Seattle City Council Briefing 6/13/2022

Thank you, son.

Good afternoon.

Today is Monday, June 13th.

The time is two o'clock and will the Seattle City Council briefing meeting please come to order.

The clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Esqueda.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Morales.

And Council President Juarez.

Here.

That's for present.

Okay, so thank you.

If there's an objection, the minutes of the June 6, 2022 will be adopted.

Hearing and receiving no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Moving on to the President's Report.

On today's agenda, we have two proclamations for signature including one on the 50th anniversary of Title IX and one recognizing the work of a legislative aid to Council Member Teresa Mosqueda, who we all know to be Aretha.

We have no executive session today.

We do not take public comment at council briefings, though we welcome the public to council chambers today or to watch online as we go through our new hybrid approach.

Public comment will be accepted tomorrow in both person and online.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes and the payment of the bills, as well as 26 appointments, which were reviewed and recommended by the Land Use Committee, chaired by Council Member Strauss.

We will take one vote on all items of the consent calendar, unless any council member requests that an item be removed for consideration separately.

And if that happens, then we'll take that item at the end of the agenda.

Following the consent calendar, we'll be voting on six issues.

The first is the Seattle Police Management Association, the SPMA Collective Bargaining Agreement.

This agreement was sent to full council and was not considered in committee.

Last week at the request of our Public Safety Committee Chair, we delayed a vote on the Seattle Police Management Collective Bargaining Agreement by one week.

The chair, of course, is Council Member Herbold.

At tomorrow's council meeting, the SPMA Collective Bargaining Agreement will be considered for a vote.

On June 6, all council members received a one-hour briefing at council briefing.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact our own Greg Doss at central staff.

Number two, we'll be voting on the appointment of Michael Winkler-Chin to be the director of office of housing.

We'll also be voting on two items considered and recommended by the land use committee regarding accepting a grant and rooftop feature regulations.

At the end of our agenda, we'll be voting on two items considered and recommended by the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee regarding property transfers and easements.

Information on these items are available on the online agenda.

Moving on, today I'm bringing forward a proclamation for signatures proclaiming June, I'm sorry, Thursday, June 23rd, 2022 to be the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

I will leave the discussion on the proclamation for any additional feedback before I request signatures to be affixed for the proclamation.

I'm pleased to bring forward today a proclamation recognizing the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

Title IX passed in 1972. was a landmark change in federal law that prohibits discrimination in all areas of education, including athletics.

This act single handedly opened up athletic opportunities for women and girls that had never been offered before in history.

Our nation's education system began investing in girls and women's athletics to meet the equality standards required in the law.

This investment enabled girls and women to develop their athletic talent and leadership skills that go along with it as part of their education.

It created opportunities that had previously, for generations, been denied.

I welcome my colleagues to sign this proclamation today.

Next week, we will present the proclamation at the full council meeting.

Receiving it will be Jenny Gelder, co-owner of the Seattle Storm, our four-time national championship winning team.

The Seattle Storm has won more national championships than any other team in our city's history.

The success of the women on the storm could not have been possible without the training and opportunities granted and guaranteed by Title IX.

Also receiving the proclamation next week will be Jackie McCormick.

Jackie runs an organization called Rise Above to engage indigenous youth in athletics, leadership, and positive activities.

Jackie was also a very talented basketball player in her years at University of Illinois, I believe.

It is an up-and-coming organization that invests in the talent, ability, and leadership potential of our indigenous youths and all youths in the Seattle and actually statewide.

I look forward to Rise Above helping nurture and create the talent for the next generation of winning teams.

This city council has been a big supporter of Rise Above, not only in our budget, but in other ways in conjunction with the Indigenous Advisory Council.

Rise Above not only does work locally, but it also works with tribes, indigenous-led organizations, and including the Tulalip tribe and the Kalispell tribe.

if there are any, before I move any further, about any comments on the proclamation.

I know we do a lot of proclamations and they're all good and I appreciate that.

And sometimes we don't all get a chance to read the proclamations that any particular council member puts forward.

The proclamation that I have for Title IX has 17 whereases.

I'm not going to read the whole proclamation, but I did pull out a few that I think is very important to put on the record.

And I'll just start with six of them that I'd like to read, and they're very short.

Whereas Title IX has, in 50 states since its passage, expanded opportunities for women and girls in sports and in science, technology, engineering, and math, and that is STEM fields, and improved protections for pregnant and parenting students.

Whereas in February 2022, the U.S.

Soccer Federation governing body and the U.S.

Women's National Team announced a settlement to resolve the longstanding pay dispute with the Federation agreeing to pay the two teams equally in the next union contract and give the women's team 22 million and back pay.

Whereas in Seattle, we celebrate our local women's professional sports teams, including the Seattle Storm and the OL Reign.

Whereas the Seattle Storm's force for change brings together players in the front office, ownership, and partners to focus on five key areas of impact.

Voting and education, BIPOC youth, amplification of black women, amplification of LGBTQ, leaders of color, and organizations serving black communities.

Whereas since 2020, Ol' Rain has formed a strong partnership with Washington's first black-led philanthropy the Black Future Co-op Fund to call attention to philanthropy's mission to ignite Black wealth, health, and well-being over generations.

Again, that's called the Black Future Co-op Fund.

Finally, whereas the city is proud to support youth sports organizations that work with young girls like Rise Above that provide tailored education programs with basketball clinics at the center to empower Native youth and help lead healthy lives.

So of the 17 sections of the whereas, I only read six, and this is posted online.

If you get an opportunity to read it, it would be really nice.

With that, is there any comments or anything that my colleagues would like to say before I go on to ask for a vote?

OK.

Not seeing any on the Title IX proclamation, the 50th anniversary.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll on who would like to have their name affixed to the proclamation?

Council Member Musqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

And Council President Juarez?

Aye.

