Seattle City Council Civic Development, Public Assets, & Native Communities Committee 12/4/19

Okay, I can't say hello to everybody I can do it All right, you guys let's uh, I'll settle down got the waterfront people here Rowdy crowd unlike parks.

It's nice and quiet and CL Center.

Thank you So let's do a call to order here, folks.

Good afternoon.

This is a meeting of the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee.

I want to thank Councilmember Bagshaw and Councilmember Gonzalez for being here today.

The date is Wednesday, December 4th, and the time is 2.07.

I'm Councilmember Deborah Juarez, chair for this committee, and we'll move on to approval of the agenda.

If there are no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

So I'm going to do a quick two, three minute chair's report for the viewing public and for my colleagues about what we're going to be looking at today.

We have 20 items and it's not as daunting as it looks.

I think we have a system down.

So we have 20 items on our agenda, most of which are appointments.

Agenda items one to three are parks related appointments and we are joined by Deputy Superintendent Christopher Williams.

from the Parks Department who will walk us through each appointment.

One is a Board of Park Commissioners and we have two seats open for the Seattle Park District Oversight Committee.

Agenda items four to 17 are for our newest committee, the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

We have 14 appointments to make today.

I want to recognize those of you who have showed up for your appointments.

We're actually very happy you're here and we'll give you a moment to talk and we'll read it into the record.

As you may recall, the 19 member, we're calling it the CWOC, was established in 2019 by ordinance number 125761. The CWOC shall advise and provide feedback to the city and central waterfront operating partner on the operations, maintenance, safety, and security of this public park.

Upon agenda item number four, I will invite our waterfront folks up to the table to walk us through the mechanics and the function of this committee.

If you are an appointee to the CWOC, I ask you to please sit in the front row of the audience for introductions.

So when Joshua, where's Joshua?

Joshua's here.

So when Joshua lists your appointment, Negin, Well, raise your hand.

Thank you, Nagin.

Nagin will hand you a mic for your introduction.

I understand we will have about 20 to 30 seconds per introduction.

Again, thank you all for being here.

Agenda item number 18 will just be a presentation regarding the final monorail system concession agreement.

On September 18th, this committee, CIPNA, passed out of committee an ordinance that would authorize the Seattle Center Director, Mr. Robert Nellums, who's here today, to negotiate and execute an amendment to the monorail concession agreement.

At that time, we asked him to return and report to this committee the final agreement before signing.

Brian Goodnight, is Brian here?

Not here yet, okay.

Brian Goodnight from central staff will open with a few remarks before Director Nelums dives into his presentation.

I will note that the final concession agreement is 306 pages, and since the agreement was signed, there have been three minor revisions.

which Director Nellams and Carrie from Seattle Center will explain.

Everyone has access to a supporting document titled the crosswalk of amended and restated agreement that show where all the elements of the letter of agreement, the LOA, are located if you're interested.

So that is the crosswalk.

Agenda item 19 will be a briefing and potential vote on legislation regarding Terry Pettus Park on Lake Union.

And finally, agenda item 20 regards the Ocean Pavilion.

We are going to be discussing whether it authorizes a funding and construction agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Aquarium for the new Ocean Pavilion.

I'm happy that we're here.

It's been about 25 years in the making to create and expand a new waterfront.

This piece in Ocean Pavilion will not only provide more public space along the waterfront, but an opportunity for the city to invest in marine conservation and education.

I look forward to hearing this presentation.

So with that, we will go to public comment.

Nobody signed up?

Okay.

So nobody signed up for public comment, so we will close public comment.

Unless Mr. Director Nellum has something to say, but I guess he doesn't.

So let's start with our items of business.

And Degeen, walk us through how we're going to do the first three and then the additional 14.

We'll go ahead and invite Christopher Williams and Tracy Ratzliff, if she prefers to come up here, including the three appointments.

And then we can have Christopher Williams provide an overview of each appointment.

But we will have to vote on them separately, as we've done before.

So that would be Andrea Akita Deepa Sirvaje.

I'm sorry if I butchered that wrong.

Did I say that wrong?

OK.

And Shalani Marisa.

Oh, good, hi.

Okay, I know, I know, I just want to go ahead.

Okay, appointment 01435, reappointment of Andrea C. Akita as a member of Board of Park Commissioners for a term to March 31st, 2022. Appointment 01436, appointment of Deepa Sivarajan, I'm sorry, a member of Seattle Park District Community Oversight Committee for a term to March 31st, 2021. Then appointment 01437, appointment of Shalani Marissa Vania Sinkim as member Seattle Park District Community Oversight Committee for a term to March 31st, 2021.

All right, Christopher.

Thank you.

So we, I'll start with Andrea Akita here.

Andrea couldn't be here today, but we are pleased to nominate or re-nominate Andrea Akita to be reappointed as a member of the Board of Park Commissioners.

Andrea has a master's degree in urban and regional planning and public administration and has worked for many years in the nonprofit and public sectors.

She is currently the executive director of Communities of Opportunity, a community-led public-private initiative through Public Health Seattle and King County and the Seattle Foundation.

The initiative is designed to create greater racial, economic, social, and health equity in King County.

Andrea has been an outstanding Park Board Commissioner since 2016. Always thoughtful, always has a bit of information based on her experience and reason and rational thinking.

She also serves on the Park District Oversight Committee.

She provides astute analysis of our policies and programs, especially through social justice lens.

She notices who's not in the room and reminds others on the board to do the same.

She understands how city government works and adds depth and richness to the board's input and advocacy.

Thank you.

Colleagues?

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the introduction and your willingness to participate in this.

Can you tell me maybe one anecdote of what has been the most important part for her?

You know, Andrea is usually very quiet, very thoughtful and observant, but when she speaks, it's powerful, it's relevant, it's salient to the discussion, and sometimes far beyond what we even realize at the point in the discussion.

So she's been very useful to have on the board.

She has a reappointment.

We will vote on it now.

I will move the committee pass appointment 01435 for Andrea Akita.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, say no.

The ayes have it.

And we will present this.

Oh, it passes.

And we will present this to the full council on Monday.

Very good.

Let's move to our second appointment, which these two young women are here.

Yes.

So first, I'll introduce Deepa Sivarajan.

I hope I said that correctly.

Thank you.

Awesome.

So Deepa comes to us as a nominee from the LGBTQ Commission.

We're honored to nominate Deepa to the Park District Oversight Committee.

Deepa is a Southeast Asian-American woman born and raised in West Seattle.

She currently works for EnviroLUCIS, specializing in public outreach and communications consulting for local governments.

Deepa has a master's degree in climate change studies and previously worked as an organizer for electoral and environmental campaigns in the Puget Sound region.

Deepa is passionate about environmental justice, which aims to address the disproportionate effect of environmental degradation on communities of color and low-income communities.

She hopes that her work with the commission will further her interest in integrating environmental justice perspective into policy, particularly in making recommendations on homelessness, displacement, and LGBTQ community spaces.

Very good.

Good.

Do we want to go ahead and hear from you?

Yeah.

Great.

We'd love to.

We have a very impressive resume coming from New York.

Your work experience, we're very happy to have you.

So if you want to say a few words and share who you are with our colleagues.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, it's been really wonderful to be here.

I've been on the LGBTQ Commission for two years now, and I've really enjoyed that experience to understand how the commissions are able to advise council and the mayor's office.

And when we had the opportunity to nominate a member for PDOC, it was something I was really interested in based on my interest in environmental justice and some of my work that has brought me to familiarity with the Parks system.

I've been able to sit in on PDOC meetings so far, and it's been really great.

It's been really great, and I think from the perspective of the LGBTQ Commission, it's really great to see a lot of the programming that Parks is doing, particularly around programs for LGBTQ seniors.

We know that that's an issue that happens as LGBTQ folks age, that there's more social isolation.

And so programs like Rainbow Recreation that the Parks Department have been doing, I think are really important and are some of the things that I've been excited to hear more about.

Thank you.

Colleagues?

Just thank you for doing that.

I know Councilmember Gonzalez and Councilmember Juarez and I have been really focused on age-friendly Seattle and the LGBTQ community have often felt left out, and you've put some good things in the budget this year to make sure that we have both housing and activities for them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

So next I'd like to nominate or like to introduce Shalani Phanayasin Kham.

didn't destroy that too.

I think you did it worse than me.

I'm gonna let her say her own name.

We are pleased to present Shalani as a nominee to the Park District Oversight Committee.

Shalani brings a history of immigrant advocacy, a powerful personal story, and a nuanced perspective to working with immigrant and refugee communities.

She immigrated from Sri Lanka with her family at the age of 14 and settled in Chandler, Arizona.

