Seattle City Council Briefing 3/17/2025

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is March 17th, 2025. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.04.

Council member Rivera has asked to be excused.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Strauss?

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth?

Council member Kettle?

Here.

Council member Moore?

Present.

Council member Rink?

Present.

Thank you.

Council Member Saka?

Here.

Council Member Solomon?

Here.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you very much.

If there's no objection, the minutes of March 10th, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Okay, I don't believe we have any presentations, although, do you have a present, do you have a, okay.

So we have one letter for signatures, one presentation, a weekly state legislative update from OIR and an executive session at the end of the meetings.

On tomorrow's city council meeting agenda, there was a holdup with respect to the clerks finalizing the IRC, which has been delayed republishing the agenda, but that should be resolved shortly.

So more to come on that.

Let's see.

That means we don't have an IRC preview for you right now.

As far as the agenda itself, the consent calendar will include the weekly bill payment ordinance and three items.

One appointment to the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees and two appointments to the Families Education, Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee.

And there's one piece of legislation from committees, Council Bill 120933 allowing residential housing in the stadium districts which will be accompanied by nine amendments on the agenda.

All right, moving on to our regular weekly update and legislative agenda, you know, goings on in Olympia report.

We do have the director of the Office of Intergovernment Relations here with us.

So please go ahead and introduce yourself.

However, can we just pause on that though?

I am going to be, it says that the next item is the signing of letters and proclamations, so please excuse me.

But sit and enjoy in your front row seat.

Okay, Councilmember Saka has a letter for signature today to the Washington State Arts Commission in support of the Alliance for Pioneer Square's application to form a creative district.

Councilmember Saka, please leave the discussion on the letter for any additional feedback before I request signatures.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

So colleagues, it is my pleasure to request the support, your support, of the application to the Washington State Arts Commission to secure state recognition of our historic Pioneer Square as an official state creative district as defined by the state.

Part of this application required official support from their local jurisdiction, hence the support letter.

while we're here and talking about it today, which I note has been signed already by our own mayor.

Colleagues, there are 18 creative districts in the state, and Seattle has one currently in Rainier Valley, and this will be our second one.

What does this designation even do, you might ask?

Well, it provides recognition, important recognition, paired with resources, some startup support, capital, technical assistance, and small capital project support.

The Alliance for Pioneer Square has spent a good part of last year garnering community input and support to prepare this important application to the state.

I might add, working closely with my office to do that.

And I'm proud to sponsor this letter on behalf of the city to support the Alliance, to bring this to life once and for all.

This community richly deserves our support in this manner, which is why, colleagues, I'm asking for your support.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Thank you very much.

Are there any council member questions or comments?

Seeing none, I would like to thank you for bringing this forward.

And I congratulate the Alliance for Planetary Squared for putting this all together and all the work that went behind it.

All right, seeing no other comments, will the clerk please call the roll on who will sign the letter?

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Moore?

Aye.

Councilmember Rink?

Aye.

Councilmember Saka?

Aye.

Councilmember Solomon?

Aye.

And Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to our legislative update.

Please go ahead and introduce yourself and your teammates in Olympia and begin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President Nelson and council members.

I'm Mina Hashemi, Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and I'm joined virtually by our state relations team, Ana Johnson and Sameer Janejo.

Thank you for having us.

Last Wednesday, March 12th, marked the critical deadline for bills to advance out of their chambers of origin.

While with this milestone passed, legislative focus now shifts to the next phase, bills making their way across the rotunda to be considered by policy committees in the opposite chamber.

Each floor cutoff day brings anticipation, tension, and one reoccurring question.

What will be the 5 p.m.

bill?

According to legislative rules, so long as the bill's process begins before the 5 p.m.

deadline, discussions can continue well into the evening.

Sometimes the bill was brought up the day prior or earlier in the day, only to be finished later and even brought up again at 4.59 p.m.

And the final bill of the day often carries symbolic weight.

Sometimes it's a contentious measure that sparks extended debate stretching late into the night.

And other times it's a broadly supported feel good proposal that garners bipartisan backing.

And this year we witnessed both types of bills.

In the House, the 5 p.m.

bill was HB 1296, sponsored by Representative Monica Stoner, and it's a hot-button student rights bill.

The legislation proposes modifications to existing policies concerning student rights, parental rights, and employee protections, both within public schools and requires school districts to adopt or amend policies to incorporate guidelines from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or OSPI.

These guidelines aim to eliminate discrimination based on gender expression and identity, address challenges faced by transgender students, and apply anti-bullying policies to these students.

This bill was brought up shortly before the 5 p.m.

deadline with legislators then pausing before taking up debate and wrapping up around 2.15 a.m.

Republican legislators argued that the bill could undermine the Parents' Bill of Rights Initiative, 2081, which passed in 2024. But ultimately, the bill passed on a party-line vote with the adoption of six of the 128 proposed amendments.

And over in the Senate, the majority chose SB 5263, sponsored by Seattle Senate Majority Leader, Jamie Peterson, as their 5 p.m.

bill.

Debate was sometimes emotional with several members on each side of the aisle speaking.

The bipartisan legislation, which passed 48 to zero, proposes several significant changes to special education funding to enhance support for students with disabilities.

and some highlights of the bill include eliminating the 16 enrollment funding cap allowing districts to receive funding for all eligible special education students without limitations lowering the eligibility threshold for special education safety net funding making it easier for districts to qualify for additional funds Requiring OSPI develop and maintain a centralized statewide individualized education program or IEP system to ensure compliance with state and federal requirements, improve efficiency and enhance multiple outcomes and raising special education funding multipliers.

As bills now transition to the other chamber, the stakes remain high.

Each proposal faces new scrutiny, new potential amendments, and a different political dynamic.

And the coming weeks will determine which measures ultimately make it through the full legislative process and which fall short before the regular session adjourns, as well as long-awaited budget and revenue proposals from both chambers.

with that i'll turn it over to anna and samir to share an update on seattle's priorities and the lay of the land since we last briefed you thank you good afternoon council i'll jump in and provide a status update on the city's priorities for public safety so Some updates since last we briefed you.

Senate Bill 5098, which we shared passed off the Senate floor, is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow in the House.

Additionally, Senate Bill 5060, which was one of the public safety funding proposals, ended up not coming to the Senate floor, so it's not advancing this session.

However, House Bill 2015, which is another public safety funding bill, did pass off the House floor.

This bill does three separate things.

It creates a grant program for law enforcement hiring and recruitment and retention.