That's seven in favor, excuse me, seven signatures added to the proclamation.

Thank you.

The seven signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

So we will move on to our next proclamation and Councilor Mosqueda, can you please lead us in the discussion on the proclamation honoring Aretha Basu for her services to the city of Seattle and any additional feedback that we may hear from our colleagues.

Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Madam President, and I'm really excited about the Title IX proclamation that we just signed as well, and look forward to celebrating that next week, and perhaps even sharing a video honoring the guest of honor.

Colleagues, we have another incredible woman to honor today, a young woman from our office.

As you may know, Aretha Basu has worked with me since 2017. She had her last day in the office on Friday last week, And while I mentioned this two weeks ago today is the official opportunity for us to consider signing a proclamation to support her work as we send her on her way and wish her the best of luck in her new role with Puget Sound Sage we know that we will continue to be able to work with her in many ways as all of our offices engage with the community and know the deep engagement of Puget Sound Sage as well.

The resolution, or excuse me, the proclamation in front of us commemorates her service as not only a member of our team in the office here, but also a member of City Council's legislative assistant team.

Part of our second floor and the legislative team overall on the second and third floor of City Hall over the last five years, she has brought incredible dedication to the work that she does every day.

incredible detail in the research that she conducts, incredible integrity in the conversations that she has with community, and always making sure that she brings those to the decision-making tables and creates space for those most impacted by policy to be at the policy-making table.

In doing so, she also holds me and all of us accountable and following through on the work that we set out to do as we set it out to enter into these positions and serve the residents of Seattle.

And I want to thank her for her work that she's done over the last five years she has brought her heart and soul into the work of the city council into our office and to the folks that she serves on city council via the discussions that she has with community members.

She has led our community engagement strategies.

She's coordinated regular check-in meetings with community.

She has conducted community in-person Fridays, and she staffed a very hard work of reimagining public safety and investing in community resources.

And I want to thank her for the work that she's done on looking at equity, everything from community funding in partnership with other offices on participatory budgeting to equity as it relates to cannabis.

and how we respond to the next set of policies in the wake of the war on drugs.

She has done tremendous work on policy, community engagement, and always brought us great sense of humor to our office.

We thank her for her puns and her literation that she has constantly infused into our Teresa Tuesday alerts and into our social media.

And I know, Council President, she very much appreciated your gift of the earrings that you gave her.

So thank you all for sharing your love and support with Aretha via this proclamation and hope that you will sign on.

Thanks, Aretha, and good luck.

Thanks for all you did.

Thank you, Councilor Musqueda.

Are there any comments from my colleagues?

Well, I would like to say something, and I know I give Councilor Musqueda a hard time about this, but I want to thank Councilor Musqueda because those of us, and particularly women of color, when Aretha came to say goodbye to me, and there's a lot of tears, but One of the things that it's always been impressed upon me customer mosquito is that you had been her mentor since college.

And that's why mentorship is so important if we are not out there, working with our young women and men and providing them that representation matters.

and giving them access to a pipeline that was never always open to us to not just elected office, but any opportunity.

Having someone like a Tia or a big sister or someone just telling you, this is what college is like, this is what law school is like, this is what grad school is like, here's my network of people.

Let me make sure if you fall or stumble that I'm here for you.

And Councilor Muscatia, you did that for Aretha.

And it's very, very apparent and abundant in her abilities and what she shared with me always about you.

But I think one of the things I appreciate, and I feel Aretha's listening, is her incredible sense of humor.

And again, keeping us accountable, even as old folks like me.

So I'm going to miss Aretha, but I know she is on to bigger things.

And as I told her in a nice anti way, sometimes you're ready to leave the nest.

So thank you Council Member Skater for your leadership and mentorship.

I can see the results of that and it certainly means a lot.

Okay.

So with that, I do not see any other hands up.

So Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the proclamation?

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

And Council President Juarez.

Aye.

That's six signatures added to the proclamation.

And I have two points of clarification, Council President Juarez.

The last proclamation also had six signatures added, not seven, that was an error on my part.

And then also the roll call will begin with Council Member Morales for clarification for the next segment on the agenda.

Oh, I had Council Member Esqueda up, okay.

So let me just say, I should have said this at the beginning, I apologize.

Well, first of all, please fix our signatures.

My understanding is that Council Member Strauss and Council Member Herbold are excused for today.

That's correct, right, Madam Clerk?

If they provided advance notice to the Council President, that's correct.

Okay, so with that, we will move on to our next agenda item, and that is the preview of city council actions.

And now, thank you for clarifying that, Madam Clerk.

I had Councilor Busqueda as going first, but you're telling me it's Council Member Morales is the roll call for doing their presentations?

That is correct.

So can you read it off to me then?

Because I think mine's out of order.

My list is out of order.

Without a doubt.

It's Council Member Morales, then Mosqueda, Nelson, Peterson, Lewis, and concluding with you, Council President.

Great.

So Council Member Morales.

OK, thank you very much.

Wishing Aretha well.

I'm sure she will have a fabulous time working for Puget Sound Sage.

Um, okay.

Good afternoon colleagues, I'm going to start with my committee.

Last week that neighborhoods Education, Arts and Rights Committee unanimously voted to recommend passage of Council Bill 120. 336, which will establish the Kate rebels house as a historic landmark.

We also passed three re appointments to the landmark preservation board and two new appointments to historic Seattle PDA, and the, those will all be coming to full Council on June 21. And then I also wanted to let you all know, Council Bill 120348 is on the IRC for full council on Tuesday, the 21st as well this is the bill regarding electronic home monitoring.

It amends a council budget action that provided an additional $88,000 to existing funding to subsidize electronic home monitoring.

I want to thank Asha Venkatraman for her very hard work and due diligence in bringing the urgency of this matter to the council's attention.

And we all received a very detailed memo from her on Thursday, June 9 for background.

But I do want to just for the viewing public let folks know this does not change the appropriation.

