Council Briefing 4/22/2024

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is April 22nd, 2024. It's also Earth Day, the beginning of Passover, and Council Briefing Day, and this meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.01.

Please note that Councilmember Morales is excused, and I understand that Councilmember Wu will be joining us shortly.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Council Member Moore.

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Saka.

Here.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Wu.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you very much.

Soon to be eight.

If there's no objection, the minutes of April 15th, 2024 will be adopted.

Hearing none, the minutes are adopted.

All right.

We don't have any presentations today, but we do have an executive session at the close of the briefing, and we also have two proclamations.

At tomorrow's council meeting, we'll have 23 items on the introduction referral calendar, including the weekly bill ordinance.

My legislation providing a minimum wage for app-based workers, which is Council Bill 120775, a bill extending exemptions for buildings in the multifamily housing property tax exemption program, an ordinance to temporarily add more flexibility and variety to the uses required to occupy street-level space in Seattle's core, two budget-related bills, and 17 appointments, respectively, to the Labor Standards Advisory Board, the Seattle Human Rights Commission, and the Seattle Fire Code Advisory Board.

consent agenda will include the weekly bill payment ordinance and 30 appointments including five appointments to the domestic worker standards board and 25 to the to the design review board and there will also be votes on two pieces of legislation they are council bill 120763 the first quarter 2024 employment ordinance which The Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee passed without any opposition.

And Resolution 32131, approving the Seattle Transportation Plan, and I'm sure we'll hear more about that.

All right.

As I said, we have two proclamations for signature today.

Councilmember Moore has a proclamation recognizing May 20, recognizing May 2024 to be Older Americans Month in Seattle.

Councilmember Moore, please.

feel free to lead the discussion on the proclamation and I'll ask for any additional feedback from my colleagues before asking for signatures.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you very much, Council President.

So I wanted to thank the Human Services Department and the Seattle Aging and Disability Services Advisory Council for bringing this proclamation forward.

We will have three members of the Advisory Council joining us at Seattle Council tomorrow to receive the proclamation.

Seattle is home to more than 197,000 residents age 50 or older.

So since 1963, our nation has recognized May as Older Americans Month, and it is a time to acknowledge the contribution of older adults to all of our communities.

So I'm pleased to bring forward this proclamation, and I will be asking my colleagues to join me in signing.

Proclamation for May 2024 to be Older American Month in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I have nothing to add.

Do my colleagues have any feedback they would like to bring forward?

All right.

Seeing there's no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing May 2024 to be Older Americans Month in Seattle?

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much.

Now, I am mindful of the fact that so far this year, we've had about 11 proclamations or so.

Last year, there were 10 altogether.

And today, too, I will request your signatures for a proclamation recognizing our very own Dana Robinson Sloat for her dedicated and storied career as the communication director and proclaiming Tuesday, April 23, as Dana Robinson Sloat Day.

Dana has steered the comms ship for 11 years and will be departing soon for a position equally worthy of her talents, although I must say, in my opinion, less fun.

And that's bittersweet for us, but it's a time for us to celebrate what she's done.

I'll note that Mayor Harrell, who also benefited from her work, is also signing on to this proclamation because he was a council member here way back when and benefited from her talents as well.

So while tomorrow is DRS Day, that's what I call her in my mind, fun fact, today, April 22nd, is actually the very anniversary of her start day.

So...

I wanted to just throw that information in.

I'll save my pithy remarks for tomorrow and most of the content of the proclamation.

I'll just read the last recital before asking for your feedback.

Whereas the City of Seattle honors Dana Robinson Sloat, a trusted advisor to a generation of Seattle Councilmembers, a renowned public servant, and a thoughtful and supportive leader who dedicated herself to improving our democratic discourse as she continues her distinguished career, now, therefore, the Mayor and City Council recognize Dana Robinson Sloat's dedicated career and proclaim Tuesday April 23rd, 2024 to be Dana Robinson Sloat Day.

With that, do my colleagues have any feedback, questions, comments?

Council Member Kettle.

Council President, I just wanted to note as a new council member that it was great to have her leadership and her counsel on things as somebody, again, coming in new into the process, her professionalism, her knowledge, and her approach generally.

And then the interaction of her office and my office has been great.