It creates a new councilmanic criminal justice sales tax option, and it also creates a supplemental criminal justice account within the state budget for distribution to local government.

A Senate bill 5052 which is a priority of the city that was going to clarify the youth access to counsel program and when law enforcement can contact juveniles unfortunately did not come to the Senate floor so will not be advancing this session.

And then also another one of our city priorities House bill 1816 which establishes civilian staffed crisis response teams did not come to the House floor in time for the cutoff last Wednesday.

And then moving on to some other priorities, House Bill 1733, which increases the reimbursement cap for moving and relocation expenses for businesses impacted by displacements caused by agencies.

That passed the House unanimously last week and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate.

And then House Bill 1403 and House Bill 1516 both relate to affordable home ownership.

1403 relates to condominium liability reform and 1516, which studies insurance options for condo development, both passed the House and have hearings in the Senate this upcoming week.

On the climate and environment priorities from our legislative agenda, Senate Bill 5284, this is the recycling reform legislation.

This bill was scheduled for a hearing this afternoon.

We also saw that House Bill 1409, which deals with making improvements to the clean fuels program, was scheduled for a hearing this week.

Also, our child care siting bill, Senate Bill 5509, that we've been supporting was scheduled for a hearing this week.

And then, as Mina mentioned, K through 12 funding was a big topic on the House of Origin cutoff.

So Senate Bill 5192, sponsored by Majority Leader Peterson, passed bipartisanly off the Senate floor.

Moving to a recap of some other bills that moved off the floor this past week.

I'll start with Senate Bill 5711 by Senator Bateman.

This bill would essentially allow self-service storage facilities to be eligible for the B&O tax and also be subject to retail sales tax.

and there's no revenue that is dedicated in the bill itself, but there is an intent language to ensure that the revenue goes towards affordable housing.

Senate bill 5576 would establish a short term 4% short term rental tax initially the bill was a statewide tax and now the bill was amended on to become a local option 4% short term rental tax and the revenue would also be dedicated to affordable housing.

Some additional climate and environment bills that passed off the House and Senate floor last week included House Bill 1975. This bill is making clarifications to the Climate Commitment Act, specifically amending price containment mechanisms for the cap and trade market, as well as requiring the Department of Ecology to do additional economic analysis.

And then two bills related to transmission.

House Bill 1819 creates a SEPA exemption for transmission and then Senate Bill 5466 establishes a new agency to manage electric transmission systems for the state of Washington and also contains a SEPA exemption as well.

Housing and homelessness bills that are still moving House bill 1353, which would allow cities to have a self certification process for 80 use in regarding to the project permit applications.

Senate bill 5184 concerns minimum parking requirements establishes minimum.

residential parking requirements and also relates to commercial parking requirements as well.

Senate Bill 5469 prohibits algorithmic rent fixing and non-compete agreements in rental housing.

And Senate bill 5148 requires cities to submit and counties to submit their housing element of their comp plan within the first three years of their comp plan and also allows Department of Commerce to determine whether a comp plan is in substantial compliance.

Labor and Commerce bills, Senate Bill 5758 establishes distance requirements for social equity and cannabis licensees.

So these are businesses, cannabis licenses that have been licensed through the social equity program by the LCB and would require, would prohibit cities from establishing distance requirements from other cannabis retailers of no more than 250 feet.

and Senate Bill 5061 requires wages in public work contracts to be at least the prevailing wage in effect when the work is performed.

For public safety and criminal justice bills, we saw House Bill 1218, which deals with competency evaluation and restoration system pass off the House floor.

This bill addresses specifically competency evaluation and restoration for non-felony and certain Class C felony cases.

It creates an incentive program at DSHS to manage the inpatient competency orders and also creates and establishes elements of behavioral health diversion plans.

House Bill 1596 deals with the use of intelligent speeding assistance devices in certain circumstances where there's a temporary restriction on an occupational driver's license or someone who is in their probation period following the lifting of a suspension of a license.

And there's certain exemptions also within that bill.

And then Senate Bill 5775 is the other public safety funding bill that is still alive at this stage.

This bill deals with two local options for public safety and criminal justice funding.

First is creating a councilmanic option for the public safety local tax, as well as amending the definition to make it more flexible of the criminal justice sales tax.

And then finally, under social programs and education was House Bill 1296. This is the bill that Mina mentioned.

That was the House's five o'clock bill, and she described it well, so I have nothing else to add.

And then what to look for this week.

We have a couple hearings on our priorities.

So tomorrow, I believe, yep, March 18th is a hearing on 5098 regarding weapons in certain locations.

Wednesday is a hearing on the Clean Fuels program update.

And then not this week or the following week, but the following week after that is the opposite chamber policy cutoff on April 2nd.

And then we'll take any questions if there are any.

I'm looking for questions.

Let me move my mic closer.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

OIR team, always great to see you.

Question, and you might have said it, and I wasn't listening closely enough.

You were moving quite quickly here.

Two bills in Senate Bill 5595 are shared streets, and then House Bill 1515, have they been scheduled for hearings in their opposite chamber at this time?

If so, that's great, and if not, what can I do to help you?

Bill 5595, the shared streets bill, actually had a hearing on the first day that it was eligible for a hearing.

So last Thursday it was heard and is now ready to be exact.

And then House Bill 1515 has not been scheduled yet.

It's referred to the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee and we're working to get a hearing the next week or so.

Thank you.

Please do let us know if there are other partners that we need to drive towards these bills.

And that's how we missed it.

55, 95 moved too quickly for us to even track.

Good work down there.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, council member.

Council member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Director Machini, for being here, everyone.

Really appreciate the updates.

I note HB 1816, but here in Seattle with our care department, we can lead by example, and there's a lot of moving pieces to this.

So I think we should focus on what we're doing and really create a model moving forward, and I think that we can do that.

We're doing a number of pieces in committee over the course of 25, and I'm looking forward to that.

So we could take care of business here.

I also, and I don't see my colleague from the great district of one, but I appreciate the vehicle noise cameras moving forward.

Thank you for that update.

And with FIFA World Cup, I really like HB 1515 in terms of setting us up for success with the FIFA World Cup.

Because as each week goes by, we're that much closer.

And a lot of people don't necessarily appreciate how much needs to be done between now and then.

I also, as the, and I'm not sure if the other districts are impacted by this as much as D7, but D7's, condos is huge in District 7. And so, and this kind of goes to the comprehensive plan.