She went on to receive a B.S.

in Political Science from Northern Arizona University and a Master's in Global Studies from Brandeis University.

Her Master's degree focused on gender violence in Kashmir.

Shalani has worked in various social services roles throughout the years.

At Sound Generations, formerly Senior Services, she served as a staff representative for the Refugee Forum of King County and was a member of the Staff Committee for Equity and Inclusion.

In addition, during her tenure at Boeing, Shalani was a diversity focal and secretary of the Diversity and Inclusion Council.

Currently, she enjoys volunteering at the Asian Counseling and Referral Service and as an ESL teaching assistant and doing pro bono work with kids in need of defense as part of the position with Amazon's legal organization.

Great.

Do you want to say a few words for us?

I'm really excited to be a part of PDOC, representing the Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

When we were approached to, you know, choose someone to represent, I was interested in this because I feel like in our space with the Immigrant and Refugee Commission, we focus on economic development a lot, women's issues, kind of the bigger things, and We've been trying to think about ways that immigrants and refugees are not represented in other spaces that are very public and things that we're missing out on.

So, you know, I'm here to represent the IRC and to be a part of the PDOC and look at different things and kind of bring that lens of the Immigrant Refugee Commission to PDOC and have a voice in hopefully a lot of that process.

Great.

We had an opportunity to look at your appointment packet.

And you worked with a really good organization that we work with in that Sound Generations.

Phenomenal group.

They've been working a lot with us on our elders in our community and doing our elders feeding and all the things that we do up in the North End.

phenomenal organization.

Thank you.

My colleagues?

Thank you very much.

Okay.

So with that, we will start with Deepa.

I'll start with Deepa's appointment first.

I would like to move the committee pass appointment 01436. Second.

Moved and seconded.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

Ayes have it.

We'll recommend your appointment to full council Monday.

So our second one is, I'm just going to say your name, your first name, because I like it a lot, because I'm going to get the other one wrong, Shalani.

So this is, I move the committee pass appointment number 01437. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, no.

The ayes have it.

It passes, and we will recommend this to full council on Monday.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for serving.

It really means a lot to us.

Thanks for coming.

We'll be seeing a lot of the PDOC people, I'm guessing.

Thank you, Christopher.

I'll be back.

I know you'll be back.

So we got 14 appointments here for the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

And so I'm going to let Nagin take over from here, because there are items 4 to 17. And then Josh and we have a system, actually, so we can do this.

Yes, we do.

Yes, we are organized here.

Because not all of our appointments are here.

So go ahead, Nagin.

appointment of Donny Stevenson, Katie Garrow, Edward Lee, Lindsay Wolpa, Sean Jackson, and Brett Phillips as members of the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee for a term to December 30th, 2021. and appointment of Jerry Johnson, Ashraf Hasham, Maiko K. Winkler-Chin, Eric Howard, Michelle Rusk, Jim Rowe, Craig Schaefer, and Emily George as members of the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee for a term to December 30th, 2022. Great.

So how are we doing this?

Are we doing the presentation first?

Okay, so we're doing the presentation first.

Yes, and it'll be short.

Okay, that's fine.

I just, I had it reversed, so go ahead.

No problem.

Marshall Foster, Director of the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

Joshua Curtis with the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

So thank you council members for having us.

Today we're very excited to bring forward our recommendations for the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

You may recall in January of this year, nearly a year ago, a series of actions that we took around the Waterfront Local Improvement District, as well as around the model for operations and management of the future waterfront.

Our commitment as a city has been to a very high level of quality in terms of the management and operations.

And the central reason for this oversight committee is to provide the citizen and public review and oversight of our performance in managing the new waterfront.

So Joshua is going to take you through the specifics of the legislation to date and the specific roles and responsibilities of the committee.

Thank you, Marshall.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

So we do have a big group here, as you've noted, and we are excited to hear from them.

So I'm going to keep our legislative summary quick and focus on a few big themes.

So first theme is that from the beginning, the Waterfront Seattle program really has relied heavily on the leadership, the vision, and the expertise of civic leaders.

And you can see that starting in 2009 when council created the Central Waterfront Partnerships Committee.

The other thing I want to highlight is that we've really been planning for this operations and management for quite a long time.

And you can see that here in the early years through a combination of council actions and then on the ground operating agreements with Friends of Seattle, I'm sorry, Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

In 2017, our office in Parks brought to you a resolution that laid out a framework for the operations and management of the waterfront and specifically a partnership between Friends of Waterfront Seattle and Parks.

In that legislation, we committed to come back to the committee with legislation that created an oversight committee.

We did just that, as Marshall mentioned earlier this year, in the legislative package for the Local Improvement District.

We created the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee, which we are calling CWOC, so close to EWOC.

And we pledged to come back.

by the end of the year.

So here we are.

We have worked very diligently with city council, with the mayor's office, and with the city clerk for the past six months or so with some extensive outreach and a public application process.

And so we're really pleased that we can introduce the group.

to you today.

Just a few words about the committee itself and how it's comprised and what it's going to be doing.

So this is a big group.

It's 19 members.

14 of those are mayor and council appointees.

Six of those are at large, so gathering from the community outside of the local improvement district geography.

Eight of those are very specific to different real estate asset ownership types within the local improvement district boundary.

And then we've got five permanent members who are representing nonprofits with expertise in public space operations in downtown Seattle, downtown parks.

As Marshall mentioned, they're really going to be advising us and specifically looking at outputs for this partnership.

And that will largely take the form of this performance standard, which essentially is going to be a set of metrics gathering from our own analysis, but also from national best practices.

And it will be a benchmark against which we measure our own performance here in the city.

And then they will be providing an annual report to mayor and council So with that I'll pause briefly if there's any questions about any of that and we can I think move directly into our introductions No questions, great.

I was wondering if Baby Yoda was going to be your mascot.

I wish.

Talk to the committee about that.

Ewok.

Baby Yoda.

Yeah, that's where we know it from.

Duly noted.

Duly noted.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to say the position number and the name, and then I believe Nagin will hand that person the microphone.

Donnie's here.

Okay.

Hi, Donny.

Let's start with Donny.

Position number one at large.

That's exactly right.

Position number one at large, Donny Stevenson.

Testing.

Can you read the affiliation?

Would you mind reading the affiliation?

I mean, I could do it, but it's always up there.

Yes, with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

Okay.

Hey, Donny.

Weots.

Weots.

Teats Donnie Stevenson, Muckleshoot Opstead.

Thank you, welcome.

My name is Donnie Stevenson, and I am the Vice Chairman of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

I'm very thankful and grateful to be here today.

and grateful for the opportunity to work as a member of this team, as a representative of the first people, original people, and a representative of the federally recognized treaty tribe of the city of Seattle, acting as traditionally our people have as stewards of the resources of this land as we have done for literally hundreds of generations and thousands of years to work to ensure the resources and opportunities are sustainable and applicable and able to be accessed by our future generations while also enjoyed today.

It's a true honor to be able to be a member of any group that's dedicated to doing so.

And I consider it not only a profound honor, but also a huge part of the responsibility of the traditional beliefs of my people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Stevenson.

I think next we have.

Yes, position number two, at large, Katie Garrow with MLK Labor.

Hi, good afternoon, council members and fellow committee members.

My name is Katie, and I'm the deputy director at MLK Labor, and I'm excited to bring a worker's voice to this committee and ensure that the prosperity generated on the waterfront is shared with workers and that working class people are able to enjoy our beautiful downtown waterfront.

Thank you, Katie.

Thank you, Katie.

Position number three at large, Jerry Johnson with Pacifica Law Group.

Our friend, Jerry.

Thank you.

The saga of the waterfront, as you saw, began in 2009. And I am one of the few surviving members of all of the iterations of your various citizen committees that have been appointed by you all during those years.

And I'm very pleased to continue this work, this volunteer work, in this new capacity.

And I appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Jerry, position number four at large, Ashraf Hasham.

Hello.

Thank you so much for having me.

Like Donnie here, I'm super honored to be in this position.

I just started at the Office of Arts and Culture as the new Youth Arts Manager, formerly of the Vera Project.

Happy to bring youth voice to this committee, as well as arts and cultural lens, and work with all of y'all, and center racial equity and social justice in the work that we're doing, too.

So thanks.

Happy to be here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ashraf.

Position number five, at large, Michael Winkler-Chin with the Seattle China I'm sorry, Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority.

Hi everybody, I'm Micah Winkler-Chen.

I, like Jerry Johnson, was part of the original 2009, whatever happened in 2009 because it was so long ago.

I look forward to serving on this committee and I'm thankful to be invited to serve on this committee.

I'm really interested in how it operates, because you can build the most beautiful thing, but if it doesn't operate well, what good is it?