And that goes to her leadership as well.

So everything you say, I echo just 100 plus days of experience, but I can see it to be true.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm glad that you bring that up because one of the recitals here recognizes that she got us through the most tumultuous year of the legislative department in recent memory, which was 2020. But I must say that bringing...

six, seven new council members up to speed and schooling us was, I would say, probably second as a challenge.

So thank you very much for those words.

Okay, if there is no other feedback, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing April 23rd, 2024 as Dana Robinson Sloat Day.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Moore.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Saka?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed to the proclamation.

Thank you very much.

All right, we'll now get into the next item, which is a preview of council actions.

And the order of discussion is established by the rotated roll call for city council meetings, which is designated alphabetically by last name and with the council president called last.

And this year's roll call rotation begins with Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Kettle, please begin and then hand it off to Councilmember Moore.

Thank you, Council President.

In terms of activities in the past week, I have to say I started off the week great with the Queen Anne Scouts.

It's very important to engage with our younger people.

and it was a fantastic way to start the week.

Secondly, met with the Magnolia Community Council with representatives from Councilmember Strauss' office.

As I'd like to note, they now have two councilmembers looking out for Magnolia, and this shows up in a number of ways to include their interests in transportation issues, including the Magnolia Bridge.

Importantly for me as well, separate, was to attend the fire department's annual awards dinner ceremony.

It was a great way, Councilmember Rivera and I, to show our support to the fire department and for them to see council represented.

And I think that was important, particularly given that we have our new legislation coming up on vacant buildings, which is so important to the fire department.

And lastly, I just want to give a shout out to the Sacred Heart Food Bank, which is a fantastic service to so many in the D7 area.

I was there handing out coffee soup and a sack lunch to quite a number of individuals that come by.

And they do a fantastic job.

And I should add, they're supported by local supermarkets in the Lower Queen Anne, Uptown area, the coffee shops, bakeries, and also some of the neighboring churches who will do like the lunches and the like.

And it's a team effort.

And I really want to...

THANK THE SACRED HEART FOOD BANK FOR THEIR WORK.

FOR THIS WEEK, A BIG PIECE IS TOMORROW WITH OUR PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING.

IT'S GOING TO BE ALL ABOUT THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WITH THE BOARD AND ALSO WITH OUR LEGISLATION RELATED TO VACANT BUILDINGS, WHICH WILL BE CO-SPONSORED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MORALES, GIVEN THE CHALLENGES THAT EXIST IN DISTRICT TWO.

ALSO A MEETING WITH THE NATIVE COMMUNITIES AND ALSO THE PUGESON REGIONAL PSRC Executive Board.

And finally, I just wanted to note we're having our first District 7 Town Hall on Thursday from 6 to 7.30 at the Queen Anne Community Center.

It's going to be a great opportunity.

I'd like to thank Chief Smith for joining us and also Council President Nelson and Council Member Wu, our two at-large who also represent D7.

So thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

And with that, I pass over to Council Member Moore.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Kettle.

So this week, we will have a meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee on Wednesday.

On the agenda, we will have a briefing on the 2024 multifamily tax exemption extension legislation from the Office of Housing for a possible vote that day.

The Office of Housing has scheduled pre-briefings with all the committee members to answer any questions or concerns that you have before the committee meeting.

It is their hope that we can take a vote at the committee meeting.

Obviously, if committee members are not comfortable with that, we can wait for another meeting.

But if you have any questions in the interim, please feel free to reach out to Hannah or to Tracy on central staff for questions.

Regarding external committees, I'd note that the KCRHA governing committee met last Thursday.

At that meeting, we approved three appointments to the implementation board and an update to the committee's bylaws to better align with the interlocal agreement.

The CEO search committee is meeting this Friday.

The updated timeline that we have been given states that the final round of interviews will be held in person at the Seattle Public Library in late May, and that will be open to the public.

And I'll certainly keep the council apprised of any timeline changes as we move forward.

Lastly, the Regional Policy Committee canceled its meeting last week to give members more time to review and consider amendments to the Crisis Care Center Levy Implementation Plan.

It's quite a mouthful, and is now anticipating a vote in mid-May.