So I'm appreciative of the updates on house bills, 14, put my glasses back on, 03 and 1516, very important.

So, because that's holding us back in a lot of ways in terms of, you know, the ability to have condos.

And I note as well the public safety criminal justice pieces as well.

That's really important.

Functioning criminal justice system is so important for us here in the city and really the county and state as well.

So thank you for those updates and I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you for the presentation.

I just had some questions about HB 1816, which my understanding was that there was no outreach to the Seattle delegation to sign on to that bill.

So just wondering if that is in fact correct information and how the city of Seattle, because I did have some outreach from the sponsor and co-sponsor, there seemed to be some lack of clarity about how important this bill was to the city.

So I'd like a little debrief on that, please.

Sure.

I'll start and then Anna can fill in a lot of the details.

This was a super high priority for our team in Olympia.

And so we worked right up until 5 p.m.

on Wednesday to try to get it to the floor.

We did talk, I believe, with all of our Seattle delegation members about this back during committee days, and it was on the legislative agenda.

I'll let Ana share more about the outreach strategy on the ground, but I would love to follow up with you and know more about that so that if there's some feedback we can address, I'd love to hear it.

Ana, do you want to say more?

Thanks for that question.

Yeah, so in order to become a co-sponsor of a bill, legislators have about 24 hours to sign their name onto the bill.

So when Representative Scott, who was our sponsor and a Seattle member, introduced the bill, we got an initial an additional five other Seattle members that were co-sponsors.

And then when the bill was in rules ready to come to the floor, there was additional communication from our team, either over email or also in person to encourage the House Democrats and leadership to prioritize the bill to come to the floor so there was a few different strategies to make sure everyone was informed of what was our highest priorities as we headed into floor action included it included 1816 as well as a number of bills from our legislative agenda that we've been going over in our presentations each each week but yeah happy to talk to you more about what you're hearing and ways to improve our communication with the delegation

And actually, I should clarify, we socialized the concept with legislators in December because the bill was actually introduced in January.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

That's not what I'm hearing from my sources on Olympia, so I would like to have further discussion offline because there are a number of bills that were incredibly important to us, like the school lunch bill.

And I just don't think that we are being as effective as we can be.

I know that we attempted to reduce the legislative agenda to make it easier, and I know you still wound up with a very big agenda.

and nonetheless had a lot to cover.

And I think we maybe still need to go back to the drawing board and reduce it down even more.

But with something like 1816, that is so critical.

And I appreciate that we are working on that here.

but sometimes it helps when the state takes the ball, particularly on a big issue like collective bargaining.

So, yeah, just to the extent that we can be more coordinated and more effective.

So I don't have people reaching out to me saying, gosh, I didn't even know this was that important to Seattle, and these are Seattle representatives.

So, thank you.

Yeah, Council Member Kettle, you have a follow-up?

It's an interesting dynamic.

Following up on Council Member Moore's comments is the dynamic in and I need to get down to Olympia more often, but my visit there and all the conversations I was having, there is this dynamic of Seattle and other parts of the state, and how does that play in terms of, if this is seen as a Seattle thing and Seattle only, does that take away interest from other parts of the state?

I would say this particular bill was kind of a special case because when it was first presented in committee, there were a lot of legislators expressing interest in extending it to their cities and counties.

And so Ana can say more about the amendment process.

But at one point, the bill did grow to include cities and counties, I think, of a smaller size and then that had actually been stripped back out at the or was proposed to be taken out with the striker on last Wednesday and part of that was because different legislators sort of wanted different things and so and different stakeholders like it made some folks more comfortable for it to be a Seattle centric or Seattle only piece of legislation and some folks felt less comfortable.

And so it kind of always depends.

I would say generally, generally you hear a lot of like, oh, it's just Seattle and kind of, sometimes it isn't the most helpful when it's just Seattle behind the legislation.

But our delegation, I think works really hard to make sure that we're represented well inside the caucus rooms and in conversations where our lobbying team isn't present.

Do you want to add anything?

Not much to add.

That was a good summary.

It is really case dependent.

And with this specific bill, we were kind of the main proponents in terms of external stakeholders asking the legislature to push this along.

And so when it did grow and expand to apply to other cities and counties, there wasn't as much, you know, let's say, stakeholders from other jurisdictions that can speak to their emergency response and crisis response systems.

And so without that additional support from other regions, legislators just weren't hearing from their local context and feeling comfortable.

And so therefore, like Mina mentioned, we had an amendment to scale it back to Seattle because we knew we were comfortable and open to this concept.

And so it just kind of depends on the dynamic.

And it's really case specific, but it can be challenging.

only apply to Seattle in terms of getting broad support to make it out of, let's say, a House chamber or Senate chamber where all members are considering the bill.

Thank you.

And I appreciate this, what I'm calling the Seattle dynamic.

And I realize Samir and Ana are like working hard on these pieces.

So my comment about that is in a more macro sense, nothing related to OIR and definitely for the team in Olympia, because I know they're working hard on that point.

So thank you.

Councilman Bourne, do you have a follow-up to the questions you've already...

Yes, thank you.

So, yeah, I just want to be clear that this is not a criticism of Anna or Samir.

I know you both have been working very hard down there and appreciate all the work that you've done.

And I said, as I said in my earlier remarks, it's a long list of things to be, you know, keeping track of and having to zealously work on.

I think the issue perhaps is more...

This was an executive request.

The executive reached out, as I understand, to Representative Sean Scott to bring this forward.

And so I think for something that's this important, perhaps just We just need to do a better job.

And then I also realized at the last minute the Seattle firefighters came out opposed.

So perhaps we should have reached out to the firefighters earlier on so that that wasn't a last-minute surprise.

I know that amendments were brought to address their concerns.

And that still wasn't enough.

But again, I can't emphasize enough, if our own delegation is saying that they're not being approached to at least write a letter, or if they're saying we don't really know how important this is, that's at the end of this process, then something's not being communicated.

properly down the channels.

So we can always look for room to improve beyond this placing this at this is simply a Seattle dynamic.

That's very much at play.

I don't know how much that was the case here and there's no reason that we shouldn't look to make our lobbying a lot more effective in Olympia because we do need in some ways to overcome that Seattle dynamic.

So we need to be as effective as possible.

Thank you.

Okay, I have a question.

On page 10 regarding Senate Bill 5061 from Conway, requiring certain wages in public works contracts to be at least the prevailing wage in effect when the work is performed.

We have no position, so I'm just wondering, doesn't Seattle already do this, or is it a question of the threshold that is proposed to be modified in this bill?