And I also want to make sure that this huge asset actually benefits my neighborhood, which is just far enough away that it's a bit of a challenge, and that it is well positioned as we move forward with some big transit improvement projects in the neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Moving into the LID nominees.

Position number seven for the LID residential tenant, Michelle Rusk.

Are we skipping?

Oh, did I?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr. Howard.

Eric Howard.

My apologies.

Number six at large, Eric Howard.

Sorry, Eric.

I got you.

Don't worry about it.

No problem.

Good afternoon.

I'm Eric Howard.

I live in Columbia City with my family.

I work in geopolitical analysis at Boeing.

Previous to that, I was with the United Nations Development Program in the South Pacific, where I worked on climate change adaptation.

I'm passionate about infrastructure, social justice, and I think the waterfront is by far the best introduction to any city for a visitor, and I'm excited to be part of the transformation.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Thank you, Eric.

Moving on to position number seven, LID residential tenant, Michelle Rusk.

Good afternoon.

My name is Michelle Rusk.

I'm a land use and real estate attorney at the new Foster Garvey.

I've been a resident of downtown for about five and a half years.

I love living in Pioneer Square.

I love the waterfront.

My husband and I walk it at least once a week.

And I'm very excited to have the opportunity to be involved with this next phase of its transformation.

Thank you.

Next.

Position number eight, LID commercial tenant, Jim Rowe.

Mr. Rowe.

Excuse my reach.

Yeah, you do.

Hi, I'm Jim Rowe, E3 Restaurant Group.

We're a restaurant company.

We have Elliott's Oyster House, and I am honored and looking forward to working on this committee with all of you.

And thank you for the consideration.

Thank you, Jim.

Go ahead.

Position number nine, LID, sorry, LID hotel property owner, Craig Schaefer.

Craig is not able to join us today.

He is the owner of Among Many Properties Hotel, Ondra.

Yeah, we saw his packet.

Okay, let's move on.

Position number 10, LID condominium owner, Emily George, also not able to join us today.

She's with KPFF, and she and her husband founded Parents for a Better Downtown Seattle.

Position number 11, LID residential apartment property owner, Ed Lee.

There's Ed.

There he is.

Hi there.

Thank you very much.

My name is Ed Lee.

I work with Equity Residential.

We are the owner of four buildings within the Waterfront Lid District, including Harbor Steps, which is the biggest one.

And I actually am a resident at Harbor Steps, and I live there with my wife and my five-year-old son.

So we're very excited to see additional open space in the downtown because we know how important that is to downtown parents.

And I'm really interested to help where I can.

I've had 20 years of experience in operations and investments with our buildings.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ed.

I don't see Lindsay here.

Position number 12, Lindsay's not here.

LID office property owner, Lindsay, is out on maternity leave.

She's representing Port of Seattle, who, of course, is a great partner for all things waterfront related, and we appreciate them stepping up to be part of this.

Position number 13, LID property on or within one block of Pike Pine Street owner, Sean Jackson.

Where's Sean?

There's Sean.

Hello, thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you council members.

It's it's really an honor and I don't want to ever have to follow Donnie again.

That's just completely unfair.

It was very eloquent and I've worked downtown in the downtown market since 1985 and being a part of having the opportunity to be a part of such a transformational event is is absolutely fantastic.

Like Ed, I've worked on the operational side, transactional side.

And again, having an opportunity to work with such like-minded folks that really care about our waterfront and open space, it's a pleasure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great.

And the last nominee, LID commercial retail owner in position 14, Brett Phillips with Unico, is also not able to join us.

He's on a beach somewhere in Hawaii.

Wow.

So those are the 14 nominees, but there are several permanent members, the five that are representative of the various nonprofits.

And I'd like to just recognize them and have them introduce themselves as well.

Are you talking about the position?

Yes, 15 with the Pike Police Market PDA, Mary Baccarella.

There's Mary.

Don't hide.

I'm Mary Beccarella, executive director of the Pike Place Market PDA, really excited to be part of this.

I know that the Pike Place Market PDA has been involved for many years, as Ben back there can attest to.

We have our market front that is actually going to join up to the Overlook Walk, so it's really exciting working already with everyone, so we're really looking forward to it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mary.

Great.

Position number 16 with the Seattle Aquarium Society, Bob Davidson.

It's 30 seconds, Bob.

Thank you.

Bob Davidson, president and CEO of the Seattle Aquarium.

And I'm reminded that Council Member Bagshaw, before she was involved here, was the spark plug with Allied Arts to get the public excited about the future of the waterfront.

And so I was involved in helping in that and have continued through the mists of time with Jerry and others.

And also, I want to...

call out Carol Binder, who co-chaired the Waterfront Stewardship Subcommittee with me for several years, laying out the things needed for the success of the waterfront.

So I look forward to serving on this committee.

Thank you, Bob, for all the work that you do.

Is there anything you want to say, Council Member?

Are you okay?

When we're done?

OK.

All right.

Position number 17, representing the Downtown Seattle Association and the Metropolitan Improvement District, John Scholes, not able to join us today.

So we'll move on to position number 18, the Seattle Historic Waterfront Association, not the Peer Association, Bob Donegan.

Again, 30 seconds, Bob.

It was almost 14 years ago that Sally Bagshaw brought the Allied Arts presentation to us, and in those 14 years, this is the 10th committee I've served on.

It is such a treat to be working on implementing rather than arguing about what we're gonna build.

Thank you, good job.

Finally, position number 19, representing the Alliance for Pioneer Square, Lisa Howard.

Hi, I'm Bob Doddigan.

Just kidding.

Lisa Dixon-Howard with the Alliance for Pioneer Square.

We're thrilled to finally have that wall down between Pioneer Square and the water.

And we're so looking forward to activating the waterfront and making it a success in the long term.

So thank you for having me on your board.

Thank you.

So before we move, I'm going to see if my colleagues have anything they want to move before we move all items 4 to 17. Council Member Begshaw.

I would first of all say thank you to all my friends who are in this audience today.

It seriously brings tears to my eyes because it's been 15 years since we started working on this.

And just about an hour ago I was at a taping with Seattle Channel with Council President Harrell and Council Member Pacheco and Council Member O'Brien.

And they asked me, what is the single most important thing that you think about during the 10 years that I've been on this council?

And that's a tough one in many ways because of so many things.

But what I told them is the most important thing to me was the relationships that we have established, that politics is all about relationships.

when they say, what single project has brought you the most joy and excitement?

And distress and hair-pulling, it's the waterfront.

Amazing how far we have come, and it's really in thanks to those of you who are sitting in these chairs.

And I just want you to know how deeply grateful I am.

It's been an experience of a lifetime working with you on this, and of course, Marshall and Joshua, the work that you have done inside the city.

But we wouldn't be here without those of you that are sitting in these chairs out there.

And I know, Jerry Johnson, that I thank you a million times for the work that you have done, your legal work, but seriously, we have come so far.

And I tell the story and it's gospel truth.

I was literally patted on the head in 2005 by a certain elected official who shall not be named, but it was like, oh, you are so cute, you allied arts people, you have such a cute vision.

And, you know, here we are.

You know, $4 billion, and all of you, and the city, the county, the state, the feds, the port, philanthropy, labor, and business, everybody coming together, but truly, you have my undying gratitude.

I'm coming back in a year.

Ben Franz-Knight tells me that that overlook is gonna be done by the time I get back in a year, but I'll be very excited to continue to be working with all of you then.

Councilmember Gonzalez, are you okay?

Okay, I'm just going to say a few words in general.

I've only chaired this committee for four years.

It looks like hopefully I'll chair it for four more.

I do want to, I hope everyone in this audience can please take a moment to join me in thanking Councilmember Bagshaw for being involved in this.

I don't do well with this stuff.

Yes, she does.

I'll get her a glass of wine later.

I have to say this, though.

I started this committee, and I learned so much from this woman.

And she's been such a mentor.

And she's the one that shared with me, actually, the plans for the aquarium expansion, the waterfront discussions started in 1992. And I could give you the whole chronology from 1992 to 97 to 2000, I mean, all these things that were passed or Councilwoman Baxter was there before she even became a councilwoman.

And if that's not commitment to a city, if that's not true governance, if that's not true love for a city and vision, I don't know what is.

And I grew up in Indian country and I understand the importance of experience and wisdom and mentorship and respecting our elders and learning from them.

And yes, I am a boomer and damn proud of it and yeah, OK, we both are.

And so I'm not.

I'm just I'm more boomer than you.

You're more boomer than me.

But you know, this is it's people like this and leaders like this that create a world for these two, three generations coming behind us to be good stewards, to have vision, to have this resolution and be resolute.