My office is working with the suburban mayors on a number of amendments of mutual interest, so looking forward to taking that vote in mid-May.

In district, this Thursday, I will be hosting in partnership with the CARES Department and SPD, a public safety forum focused We've received 40 comments so far about people's experiences and what they would like to see, so I'm hoping that it will be a productive session.

And then lastly, I would like to remind all my colleagues to please wear denim on Wednesday if you can in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and also as a show of our commitment to ending sexual violence.

Thank you all very much.

If there are no questions, I'll turn it over to...

Oh, yes, sorry, Council President.

I have a question about the RPC vote on the crisis care levy implementation plan, I believe.

I've wanted to...

dedicate more time to understanding what the issues are and what the amendments might be, but for now, can you, it's my understanding that that committee is responsible for approving or putting, you know, for signing off on the implementation plan, but does it not also go to the whole King County Council?

Can you please explain to me what are the next steps?

And does there have to be a convergence in what is likely to happen if there is not agreement on the amendments that are made.

Just give me the path forward.

And I'm sorry for putting you on the spot.

I'm just trying to understand.

Those are good questions.

Thank you.

So my understanding is that the Regional Policy Committee will be passing And at this state, my understanding is that the amendments that are being put forth by the suburban mayors, including and also the other cities, Seattle, are not controversial.

And that Chair Ryker has been receptive to wanting to make sure that the voices of the suburban jurisdictions and mayors are appropriately heard and have Yeah, that they feel true buy-in to what's happening.

So that that, assuming that that vote goes forward, it would then be sent on to full council for them to approve it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Just like any other committee.

Just like any other.

Electeds on RPC that are not on.

Exactly.

Okay.

Yeah.

So thank you very much for that explanation.

I hope that answers your question.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

Council Member Rivera.

Thank you.

Last week on Friday, I attended an open house teen night at the newly renovated Magnuson Community Center, which looks amazing.

It's one of the smaller community centers in the city, but they were able to expand slightly using different a better use, rather, of the space.

So really, it is looking really terrific out there.

As folks know, we have families living in Magnuson Park now with Mercy House and Solid Ground there.

So this is really a great gathering space for the teens and the kids that live there This particular event was a partnership, I should say, that Councilmember Hollingsworth, as Chair of the Parks, Public Safety, and Technology Committee, joined me, and I was so grateful to have her partnership and teamwork there.

And we also partnered with King County Council Member Rod Dombowski, who represents Magnuson Park as well.

And Superintendent AP Diaz was there to spend time with the kids and really get feedback from the kids.

It was great opportunity to hear from the youth themselves what they really needed.

And they just want a community gathering space where they can spend time.

And so it was really a great event.

I will want to thank King County Council Member Rod Dombowski, who gave some funds for scholarships.

As you know, summer is coming and a lot of the families that the children need somewhere to go now that school will be out for the summer.

So, it was a really great event where park staff was there to talk about some of the programming, and then Councilmember Dombowski was there to give some money for scholarships so that kids who are living there this summer are not precluded from also participating in the wonderful programming at parks.

So, it was really a great example of King County and city partnership together.

And I should say also our partners in the mayor's office were invited.

They were not able to attend, but very supportive.

So I wanted to say that as well and include them.

I also attended, as Council Member Kettle said earlier, the Firefighters Awards Luncheon.

It was so inspiring to hear the stories of bravery and compassion that were shared about the responders that got awards.

And it's really...

is really amazing to me always to hear from, you know, our public safety team at the city and all the wonderful things and the service that they provide to the city.

And so that was really an excellent event and an easy way to show support in this case for our fire department.

I also last week held in-district hours at Magnuson Park, as well as attended the U-District Partnership Board Meeting.

This coming week, I'm going to be attending the Ravenna Bryant Community Association.

I'm very close to having attended a meeting of all the active community and neighborhood councils in my district, so I feel really great about that.

I will continue to attend as many as I can moving forward in my role.

It's a really great way to hear from the constituents that are really active in the district.

I often tell people there are a lot of community-based organizations across the city Not as many in the D4, but then we have community councils that are really engaged and help all of us get the word out to constituents in the district.

So I'm very appreciative of those community councils, and I've made a commitment to attend their meetings.

So I'm very happy to do that.

