Please renew this.

And I thank them for all they've done for my customers and for me personally.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ezekiel, Kimberly, and then Sherry.

Hello, I'm Ezekiel, and I love my job.

I'm very proud of the work we do.

I love that we help create a positive environment for our community, and I find the work very meaningful.

As an example, a few months ago, I had a guy come up and thank me for saving his life.

He said he was in detox, going to go meet his kid.

And that's a memory that I'm going to hold for the rest of my life.

And when I reflect back on my life and look at the work I did with this company, I'm going to be very proud of my time here.

And I'm grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Kimberly, Sherry, and O'Neill, and please speak close to the mic.

Hello, my name is Kimberly, Kimberly Blake.

I moved here to Seattle in November of 2021. So I'm a new resident of the city and I live in Belltown.

I enjoyed moving here.

My daughter needed some help.

So I came up here to get things in order for her.

I opened up my window and I noticed there was a lot of trash around and I'm like, okay, what's going on?

It's a little crazy here.

But then I saw some ambassadors cleaning the streets.

And I really appreciated that because in the morning my streets are clean when I could go outside.

I talked to them about how I could help out.

and it turned out to be employment for me.

I've been there for a year and I really love working for this company because we service people, not only cleaning their streets, we can give them directions.

We just keep the area really neat for everyone, including offering that Narcan services, which I have personally been able to help people here in the street, which makes me feel like I'm serving my purpose in this community as well as working in it.

And I believe that we should keep the mid here because I need it and I feel like we all need it, so thank you.

Thank you very much.

So we've got Sherry O'Neill and then Chris, please.

Hello.

My name is Sherry Trunser and I work for The Mid on the Clean Team.

Before I started working for The Mid, my day-to-day struggle was very real, feeling the effects from the post-pandemic crisis.

But I witnessed joining our company, was quite intriguing.

As I was accepted into this new position as a Clean Team Ambassador, I found myself helping shape the future of Seattle and its development.

We all have noticed that without our services, the Belltown, Retail, and Pioneer Square areas could very well collapse under crisis if left unattended.

Trying to shorten this up a little bit.

I know, sorry.

Just knowing that our strong teams of employees that step out every day of the week, all year round, providing a clean and vibrant downtown urban core reassures us of the positive impact we have on this community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

O'Neal, Chris, and then Jeff.

Hello, my name is O'Neal Vinny, and I'm gonna tell you a little story about me coming across a rate payer.

When we got the contract out in Belltown, there was a boutique there on First and Bell, and I ran across the right pair and nothing I could do or say or provide that will please this right pair.

I did like the right pair's candor, being frank and everything.

A couple months later, a pleasant voice came up behind me and said, wow, the city is pretty tore up, but I know you guys will be like, wow.

And we use that attitude of can do and leaving no right pair behind.

And we utilize that during the pandemic as well.

And thank you.

Thank you very much.

Chris, Jeff, and Tammy, please.

Good morning Chris copacino copacino fujikata where Brandon marketing agency where I happen to be down the Joshua green building.

on the corner of 4th and Pike's, we're kind of in the middle of everything.

I happen to park on 2nd and Pike every day.

And I make that walk from 2nd and Pike to 4th and Pike.

And every morning I see this great team out here doing yeoman's work, making the downtown streets hospitable, safe, and bringing vibrancy to the downtown urban core.

I would ask rhetorically, quasi rhetorically, if not for the mid, then what?

because I would see what that alternative looks like.

This group does tremendous work as a downtown leaseholder who signed a long term lease in 2019 faithfully.

We love the work they do and we couldn't imagine a different situation so I support the Council to renew the bid.

Go ahead, Tammy, and after Tammy, it will be Dan, and then Lori, go ahead.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having me here.

My name is Tammy Blank-Kenneman, and I am the president and CEO of Visit Seattle.

I am here to tell you that we, and that not just being our team, but the hospitality community overall, is grateful for the mid-team, both as residents and as professionals.