It lifts a proviso for the additional funding for electronic home monitoring, and just quickly.

Sorry, the CBA, original CBA had provisional funding for home monitoring so that we could receive some baseline data on utilization of the program for misdemeanor defendants.

But the courts have exhausted the ongoing appropriation for this funding during the first quarter.

And so without this additional funding released, indigent defendants would not be able to afford to pay for electronic home monitoring.

without the subsidy.

So that is the sense of urgency here and I want to thank Council Member Herbold for co-sponsoring this legislation and Council Member Juarez for allowing us to expedite the legislation.

Just a heads up that the Planning Commission will be discussing and deliberating recommendations for this year's annual comp plan amendments.

As colleagues know, my office has worked with a stakeholder group of about 30 different organizations since the beginning of the year to craft a package of amendments that would make it easier for people to have access to the services necessary to meet residents' everyday needs, such as commercial space, childcare, healthcare, all within a quarter mile of every home in Seattle.

So if you would like to have your doctor, your grocer, your preschool, culturally appropriate food within a five-mile walk, five-minute walk or roll from your home, you can give public comment at either of the Planning Commission meetings that are coming up.

The next one is June 23rd at 7.30 in the morning.

There's also one on July 14th at 3 p.m.

As colleagues know, for the last year or so, I've been researching and learning about social housing.

For the last year or so, my office has continued to research and try to understand what this could be for the city of Seattle.

Last fall, we sponsored a budget amendment.

And following the memo that we all received from Jeff Sims on Council Central staff last week, I just wanted to let folks know that we are also working with central staff on policies related to the city's role in establishing high quality publicly owned social housing in the city.

I think we need to explore every available option for addressing affordability and for combating displacement in our communities.

So I'm working on this.

So we have another tool in the toolbox and there will be more information as we as we develop some more information for folks on what this looks like in the weeks to come.

Last week, I joined Council Member Herbold, Mayor Harrell, and King County Executive Constantine to meet with the Regional Gun Violence Prevention Leadership Advisory Group, of which we are all members.

It's coordinated by Seattle King County Public Health.

This is an initiative that's really laser focused on the urgent need to strategize about how we prevent gun violence and ensure the kind of sustainable conditions that allow young people to be hopeful, and to thrive in their neighborhoods.

There's kind of two prongs here.

There's the immediate response, which is the Regional Peacekeepers Collective that Council Member Herbold has spoken about before.

It includes hospital-based intervention work, intensive wraparound services for youth and families who are most impacted by gun violence.

But there is also a longer-term strategy.

There are different work groups that have been operating for the last year or so to identify solutions and provide recommendations around juvenile justice, education, workforce development, health and human services and community led safety.

This is important work that's happening.

We are in a state of emergency with relation to the mental health needs of our young people.

Suicide is up 200% among black and brown young people in the city.

So I just want to share with you the work that's going on.

The final recommendations are forthcoming about how to address community conditions that lead to gun violence.

And as a partner in this work, the request to us, the city, from this initiative is that we be prepared to commit to supporting the work that will help us get there.

There are some budget recommendations that will be coming with the additional priorities that these work groups have identified.

And so as soon as that is available, we will be sure to share it.

Let's see.

This week, I also have my quarterly meeting with Sound Transit to discuss safety improvements in the Rainier Valley.

And then later this week, I have a Board of Health meeting, and we will be hearing from Dr. Duchin on the impacts of long COVID.

So looking forward to hearing more about that.

I did have office hours at Columbia City Farmers Market last week.

And the first question I got from a constituent was, what is the city doing about long COVID and its impacts?

You know, what are we doing to help people understand what that really looks like and how that is a different set of health issues that we need to be prepared to deal with as a community.

We also talked a lot about Sound Transit, the Lake Washington Boulevard, and increasing services for our unhoused population.

Yesterday, I joined the Rainier Beach community at the groundbreaking of the Detective Cookie Chess Park.

There were about a dozen kids there playing chess and enjoying the temporary space that was set up.

I do want to thank colleagues again for supporting my council budget action last year.

And I want to thank Detective Cookie Bolden, who's been running a chess club at the Rainier Beach Community Center for years.

She's had an incredible impact on the community, really supporting youth violence prevention work.

So that was a fun opportunity to do a little digging.

The park itself should be done by by August so look forward to sharing more information with you about that.

I do wanna address the increase in, dramatic increase in the number of homeless encampments that have been removed lately.

I think we can all agree that living on the street is not healthy or safe for anyone, but I still haven't heard an answer to the question of where people are supposed to go.

We absolutely do not have enough space for every person who's being moved to sleep at night.

especially at the rate at which removals are happening right now.

So I think it's important to remember that we do have a Ninth Circuit court case that says people cannot be moved if they don't have a place to go.

We already know what we're doing to remove people, but I would still like to know the answer to the question of what we're doing to dramatically increase places for people to go.

My office is working on the next episode of our Seattle Within Reach series.

We are excited about Pride and Juneteenth happening this month.

And so we are going to wait till July to host our next episode.

It'll be focused on economic development.

Looking at late July for that event.

So look for more information to come.

And then finally, next week, city workers will have the opportunity to commemorate Juneteenth.

It's a day when slaves in Texas learned two years after the fact that they had been emancipated.

As the sponsor of the legislation that created this city holiday, it was important to me that as we continue to acknowledge the profound role that slavery played in shaping the institutions of our country and continues to play in our government systems, whether we're talking about our land use codes, our public education system, our labor codes, It's important that we as a municipality also acknowledge this important day.

Last month I had the honor of joining former county council member Larry Gossett at a discussion with the National African American Reparations Commission to discuss how we can begin to build a culture of repair.

We have a lot of work to do.

towards the true reparations for our black neighbors.

But I'm proud of sponsoring this legislation that allows the city of Seattle to begin down that path by establishing the holiday to commemorate Juneteenth.