I'll also be attending the Comp Plan Open House that OPCD is putting together this week at Eckstein Middle School on Thursday.

And I continue to get out via emails and newsletters I will also be attending the families education preschool program and promise levy oversight committee retreat this week.

Council member Hollingsworth I will be asking for an excuse from the parks public safety and public utilities and So I'm able to attend this really important retreat.

As you know, the levy oversight committee oversees the implementation of the levy funds, and this is their yearly retreat.

The chair of the library's education committee And neighborhoods committee gets a seat at the LOC table.

So I want to be able to attend that so thank you in advance for giving me that excused absence and then this week is also the committee meeting of the library's education and neighborhoods committee and We're going to be hearing a presentation from Chief Librarian Tom Fay.

He'll be presenting on two items.

The first will be the Seattle Reads program.

This program first started in 1998. Seattle Reads is a citywide book group where people are encouraged to read and discuss the same book.

It's a citywide book club.

This year, the 2024 Seattle Reads selection is Parable of the Sour by Octavia Butler.

You might know that Ms. Butler is a black female science fiction author who has a local connection.

In 1995, she was the first science fiction writer ever awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.

She used the prize money to help buy her her Lake Forest Park home in 1999, where she spent the last years of her life.

Following that presentation of Seattle Reads, SPL will also present about the annual, or they will present the annual library levy report.

Unless anyone has any other, or has any questions, I will pass it on to my colleague, Councilmember Saka.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, Councilmember Rivera.

First and foremost, my office released its first 100-day report last week, on Friday, I believe.

Very excited to ship that, get that out of the door.

It was a very detailed and thorough coverage of...

detailed and thorough, but also at a high level of some of the things that, you know, me and my office have been hard at work on these first 100 days.

And, you know, it wasn't necessarily intended to be a comprehensive, all-encompassing list of every single activity and event that I've done, but more of a snapshot more of a representative sample, if you will, of some of the key initiatives and strategic engagements that have really defined my first 100 days and will likely define my first term in office here.

And so, you know, special thanks to my staff, Let's see, Heather, Layla, and of course, Elaine, Elaine Ikomako, in particular for going above and beyond to get that out of the door and working collaboratively with our comms team.

Dana, thank you.

This is another great example of how...

Dana and her team adds impact to every last one of us in our respective offices.

So, but yeah, proud of that report and thank you to all those who helped contribute and make it better.

Colleagues, tomorrow at full council, we will consider resolution to adopt the Seattle Transportation Plan.

This legislation passed as amended with full support of the committee last week.

The plan, as you probably know, for those that don't sit on the committee, it does represent the city's 20-year vision to shape our streets and public spaces and what those investments should ideally look like.

And we had a very robust, thoughtful discussion and heard from many constituents.

And as I understand, that was on top of the kind of two-year intensive public outreach by SDOT.

So I appreciate their work for getting an initial draft to us, to council, for consideration.

And I think colleagues, through your support and advocacy during the meetings and offline, made the final thing that we're going to vote on tomorrow even better.

So thank you for that.

We ended up passing three amendments that outlined priorities for the upcoming transportation levy and made some particular changes to the plan document itself.

One was sort of an omnibus type amendment that is intended to capture a number of different things, including some things from Councilmember Moore on sidewalks, and then a couple other amendments separately from Vice Chair Hollingsworth and Councilmember Kettle.

And I strongly encourage your favorable consideration tomorrow at full council.

And separately, I note on May 7th, colleagues, we will have our transportation, our very first Transportation Select Committee meeting at 10.30 a.m.

There, we will hear from SDOT and the mayor's office about the transportation levy proposal.

So that's two weeks from tomorrow.

By then, we expect the formal official levy renewal transportation proposal to be formally transmitted from the mayor's office.

Hence, we will be kicking off and having our first...

LEVY select, renewal select committee two weeks from tomorrow as well.

So, and I'm sure no doubt you've already seen central staff's initial memo on this specific topic.

The meeting on May 7th will kick off a two-month, and I'm sure you've already seen the memo from the council president's office a few weeks back on this, but the meeting on May 7th for the select committee will kick off a two-month process of committee meetings and public hearings, culminating in a July vote levy proposal to the ballot to voters.