And a prime objective in a North Star that they could look at the waterfront and say 15, 20 years ago, we're going to have an aquarium, a central waterfront, we're going to bring down the viaduct, we're going to add 20 acres of a park, and we're going to move forward because this is a world-class city and this is what we're supposed to be doing.

And I want you to know that this woman is one of the pioneers, not a word I throw around easily as a Native American, a pioneer, but a leader in that.

And thank you all for clapping for her, because we are going to definitely miss her presence.

So thank you, Cast Member Beck.

Show me.

OK.

So with that, before I get too teary-eyed, I am going to, we already read 4 to 17 in the record, so what we're going to do is I'm going to move that we move all the appointments in one fell swoop since we went through them.

So I'll start here.

I move that the committee pass appointments 01473-2, I'm sorry, to 01473-2.

which includes all 14 appointments.

It's been moved and seconded.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no.

That means that all 14 appointments have passed for the newly created Central Waterfront Oversight Committee, affectionately known as the CWOC.

And we will submit this to full council for passage on Monday.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you all.

All right, that's the next.

I like the CWOC.

I like it too.

It's definitely going to happen.

Okay, so I'm gonna we got all of our folks up here we got mr. Nellum's here We're gonna let Nagini read it to the record and then you'll let you guys kick it off We are going to go to the monorail concession agreement and I understand it's a seven page PowerPoint.

Take it away review of amended and restated monorail system concession agreement

Okay, Brian Goodnight, Council Central staff.

Harry Smith, Seattle Center.

Megan Ching, Seattle Monorail Services.

Robert Nelum, Seattle Center.

Great nice to see you and to be here.

Yes Thank you.

We're not signing today.

He's giving us an update, but I'll let you go ahead with your PowerPoint and the real talk about the concession or the amendment to the concession agreement in the approved letter of credit that we did in September 18th And now you're coming back to us because we asked you to back in September to outline and review the amended restated concession agreement It's all yours.

Okay, so Not to do a lot of stroll through history or what have you, but after almost five years of talking and negotiating and what have you, we finally got to an agreement that allowed the monorail to start accepting orca cards on October 7th.

And so the original ordinance that went to, that was passed in 2014 was actually, came to fruition.

And I think that the thing that I would like to say without reading a bunch of the words up on the screen is that it complies with the council direction and fully integrates the monorail into the ORCA network and establishes the terms at which SMS, Seattle Monorail Services, will implement the ORCA smart card as a form of payment on the monorail.

That's what we were asked to do and that's what we did.

So that part is great.

In addition, just a little background, King County was the sponsor of the Seattle Monorail as part of one of the seven ORCA agencies, and you have to have a sponsor to join as an affiliate, and King County sponsored us, and that we have an affiliate agreement with King County that was negotiated as part of all of this process.

And then we brought an ordinance 125942 which was a letter of an agreement which outlined what the framework of the agreement that we were working on.

We had not completed the agreement at the time in September, but we were close, and we were close enough to say that, one, we'll finish this before the end of the year, and two, even though we're not done, we're gonna start accepting the monorail on October 7th anyway, because we're close enough to know that it's right there.

So at that time, you asked us to come back here and give you report on what the actual final amendment looks like, and I'm going to go on that in just a moment.

But before I do that, I'd like to turn this over to Megan and let her talk to you a little bit about what the experience has been from Seattle Monorail Services since October 7th.

I heard it's positive.

Yes, absolutely.

So thank you so much for having me.

Thank you, Robert.

Just to give a quick update as to where we stand with ORCA at the monorail, I would say that you're correct.

The public reception of the monorail accepting ORCA has been very positive.

I can tell you that on the first day, we had people lining up.

They wanted to be the first 100 people to ride the monorail using their ORCA card, so it was great.

About 25% of our riders in October used ORCA on the monorail, and that amount increased in November to about 29%.

These numbers are preliminary.

We'll get final numbers from King County pretty soon.

ORCA usage is definitely higher on the weekdays, as we would expect, and especially during commuting hours, so in the mornings and in the evenings.

When it comes to transfers, about 30% of our ridership is transferring to or from another transit system and then to the monorail.

So the monorail is really being used as a last mile solution for many people that are commuting.

They might use King County Metro or Sound Transit and then transfer to the monorail to get to Seattle Center, vice versa.

In terms of looking at the ORCA riders, about 55% of the people that are using their ORCA cards on the monorail are using it with their employer-provided business passport.

About 34% pay using ORCA ePurse, so with the funds that they load on their card.

And then about 11% use Puget Pass, which is the regional transit pass.

Just anecdotally, on November 12th, for the Sounders Parade and Rally at Seattle Center, about 45% of people who use the monorail during that day use their ORCA cards.

So for those bigger days that locals are attending and that are really popular, we're seeing quite a bit of usage.

Are we seeing an increased number of riders as well?

I mean, I understand.

I would say it's, yeah, it's still a little too early for us to tell.

You know, the ridership has not been finalized for November yet, and we have just a partial month of October.

So I think we need a little bit more time to tell.

We do know for sure that it's very well received, and I'm sure that it will continue to serve us very well, provide access.

I'm sure it speeds things up, right, getting on and off?

Absolutely, yes, it definitely streamlines the process for us.

And this has only been since October 7th.

Correct.

So this is what you had anticipated, why we'd work so hard to make sure they are compatible.

Great.

Go ahead, Megan.

I don't know if you're still.

OK.

And so I'm just going to talk a little bit about the terms of the amended agreement.

And so this includes a 10-year extension.

The current agreement with Seattle Monroe Services expires in 2024. So this will extend the agreement until 2034. It establishes that the city will pay the initial startup costs.

That's been part of the agreement from the start.

It removes the city had a guaranteed revenue stream.

from the monorail and it removes that guarantee.

And it amends the split that we're going to have from two-thirds, one-third to a 60-40.

And we do that all because we're all going to bank on the fact that the ORCA card and ORCA users are going to increase the number Passengers on the monorail and that will have a bigger pie to split and so our projections show that that over time We will get actually more revenue from this deal than if we had not done the implementation of the Orca and gone from this point to 2034 so that's one thing the The thing that's important for the ORCA system and ORCA travelers and so forth is that the monorail fare categories are now aligned with the ORCA system, so they're all the same.

Everything is now uniform.

The thing that I love the most about this agreement is that it It not only extends the term and introduces and implements the orcas system into the monorail, but it also brings investment into the mix.

And so Seattle Monorail Services is committed to making a minimum of $3.5 million of investment into station improvements.

And there's a window, it goes a minimum to a maximum of $12 million.

And because of that, we will be able to do some work that would allow us to increase the capacity of the monorail and so that you'll be able to move more people through the system.

That becomes very important around the summer of 2021 when a new arena may open and you need that additional capacity and so forth.

So we're very, very excited about that.

And I just want to make one more point about the investment.

The Montreal, Seattle Montreal Services, they've been in negotiations with the owners of Westlake over the last few months.

They have a tentative agreement.

that will allow them to do some of the changes that we envision.

We don't have them all defined yet.

We're a couple months away from that, but we're going to be participating, for instance, with a walkthrough around Westlake, our staff, Montreal, and Brookfield, who is the owner of Westlake, to talk about what are some of the changes that we're going to be making.

The goal with those capital improvements, those changes will be to increase the capacity of the monorail so that it can go from what Megan and her team can run about 3,000 people an hour now to trying to get to almost a doubling of that when the improvements are done.

And also the discussions we've had for the last year about those upgrades, 3,000 people to 6,000 with the wider doors in the home.

We've met with CMS on that many times.

In a couple months when we have a better idea about what the dreams are, and then a couple months after that when we have real plans about what the dreams will become, I'd love to come back and talk to you and show you what we envisioned to have happen.

I think it's going to be really cool.

All right.

And I, before, okay, I'm going to, that's the end of our PowerPoint.

But before I close out, the LOA that we did and the agreement, the amended agreement that we got to, we completed, Carrie Smith did 99% of the work on this.

It's virtually the same, but it had, it has three minor changes And I just wanted Kerry to be able to walk you through what those minor changes are.

So we consider these still consistent with the LOA.

But one of them was that there was a conditional five-year term extension option that SMS had if they met certain financial criteria for their capital investment.

And now that we know more about what the Westlake agreement will be, we know that that won't be necessary.

And so we agreed to remove that option because it won't be needed.

Is that what we're calling it, the Westlake agreement now?

The other one was that the LOA included payments to SMS for certain ORCA passport fares if ridership was lower than estimated.

There was a break point for that revenue sharing based on ridership, and that break point was $2 million in the LOA, which was the average ridership over the last couple of years, and we modified that down to $1.95 million based on the actual one year prior revenue or ridership.