The last thing I will say is I do want to remind colleagues that I will be absent June 27th and 28th.

I think we did the request for excused absence in May, but I did want to just give you that reminder.

And that is all I have this afternoon.

Are there any questions or comments?

I do not see any, so I will hand it off to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, our next Finance and Housing Committee meeting is on June 5th at 9.30 a.m.

We are going to continue to encourage everyone to dial in and provide remote public comment, thanks to all the folks who did that at our last meeting.

And we will continue to repeatedly ask that folks who are in the room wear their mask.

Appreciate everyone who did that last time.

And to all of my colleagues, thanks so much for your participation as well as your commitment to keeping our community safe by wearing masks.

We really appreciate that.

On the agenda for Wednesday, June 15th, we're going to have the appointment of Cara Valliere as a member of the Housing Levy Oversight Committee.

I understand Cara is a former staff member of Council Member Peterson's and is now the Mayor's Office of Housing, excuse me, the Mayor's Housing Lead and excited to continue to hear more about the Housing Levy Oversight Committee and the ways that we'll continue to be engaged over the next year and a half here.

We will have legislation that authorizes the lease of a property near I-5 and I-90 interchange, referred to as the Royal Braum property.

This is a piece of property that we are going to be leasing from the Washington State Department of Transportation for city use.

And lastly, we'll have an, excuse me, and we'll also have an ordinance that will accept the grants and enable HSD, the Human Services Department, to execute agreements with the funding agency.

The ordinance will also appropriate budget authority that is tied to specific grant agreements.

And then lastly, we'll have legislation that I am really excited about.

So I'm going to do a little drum roll here.

This is the piece of legislation that we have been developing in partnership with our community housing roundtable group this is a group of about 30 to 40 community partners who are largely folks of color working within communities most at risk of displacement who are in the area of building affordable housing.

and expanding much of what the community oriented services do to include housing.

So think El Centro de la Raza, who historically had provided meals, early learning support, community engagement opportunities, adult learning, and because of the work that they did to expand housing at Roberto Maesta Plaza, got into the area of building affordable housing, so many community organizations that we've worked with over the years that are really taking the reins and building housing through the lens of what community wants to, to prevent displacement and also to create a sense of place and home, like building affordable housing around public plazas and near public parks and tied to childcare facilities and small business opportunities, especially for BIPOC small business owners.

This is a really great opportunity through our community roundtable discussions to hear directly from them about what public policies want to change.

Pretty much every single public policy I have worked on in the last five years related to affordable housing has come directly from community at that table who've identified public policy changes that they want to see.

Everything from increasing the ability to use affirmative marketing and community preference, to preventing us from selling off public land, and keeping it in public hands to be used for the public good and prioritizing affordable housing on that public property to making sure that we increase the ability for us to have land acquisition opportunities by lifting the cap so that there was more funding for acquisition at the Office of Housing that could get passed on to these nonprofit organizations led by communities of color they all come from them, and the last idea that we heard mid year last year was the concept of removing a requirement that the office of housing had previously had.

to require organizations to partner with established housing developers.

The piece of legislation that we'll have in front of us on Wednesday is in conjunction with the Community Housing Roundtable and our Office of Housing Partners.

We have come up with a piece of legislation that we're calling the Community Self-Determination Fund.

We're creating a fund within the Office of Housing and modifying the policies within the housing funding policies to create funding specifically from Jumpstart.

Jumpstart funding used for acquisition and preservation, and we are going to be directing this funding to work with organizations who are interested in building and operating affordable housing with different eligibility criteria.

The funds are intended to contribute to the city's equitable development goals by investing in organizations and projects that are working to address displacement and redress the longstanding harms of discriminatory housing policy.

So there's four things that this fund will do.

First, it will provide much needed capacity funding along with permanent acquisition funding so that organizations are able to secure land and develop community-driven housing with full ownership and full self-determination over that property.

The fund, secondly, has eligibility requirements that are tailored to small community-based organizations that have traditionally been excluded from the affordable housing area and industry.

So we're creating more opportunities.

And finally, this fund is permanent in its nature.

It creates a fund source to allow flexible development timelines so that organizations can secure land and work on developing a community vision of what housing should be without having to partner with outside organizations.

So we initially had been talking about how this is removing sort of patriarchal covenants that required many of these organizations that are community of color led to partner with larger established groups.

And this really removes that requirement so that we can move forward with building affordable housing, not only more quickly, but also in the lens of what community organizations truly want.

It also includes a developer fee at the beginning of the project timeline so that organizations have the needed financial resources to do the planning and to do the pre-development work that is often so cumbersome at the front end of building affordable housing and had in the past prevented smaller developers from being able to move forward.

So it's a very exciting piece of legislation.

We tried to come up with a name that would make it not so alphabet soup.

the Community Self-Determination Fund is what it is.

So I look forward to voting on that with you on Wednesday and bringing that to full council.

Thanks so much for letting me take a little bit of time, Council President, to talk about that and the work that we're trying to do to expedite how this can be in partnership with taking public land off the private market and using it for public good and fighting displacement.

Finally, at Council, excuse me at the Council meeting tomorrow as the Council President noted, we are going to have the opportunity to finalize the appointment of Michael Winkler-Chin as the Director of Office of Housing.

The Council President has provided her concurrence to allow this appointment to be placed on tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, as she noted.

And so I will be asking to suspend the rules to allow for this appointment to be considered tomorrow, since I did not do that on Thursday, given that it was afternoon on Thursday.

I'll be asking for the procedural motion to do that tomorrow with your With your blessing, colleagues, we will get this final confirmation done.

Last week on Thursday, I had the chance to meet with Council Member Peterson and so many of our state legislative partners like Senator Frock, Representative Chopp, Representative Paulette, Senator Valdez, and Department of Neighborhood representatives as well to join in the celebration at the U Heights.