The perceptions and the reality of downtown experience go far beyond what we see on the surface.

As a downtown resident, I stop and thank every mid-team member I come across for making my neighborhood cleaner and safer and giving me a sense of comfort and pride.

As the CEO of the entity responsible for attracting visitors to Seattle, I'm even more grateful.

As we welcome visitors, cruise ship passengers and convention delegates, the work of the MID is visible and critical.

And as we work with meeting planners, the partnership with the DSA and the MID can make or break a decision to hold a meeting in Seattle.

And those decisions are critical.

Conventions add economic impact to our city in obvious and subtle ways, supporting small business, BIPOC enterprises, in addition to hotels, transportation, attraction and services.

We appreciate the MID and we encourage the reauthorization.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jeff.

I think I was missed there.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee.

My name is Jeff Drager.

I'm the chief operating officer at the Seattle Art Museum.

While here on behalf of Sam, my testimony is also informed by the experience of regular street level engagement in our community.

For the past year, I have taken time every other week to tour downtown neighborhoods with a MID safety supervisor.

We have checked in with numerous businesses and many of our ambassadors to express support and listen to their views on the progress being made in importance of the MID.

Ms tangible impacts and intangible value could not be more clear mid sports overall downtown recovery.

Its residents local businesses other institutions and visitors, it does this through multiple lines of efforts to help ensure a safe and welcoming experience.

As a cultural institution in the heart of downtown, SAM is part of the city's economic wellbeing while serving the community through art.

A clean and safe downtown means fewer barriers to access our offerings than those of other cultural institutions.

Downtown Seattle has made considerable progress and mid-renewal is essential to continuing that momentum.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next up, we've got, I just want to make sure that everybody's lined up here.

Lori, followed by Zahur, Kirk, and then John.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Lori Hill with Unico Properties, a company that's been investing in downtown Seattle for nearly 70 years, and with a current footprint of over four and a half million square feet of owned commercial space just within the MID boundary.

As prominent supporters, we've seen and felt the impact of the MID efforts, and we feel that it's critical to the future vibrancy of the city.

As a result, we fully support the renewal of MID.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Kirk Coven Connor, Executive Director of Commute Seattle, and I strongly support the renewal of the Metropolitan Improvement District agenda item 11. Commute Seattle is the nonprofit that works to make it easy to walk, bike, ride, and roll for the 600,000 people who go to work or school in Seattle every single day.

And while we work across the city, 320,000 of the people that we work with are within the boundaries of Metropolitan Improvement District.

And funding from the MID makes the work of our aid staff possible.

We are effective because we are a public-private partnership of the MID, SDOT, Metro, and Sound Transit.

We help make it easy to reach the opportunities in the Metropolitan Improvement District from across the region.

Without the MID, the benefit we provide to the people who live and work in Seattle would not be able to continue.

Please reauthorize the MID so Commute Seattle staff can continue to make Seattle a more affordable, sustainable, and connected place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Zahoor.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Zahoor Ahmed.

I've been in Seattle area for past 23 years.

I work in hospitality industry and the word hospitality has been thrown around in this room for several times today.

The word hospitality invokes a different feeling and expectations from different people.

The people on the receiving side of the hospitality, we call them host, not the guest, and the people who are providing it to the host.

Two things that people in the guest community, they can count on, they expect from every host, is the safety and the place where they're visiting.

So MID has been proven to be providing the same service, safe and clean downtown for our guests in Seattle area for downtown for many years that I've been part of it.

We have much more work to do.

And I think with the approval of the next 10 years of MED, we will get there.

We will get this place nice and shiny and safe and clean for everybody.

I can't imagine a downtown Seattle without the MED.

So please reauthorize it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up are John, then Rosie, then Evelyn.

Greetings.

My name is john low occur.

I've been connected in several ways here.

I'm responsible for Metzger maps in the Pike Place market call map company and I chair the trustee group at the oldest church in Seattle, just to cross the boundary line on Denny way.

We all benefit from this.

This is a great service.