And that reflects the change of no key arena riders.

So that's five.

I understand that that's to the city's advantage because it lowers the break point?

Yes.

That's what you shared with me.

Okay.

Yeah.

They're both to the city's advantage.

And then the third one is really kind of an administrative change which is There's two related fees.

We were ending one fee and starting a new fee in the agreement.

And they're both the same, about $30,000.

And so we're changing the date on the implementation date for one fee is changed by one year and the other, the termination fee of the old fee is changed by one year or two.

So it's just, it nets out.

Other than those changes, everything else is totally consistent with LOA, the letter of agreement.

All right, any questions?

Is there any financial implication on that third part, that third point?

No, and that's to zero.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, it's a wash.

Thanks.

All right, if there's not anything else, then I think we're done.

And thank you for coming back with all this information.

I know that we agreed to a lot of this in September.

and you came back, like you said, and your projections were right on, Megan, guys, that this would be positive, there'd be an increase, and now we have, I know I did a tour up there, a physical tour with SMS people on the Westlake piece, and I didn't know what vendor or who they were talking to about who's gonna be making those upgrades, so I'm glad to see this is finally coming to fruition, so thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry, Casper Gonzalez?

On some of these outstanding issues, Director Nolans you mentioned that you would come you intended to come back and sort of show us What the vision is particularly around I think it was particularly around the station We haven't designed or have you know right now?

We have a concept of what we would like to see the station to be but there's no formal design or anything like that So once we get all of that and say this is what it's gonna look like This is what the construction project actually would be I said I'd love to come back and show you that when we determine what that is and

And when do you anticipate that?

That should be sometime in the first quarter of next year.

Great.

Thank you.

Everything is designed to be done by the time the arena opens, so we got to move fast.

Yeah.

We'll get it done.

All right.

Thank you very much.

I'm thinking you want to read the item.

Thank you, Brian.

Good memo too, by the way.

Council Bill 119661, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation, authorizing the acquisition of real property adjacent to Terry Pettis Park on Lake Union, authorizing acceptance and recording of the deed for open space, park and recreation purposes, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Hello guys, we got the whole team here Before we begin Christopher, I'll let you list two introductions that I want to say a few things to tease some issues up for my colleagues and the viewing public so you want to go ahead and start with your introductions and Tracy Brass of Council Central staff Christopher Williams deputy superintendent Seattle Parks chip Navin Seattle Parks and Recreation I Great.

I just have a few words.

Again, I just want to give a precursor to what we're working on.

Tracy, thank you for all your work, and thank you, Parks.

I know that this is Seattle Parks and Rec.

We're going to try to acquire this land.

It's on 1949 Fairview Avenue in District 4. It's adjacent to the Terry Pettis Park, and I understand that the city will be putting in $740,000, $700,000 for the purchase price and $40,000 for the staffing.

But more importantly, what I'm really excited about is that if we move forward on this, that we hope to create more park space in the urban village.

One of the goals, of course, of the City of Seattle is more green space, more public space, and more park space.

And I'm thinking that this is going to do it.

So I will turn it over to you after that and your PowerPoint.

I'm sorry, Council Member Peterson, I'm sorry, representing District 4. Great.

Go ahead.

So there are two times we come to you in the life of a property transaction.

One is when we seek authorization to negotiate for the property, and the second time is when we come back to close the transaction, and we're actually here for the latter.

entertain a buy-sell agreement with the owner.

So this acquisition will create more property in addition to the existing Terry Pettis property.

Terry Pettis Park is located within East Lake Residential Urban Village and is one of many small public spaces around Lake Union, all connected by the Chesahoo Loop Trail.

The community has been advocating for expansion and the Terry Pettis has been advocating for expansion of this park for many years.

The department has been trying to acquire this property for greater than 10 years.

Increased park space within urban village areas and public access to bodies of water are priority in our public space acquisition strategy.

With that, I'll turn it over to Chip Nevins, who will give you the details here.

Thank you.

So as you both mentioned, we're here to talk about the acquisition of a small piece of property in the East Lake community.

And when we think about previously the 20-acre waterfront park, this seems small at 4,000 square feet.

But these little bits of waterfront are hugely important to the communities around the city.

So I'm super excited about this.

I think this is an example of why it's really important to have an ongoing acquisition program in our department.

We first, through prodding of the community, we first tried to buy this property in 2006 as part of the pro parks levy.

We tried again in 2008 as part of the 2008 parks and green spaces levy.

And then this property, Noah moved out.

Noah was the tenant in 2011. The property sold in 2012. And in this past year, this little weird parcel up there was owned by Ride the Ducks.

And they had finally, we've been talking, inquiring for years, and they finally agreed that they would sell it.

And the city and the adjacent landowner, who is a seafood processing company, agreed to buy it together.

So what's happened is that the adjoining owner, U.S.

Seafood, has acquired it, and then they are selling us a portion, like our verbal agreement that we made several months ago.

So it's really great.

win-win for both the business community and the neighborhood.

So, you know, this is also, if you think about Terry Pettis Park, it was built by the community in the 70s, it was named after a community member, and they are the ones that are pushing this.

We've been working with the community for the last year on outreach and early design and With this acquisition, we will move forward to finishing design in 2020 and construction in 2021.

Are you going to go to the next slide?

Oh.

Yeah.

I didn't want to, but I was like, yeah, so everyone can see.

And I think you already know that before you get to the acquisition background and next steps.

So are you done with this one?

I am done with this.

I think that this is one of the few public access points to the water in this community.

So this acquisition will actually double the amount of shoreline.

This is the slide I like.

And this is just some, as I said, we've done some early schematic drawings.

And this is one of the several alternatives, conceptual designs that's come out of the community workshop.

And so we're continuing to work with the community and refining the design.

And we're hoping to close on this property later in December.

And yeah, it's exciting.

And construction is projected for 2021. What we're looking at right now.

Yeah, so we have funding to do the design and we've got a consultant we have funding to do the design and to finish up We've done conceptual design.

We have money to finish up the design and this leads into the Metropolitan Park District funding plan, which will be developed next year for the Next six years and this now will have a cost estimate to go into that plan.

So there will be funding for this and development as part of the next six-year funding plan.

And I'm really glad you said that, Chip, because I was trying to prompt you without putting you on blast, but everyone's really anticipating the next six-year plan, and this is one of the urban village community projects.

I know you're right, it's not a huge piece of land, but you're right, it provides invaluable access to those neighborhoods to get on Lake Union.

And so when we go through the six-year plan, which is coming up, we'll be looking, right, Christopher, we'll be doing this all next year in 2020?

And we'll be using some of the capital funds for this, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Will it be deep enough from there to launch kayaks and canoes?

And is that going to be allowed for swimming?

Yeah, so currently it's not in very good repair, but currently there is a dock that would allow for hand launch boats and that will continue.

I think you saw from this plan that there is potential to put a more natural shoreline in there, which would allow people to bring kayaks or boats down there.

It's anyone's guess whether you want to swim in Lake Union.

That would be possible as well.

Go ahead, Kasper Gonzalez.

I have a few questions and maybe just sort of concerns to express.

I don't see a lot of seating available.

There's a concrete seating wall that looks very small, and there's only two picnic tables available.

I do appreciate that they're ADA accessible, but there's also no restrooms.

and no proposed restroom, it appears from the schematic.

So I have some concerns that this space is designed for people to just sort of launch from as opposed to actually using the open space to linger and recreate and enjoy the limited open space that exists on the shoreline and in this urban village.

So can you talk a little bit more about I recognize this is just an initial design, but whether there's intent to perhaps make it a little bit more robust to accommodate some of those other uses.

Well, I mean, as you just mentioned, this is a conceptual design to kind of get people thinking about it.

When there's funding, then it will, the next step would be to go through a public process for the actual design.

So that would be public meetings where, We go through several iterations and those, I imagine those things would come up during that discussion.

But yes, the intent is to make it usable for the people that that live there and want to hang out there.

It's not really meant for people just to go through.

It's meant for a place to hang out.

So the final design will be more robust and we'll have often schematic designs are a little bit light on the actual furnishings of the park.

So those would be added during the final design.

We'll actually go through what we call a program design process, and that's the community's opportunity to tell us what sort of programmatic uses they'd like to see, and then what are the accouterments, the park furniture, what will facilitate sort of that programmatic use of the park.

This might also be a great part to talk to the community about the Portland Loop concept that's been installed at the Ballard Commons, so that's something we'll bring up as well.

That's what I want to hear.

I have an additional question and two things.

First of all, we'll be working with Councilmember Peterson since it's in his district so he can handle the community meetings.

Is there an opportunity for more expansion to buy property down there?

Because I know exactly where that's at.