Center.

This University Heights, as folks probably know, located in Councilmember Peterson's district, has been the center of where folks come to get child care, adult learning programs, youth learn, theater programs there which we saw a little example of and it's really a great hub that has been a public place that was preserved again for public hands, and is a very old building though so we are thankful Councilmember Peterson's work to make sure in the budget last year that I request for the sprinkler sprinkler system was included.

And we also work to support.

a request of theirs for an elevator to make sure that it was truly an accessible and equitable place for all in our community.

And I want to thank council, excuse me, I want to thank Congresswoman Jayapal who, when we sent a request in for federal assistance for the elevator, their team said, this is a great idea and we're going to triple the request.

So they were there as well to celebrate the opening of the elevators.

creation and people grabbed a shovel and celebrated the fact that this project is now underway to get an elevator installed so that it's truly accessible.

I also had the chance to join in Councilmember Morales' district in D2 and so many legislative members.

I'm not going to remember all of them, but we've joined at the Filipino Community Center for the grand opening of their 94 units of affordable senior housing.

This is a piece of property that since day one of being in office, we have been trying to get additional funding over to the Filipino Community Center and in all of our Office of Housing changes that we've made in the past, greatly informed by Velma Veloria, And I'm a Kentucky and so many at the Filipino Community Center who've been saying, we want to build this but we also want to make it easier for folks who come behind us to do just like El Centro said that they wanted to do for the folks who are now doing the type of affordable housing that we see underway they've said they have a lot of lessons learned from this property, so that more people can open affordable housing.

This is truly an incredible center, 94 units, affordable housing with a child care center on the first floor.

It's the dream along with adult learning and senior education programs for email and computer lessons for seniors.

And speaking of the legislation that we have on Wednesday, they are looking at the pawn shop that is right there adjacent in their parking lot to convert that building to more use for the public good.

the legislation on Wednesday will very much be an opportunity to look at that example as a way to move forward the vision that the community has set out to serve the community that is from the Filipino Community Center and much broader.

So congratulations to them.

And it sounds like the many decades of work that it took to open that senior living place.

I'll stop there.

Madam President, any questions?

Hearing none.

Thank you, Council Member Nelson for your patience.

We'll turn it over to you.

Thank you.

No patience necessary.

I love listening to your briefings.

All right.

So there is nothing on tomorrow's agenda from the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee.

Last week, City Attorney Davison and I were invited by Life on Mars owner and KEXP host John Richards to meet with several owners of Capitol Hill nightlife businesses, and that included Wild Rose, Numo's, St. John's, and several others to talk about public safety issues.

Their immediate concerns were about safety and security for Pride Weekend, because although they all hire private security, they're just concerned about what happens to their patrons once they leave their businesses.

And when I say they hire private security, I learned that that costs up to $35,000 for three days.

So other issues discussed were a strong desire for foot patrol, beat cops on foot along Capitol Hill.

And I learned about an issue that wasn't on my radar, which is unpermitted food carts that cater to people leaving bars at two o'clock and in the crowds that they generate, which can be unruly.

Those were a couple of the many issues that we discussed at that meeting.

And I have to mention that this obviously is not an issue confined to Capitol Hill because, and I mentioned this because it just got a text from a constituent who let me know that Bizarro restaurant in Wallingford was broken into and ransacked last night.

The owner is devastated and this constituent asks, what can I tell him, the owner, city support.

So clearly an issue still top of mind to business owners and residents in Seattle.

Let's see, also last week I attended and spoke at the South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce meeting and our office toured the Climate Pledge Arena last Thursday.

The tour was guided by former city council member Rob Johnson, former state rep and now VP of Government Affairs at Seattle Crack and Eric Pettigrew, And Lance Lopez, Executive Vice President, General Counsel.

It's fair to say that we were blown away by the beauty of the arena.

It was my first time there.

And all of the sustainable operating systems and features that make it the nation's first.

net carbon zero arena.

And I'm talking, when I say systems, I'm talking about everything from the food offerings that are provided, local food offerings, a certain percentage, I believe it's 30%, I could be wrong on that, to water recapture, to being 100% electric powered.

So I urge anybody to go visit, if not for an event, ask for a tour and get the full story.

They are tour guides reinforced for us how important improvements at the Seattle Center monorail station are.

That station, as I mentioned before, handles a surge of 3,000 riders per hour after events, and that's right now.

And ridership will be steeply increased once construction on Sound Transit 3 begins because more people will be taking that option to arrive at the event.

So they mentioned that Seattle Center is lead on this issue of station improvements, and they're working with SDOT to develop a budget request that will be coming our way soon.

Let's see.

I was honored to attend the Northwest African-American Museum's pre-Juneteenth mixer.

And this was put on for supporters, past and present board members, and also staff.

And it was basically gearing up for a week full of events that's happening right now of, you know, many different kinds of Juneteenth events.

And they wowed the guests that were in attendance with news of the launch of a new choir called the African American Cultural Ensemble.

It'll be performing also during this, this week's events.

And then finally they announced that the museum itself will be reopening, if not.

before then on November 30th this year.

So that is great news.

And then finally, another event last week, I attended the Seattle Builders Council's annual event.

And most of these sidebars and the keynote addresses were all about one thing, which is how do we make building housing, especially multifamily housing, less expensive and easier to meet our housing goals, especially during this affordability crisis, because we're just not going to be able to subsidize our way out of this problem.

And so everybody agrees that we need to identify and remove regulatory barriers, building code barriers, et cetera, to make this happen.

And luckily, there were many departmental staff there, including from SDCI, City Light, SDOT, as well as leadership, Director Nathan Tortleson of SDCI and City COO Marco Lowe were there.

And of course, the mayor himself, Harold, gave the keynote address.

So it was good to get everybody in the same room, having conversations about the same thing and its urgency.