It sounds like a good idea, so why would we not have a position?

I'm sure that there's nuance that I'm not understanding.

In terms of the impact on Seattle, it's pretty minimal.

I think we don't have a position because I think we It's since the impact is minimal, we just decided, you know, we're a lot of other cities were opposed.

And so there wasn't really a question of whether we should support or not.

It was more of just other cities being opposed to it.

And we, our impact on us was minimal.

And so we stayed out of it.

And perhaps that could play into the dynamic that Council Member Kettle was mentioning, which is, well, if Seattle likes it, maybe there's something we should be suspect about it.

I don't know.

But in any case, thank you for that explanation.

And Senate Bill 5758, establishing distance requirements for social equity and cannabis licenses.

You said something about 250 feet.

I know that this is a priority for, well, I spoke with LCB board member, who was supportive of modifying the distance requirements so that more social equity licensees could operate.

And so I'm just wondering, was the space, was 250 feet too little for some people to get behind or something?

Can you just tell me more about that one?

A city like our city would be prohibited from putting a distance requirements distance requirement of more than 250 feet for between.

cannabis retailers if they're a social equity licensee and I know we have one currently and I want to say it's about 500 feet, so it's what this would reduce that to 250 feet.

Okay, thank you.

I thought that the status quo was 1,000 feet, but what do I know?

In any case, I do know that this is something that was a priority for social equity licensees in the past, but I completely understand.

Maybe 250 feet is too close and would create too much competition.

What do I know?

In any case, I just want a little bit more information on that one.

Any other questions or comments on various bills?

All right.

Well, thank you very much for this update.

And so you gave an update on this week.

And please do keep us informed if there's anything that is really happening right now, whether or not you are asking us to weigh in, it would just be interesting to know, not like this top priority is telling us what's going on, but it is interesting for us to know what's happening in case there's a possibility that our input could be helpful.

All right.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for getting through this past hard week.

Thank you.

OK.

Okay, we'll now go into the part of our agenda where we provide updates on what we've been doing and what's coming up.

And this week's roll call begins with Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

The Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee will be meeting this coming Wednesday at 9.30 a.m.

We have two items on the agenda.

The first item is the second item.

time we've had the appointment of Kirsten Grove for Director of Finance and Administrative Services come before us.

She was at the last select committee.

Since then, I was able to receive questions from you colleagues.

We sent them to the interim director.

She has since returned them, and we sent those answers to your offices this previous Friday.

We do plan to vote on Kirsten Grove this coming Wednesday and she'll be for a full council vote next week.

The second item on our agenda is just an informational item as I am working to introduce a bill that we've been working on.

It'll be an introduction on hearing protection regulations.

This will just be a briefing and discussion.

This legislation would require loud music venues to sell earplugs for a dollar or less.

The effective date would be for the end of this calendar year.

And enforcement on this would happen, leads with three warnings that last for 30 days.

There's no effort to be punitive.

There's no effort to make small businesses spend more money.

The real effect of this bill is to ensure that there are hearing plugs available at loud venues.

This bill is a product of office hours, where I had an audiologist from my district come and meet with me, as well as we've engaged with the Music Commission during the drafting phase of this.

It's a good little bill, and I'm excited to share the draft with each of you this week.

In my external committees, another report, I guess this is within the internal committee, Finance and Administrative Services.

Colleagues, you remember a few weeks ago, the Seattle Animal Shelter hosted its annual Kitty Hall on the 5th of March.

The event invited members of the public to meet, greet, and adopt a kitten or cat.

Mayor Harrell, myself, and I know many of you all attended.

Out of the 26 available kittens and cats, 22 were adopted.

That means there are four left out there, folks.

The remaining four are in the process of being fostered until they can find their forever home.

The Seattle Animal Shelter also provides free vaccine clinics.

And I'll take this moment to remind everyone, the Seattle Animal Shelter is open to the public for adoptions Tuesday through Sunday, 1 p.m.

to 5 p.m.

They're closed on Monday and during city holidays.

I'm lucky enough to have adopted a dog from our Seattle Animal Shelter, and it has been a positive improvement in my life.

I take the bus or drive past the shelter every day, and I can tell you there are some darn cute animals waiting to come home with you.

So don't delay.

Get out to Interbay today and adopt one of our beautiful animals at the shelter.

From Sound Transit, there will be a South Downtown Open House on April 2nd from 5 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

at Union Station.

The South Downtown Hub is a collaborative planning effort including Sound Transit, us here at the City of Seattle, King County to envision and prioritize public space improvements and connections throughout the Chinatown International District and Pioneer Squares.

The train tracks do a good job cutting those two neighborhoods off from each other and this is an effort to reconnect The event will share progress on the concepts and transit hub connections.

These concepts were developed through previous workshops just like this.

Sound Transit is also hosting a safety fair at Odessa Brown Children's Clinic on April 26th from 11 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

This is a place where people can gather with community to access resources, share a meal, and learn about safety tips and tricks while taking light rail.

The intention of the event is to advance Sound Transit's education objectives for the at-grade crossing program and to continue collaboration with community members on system safety initiatives.

I have some transit news for you from Sound Transit.

The rail replacement project will close down and delay trips.

The rail replacement project will occur from April 14th to the 23rd.

There's no good time to do this and this work needs to be done.

It is important that this rail replacement work occur prior to the two line opening to minimize passenger impact.

These changes will cause 12 minute headways from Linwood to Westlake.

And from Westlake to Stadium, there will be 25 to 30-minute headways.

So just April 14th through the 23rd, there will be disruptions.

And a reminder that on May 10th, Sound Transit will be opening two stations in Redmond.

You're all welcome to join, and I encourage you to join because it will be a great day.

Last week, I had office hours, and I have office hours this coming Thursday as well.

In addition to office hours and part of the comprehensive plan, I have committed to walking all of the neighborhood centers in my district.

We already walked in Finney Ridge.

This last week we walked in North Magnolia and Magnolia Village.

Councilmember Kettle, thank you for sending somebody from your team there.

I have to say I was incredibly impressed with Magnolians.

And the reason that I was incredibly impressed was when we initially met, we discussed, I said to them the same thing I said to you colleagues, which is this plan meets a base minimum for the entire city.

So if anyone is asking me for a down zone, I'm gonna ask them for then where do we up zone?

This is about creating the conversation.

And I was incredibly impressed with the Magnolia community because they had problems with OPCD's draft.

And they brought me back what could be an even better concept that does not reduce density.