You know, there's always the opportunity to buy more property.

We're only limited by the resources we have.

Part of the major match that we get for property acquisition is through King County Conservation future taxes, which limits the ability to, what's that thing we do?

Condemn.

Eminent domain.

Eminent domain.

Condemnation.

Outright steal.

So we're restricted from doing that with these funds.

That has historically been one way to expand the footprint of Parkland.

And I think to follow up on that, so we have houseboats on one side, so that's a pretty constrained area.

If I go back to This one, you can see we're only acquiring a small piece of the larger property that's used by USC Food.

I think they're, depending upon what their business model's like or how their business goes, there's always a potential to expand that in the future if there's mutual agreement.

I don't think, we have a very good relationship right now and so we can just see how that goes.

OK.

Can I put a plug in for universal design on this?

I think you're going to do it anyway.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I have been learning about, in our all ages and abilities, the necessity for people to have arms like this in order to be able to stand up if they're having any challenges.

either walking or standing.

And also the recommendation that the chairs, talk to this nice woman here next to me, but also for the chairs and seats to be a little bit higher.

That oftentimes, if you sink down, and particularly if your buns are lower than your knees, really hard for people to stand up.

So I just would like, just as we've been doing around Age Friendly and all of the work that you've been doing these last 10 years, I just want to put the plug in be looking at the design of the street furniture and what we can do to actually make it easier for people.

Makes sense.

Councilor Peterson, he had something to add.

Thank you.

Yes, I just wanted to thank you, the folks from Parks, but also to echo this amazing unity on this project with the city government, but also the local business involved.

U.S.

Seafood is very cooperative.

The best part of my day yesterday was checking in with a bunch of Eastlake community leaders, all from different backgrounds, and the unity around this project is amazing.

heard a lot about it over the last year or two, so people are very excited.

So thank you very much.

Well done.

In terms of any additional opportunities to be able to acquire more land, I noticed that on slide two, where it shows what we're actually acquiring, who owns the parking lot?

The parking lot is actually S dot right of way, so most of the park is actually in, it's a street end, it's been maintained by parks since the 70s.

But the parking lot is also S dot, so there is an opportunity that's been brought up in the community about taking some of that parking lot and adding it to the park.

That's amazing.

I was going to suggest that and anticipated it might be controversial, but was going to suggest it anyhow.

But I do think that I hope that we can I think it would be helpful to have a meaningful conversation about what it would mean to expand the footprint of this small space into the parking lot.

any other modalities, transportation modalities represented in the schematic.

So I'm gonna, in the spirit of Council Member Bagshaw, put in a plug for non-automotive modes of transportation into the park.

So if there's an opportunity to install some, a meaningful amount of bicycle racks, for example, for parking.

You know, scooters are coming, so we should have a place for people to park those, especially because this is waterfront access, and a lot of people are going to be super interested in accessing the waterfront.

So I think the more proactive we can think about how to corral those different modes of transportation so that they don't impede the ingress and egress, particularly around the ADA accessible components of how we're imagining this space, I think that would be extremely wise.

Okay, are we done?

All right, okay.

So we're going to move to a vote now.

I move the committee pass Council Bill 119661. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

You have to vote too.

Any opposed?

The ayes have it and it passes and what we'll do is we will recommend this to full committee on Monday.

Thank you.

It's been a real pleasure working with you.

Thank you.

Oh, you're not going anywhere?

I'm not going anywhere.

Are you?

Thanks for coming.

Thank you, absolutely.

We got all our folks up here.

I think we need to have those two in the back up here as well.

Mark, Ben.

Hey, how you doing?

OK.

So I'm going to have Nageen read this into the record.

I have a few things I want to say before we begin, but go ahead, Nageen, and we'll do introductions as well.

Council Bill 119700, an ordinance relating to the Central Waterfront Project, authorizing a funding agreement and a future construction agreement between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Aquarium Society for a new aquarium facility to be known as the Ocean Pavilion.

Finding that the funding and construction agreements authorized by this ordinance meet the intent and purpose of the project development agreement and comprehensive funding plan described under Ordinance 125630 and amending Ordinance 125630 accordingly.

So let's do introductions.

I have a few comments to make, and then we'll launch right into what we need to do.

Go ahead, Eric.

Hi, Eric McConaghy on the Council of Central Staff.

Dory Costa, Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

Jessica Murphy, Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

Marshall Foster, Waterfront and Civic Projects.

Christopher Williams, Seattle Parks.

Bob Davidson, Seattle Aquarium.

Susan Bullardick, Director of Capital Projects, Seattle Aquarium.

Colleen Echo-Hawk, Headwater People Consulting.

Bob Donegan, volunteer at the aquarium.

Thank you.

I'm going to just give a quick overview again for our viewing public so we can kind of tee this up and give the narrative that we've been dealing with for a couple decades here.

I know you have a nine-page PowerPoint, and I want to thank Eric McConaughey here for the memo that you did out of central staff.

I really appreciate you.

I read that thoroughly.

And I want to thank you folks for doing the summary and the fiscal note from Office of the Waterfront.

That's always very helpful.

And of course, the actual legislation.

What you heard me say earlier when I was saying how awesome Council Member Bagshaw is and how much we're going to miss her.

This is chapter two.

This is chapter two.

I'm going to get emotional again because she deserves it.

Because, anyway, so in the PowerPoint, I know, and thank you, Marshall, because you've been doing this at least for the last three or four years now.

You know I like chronologies.

Let's put this in order, how we've been doing this.

Your chronology goes from 2008 to 2018. But I want to thank Nageen because she went through the docs with me and then put together and there's some just highlights I want to highlight.

So again, one of the things we've been hearing a lot, and Council Member Baggio and I have been dealing with this a lot since she's been my vice chair for four years, is the history of the waterfront, just the whole piece.

And so we went back and we looked at, and then we put it together, some of the highlights, some of the timeline highlights.

Starting in 1992, the plans for the aquarium and expansion.

So that means that we've been looking at this and talking about this for about 25 years.

We go back to 1997 with the master plan that was approved.

2000, the MOU between the city of Seattle and the Seattle Aquarium Society seized.

In 2003, the city began a vision for the central waterfront that reconnected downtown to the waterfront.

In 2008, City Council adopted a resolution containing principles related to the future aquarium development, and that would be marine conservation and education, and we expanded on that.

In 2009, the City and Mayor entered into a long-term agreement with SEAS.

In 2012, the Central Waterfront Concept Design and Framework Plan was done and developed by City staff.

In 2015, SEAS prepared a master plan dated 2015 that defined three proposed capital projects for further assessment.

And in 2018, the new MOU provided that if 60% design development and detailed cost estimates for the Ocean Pavilion were approved by the parties, the city and cities would negotiate a project development agreement, the PEA, to address projects, scope, funding, construction, and coordination.

And so I wanted to just, first of all, give those dates to you.

And again, those are just the highlights.

That's not everything we've been doing.

I had to go back in the records and get all this down.

And just briefly on the project overview, our understanding for the viewing public and those who haven't been following this as deeply and detailed as myself and Council Member Bagshaw with the history and Council Member Gonzalez, the City of Seattle does own the aquarium and this project is $113 million with the city putting in $34 million.

and C's putting in $79 million.

I understand that the terms will be effective when both parties sign, which expires at the end of the construction agreement, and the construction agreement must begin by August 2020. And you're looking at groundbreaking in 2021, an opening celebration of the Ocean Pavilion in 2023, And I also want to say for the very first time, I think, and possibly in the city's history, thank you, Colleen and folks, that we have local tribal representation for design a project in the name of the area in the plaza with Colleen Echo Hawk and Robin Little Wing Saigo and the Headwaters folks.

on the indigenous representation or the indigenous people of the Salish Sea that will first time be represented in brick and mortar and design and concept on the waterfront.

So when you're in Seattle, you know that there were indigenous people then and now, and that totem poles aren't always reflective of the Salish people.

And we'll leave the totem pole issue there.

And so with that, I will let you guys jump into your PowerPoint, and then I think my colleagues have some questions.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

That was awesome.

You covered a lot of the ground we were going to cover.

What I'd like to do just to focus...

I'm trying to help you out there.

I'm trying to help you out, Marshall.

That was awesome.

That was great.

We can skip the timeline.

Yeah, we can skip right over the background.

No, we like timelines.

We like timelines.

Slide number four has been covered.

It has been covered.

We thought it would be really valuable.

You went right to the history of partnership in this city between the Seattle Aquarium Society and the Seattle Parks Department.

We're a portion of that.

I think we'll have Christopher and Bob kind of talk a little bit about some of the high points that really are the foundation for this agreement today.

We didn't even talk about the low points in these last four years.