Let's see, this week I will be attending an event put on by friends of Waterfront Seattle, and they have moved.

They have a new location now at the residences at Rainier Square.

And so I'll be speaking at an event to educate the community and and cultivate an interest in the in the waterfront project because a lot of the, the residents at the residences here in this building are either new to the region or young and they haven't heard much about this project and so that'll be exciting first of all to to go to an event at this new building and also speak with people that are new to the project and spark an interest and generate some enthusiasm.

Let's see, on Friday I will be in Kitsap County attending the Regional Connections Tour which is hosted by PSRC for board members and alternates And this is, it's also part of the Economic Development District.

And so this is the first in a series of day-long mobile events to be held in each of the region's four counties.

And this event will provide an opportunity for board members to see and hear firsthand about Kitsap County's businesses and economic assets, the connections to the regional economy, and is designed to build connections across the EDD board and to collaborate on economic development.

efforts and priorities.

So I'm going to cut it short there because we've got many people to go, but first I invite questions or comments.

All right, seeing none, I turn it over to Council Member Peterson.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon colleagues on tomorrow afternoon's full city council agenda there are two items from our committee on transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Both are from Seattle Public Utilities Council 120322 accepts an easement from the State Department of Natural Resources for replacement sewer line under salmon Bay waterway.

Council 120323 is essentially a technical correction because it accepts two property deeds to perfect the property rights of Seattle Public Utilities for those two parcels originally acquired in 1986. Both bills were unanimously recommended by our committee.

Our next committee on transportation in Seattle Public Utilities is scheduled for next Tuesday, June 21st at 9.30am.

At that June 21 committee I anticipate will consider several items, we will welcome to committee, Andrew Lee, who is mayor Harold's nomination to become the permanent general manager and CEO of Seattle public utilities.

You already know him as the interim general manager.

We already circulated the mayor's appointment packet to you, and it was also on the introduction and referral calendar a few weeks ago.

As with all of the mayor's appointments thus far, the council sent questions to the nominee about their experience and priorities, and my office circulated interim director Lee's answers to those questions.

In vetting nominees, our council committees have taken either one or two meetings to vote.

We'll see how it goes we may want a second meeting to discuss the cost of utility bills that our constituents receive, as well as get the most recent information on the timing and cost of one of Seattle's biggest capital projects the ship canal water quality control project.

At the June 21 committee will we also plan to hear from s dots vision zero team to get an update on their efforts to reduce traffic related fatalities and serious injuries at that committee will also vote on Council 120345 to grant approval.

to vacate a portion of 29th Avenue Southwest and Southwest View Street adjacent to Port of Seattle Land in West Seattle.

In August, 2017, the City Council granted conditional approval and the petitioner has met all those conditions for a storage facility.

At that, committee will also vote on Council Bill 120346, which is a request from Seattle Public Utilities to grant a temporary easement and a smaller permanent easement to King County for a narrow track of land on the east side in Bellevue, with the main purpose of constructing and maintaining a sewer line.

As we know, the Sound Transit Board is working toward its decisions for the West Seattle Ballard Link Extension routes and stations.

At our committee on June 7, we received a thorough presentation and had a robust discussion of Resolution 32055, from the executive regarding the potential preferences for Seattle.

Rather than rushing that resolution to our next committee on June 21st, our second committee meeting and vote on that resolution is likely to be later in July.

Council members can reach out to our central staff analyst, Calvin Chow, to provide their early input.

And of course, we are already ably represented on the Sound Transit Board by our own Council President, Deborah Juarez, and Mayor Bruce Harrell.

I understand the Council is likely to vote on Tuesday, July 5 to reconsider Mayor Harrell's veto of Council Bill 120325, which was a legislative proposal aiming to require the collection of rental rate information in hopes of preventing displacement of economically vulnerable residents.

I appreciate the Council President scheduling the vote.

on whether to sustain or override the veto for when we're all able to attend.

A majority of council members obviously supported the bill, so the veto is disappointing, as Council Member Morales and I expressed in the statement we issued this past Friday.

For the four colleagues who did not vote in favor on May 31st, please know I'm available to discuss with any of you further the merits of reconsidering on July 5. If cost was your chief concern, We have since done additional research on how several other cities have similar programs to collect rental rate information to help prevent displacement, and how the cost figures put forward earlier are much higher than what other cities have achieved.

District four, well, first, you know, it was one year ago today, June 13th, when our city government lost a coworker.

SPD officer Lexi Harris was struck and killed by a vehicle on I-5 while trying to help others involved in an earlier collision that evening.

Some of Lexi's family still resides in the Wallingford neighborhood in District four.

I know so many people miss Lexi's Wonder Woman strength and spirit as well as her compassionate commitment to the wellness of our fellow officers and to the safety of everyone in our city.

Officer Harris is gone but never forgotten.

And over the past week, I attended six roll calls of the Seattle Police Department's North Precinct, including the ones starting at 3am and 3.30am.

I let the officers know that I appreciate the good work these frontline city employees do for our residents and neighborhood businesses.

I encourage them to stay in Seattle.

I'm very concerned about the police staffing crisis after having lost over 300 officers and detectives over the past two and a half years.

No other city department has lost over a third of its frontline workers, and for a department needed for holistic approach to public safety.

I believe this warrants special attention.

Based on what I heard directly firsthand at these roll calls there's a lot of work that needs to be done to rebuild trust.

I encourage those who have not had the opportunity to attend a roll call to attend one when you can.

I'm concerned the attrition of officers and detectives will be worse in just 18 days because of a new state law, SHB 1701. Unfortunately, that new state law financially incentivizes officers eligible for retirement to retire by July 1st before a special benefit expires.

So I look forward to Mayor Harrell's forthcoming safety plan that hopefully includes a compelling strategy for not only recruiting but also retaining our experienced officers.

I believe we need to refocus our efforts on retention so we retain highly trained officers because recruiting takes a long time and we're losing many more officers than we are recruiting.