And so there is, I also note that there will be no Transportation Committee meeting next Tuesday because this is one of those months where it's not the first or third or Tuesday of the, so there's nothing next Tuesday on Transportation Committee front.

And I will stop there.

Welcome any comments or questions from you all.

I have one question.

Did you say that there were three amendments to the transportation plan?

We passed three amendments last week.

Oh, out of committee.

Okay.

Yeah, out of committee.

Got it.

We don't anticipate any.

Okay, fine.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

Are there any other questions?

Council Member Strauss, sorry for jumping in.

Thanks.

Colleagues, my remarks will be brief this week because of so much information in last week's committee meeting.

It was action-packed.

Thank you all for receiving your briefings ahead of time.

For the viewing public who didn't pick up, last week was the first select budget committee of the year.

We're having one almost every month, hopefully not in July, but we have time scheduled.

This marks our official beginning of deep examination and review of of our budget.

If you look at Merriam-Webster's definition of an audit, this meets the definition of an audit.

Our next Finance Native Communities Committee meeting is Wednesday, May 1st, and in addition to the presentations, we will be briefing on bills that will be voted on the following select budget committee, which is on May 15th.

So, colleagues, I'm giving you almost a month notice that we'll be taking votes in the committee.

There is a bill regarding museum bonds, our Carry Forward and Exceptions Bill, and there's possibly a Human Services Department lease.

So month heads up that we're gonna take votes in select budget.

They will be briefed in addition to the presentations on May 1st.

As always, you're welcome to attend Finance Native Communities Tribal Governance Committee, and we look forward to that meeting.

In external committees i'm attending the sirs investment committee this Thursday afternoon, as well as the sound transit board of directors meeting.

Where we will be receiving a presentation about the South lake Union stations currently sound transit board is on track to make some decisions.

about South Lake Union stations in the next month or so.

I can tell you that there's a fair amount of gray space that we need clear answers to.

And I can tell you that CEO Jerron Sparman is doing a good job leading us there.

I will be asking a lot of questions to help us nail down what the actual realities on the ground in South Lake Union are.

in regards to time and cost of the project and how do we ensure that this does not impact our neighbors to the north and the south.

With that, also a big thank you to Councilmember Hollingsworth for reading my remarks at the Ballard Commons Children's Playground opening this last Saturday.

I showed up late.

I didn't want to hold up the party.

And so I got there about 2 p.m.

and helped the team tear down I want to give a big thanks to our Parks Department, especially to Tom, Alyssa, Kelly, our activation team.

This is not an activation team that is strictly in Ballard.

Councilmember Kettle and I ran into Kelly activating City Hall Park a couple weeks ago.

But this ribbon cutting really marks the next step in revitalizing our Ballard Commons Park.

I've been fixated on making Ballard Commons Park an example of all ages and abilities infrastructure, and this is part of that so that we will have something for every age, every ability to come and enjoy our Ballard Commons Park.

So again, big thanks to the Parks Department, Mayor Harrell, Mike and the Ballard Alliance, and congratulations to all of the supporters for making this a reality.

The next phase of revitalizing this area will begin when the first phase of St. Luke's Church redevelopment project breaks ground.

right around the corner.

They've already scraped the project site and are excited for this upcoming groundbreaking.

I helped them navigate city bureaucracy, helped them get the award, the OH award to create this family affordable housing.

Each of these projects are part of an overall six-year plan I've been implementing to change the trajectory of Ballard Commons Park by addressing these issues on both the public and the private land.

And it's not just for Ballard.

We've been using our projects in Ballard as a way to test and improve the strategies that we're using for downtown as part of the downtown activation plan.

So with that, colleagues, there are no further questions.

I'm going to pass it over to Council Member Wu.

Thank you very much.

I was going to note that you have arrived, so no need to do that.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you.

So last week, I was thrilled to welcome Vice Governor Zhejiang Province and his team to City Hall right before our committee, which took place on April 19th.

And while there are no items moving to full council this week, we did honor Earth Day, which is today.

Happy Earth Day.

And learned about urban forestry.

We heard from Seattle City Light on conservation targets and will continue to learn more in our next committee, which will be Friday, May 2nd at 9.30 a.m.

This weekend, I joined a group called Duwamish Alive.