There was a improvement district that formed in the Belltown area in the nineties.

That was a disaster.

This, so I was skeptical as a small property owner as well, but this has been great.

And I'm just here to also thank you.

You represent best of Seattle in my opinion.

And I really mean, I'm not detached from the streets.

I see you.

I talked to you.

Thank you.

Hello, hey, I'm Rosie Courtney port of Seattle.

So on behalf of the port of Seattle we're here to support the mid.

For us the cruise industry is valuable it's valuable to this community and it begins this Saturday, we expect 100, excuse me, 1.4 million guests.

beginning Saturday.

And we appreciate the ambassadors and the welcoming their faces, their willingness to make this a safe and healthy community for all these guests.

So we encourage the council to renew the MID and appreciate the time.

Thank you very much.

Next up is Evelyn, then followed by Jessica, Lou, and Alexis.

Hello, I dare I'm Evelyn Rosner.

I've lived in downtown Seattle on the corner of fourth and hike for over 20 years, and I could not have been more pleased as a president of our HOA to sign the petition to renew the mid.

The mid acting almost alone went from just augmenting city services and making the place livable to making it acceptable to live downtown.

Without the mid, it would have been grim indeed.

Well, I'll just leave it there.

It's between the drug markets and the everything else that's going on, they clean up.

every day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair and members of the Council.

I'm Jessica Lyons from Hudson Pacific Properties here in support of the MID renewal.

Hudson Pacific Properties is one of the largest commercial office owners in downtown Seattle and Pioneer Square.

The MID is a vital resource to the success of downtown for office workers, for visitors, and for residents.

In order to be successful, downtown and Pioneer Square need to be welcoming, clean and safe for everyone.

The Mid Ambassadors play a vital role in ensuring downtown's vibrancy.

For these reasons, we encourage the Council to renew the Mid.

Thank you for your work to revitalize downtown.

Thank you.

Hi, Lou bond Thank you so much Council for us having us here.

I'm in support Lou bond with the Melbourne Tower beautiful 10 story terracotta office building at third and pike it's been a challenging last three or four years, to say the least, but without the MIT without DSA, we would be in a world of hurt We represent over 35 businesses, small businesses that are tenants of ours, and they would not be there if the MID wasn't there.

So thank you so much.

Please renew this new boundary line area and for another 10 years.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

This is Alexis, then Scott, then Avery.

Good afternoon.

My name is Alexis Thornton.

I'm speaking in support of renewal of the MID.

I am a small cottage business owner, as well as a proud Seattleite that does not have a car.

So to be able to access the downtown core, both professionally and personally, and have it be both clean and safe is incredibly important.

I live on First Hill and often walk down to Belltown to go to the gym.

And it's one of the highlights of my week.

And I can't imagine that experience without the MID, without our ambassadors making such a huge important impact in our day-to-day life here in Seattle.

Please renew this funding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council, my name is Scott Bonjukian.

I've been working downtown for eight years, currently at the corner of 5th and Pike, supporting renewal of the MID.

In the age of remote work, I still come down to the office every day because I want the heart of our city to thrive.

And that's really possible thanks to the MID ambassador team and everyone else who works at the organization.

They ensure the day-to-day livability and health and safety of downtown and do excellent work in street cleaning, engaging with the homeless and activating our urban parks.

So entirely by private rate payers, the city is really lucky to have this system in place.

Please reoffer I submit for another decade, doing so will ensure a downtown for all.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we've got Avery Lloyd is the next year.

Hello, my name is Avery Barnes.

I am a resident and newly established business owner.

I have an African art and design gallery right on Occidental Avenue in Pioneer Square, and I am in full support of the MED.

I opened my gallery kind of in the midst of the recovery of Pioneer Square.

But one thing that I did want to touch on was the importance of the humility and compassion and humanity of the MIDS approach and Downtown Ambassadors approach, especially with our unhoused communities.

I am inspired by the work that they do and was immediately educated on that.

So please continue this work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I council members.