In District 4 last week, I enjoyed commuting to work with advocates from the organization Commute Seattle, including their new executive director.

As we know, June is Ride Transit Month, and they joined me for my commute from my neighborhood down to City Hall by bus, light rail, and steps, lots and lots of steps.

After navigating the temporarily relocated bus stops and the broken escalators and elevators at Pioneer Square Station, we still had fun, saved money, and avoided the rush hour traffic on I-5.

Commute Seattle works with employers, both large and small businesses, as well as nonprofits, to show them the financial, environmental, and other benefits of commuting to work in ways other than single occupancy vehicles.

You can contact Commute Seattle at commuteseattle.com.

Lastly, I think you counselor skater for mentioning our time at University Heights counselor skin is an amazing public speaker and I was just enjoying the everybody's speeches but hers is by far the best, I've got to say.

Although Frank's shop did offer to dance for everybody, which made it maybe more fun.

The building, University Heights buildings in the heart of the U district, which is in the heart of district four.

The building really symbolizes community and it offers childcare, artistic performances, and educational opportunities, services for people experiencing homelessness and much more.

The nonprofit that manages the building is finalizing its fundraising efforts, which already includes money from City Hall.

The event featured toddlers dancing and teenagers singing.

I'll say the event was uplifting.

It elevated the importance of coming together as a community.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we hear from whoever is still here?

First of all, Councilor Pierson, thank you for that.

I think that's the first time you've ever spoken so long.

So thank you for that.

Two things, we'll probably follow up with you on the roll call.

Why was it at three and 3.30?

Is that at the north precinct?

Yeah, it's just the three different watches, approximately eight hours apart.

And that's the one that's in the middle of the night, that starts in the middle of the night.

And I agree with you.

I do not want to see Frank chop dance.

So thank you for that.

And I will agree that Councilor Mosqueda, you do not want to speak after she has spoken to a crowd.

So she gets really up there.

And, you know, I there's been a couple of times at a couple of events where I said, don't put me behind Mosqueda.

Let me go ahead of her because she can get all riled up and then I come on and I'm just not as exciting.

So thank you for sharing that.

So thank you.

I think Council Member Lewis is next.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilor Nielsen has something to say.

I just wanted to thank you, Council Member Peterson, for your comments about, well, about your concern about staffing at SPD and having just passed a resolution to calling for incentives.

I also recognize the importance of retaining our officers.

And I think that that is something that we really have to focus on.

So I really appreciate you mentioning that, so thanks.

Thank you for your leadership on that Council Member Nelson.

I wasn't saying that to reclaim any leadership.

I just wanted to say that I talk about SPD staffing a lot and retention is definitely something that we really need to focus on.

Thank you.

There are no other comments or questions.

Council Member Lewis, hi.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

And I will also be giving briefing comments for Council Member Herbold this afternoon.

So first of all, there's no items from the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

We are going to be having a fairly full committee meeting this week on Wednesday afternoon.

So looking forward to seeing everybody there.

We'll be considering two bills Council Bill 120341, which is a proposal to authorize a concession agreement for Seattle Parks vending machines and Council Bill 120342 authorizing an agreement between Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Prep to replace the Mott Lake playfield and allow continued use for Seattle Prep at that location.

So we will be having briefings on both of those items and potentially we'll take action if committee members' questions are satisfied.

We're also going to have a presentation from the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department on the Seattle Parks District Cycle 1 accomplishments from 2015 to 2020. I'm inviting all council members to attend this presentation since all council members sit on the park district board.

So just to be clear, we are not going to sit and convene on Wednesday afternoon as a park district board, but this briefing will have information that all council members will likely find relevant.

It's not an item that we are gonna be voting to take action on.

It is purely for the information of council members and council offices.

and is instructive as the summer we begin to really dig into the work of renewing the levy on the Metropolitan Park District.

So looking forward to that presentation and please let Jacob Thorpe on my staff know if you would like to attend all council members very much welcome for that briefing.

Clean City Initiative updates from May 30th to June 3rd The clean city initiative was able to locate and discard 837 discarded needles and picked up 36,420 pounds of trash from 23 locations.

But there was no focus during that time frame on a particular park for deep cleaning.

but still look forward to continuing to get these weekly updates from the Clean City Initiative on their activities and progress.

Folks may have seen in the news the struggle that Seattle Parks and Recreation is having on attracting and retaining critical positions for summer staffing, including lifeguards and especially lifeguards.

So putting out an all call.

If you or anyone in your life is interested in serving in a variety of these positions offered through Seattle Parks and Recreation we are hiring for lifeguards waiting pool attendance camp counselors recreation attendance and cashiers at Seattle Parks and Recreation facilities.

Some of these jobs are permanent, some are temporary, some seasonal, and some are full-time.

There are plenty of different opportunities on offer for people who want to go and take advantage of working with our Parks and Recreation Department, including positions for people as young as 16 years of age.

Seattle Parks and Recreation offers great starting pay and benefits.

If you or someone you know loves working with people and is looking for a fun and meaningful job this summer, please apply today and share these opportunities with your networks I am going to be sending an email out to my list with that same request for for members of the public to circulate those opportunities, especially for young people in your life.

These are great jobs to come work for the city family and really look forward to working with parks and recreation to bolster our numbers in these critical areas.

Seattle and King County delivered 10,000 COVID rapid testing kits to the library.

Each branch of the library is going to receive at least one box containing 168 test kits each.

Seattle Central Library and branches in our southwest and southeast regions will receive an extra box each.

Those other library branches to receive the extra box are Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach, International District, Columbia, New Holly, South Park, High Point, and Southwest.

So do please know that this testing resource is available and in particular at those branches.

As part of Pride Month festivities, we are all encouraged to celebrate with the Seattle Public Library where There's going to be an opportunity to tune into a new virtual Rainbow Storytime for Pride 2022. Children's librarian, Jessie, celebrates Pride Month, takes a road trip and reads All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engel.