It changes it for sure, but it doesn't reduce it.

And so this is a really productive way for us to engage in the community because it becomes more of a discussion than a combative conversation.

And so I was really impressed with Magnolia this last week and I am looking forward to taking a tour this week in the Whittier neighborhood center.

So with that colleagues, that is my report.

Any questions?

I see council member Moore.

Thank you.

Who was the, what was the entity that gave you an alternative?

Was that a Magnolia community council or?

The Magnolia Community Council did organize, collate people's feedback.

And really candidly, there were some interesting conversations on the walk like, was that line correct in the letter?

Was it not correct in the letter?

And that's why I say it became a collaborative conversation rather than a combative because the neighborhood had an organizational focal point that they funneled information through.

But it doesn't necessarily require community council to do that.

Yeah, well, I have that same issue in Maple Leaf, obviously, and our Maple Leaf Council is in the minority.

So I guess I'm curious as to how you facilitate, and there are a lot of people very interested in having a conversation, have reached out to their local council and it's not gone well.

So any suggestions?

Yeah, I have to say that it takes, and this is why I'm paying this much.

This is why I am uplifting Magnolians so much in this conversation because they self-organized and they said, then they took this project seriously.

And so I can share with you the letter that we received from them that helped us have this conversation because I think that it can be a draft for the rest of the city.

Honestly, if everyone, in our city acted the way that neighbors acted this last Friday, we'd be done with the comp plan next week.

I will say that I'm presenting this as a good feel good story.

There were absolutely tension points.

There were absolutely places where there was not uniform agreement within the community.

There was absolutely hard decisions that we have to take on.

And what I share is that because of the way that the Magnolians engaged this way, it created a collaborative conversation rather than combative.

I'm gonna knock on wood just to make sure I'm not sending us down a wrong pathway for the rest of this experience, but I'll share with you their letter and how that got organized.

Thank you, I would really appreciate that.

It really was the community organizing themselves to say, this didn't get it right, let's create a better plan together.

Yeah, and I would just share that there are many in Maple Leaf who really want to have that conversation.

So any way that I can help facilitate that, I would love to.

So thank you for sharing this.

I look forward to that letter.

Council Member Carroll, I see you've got a question for me.

Yes, I just wanted to follow up on that.

I think it's really important to have the engagement.

Council Member Moore doesn't probably know about the Dan and Bob show, but both Council Member Strauss and I met with the Magnolia Community Council As he noted at times was a little tense, but a lot of engagement.

And then also coming up with ideas.

I've had smaller group meetings in Magnolia, plus the one that we had together.

And so we're looking at things on the D7 part of Magnolia, too, as part of the overall Magnolia approach.

And so I really appreciate the work that the residents of Magnolia, D6 and 7, have done on this.

And thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for having one of my team do the walkabout.

which is really helpful.

And looking to do the same in Queen Anne, which is the other main area, because as I've heard me before, our Inner Bay Neighborhood Center is, in my mind, good.

And so looking to do that and build off our District 7 Neighborhood Council meeting where we had our Council of Council meetings where we talked about the comm plan.

And we started the meeting off with, what's the one thing that you like about the com plan?

So it kind of changes the mindset and the direction of the meeting.

So anyways, thank you, Council Member Strauss, for the D67 Magnolia work.

Appreciate it.

And by the way, for colleagues, if you want the Dan and Bob show to come to your district, just have to schedule early.

Okay.

Any other questions for Council Member Strauss?

All right, moving on.

Council Member Hollingsworth is not present, so we'll move on to Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Council President.

Just really briefly, I just wanted to note our next Public Safety Committee meeting is not this week, it's next week.

For this week, just a number of meetings, the Complete Communities Coalition meeting, speaking of Com Plan, on Wednesday, Cybersecurity during the day on Thursday, and D7 Town Hall that night.

And then on Friday, I'll be meeting with the FIFA Local Organizing Committee, which will be important and good.

I just wanted to note two things in terms of last week.

One is, and I mentioned this in our committee meeting last week, but I had two meetings in Belltown last week talking about the challenges that we're facing in public safety.

And I just want to appreciate, talk about community coming out and holding our feet to the fire.

The first one was with the West Precinct.

The second one was just me and hearing from the residents and the challenges that they're facing.

And it's about working together and keeping the press on and building momentum.

And I just wanted to say to the people in Belltown that we're definitely working.

I'm working it from my perspective.

I'm pressing on a number of fronts and we'll continue to do so.

And I know there's some issues in downtown because I've met with our downtown community council folks as well and working those as well.

And I do appreciate the engagement of West Precinct and particularly Captain Brown on those.

The other thing that happened last week was, colleagues, I had a very busy Thursday, Friday, Saturday as my sister city, one of my sister cities is Galway in Ireland.

I really appreciate the representatives, the delegation from Galway coming and to meet them in my office, to meet them at a luncheon on Friday, and to getting soaked, absolutely soaked and frozen on Saturday during the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Speaking of the Dan and Bob show, there's the Deputy Wong Councilmember Kettle Show that seems to be happening a lot recently, too.

And we read the proclamation on Friday at the luncheon that stated, whereas the city of Seattle celebrates our country's heritage as a nation of immigrants and refugees, generations of whom have built our country's economy, shaped our vibrant cultural life, and formed the unique character of our nation, and whereas our Irish community has made major contributions to the history, development, and cultural life of our city, and whereas the city of Seattle and the country of Ireland, and particularly our sister city of Galway, have long enjoyed close and productive relations, and whereas the Irish Week 2025 highlights that dynamic spirit through a number of events, contributions of many in the community, and I'd like to give a shout-out to Maureen and John Keane, This year's parade grand marshals, as long as Tom Langland, the 25 honorary grand marshal for their work in the community.

And just to close, whereas the Irish community has enriched Seattle through its incredible cultural heritage, avenging the values of our one Seattle vision by building a thriving, innovative, and equitable city, We are all proud to call home, and finally, whereas the city of Seattle is proud to call Irish people, and especially the people of Galway, our friends and allies, as we work to make our cities, nations, and world a better place.

That proclamation was signed by Mayor Harold, and I just wanted to leverage it by wishing all of you a very happy St. Patrick's Day.

Perfect.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Okay.

I would note, so Councilmember Rivera is not here, but I will note that pretty much every week she does mention the ongoing public safety issues in District 4, especially around Magnuson Park.

So just appreciate any assistance or attention that the executive can can pay to those areas or that area as well.