My name is Lloyd Gregory.

I rent coworking space in pioneer square, and I'm currently organizing the pioneer square summer market for June 10th.

Um, I want to urge you and encourage you to renew the, the mid funding.

They're really a special group.

They've been there throughout the entire pandemic.

Smiling every day to visitors.

And I can't imagine the downtown without them.

I can't imagine finding your square without them.

or how the summer market would even be a possibility without them.

So thank you so much.

And I urge you council to support them.

Pay attention to equity, of course, but it is for the businesses that are doing this.

So I support them, thanks.

Thank you.

Kirk, Sam, and then Robert, please.

Kirk Hovenkater.

Is that you?

I'm Sam Falkenhagen.

I've lived in Seattle since 2016. And I first became aware of the mid during the pandemic when they did a great job, just keeping the city clean, uh, when not a lot of people were downtown and just wanted to come here today and say that I support the maid and think that you should renew the funding.

I think it's a very important program and it adds a lot to the city.

So, uh, please renew the funding.

Thank you very much.

All right, Robert, then Jessica and Sydney.

Good afternoon.

My name is Robert Rodriguez, founder of Jello Butterfly Coffee.

And I'm here to talk on behalf of the MID.

Thank you so much for supporting our coffee shop.

We just got this award as the best coffee shop.

And this is to you guys.

I had three kids.

I started in the pandemic.

It was very difficult.

Without you guys, I wouldn't be here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

I'm sorry.

I didn't, you weren't close to the mic.

What is the coffee shop?

Yellow butterfly coffee.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Next speaker is Jessica.

And then, okay.

All right.

Sydney, uh, Pearl or Alison DeLong.

Hi, I'm Sydney.

I'm sorry, one quick thing.

Hi, my name is Sydney Pirtle and I have lived in Pioneer Square for the past nine years.

I just want to say the street ambassadors are doing a great job, but today I'm here to talk about art.

As an artist living and working there, the opportunities The Mid has provided have been a lifeline for me and many of my fellow artists.

I'm sure you all saw the murals downtown.

Those are things to The Mid.

When during COVID, the gallery shut down and no one was spending money on buying artwork in the face of such uncertainty.

And the MID really stepped up and gave artists opportunities to work, show their art and be ultimately able to pay their rent.

And I would like to, yes, please support the MID.

This is Alison, then followed by, let's see.

I'll get to that later.

Go ahead.

Hi, I'm Alison DeLong.

I work for Tishman Spire.

I manage the 520 Pike Tower building at 6th and Pike.

I've been a longtime supporter of the MID.

I've worked in property management downtown for almost 30 years.

I've seen the city before and after the MID.

I've seen the city before and after COVID.

The MID makes a massive difference.

My security officers are so thankful to the safety ambassadors and the cleaning ambassadors who help us provide services to our buildings, who help our building staff feel safe when the City 9-1-1 can't or won't respond to certain types of issues.

And I myself...

mid for welfare checks of people who are in distress.

And I always know that they're going to be treated respectfully and thoughtfully.

And so I look forward to the mid being reauthorized.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, is let's see number 31 is Brock, then Dan, then john, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Brock Bradley, and I'm here in support of renewing the MID.

I've worked downtown for more than 11 years in the hospitality industry, welcoming meetings and conventions related visitors to our beautiful city.

In my current role, I escort meeting planners and decision makers from organizations from all over the world down Pike and Pine to the market and all around the downtown corridor.

Thanks to the MID's clean team community, sorry, During these visits, our guests are deciding if Seattle is safe, clean, and welcoming enough for their meetings and conferences.

Thanks to the MID's clean team, community safety, and hospitality teams, I can welcome these meetings, meeting planners, and decision-makers whose decisions to place their events in Seattle are crucial to Seattle's viability and vibrancy confidently, knowing they will see the friendly, smiling faces of MID ambassadors all along the route.

Thank you.

Please renew the MID.

Dan, John, then AP Heard.