Councilmember Rob Saka may have mentioned this earlier, but we were helping with shoreline restoration.

They are located right across the street from the Duwamish Longhouse.

I also went into the Longhouse and listened to a chat regarding a global...

climate change movements and activism, which was really interesting.

I was happy to join Council Member Hollingsworth at the Mayor's Comp Plan public meeting, which took place at Garfield Community Center last week, and our office will continue to plan to attend all the Comp Plan meetings.

I apologize for my tardiness.

I was at an event with the EPA and the state of Washington to announce that the state has received a grant called Solar for All.

I'm excited about the opportunities this funding will bring to allow for grants to allow for solar panels to be on projects for marginalized communities, communities to be able to have solar panels on moderate to low-income housing projects.

So I'm excited that we're growing our solar energy project and add to the diversity of our energy resource mix.

Wanted to thank President Biden, U.S. EPA, and our congressional delegation for the Inflation Reduction Act that make investments like these possible.

Also want to thank Governor Inslee and the Department of Commerce for securing these funds for communities across Washington state.

And if there are no further questions, I will pass this to Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Councilmember Wu.

I want to appreciate my colleagues for reminding me at events that I was at because I forget and I am writing them down.

Oh, I forgot I was at that.

I forgot.

So thank you all.

The Parks Utilities Technology Committee will be this Wednesday, the 24th, 2 p.m.

We will be getting a presentation from our Seattle Parks Department on Parks and Open Space Plan and there will be a possible vote as they are looking to take just a lot of, it's a 30,000 square, 30,000 foot view of kind of like the menu that they want to provide the legislator.

And then we will see the full plan later on where we can examine it and vote on it later.

But this is just the opportunity for them to present to the state legislator of stuff, parks and places that they're thinking about receiving grant funding from.

Regionally last week, Board of Health meeting we had with Council President Nelson and Council Member Kettle and then also the Regional Transportation Committee meeting where I attended with Council Member Saka.

In the community last week, had a wonderful time at Mary's Place Luncheon.

Also want to give a big shout out to Council Member Rivera.

I thought Teen Night at Magnuson Park was phenomenal.

My only request to her and Superintendent Diaz was that they continue to keep the old gym smell in Magnuson Park because that was, when you hit that door, that's the first thing you smell and it just brings back memories.

Also attended the Squire Park Community Council meeting.

Shout out to them.

This was the first meeting they had in person in four years and they had a packed house at Bird Bar.

And that was amazing.

A big shout out to council member Strauss and Ballard Commons Park was honored to give his comments.

I actually met his father, Mr. Strauss, who I told council member Strauss today before we walked in that his dad is actually my new favorite Strauss.

So just- Good second.

We should probably take a vote.

Clerk, will you take the role?

Just playing.

Also joined with Council President Nelson as well as it was a beautiful moment.

Probably my favorite thing, colleagues, there was power.

We had power loss over in Ballard and we could not be on the stage.

And so everyone offered that we go on the jungle gym where the kids were playing.

And I'm gonna tell you, us adults up there, the kids did not stop playing.

And it was a beautiful thing because they were running up and down, sliding down while we were giving this presentation about this park and thanking everyone.

And it is kid-approved, Councilmember Strauss.

The kids love it.

I know me and Council President Nelson talked about how amazing it was to see the kids there and just have that space and it be open and safe and the community and the sun and the vendors.

You could see how much that...

space means to the community.

So thank you for that opportunity.

It was really fun.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

I just got to say, you know, there's more updates that are going to be coming.

And I will, for the record, state that when Ballard was annexed on May 29, 1907, it was because a horse was thrown in a reservoir, not that the city turned the power out.

So...

Just for the record.

Understood.

Thank you.

That was really fun.

This week, also, I'll be tending anything with kids is my thing.

And so I'm going to be doing a tour of different schools around our district, both public and private, to understand some of the challenges our schools might be seeing, what they want to hear from the city.

I think it's really important to Obviously, we are not the school board, but we are the city that is responsibility to a lot of our kids in our district.

So looking forward to that.

And then without further ado, I will pass this off to Council President Nelson.