And I know that Council Member Moore, you've mentioned Aurora too, so.

Okay, doing my little alphabet thing here.

The next person who's on the list is Council Member Moore.

Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Let's see.

There's no meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee this week.

The next one will be March 26th.

This week I'm scheduled to attend the monthly KCRHA governing board meeting.

We're scheduled to hear briefings on the Regents.

continuum of care, which I know does receive a significant amount of federal money through HUD.

So interesting to hear how that potentially is going to affect our ability to continue to provide the level of shelter care that we need in the city, and then also to address severe weather response, both how it went and ways that we can continue to improve upon it, and also looking at providing seasonal weather shelter as well, that initiative that's going forward.

So excited about that conversation.

Last week I attended the King County Regional Policy Committee with Councilmember Rink where the King County Parks Levy was discussed.

I'll leave the detail for that to Councilmember Rink since she's much more intimately familiar with that based on her prior work.

And then just lastly to note that this afternoon at 4 o'clock in the Bertha Knight Landis room, my office is really pleased to be able to sponsor an event in conjunction with Civic Genius, which is called Insights from Political Adversaries, First-Hand Experience, Working Across Profound Differences, brings together two individuals who were instrumental in working to bring about the end of apartheid and really did have to work across profound political differences.

So I'm looking forward to the conversation.

I think it's...

fruitful time um an important time and i hope whoever can come make it um and if you can't staff or whatever but just wanted to reiterate the invitation thank you and i pass on to council member rink the rink

Wonderful, thank you so much, Chair, and thank you, Council Member Moore.

I'm gonna start first with our committee meeting for Sustainability, City Light, and Arts and Culture.

It's gonna be a packed agenda.

We have a presentation, pardon me, from the Office of Arts and Culture, focused on the Seattle Arts Commission overview and goals, and we have an appointment for the Museum Development Authority.

We have a presentation from the Office of Sustainability and Environment on the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, and then we also have two presentations from City Light on the Renewable Plus Program, and then a separate presentation on distribution and platted easements.

So, again, that will be happening this Friday at 9.30 a.m.

A little bit about what our office was up to last week.

We met with the CID Equitable Development Group focused on comp plan and all things related to equitable development and anti-displacement measures.

We also held a separate meeting with some other CID partners focused on FIFA and really ensuring that The CID in particular, we don't have a repeat of what happened with the MLB All-Stars game, but rather the CID is able to benefit from the economic boon of having so many folks coming in for FIFA.

Had an opportunity to connect with Department of Commerce and the new director over there, Joe Wynn, to talk about partnerships between Department of Commerce and City of Seattle.

Got to host some students from Washington State University.

Always really exciting to talk to young people who are interested in entering into policy work and government, so that was just a really incredible opportunity.

Connecting also with the mayor's office to talk about the Fort Lawton project, really excited about developments there and certainly wanna ensure that we are keeping that project online and there were some exciting developments on that front.

Meeting also with the Central Area Collaborative, the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, the Northwest African American Museum, a meeting with some of the makers that will be a part of the SOTO project, and then joined with the Friends for Children event over the weekend.

But going to what Council Member Moore referenced around the Regional Policy Committee, she and I are a part of the Regional Policy Committee alongside King County Council members and members of the Sound Cities Association.

Some may know I used to work for the Sound Cities Association and staffed for members and used to staff for the Regional Policy Committee for those members.

And so that's a bit of the experience she was referencing, so kind of surreal to, of course, be serving on that body.

We received a briefing on the King County Parks Levy.

The King County Executive recently transmitted what that Parks Levy would look like.

So there's an ordinance before the Regional Policy Committee.

It has a mandatory dual referral between King County Council and the Regional Policy Committee, so we do have a significant voice there.

The proposed ordinance for the levy would place...

would place the levy on the August 5th ballot.

This would authorize a six-year property tax levy that would generate approximately $1.5 billion in total over a six-year period.

The levy, just by comparison, the current 2020 to 2025 parks levy is expected to generate around $851 million across a six-year period.

And the proposed levy would support King County Parks Operations and Maintenance, King County Parks Capital Program, King County Cities, Towns and Parks District, the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle Waterfront Park, Memorial Stadium, and Parks Levy Grants and Community Partnership Grants.

So, certainly a number of Seattle investments embedded in there.

I know I've been spending time to meet with some of the partners there to really make sure that their voices are represented as we undergo levy deliberations.

Some of the things that were voiced during that meeting, of course, is the ongoing question and theme that we hear often in levy discussions around levy size.

And also some questions around distribution and some of the city-based allocations.

And so certainly want to talk to, work with you all as members of this council to make sure Seattle priorities are represented in these ongoing deliberations about what does the proposed levy look like.

And looking ahead to this week, just as a reminder, we will be holding a Ramadan Iftar event in Birth and Nights Landis Room tomorrow, 6 to 8, with the Center for Muslim Life.

And this is open to all in our community.

And then coming up this Sunday, we have the Nauruz Persian New Year celebration in the City Hall lobby and the Birth and Nights Landis Room in partnership with the Seattle East Isfa Han Sister City Advocacy Organization and certainly will invite you all to please join me.

It should be a lot of fun and would just love to see you there.

And with that, I'm happy to pass it along, I believe, to Council Member Saka.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

And colleagues, our next transportation committee will be tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17th at 9.30 a.m.

on the agenda.

We're gonna be hearing two topics.

The Sound Transit Link Light Rail Extensions through my district in West Seattle and Ballard, Council Member Strauss' district.

So we will hear directly from members of Sound Transit staff and our own Seattle team responsible for implementation of the projects at the local level, so SDOT and SDCI, on the status of those extensions into West Seattle and Ballard.

We will also be hearing a permit discussion on a Skybridge, briefing and discussion on a Skybridge, that is on the border of Districts 3 and 7. Importantly, it connects Districts 3 and 7, and I know that is a project that is of interest to my vice chair, Hollingsworth, and the distinguished gentleman from Queen Anne.

So important conversation coming up tomorrow, and as always, all council members, even if you don't happen to sit on the committee, are welcome to attend.

I attended, I also had some terrific office hours last week, doing it again this week.

Neighborhood tours, touring a few of the neighborhood centers in my own district as well, doing walking tours of those, including a few later this week.

Last week, also joined Councilmember Kettle as we attended the Transportation Policy Board meeting for the Puget Town Regional Council.

amongst other things, got a briefing on some of the state and local updates and impacting and how that might impact some of the regional projects and priorities.