Hello, my name is Dan Feeney and I represent Heinz Property Management and we support renewing the MID.

Our firm manages several large office buildings in downtown served by the MID, including the critical areas along there in the Central Business District, along Third Avenue and near the waterfront.

MID services are essential in order to maintain and grow office worker occupancy in the CBD and elsewhere in Seattle.

MID ambassadors work extremely hard to clean city's walkways and public areas.

and they are welcoming presence to those who work, live and play in downtown Seattle.

They represent exactly what we need in the city.

They demonstrate their appreciation of and care of or care for the city, its residents and its guests seven days a week.

Please do reauthorize in that.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council Member Nelson and other Council Members attending virtually.

My name is Dan Temkin.

I'm the owner of Block 41, which is a private event venue located at 2nd and Bell in Belltown.

I'm also a member of the Mid-Rate Payer Advisory Board.

Sadly, Bell Street Park, especially between 1st and 3rd Avenues, has devolved into a scary place with a great deal of loitering, open drug dealing and consumption, assaults and other illicit activities occurring right at our front door.

Along with that, an endless stream of litter, graffiti, even occasionally people defecating, urinating in our doorway.

It's hard to imagine what the neighborhood would look like without the invaluable cleanup efforts and the comforting presence of mid ambassadors in our neighborhood.

Not only do we appreciate the work that they do, but just the mere sight of the yellow vests in our neighborhood make our clients and our employees feel safer.

I strongly encourage the council to reauthorize the MID for the next 10 years.

I'd like to thank all the MID folks here today.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, let's see.

John, AP and Tom, I'm not seeing some of those speakers, John.

Okay.

And please try, please do keep your comments in 45 seconds if you can.

Sure.

My name's Tom Schapacher.

I represent the university's ownership of our downtown real estate.

So it includes a lot of buildings.

You all know historic Olympic hotel, the Rainier Tower, Cobb building, Fifth Avenue theater building, Skinner.

So we have every type of constituent you can think of coming to downtown, office users, retail.

The MID is super important to us.

You guys are great.

We're all in this together.

We really have to support each other.

We're all dealing with stressful situations downtown.

And we know that every person counts how they experience our downtown real estate for the whole downtown.

So you guys are an essential partner.

The university enthusiastically supports the MID renewal.

And so I thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Okay, is Sarah then Ken and Dan.

That is the end of our list.

Hello, my name is Sarah Harvey, I'm the owner of Harris Harvey gallery, a fine art gallery, you know the pipe place market.

I'm here today to voice my support for the renewal of the MID.

Over the years, we've relied on this organization often.

They've cleaned trash and human waste countless times from my storefront.

They've been an important mediator when people pitched a tent blocking our front door.

They've been there to help myself or my employees safely exit or enter our place of work.

They have made a positive intervention with folks in crisis nearby.

Having a clean, welcoming downtown is important to the success of my business, but also the local artists that my gallery supports, the galleries like mine in town, and also the resilience of the Seattle art scene generally.

So I ask, please reauthorize the MID for 10 more years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, Ken, then Dan, and Liderman.

not seeing him present.

And then finally, Dan is the last person on the list.

Dan Feeney.

What did you say?

Okay, got it.

Did I miss anybody?

Did I skip over anybody by mistake?

Seeing shakes of the head.

I just want to say that I hope that you are feeling loved and appreciated right now.

Well, it's been And those are my sentiments you heard from the broadest possible cross section of businesses, employers, nonprofits, small businesses, building owners.

And it's also remarkable that we've got management and workers here in the same room working toward the same goal, which is the reauthorization of the MID.

So I'm not gonna say anything else.

Well, I will except for, do my colleagues have anything they'd like to add?

Okay.

Pardon me.

Yes.

This closes the public hearing and seeing no business left in our meeting as a whole.

I will then.

No.

If there are no more further business items, this meeting will adjourn.

It is 1218, and this meeting is adjourned.

Next meeting, we will continue this, and that will be on April 26th.

Thank you all for sticking around.

I appreciate it.