I want to offer an invitation to my colleague, Councilmember Hollingsworth, as you're doing the work in the schools to share information in any way I can partner with you as a chair of the library's education and neighborhood committee, but also as a sitting member of the levy oversight committee, would really welcome the conversation as part of the work that you're doing and see where there are opportunities.

I appreciate that, Council Member Rivera.

I will be reaching out to your office as we try to figure out our communication plan with our schools.

Thank you for that.

That's terrific.

And then I also want to say, and I should have mentioned earlier about the teen night.

It was a great event.

But I also want to point out that I heard from family members there about the public safety issues at Magnuson Park.

They've had some issues with RVs and such and some drug-related and selling of drugs-related issues there.

So it's something that I'm going to continue to engage on in terms of that particular community.

And really, obviously, Councilmember Kettle is an issue across the city, but in all of our parks.

And so it's something that I know we will continue to work on together.

I'll just jump to the fun part of my report because we were talking about that event.

I have to say that the funnest part for me was sitting in one of those things that twirl around really, really fast.

I had to stand in line.

for my turn, because I kept wanting to go again, but those things that spin around centrifugally or whatever.

But also, it was really notable to me that when Superintendent Diaz held up the, I don't know, they were sketches, or they were recommendations from kids.

He held up a stack of them from the top of one of the play structure that kids and family members had written down their vision for what the play structure should include and their dreams for it.

And those were, I believe, at Hattie's Hat, I think.

And when people would come in, they would write them down.

And so not only was it kid-approved, it was kid-informed.

Expertly informed, by the way.

Anyway, thank you very much.

It was fun seeing you there.

Okey-dokey.

So, as noted already, there is one piece of legislation, Council Bill 120763, the first quarter 2024 employment ordinance, which is on tomorrow's agenda for a vote from the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee.

And the committee meets again this week at 2 p.m.

on Thursday, April 25th, and there are four items on the agenda, and they include in this order one mayoral appointment to the Labor Standards Advisory Commission, one mayoral reappointment to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF THE POLICE RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT LEGISLATION, WHICH NOW IS OFFICIALLY INTRODUCED AS COUNCIL BILL 120766. AND CONTINUED DISCUSSION ON THE AT BASE WORKER MINIMUM PAY STANDARDS LEGISLATION REFORM, WHICH IS COUNCIL BILL 120775. THAT WILL BE ON THE INTRODUCTION AND REFERRAL CALENDAR AS WELL.

And so because of those two very meaty topics, I'm expecting significant public comment, and I will be offering a minute for public comment to everyone to make sure that people can speak.

All right, now for my look back.

Last Thursday, I attended actually three external committee meetings.

The governing committee of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, the King County Board of Health, and Visit Seattle.

So I'll just briefly describe what happened at each.

At the governing committee of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, we voted on one item, which was a resolution making a minor change to the bylaws.

And there were three nominations, which we also voted on, to the the implementation board of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

And so those were the voting items.

And then we had three updates.

We had an update on the CEO search, an update on contracts for 2024, I'm not talking about the re-bid or the letting of new contracts.

I'm talking about how contracting is going at the agency because there was some news about the fact that providers were not getting paid, et cetera.

And so I was impressed to see that the problem seemed to have been solved for this year and that progress has been made making sure that contracts are let and paid for on time.

And then finally, there was an operational work plan report.

So that was that meeting.

And then at the Board of Health, we had a briefing on the on-site sewage septic tank code.

updates, septic system code updates.

We also had a briefing on the environmental health rate study preview, and then finally we had some information about the Environmental Health Services Division potential rate updates as well on that.

Interesting meetings, both of those.

I am looking forward to the second briefing on the King County, on the Board of Health's response to the opioid crisis.

It was anticipated that that would be at this last week's briefing meeting, but it has been delayed, and I'm looking forward to that, and we'll let folks know when it's happening.

And then finally, I attended the Visit Seattle Advisory Committee meeting on Friday, and it was in a different format.

Usually there is a large lunch, and there are a lot of people who aren't necessarily on the advisory committee that make up the board.

This was a very focused discussion, and one of the items that was discussed was a review of what I hope you will all be receiving, which is that it's the resident sentiment study results.

Now, these look like this.

And Visit Seattle conducted surveys across the city and has compiled the information by district as well, so it's really interesting.