Iterated on regional transportation safety plan and transportation plan as well.

And those conversations are ongoing.

During that meeting, during those briefings that I mentioned a moment ago, I was deeply alarmed and concern to learn about some recent actions, federal actions by the Trump administration that happened last week.

And so I originally learned about this during the Transportation Policy Board meeting, but there was some excellent follow-up reporting by Nicholas Deshay in the Seattle Times and Tom Fukuloro in the Seattle Bike Blog.

Basically, the United States Department of Transportation issued a new memo calling for new reviews and heightened scrutiny of certain federally funded projects for things like bike lanes, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, other sort of green infrastructure, climate investments, and equity focused projects in our state, including potentially right here in Seattle.

So specifically this federal memo calls for a comprehensive review of all transportation projects over the past four years.

So including projects that were already committed to apparently by the federal government.

So that funding that have priorities, So it's calling for increased scrutiny of projects that run counter to executive orders, recent federal executive orders, and with the idea that they could potentially, these projects over the past four years that have been awarded could potentially be canceled wholesale.

Potential impacts locally here in Seattle include protected hardened bike lanes, recreational trails, shared use paths, electric vehicles and charging networks and other green or climate infrastructure, basically all these vitally important bike and pedestrian safety projects along with vital climate investment programs that we have here in the city.

And as we know, this comes on the heels of an earlier January, February, 2025 circa guidance or action by the federal government.

Department of Transportation specifically, that purports to prioritize and reallocate the scoring criteria for prospective projects and include, among other things, prioritizing projects in areas and locales with higher than the national average birth rates, higher marriage rates, et cetera, et cetera.

That action then, again, is more forward-looking, prospective projects.

aspect of this one is it purports to look back and say, as a federal government, we're going to scrutinize projects that we might have already committed to.

So I find that deeply, deeply concerning.

How serious is this?

Well, simply put, this means many more lives are at risk.

And it goes against strong past federal interests and actions in preventing such deaths and serious injuries.

Their own federal safe streets and roads program could potentially be gone or at risk.

Our own levy, voter approved levy has an important safe routes to schools, funding for that program, vision zero and a delivery plan, which we recently passed for 2025 of $177 million.

And I understand that we have significant federal grants for projects like East Marginal and the Rapid Ride J that include important bike and pedestrian safety elements.

And nearly all of the Seattle Department of Transportation's most recent grant applications that were submitted during the Biden administration include important equity analyses and also cite climate benefits.

In my view, I think it's unlawful, based on what I know now, I think it's unlawful to stop and halt projects wholesale that have already been committed to, and we will definitely fight against efforts to halt such funding.

That said, the memo does purport to exclude certain grants that are, quote unquote, fully obligated, but doesn't go on to define what that means exactly.

What that term specifically means against other federal grants that are merely obligated remains to be seen, that the department is relying on to fund.

What that means exactly remains to be seen.

So I know our executive departments that are impacted by all this, namely SDOT and OIR are still working their way through to understand potential implications.

of the guidance contained in this memo, but today just seems like they're more, no surprise, questions than it offers clarity and answers.

But me and my office are actively working with our delegation and partners monitoring this situation closely.

Just represents another unfortunate overreach by our federal government and the current administration.

In any event, that is my report.

I welcome any questions or comments.

If none, I will pass the baton.

I will go in order with council member Solomon next and I will note that council member Rivera is here so you can go after him.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

So the past week was rather full.

Had meetings with MLK Labor Council, really want to get an idea of what's going on with the pay-up legislation and the data collection requirements from the Office of Labor Standards, see what kind of pain points there are and what can be done to maybe alleviate some of those.

I had...

urban family meet with us to talk about the work that they're doing in Southeast Seattle.

There is a void that's been created in some of the services provided for youth and families in Southeast Seattle and seeing how potentially that can, how that void can be filled.

I did have a meeting with the Office of Housing.

I wanted to get an idea of where the old laundry, UW laundry facility in Mount Baker, how that project is moving along.

And we talked about the Fort Lawton project as well.

Again, I just wanted to get a sense of where things are tracking with that.

I met with the 37th District Dems, jumped in their meeting just to, number one, say hi.

And just hear from them, you know, some of their concerns.

And, you know, how I could address those.

Met with a lot of people regarding the stadium housing legislation, including the building trades, master builders.

Port of Seattle did a tour with the Port of Seattle on Friday.

Fascinating operation on Terminal 5. I mean, that's just amazing, the amount of throughput that they've got there.

Denise Louie Educational Center talking about their efforts.

And as Councilmember Saka mentioned, you know, the threat of loss of funding on the federal side because they get a tremendous amount of funding from Head Start.

And that could be in jeopardy right now from the Office of Education or Department of Education.

Also talked about the expansion plans they have.

and where they're looking at doing it, as well as looking at some safety and security issues around those locations.

Did meet also with the West Precinct command staff to discuss Little Saigon issues, so Captain Brown, Lieutenant Carrillo, as well as the Criper Reg coordinator, Barb Yondo.

Not just talking about Little Saigon and the efforts there, but also other place-based crime prevention strategies in the Belltown area, around the Star Center, as well as, you know, 3rd Ave.

We also had a meeting with the African Community Housing and Development Group, as well as the Somali Family Safety Task Force.

Some of the efforts they have going on in the community around...

healthy food, you know, providing healthy food for families as well as other efforts they have going on and how office can probably, you know, hopefully be of support to them.

So that's just a snapshot of last week.

This week, today, as a matter of fact, we did have our first land use committee.

Did have a couple of quasi-judicial issues that we needed to take up, as well as some appointments to the Urban Forestry Commission that should be able to be voted, those appointments should be able to be voted on full council at our March 25th meeting.

Our next The Land Use Committee meeting will be on April 2nd.

And again, at that meeting, we hope to address other urban forestry commission appointments, the street level use legislation, building permit extension legislation, as well as getting a briefing on the ADA legislation responding to the state requirements along those lines.

Also coming up this week, meeting with the Executive Director of the United Way of King County tomorrow with leadership of Mount Baker Community Club on Wednesday.

I'll be attending the Youth Cares 39th Annual Luncheon on Wednesday as well.

Be good to be in there as a former board member with their organization.

I'm always happy to be in support of the work that they're doing.

Further gonna be meeting with neighbors in the Rainier Beach, Rainier Avenue area regarding traffic safety in the area south of Rainier Beach to the city limits.

We've got tours going on with Evergreen Treatment Services, REACH at their Hillman City office.