So maybe I'll jump in there and recount from the Seattle Park and Recreation perspective our experience with the Seattle Aquarium, who have been exemplary partners over the past two decades or so.

I'd like to take a minute and talk about the aquarium transition and the context of this redevelopment project.

I've been at parks for about 27 years and I recall back in 1997 when Bill Arntz was the executive director of the aquarium that there was first discussion about transitioning the aquarium from a division within Seattle Parks and Recreation to its own separate operating entity under the Seattle Aquarium Society, or SEAS.

It was also during this time frame that we began to see sort of the first schematic, which was kind of this S-shaped design.

One of the first master plans for the aquarium, there was no ocean pavilion, there was no discussion about an upland area or anything, there was just this big S where the aquarium is currently.

S for spaceship.

S for spaceship.

The point is that, as you just mentioned, the aquarium redesign discussion has been a 20-year long conversation.

The aquarium transition occurred in 2009, and the redevelopment project is really interwoven into the transition.

In fact, in Ordinance 123-205, passed by the council, it actually required that the aquarium develop a day-to-day operations agreement, and then also required that they develop plans for a strategic plan.

Within 18 months after the aquarium transition, the aquarium was required to submit a strategic plan outlining the approach to the master plan and redevelopment strategy for the aquarium.

The council adopted the first master plan in 2012. The aquarium transition has been a model for public-private partnership.

I sometimes kid Bob about if he had known more or if the aquarium transition had come before the zoo transition, then they would have been receiving $6 million a year from the city instead of the aquarium gets goose eggs.

And I think that's a really important point because when we transferred the aquarium, they were a $13 million They are now a $20 million operation, and I think that really speaks to sort of the public connection to the aquarium.

The aquarium is offering something to the public that is consumable, and they keep coming back.

They tell their friends and families, and it's caused the aquarium to grow.

I think other points is the aquarium does not receive a dime from the city to operate beyond what they get through the park district for capital budgets.

We handed over the aquarium, again, when the budget was about $13 million.

This revenue has grown.

There are numerous examples along the way where the Seattle Aquarium and its board of directors continue to exceed our expectations as a partner, delivering on Aquarium Renovation Project.

From their ability to get through various stages of master planning processes, development processes, design, and fundraising, we couldn't ask for a better partner.

Simply put, the aquarium and their board are the kinds of partners we wish we could stick in a photocopier and pass around the city.

Whoa.

Are you losing patience now?

I've been looking at you for four years.

If I would have lost patience, it would have been a long time ago.

So I think I can handle this last lap.

The two bombs.

All right.

Well, thank you.

And thank you, Christopher.

As we all know, partnerships require two.

So we've got great partners in the Parks Department, in the city, the Office of the Waterfront.

and the elected leadership of the city.

The aquarium story and the future plans start with a recognition that we are on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people, and we're very conscious of that, and the plan will have some conversation about that today.

I think a key point is understanding, and in a public forum, understanding the nature of the impact of this aquarium on this city and on the state.

Each year, we welcome roughly 850,000 people to the aquarium, more than 50,000 children from over 500 schools all over the state.

We deliver access and programming for over 60,000 people from marginalized communities in partnership with more than 350 groups.

We have more than 100,000 conversations on local beaches and rivers.

and we conduct important research, drive policy action, and provide an important voice for ocean health.

The aquarium is the largest marine conservation organization in the Pacific Northwest, and we're embracing our leadership role.

We're stepping up at a critical moment when our beloved Puget Sound, Salish Sea, and greater ocean are in trouble.

And at a time when our city is reconnecting with its ocean roots, through the construction of the new waterfront.

In fact, that vision of inspiring conservation on a global scale is a big driver in our desire to move forward with the Ocean Pavilion.

It's critical that we inspire people to take action on its behalf.

The Ocean Pavilion will help us tell that global story on the forefront of global ocean health.

So we're excited that we have new progress to report, recognizing, you talked about the numbers on the city's investment and what that will leverage, and clearly the leverage will be at least three times what the city is putting in through a combination of private monies raised, and this year we met our private fundraising goal of $20 million.

We exceeded it by $2.5 million.

We're poised for next year's target of an additional $20 million on the roadway to the finishing off the private fundraising.

We also secured, and again, as a result of the leverage of the city's commitment, $8 million to the King County Parks Levy, which you all were very supportive of passing as well, and are on our way toward a very substantial contribution over several biennia from the state of Washington.

So that's all positive, and it's all part of a good idea, a good moment in time, and a partnership of private and public.

So just as a note, I want to comment, you pointed out Mark Reddington from our architects, LMN, background, Mark is the lead partner, and they are doing a fabulous job in working with the city's design team And every day, the design gets better.

Colleen Echohart from Headwater People is here.

She's been working with us now for, I think, almost two years.

And she'll have something to say in a minute.

Susan Bullardick, who many of you met, is our capital project director.

Ben Franzenide from SOJ is our outside project manager.

And any questions later?

At this point, Bob Donegan, I think you have a few words.

a few.

So my goal is to explain the integration between the waterfront park and the aquarium.

Sally will know, or Council Member Bagshaw will know, and Council Member Juarez will know.

Yeah, I know a few things too, Bob, so.

Candace Damon, the municipal finance expert that we hired to help us plan for the finance of the park, says that when it opens, the number of visitors to the waterfront will double or triple.

That means we'll get between 14 and 21 million visitors to the waterfront.

By comparison, this year the Pike Place Market will get 15 million visitors.

850,000 of those people will visit the waterfront, visit the aquarium.

There will be 40 days this year that we can't admit any more people to the aquarium because we're at capacity.

If the number of visitors to the waterfront doubles or triples, how are we going to fulfill our mission of inspiring conservation of our marine environment?

We need additional space.

The clever issue that we faced is on a typical summer day, when the park is opened, 63,000 people will walk from the Pike Place Market to the waterfront.

We don't want them crossing Jessica's New Alaska Way at grade, because there'll be 35,000 vehicles there.

So the design team, co-chaired by Mark Reddington and Patrick came up with an interesting idea, which is the overlook walk that will extend from the Pike Place Market westward to the waterfront.

And it will now drop down onto the top of the new Seattle Aquarium, providing the best view in Seattle, west to west Seattle, across Elliott Bay, out to the Olympics, south to the stadiums, and the port, and down to Monterey Air.

That's how the projects integrate.

OK.

Fast forward.

So what slide are we on?

Are we moving forward on the PowerPoint here?

Yeah, that's good.

And then midway through my talking, you can do the next one.

That's great.

I want to follow up on comments that have been made regarding our work with the tribes and respect Councilmember Juarez to your comments about the tribal presence on the waterfront and true to our institutional values of honoring place.

It was vital that we engage with local tribes on the Ocean Pavilion project.

As the committee knows, we started this process early last year through the guidance and facilitation of Colleen Echo-Hawk.

I'm pleased to share that having tribal members of the Muckleshoot, Suquamish, Quinault, and urban Indian community at the table with us has led to some exciting co-created tribal influences into the Ocean Pavilion design.

This is included in the architectural design within the building, content in the storylines of the exhibits, public art and involvement with our conservation work in the Coral Triangle, including a member of the Squamish Tribal Council last month joining the aquarium team on a trip to Bali to meet with our local conservation partner there.

This capital project is an ongoing journey and we are taking together and we look forward to all that will evolve from it.

And I'll let Colleen speak to her part in that.

I just got so excited with your sharing this, Susan, because it's pretty amazing.

And I just want to say it's just so good to be at the table with you three wonderful council members who have just been so amazing in supporting the work of equity in our city.

And when I think about this work that we're talking about right now, I'm thinking about equity because we know and understand that POC folks are not represented in the fields of architecture, design, and urban planning.

And so that means that Everything that is being built around everywhere does not have that representation of people of color.

And so it's important that we figure out different ways and different pathways to ensure that we are having representation of the entire community.

and especially with a project like this.

So I have been incredibly proud to work with this amazing team and to see some incredible things happen.

One of the things that has been a story in my mind is seeing about 20 little native kids getting to have a backstage tour of the aquarium because they were there as design consultants on this project.

And when we think about equity, we don't really, we, We often don't remember that sometimes our kids who are of color don't get opportunities to see themselves represented.

And so I have this really clear memory of this little kid sticking their hand right into a tank with a giant Pacific octopus, where they would not, perhaps not have had that opportunity.

Hardly anyone has that opportunity.

And it was just a remarkable moment for me and it really tells a story about the work of the indigenous community being involved in this project.

I just want to give a big shout out to Mark Reddington and the team at LMN because they have been so gracious to try to understand how we can have indigenous designers involved in this project the entire way.

So I could talk to you for a very long time about it.