What do people think about tourism?

What are the impacts on districts?

What do people, what are, not just what do people think about tourism, what do they also enjoy doing in downtown and elsewhere in the city?

And so I really do, appreciate this view because we talk a lot about what Visit Seattle does to promote Seattle, not just downtown, but every neighborhood and all of our riches to the rest of the world as a, not just a leisure destination, but as a business meeting destination.

But we don't hear much about, or I haven't up to now, what do residents here think about tourism?

And the news is positive.

And it does talk about some of the...

And these reports, and again, I urge you to take this briefing from them, does break down some of the top of mind concerns that residents have around tourism.

Concern might be things that they noted that they are...

That they...

I'll just say it, concerned about.

And also, how does tourism raise or impact positively their quality of life?

So anyway, that was interesting.

And then that will feed into the development of a strategic plan, which is the first time that Visit Seattle has done a strategic plan in a very long time, if ever, I think.

But I'm just going to allow myself some wiggle room there and say...

in a long time.

In any case, that is, I really, again, appreciate Visit Seattle's work.

All right.

On Saturday, I too went to the Ballard Commons Park to celebrate the opening of the new children's play area.

Not going to repeat what Councilmember Hollingsworth said, except for that it was fun to be with you on the big, I believe it was a, might have been a ship, but in any case, you're right.

Children were playing the whole time.

And it was a great day to be out, and you could tell how much pent-up enthusiasm there is for this structure.

And yes, there was a power outage, and I happened to be walking by Spicewalla, and there was somebody taking a picture down the block, and that the outage had just happened, I learned.

And this was a worker at a neighboring restaurant, and he told me that he saw a handful of balloons go up into a transformer on 56th.

So that is what caused it.

I reported that to the City Light, along with pretty much everybody else that was impacted, and so that's the mystery cause of that.

In any case...

Let's see, that was a great day, and I also wanted to, regarding the play structure, it was Ballard, Max Gennaro of Hattie's Hat in the Tavern was the emcee of this event, and he, as a, I think he's a board member of Ballard Alliance, I want to make sure that people realize that there was a capital campaign that was led by the BIA or by the alliance or by the community to make that play structure possible.

So, appreciations to the community for putting that skin and money in the game as well.

And Council President, if I may.

Yeah, please do.

That seed money did not finish the project.

No.

We had to, here within our own city council, put forward an amendment to the budget using real estate excise tax dollars to fund that playground.

It was the same year that I also put forward another amendment for Ballard Commons because, and I didn't go into this, but since everyone's talking about it so much, we're going to get into the details here.

Ballard Commons, when it was originally built, only had a play, a spray park.

So there was only a bowl, a skate bowl that's only really accessible for 17 year olds and older.

And so functionally what you had in the center of a downtown core was a space for zero to six year olds and 17 plus year olds.

That's not all ages and abilities.

And so in the same year that I put forward the amendment to build this children's playground, we also put forward an amendment to build a skate area for kids learning to skate so that we could have that zero to 17. Right now we've got zero to 12 with a little bit with a five year gap until 17 year olds.

But I can tell you once real estate excise tax comes back, which I suspect will happen once interest rates go down, we'll get back at it again to get it all ages and abilities.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you very much.

And also, I just wanted to appreciate AP Diaz's leadership there.

So moving on, coming up this week, I'll be joining Councilmember Kettle and Councilmember Liu at the town hall that we've already mentioned briefly.

And with that, if there are no other comments or questions about my report, All right, then I will close the business part of this meeting and just mention that the executive session on pending potential or actual legislation is about to begin.

Hearing no further business, I don't think.

We will now move into an executive session.

As presiding officer, I am announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential and actual litigation.

And it's an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law without getting into policy.

And there is a monitor present at all times during our sessions to make sure that we don't.

So I expect the time of the executive session to end by 3.55.

Colleagues, I will allow, let's try to log into the executive session link within five minutes instead of 10 so we can get the show on the road here.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond 3.55, I'll announce the extension and expected duration.

At the conclusion of the session, this council briefing will automatically adjourn and the next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is on April 29th, 2024 at 2 p.m.

All right, the council is now in executive sessions.

Council members, see you on Zoom.

Thank you.