You can watch other recent episodes of Rainbow Virtual Storytime on the Seattle Public Library Kids YouTube channel, which is a great resource.

one of the great resources the Seattle Public Library offers.

So I very much appreciate the programming of the Seattle Public Library and especially the programming of Seattle Public Library during Pride Month.

We are pleased to announce that Judy Heumann, the Disability Rights Icon, will be the featured speaker for the A.

Scott Bullitt Lecture in American History Series at the Seattle Public Library.

Heumann will discuss her book, Being Human, and the disabilities rights movement with Jay Kim.

The event will take place on Wednesday, June 22 from six to 7pm registration is required and we are extremely excited to hear Judy speak.

I will now move on to Councilmember Herbold's report before doing so I'll take a moment to see if there are questions or comments on my presentation before I pivot to Councilmember Herbold's notes.

I just want to say thank you, Council Member Lewis, for we're going to put that again in our North Star on the hiring opportunities at parks, because, you know, some parks are being closed down.

We've gotten a lot of information, letters and emails from constituents that are concerned.

And I was we were trying to respond that it isn't the city shutting it down just to shut it down.

We don't simply have the people there to staff it.

So thank you for that.

And we'll we'll put that out in our our newsletter again as well.

Yes, Council President, thank you so much.

And actually, I mean, I might go so far as just asking Council colleagues generally, too, if folks are interested in inserting a hiring link for these parks and recreation activities in their newsletters, that would be appreciated.

You know, I am hoping to have a hearing generally on this issue.

This was an issue last summer, as you'll remember, Council President, I'm sure colleagues as well.

That we are having a very hard time particularly attracting and retaining lifeguards.

Yeah, I think that there's probably something to the gap in people physically being at school to sort of take advantage of traditional recruitment methods, potentially or, or whatever it is, there is this, this coven.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Any other questions on my Any other questions on my Seeing none, I will move to Councilmember Herbold's items.

So for full council, as Council President Juarez provided an update in her initial remarks this afternoon, the collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Police Management Association will be on tomorrow's full council agenda.

As Council President intimated earlier, there was a full briefing on this subject during last week's council briefing.

So looking forward to considering that item tomorrow.

It was delayed from last week's school council.

So there's been a week to answer lingering questions.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee updates.

Tomorrow there will be a presentation from the Office of Emergency Management on their COVID after action report.

There will also be a Seattle Fire Department presentation on their race and social justice initiative.

Central staff will also present the first quarter Seattle Police Department finance and response time report.

And finally, there will be a second discussion of legislation to establish a process for investigation, investigations of complaints that name the chief of police in a misconduct complaint.

Councilmember Herbold intends to bring forward a substitute version of this legislation based on continuing meetings and conversations with the Office of Police Accountability and the Office of the Inspector General and the changes suggested by the Community Police Commission.

This would then be the base version up for consideration at the next committee meeting on June 28th.

So the agenda states briefing discussion and potential action on substitute version because of that substitution of the legislation.

Regional committee updates.

So Council Member Herbold last Thursday attended, along with Council Member Morales and I, the Regional Gun Violence Prevention Leadership Group.

Council Member Herbold gave updates on the Seattle Community Safety Initiative and community safety grantees to the group and discussed the Seattle-King County Regional Peacekeepers Collective The only regional effort to be selected for the White House community violence intervention collaboration.

I can also speak to it that that it was a very good presentation about the variety of local actions that we are taking on gun violence and the work that is in front of us to make further progress and.

But I'll leave it at that, given that Councilmember Morales gave a pretty thorough report earlier on what we discussed at that meeting.

So with that, those are Councilmember Herbold's items.

I can attempt to answer questions regarding them, but otherwise people are free to reach out to Councilmember Herbold's office for clarifications.

And I believe that I hand it off to Council President at this point.

Okay, Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

There are no items from the Governance, Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee on tomorrow's council agenda.

The next committee meeting is on July 21st at 930 a.m.

I attended the Sound Transit North King County sub area briefing and heard an update regarding the contracting services for the 130th Street Station.

And a preview of over the 5000 comments submitted for the West Seattle Ballard Link Extension draft environmental impact statement.

So there are over 5000 comments submitted.

And I want to thank Sound Transit staff and particularly Abel Pacheco for keeping us informed of everything that's going on, putting the comments together and looking at what the preferred lines are and also for the particular neighborhoods, the ones also that Council Member Morales mentioned in her district as well.

Also last week, our office was recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal for our work to promote development in the Northgate neighborhood.

We're very excited about the future with more than 5,000 new jobs, 4,000 housing units, and lots of new amenities currently in the pipeline.

Our office sent a copy of the article to your offices.

I'm hoping that we can kind of use that as a template.

when you look at your district and you see what kind of not just the human capital there, but the brick and mortar capital and how you can leverage that and also having partnerships, not only with the private sector, but with the public sector as well.

Our office has been working closely with the Seattle Housing Authority for almost three years now on the eight acres that we purchased two years ago to build at least 1400 units there, a third of them being low income affordable units.

the downstairs floors being retail and community space.

And I think the other three quarters may be market rate, but we're still working on that.

And Seattle Housing Authority has been phenomenal partner to work with.

Finally, I met with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Policy Leadership Group, where we discussed the return to council chambers, the upcoming 2023 budget review process, and our priorities for the district and for the city.

And with that, that concludes my report.

Are there any questions before I move to adjourn?

OK, not seeing any colleagues, we are we are done for all the business on today's agenda.

The following Monday, June 20th, which is coming up as Council Morales shared, is a city holiday, Juneteenth, which we will be celebrating.

So our next regularly scheduled council briefing is for Monday, June 27th at two.

And with that, folks, we are adjourned.

Thank you, have a good afternoon.