I think that this is a new way to understand how we implement equity in a public planning process and throughout the building of this project as well.

I just want to say thanks to Bob and to Susan for allowing me to be involved in this project and for having the courage to bring in some amazing indigenous designers into this process.

I think it's going to make this project even more incredible.

Thank you, Colleen.

So are we going through your PowerPoint?

OK.

We're kind of jumping around a little, but that's good.

Yeah, let's jump around a little.

Mixing it up a bit.

Yeah, mix it up.

So I'm just going to say a thing or two here, and I'm going to hand it to Jessica, who's going to really walk you through this ordinance and what it does.

The number one thing is I just want to reaffirm what you've heard from this group.

The partnership here is very strong.

Our office has worked for years now with Christopher and his team and with Bob and his team at the Aquarium to find that design integration.

I think we've had some incredible evolution.

of this project and we're at a place now where The waterfront vision, the programming, the design vision there, and the aquarium's move of how we're now developing the pavilion with the overlook, it really has come to the right place.

We feel very confident about it.

We've gone through an ongoing design process.

We'll continue to do that, which Jessica will talk about.

We think it's the right design.

We also think it's gonna be a cost-effective way to get both the city's elements done and the aquarium's elements done, because we've really tied them together now, almost into one project.

So I think with that, I'm just going to turn it right over to you, Jessica, to kind of walk through the ordinance.

Good.

All right, I'm going to go through the nuts and bolts of the ordinance here in a few brief words.

Fundamentally, this legislation authorizes a funding agreement between the city and CCC for $34 million.

We have authorized 4.7 to date, so this is the remaining amount of funding.

And with that comes a couple of things.

CEAS commits to some of the public waterfront related elements.

So that includes that publicly accessible roof with the amazing views that Bob Donegan talked about, a public stair and elevator on the south side of the building that will be really a visible beacon of accessibility up and down the waterfront, and stairs that wrap along the west side of the Ocean Pavilion.

And we could point those out on the drawings if you wanted us to.

And then in 2020, this legislation also authorizes us to enter into a future construction agreement plan for next year where after the completion of the design, we can really hammer out the nitty-gritty details of who constructs what.

These projects are inextricably linked at this point, and we want to make sure we're doing that in a cost-effective and efficient way, literally out in the street at what I like to call the hot corner over there between Pike and Pine where these two projects come together along with the roadway for main corridor.

Jessica, can I ask you just a quick question on the construction agreement when we start negotiating?

If you don't, you don't have to say if you have anything queued up as far as who you're talking to because we've done some other public projects with the construction and the contracts and MOUs and all that.

Are there any particular groups lined up or in the queue that you're going to start talking to or preferable?

The contractors for both projects are actually already on board.

The aquarium has Turner and the overlook walk has Hoffman.

And so what's great about that is they're on board during the design process, so we get actual constructability input and schedule and cost information.

I think it's important that we get feedback from both contractors so we can evaluate the best options and the most efficient way to do things and in particular the sequence of construction when everybody is literally in the same place and we have four different levels to build.

We have a great team together to work on that.

I really want to say thank you and acknowledge that because a couple of years ago we weren't on that schedule and I just know Jessica Marshall you worked really hard with with the Bob's and of course they brought in SOJ, thank you Ben, but to be working with the architects as closely as we have been I just I really think it makes a difference.

Can I point one thing out here?

And this is something that I just want to make really sure we all understand, and I think you've got it in the documents.

The city's commitment is not up to $34 million.

It is $34 million.

And I just, dearly beloved Ben Noble, at no time do I want him to say, oh, it's up to $34 million, so we can take half of that.

No, it's $34 million.

We've committed to that.

And I just want to make sure that that's really clear and reflected in this record.

Yes.

Thanks.

It is in Eric's memo.

We've had that fight, and we won it, so let's move on.

My problem is, in the PowerPoint, it says city contribution maximum of 34. A maximum means less than.

34. Yes.

I did, I just struck it.

Councilmember Baxter the boring details you don't want me to say but it's part of my job is to say the 4.7 that's already committed to be a part of that and there is some language in the agreement that if for some reason these folks do a fantastic job and the overall cost of the project comes down the city preserves the right to scale it down.

That's in the agreement, and I'm just saying stuff that's on the page.

But that doesn't change at all what you just said.

It's just in the agreement.

Yeah, but that would happen anyway, so you don't need to write that down.

Okay, let's continue.

As we move forward, I maybe would skip ahead here to the timeline because the last bullet is about continued design coordination, which really speaks to what we're doing right now throughout 2019 and what we'll continue to do in 2020, which is complete the design of both projects, work on negotiating on our construction agreements with the contractors, and get enough detail to go to bring forth that, enter into that construction agreement in 2020.

You got complete, so you don't have any quarters for us for 2020?

I know.

You just, you don't know yet?

I know.

Okay.

Third quarter of 2020 is what we're identifying for the construction agreement.

Okay.

And then the construction start.

Elements of these projects, because they're so close, may happen in tandem and in sequence.

And right now we're still evaluating all those things.

If we all did one thing and then the other thing and the next thing, we might never get done.

We're not trying to be cagey when we say 21, 20, the start is in 21 or 22. It's just that we might go a little bit for one project and do a little bit for another and try to work them together.

We want to make sure we're keeping opportunity open to be as efficient with the time and space we have out there.

And that would include your cooperation with WSDOT and Metro and transportation and all that other stuff that's going on down there?

Yes, and mostly our own other projects, principally the road construction that is already underway on Alaskan Way right now, that is building the road under the bridge that Overlook Walk will connect between Pike Place Market and the roof of the Ocean Pavilion.

So there's a lot of things happening right there, and all of that is under deep coordination right now.

Okay.

I'll let you continue.

Yeah.

So with that, I think that's all I had to say on the timeline and what to expect coming forward.

And I would open it up to any other questions you guys might have.

Colleagues?

You good?

We're good.

OK.

Is there anything else we need to add?

Or should we be ready to vote?

Dory?

OK.

All right.

So we've already read item 22 of the record.

So I move the committee pass Council Bill 119700. Second.

This motion has been moved and seconded.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

There's no one opposing.

The ayes have it.

This passes and we'll submit to full council on Monday.

And thank you all.

Can I say goodbye?

Yes.

All right.

So I promised that I wouldn't like get all mushy.

However, this group has been so important to me.

I want to say, Dory, thank you for all your numbers.

Jessica, unbelievable work that you've done on the seawall.

I always tease her about the tremendous work, how hard it was, and it looks like nothing ever happened.

It's like, come on, can't you do something?

Marshall, phenomenal.

I just appreciate so much working with you and the coordination on all of this.

Christopher, you and me, 10 years.

Thank you for being such a great park spokesman, director when you were interim, when you were assistant, but you've always bright been there and I just really appreciate you.

Two Bobs, hilarious.

Thank you for all the work that you've done on the aquarium and Bob Donegan, thank you just for being such a buddy and all the work that you've done.

keeping people together, continuing to be cranky about parking, making sure that we do it right.

Cranky is an understatement.

But I'm just really grateful to you and for your friendship.

And Colleen EchoHawk, my goodness, what we've done, I mean, and what you have accomplished in five years, stunning.

Looking forward to all, all.

the great work down there.

Wait till you see what Fortson Square looks like when you're done for your community gathering space.

It's terrific.

And Susan, as your capital lead there, I appreciate what you're doing.

But with the aquarium and the ocean ethics curriculum that is, I think it's Jim.

there that is continuing that work.

I pound the table with the school district every time that they even take a breath talking about a new school downtown.

It's so ripe for the Ocean Ethics curriculum to make that really a part of it, so that's great.

And Ben Fransnight and Mark Reddington, I know you've been hiding back there, but really you've been stunning.

Thank you both for your work and your vision and making this all happen.

Seriously, this has been a pleasure of a lifetime working with all of you.

Okay, so just don't leave yet, because I got to wrap it up.

So we're done.

But you just let me just do this because I got to do this part.

So I'm going to Yes, I'm going to do the German language.

These items will appear before the city council for a final vote this coming Monday, December 9, at full council.

This is our last meeting for the Civic Development, Public Asset, and Native Communities Committee.

Thank you to everyone involved, including Councilmember Central Staff, Councilmember Bagshaw, Councilmember Gonzalez for your leadership, and related executive departments, and to the citizens who were engaged during this public process.

It was a long road.

What we got here, we got it done.

I'm really looking forward to 2020 and getting these other documents out and done and built.

And then Nagin added, this was a robust year of legislation.

from preserving Seattle's green space to building a new waterfront.

This is Nagin saying this too.

I hope everyone has a happy new year.

I'm not wishing you guys a happy new year.

And with that, we stand adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're done.