I'll be attending the...

Seattle Police Award Ceremony on Thursday evening.

And have commissions, you know, meetings with the Seattle Human Services Commission, Sephardic Bukur-Holem Congregation on Friday.

And we'll be holding in-district office hours at the Holly Park Library on Friday as well.

And then, you know, coming up Monday, the 24th, I'll be visiting the South Precinct and then doing a follow-up meeting on CID and Little Saigon issues with SCIPTA, the CID, BIA, and friends of Little Saigon.

So a lot of stuff happening.

Oh, and following this at 5 o'clock, there are a...

I guess you could call it a rally or a gathering regarding gun violence.

Excuse me, regarding community gun violence that will be held in the Rainier Beach community.

So unfortunately, I will not be able to join the events in Bertha Knight's Landis Room this afternoon because I'll be going down to Rainier Beach to be part of that community rally.

So any questions?

Okay, thank you.

I'll pass it on to Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Councilmember Salomon.

All right.

Colleagues, last week I had the first of the ongoing quarterly meetings with the leadership of the community councils in the district.

We talked a lot about public safety, especially the issues in and around Magnuson Park.

I have let them know I have requested activation at the park, working with the mayor's office and the SPD and parks department, similar to what takes place at Golden Gardens and Alki, as I've reported here in the past.

Last week, I also attended the announcement of the next iteration of the Seattle Preschool Program expansion to nine more classrooms across the city.

This expansion will add another 169 seats to the program's roster.

The Department of Education and Early Learning hosted the announcement at the Children's Center.

We were joined by Mayor Harrell.

The Children's Center is at the Burke-Gilman Gardens, which is a community roots development up in the district.

Not only does the Children's Center provide Seattle Preschool Program services to residents in the district, they're also a child care provider.

And one thing that I learned while I was touring the facility is that they also provide drop-in child care to families who are staying at the Ronald McDonald House nearby whose children are getting treatment at Children's Hospital.

So they really provide a big service to the community between ongoing child care, Seattle preschool program, and then also that drop-in care, which is really important to a lot of those families in need.

I want to give a shout-out to their director, Jennifer Kelty, and their staff for hosting us on Friday and for all the important work that they do.

Part of this expansion, the SPP expansion, the other nine classrooms, there's a classroom at the Chinese Information Service Center at Village Square in the International District, at Hutch Kids Child Care at South Lake Union.

There's going to be a classroom at the Refugee Women's Alliance, the Nook at North Haven at Northgate slash North Haven neighborhoods.

There's going to be two classrooms at John Rogers Elementary in Meadowbrook, also a classroom at the Loyal Heights Elementary in Loyal Heights, as well as a classroom at Seed of Life at Metropole in Pioneer Square slash the ID.

And then lastly, a classroom at the YMCA of Greater Seattle in Westwood.

Again, this is a really important program every year of the levy.

Deal has added classrooms, and so this was this year's announcement.

Then this week, I will be attending the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center Be Loud breakfast tomorrow.

Maybe I'll see some of you there.

I'm so supportive of the work that they do and look forward to learning more about their work in the last year helping survivors as you know of sexual assault.

This week I also have in district hours and I'm looking forward to hearing from constituents and like I said what I've been hearing a lot as of late is related to the continual issue with Public safety that I very much care about and have urgency around and I keep continuing to have conversations with the mayor's office about and then also hearing a lot about the comprehensive plan and fielding a lot of questions on that regard and Happy to answer any questions colleagues.

If not, I'll pass it along I have a question about do I think I heard you say that the FEP levy the package that's being worked Outright now we'll have, I think you said 126 more slots for children.

Can you go through those numbers that you provided with it for us?

Just now?

Yes.

Oh, sorry.

This is for this levy now and the current levy that we are.

This latest iteration is nine classrooms and it'll have 169 slots.

Okay.

Thank you.

And more to come on the levy that's getting ironed out as we speak.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I'll close this out here.

Let's see.

I heard thunder.

Okay, so as noted earlier, tomorrow at full council, we'll have a vote on Council Bill 120933, allowing residential uses in the stadium district.

And as you can see from the agenda, I'm offering an amendment, Amendment A, that would limit the total number, well, it would limit the total number of housing units in the stadium district to 990 units.

And that number, 990, is what was studied in Alternative 4 under the Seattle Industrial and Maritime Strategy Final Environmental Impact Statement, the FEIS.

And the point of the amendment is simply to send the message that the legislation is intended to track with and not exceed what was actually studied in the EIS and FEIS.

And colleagues, as your staff will have seen today and maybe told you, in the interest of transparency, my office reached out this morning to your offices to ask that they work with the deputy clerks to make sure that any other amendments, besides mine, of course, are part of the agenda that will be republished today so that members of the public and affected stakeholders have the opportunity to review the proposal in its entirety, including proposed amendments and can make their voices heard on potential policy choices before council.

uh, tomorrow during public comment before the, before council votes on them.

Well, since then the agenda has been published and I note that in addition to mine council members Saka and Moore did submit their amendments on time to be included on the, uh, on the revised agenda.

So I want to thank you both for that.

As you know, this bill came out of committee two and a half weeks ago and the underlying proposal has been, uh, a point of discussion for years now.

So there's a lot of public attention and also stakeholder investment in it.

And there's been ample time to bring forward amendments.

And again, it's an opportunity for people to see the amendments before they come to chambers or make remote comments so they know everything that will be before us tomorrow.

So thanks again, council members.

Saka and more for prioritizing transparency and bringing those amendments forward in time for them to be reviewed by everyone.

Also, one more thing, please note that this will be before full council rather than in the committee meeting.

So amendment sponsors will be responsible for describing their respective amendments after moving them.

We'll have Lish Whitson from Central Staff present to answer any questions about amendments in the event that we need his expertise, but he won't be introducing each amendment or giving presentations on them.

So that's it for tomorrow and what's coming from my committee.

The Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee met last Thursday and voted out two items.

One is appointment 03080 of Joy Shigaki, Washington State Convention Center Public Facilities District Board for a term to July 30th, 2028. And we also voted out Council Bill 120950, incorporating into city law the state's Shield Act, and there was an amendment to eliminate potential confusion on which court can grant relief from out-of-state subpoenas.

As I noted last Thursday in committee and last Monday, given the actions of the Trump administration toward historically disadvantaged and vulnerable communities like the LGBT community, and also toward reproductive rights in general, it's urgent that we clearly demonstrate our commitment to protecting rights and liberties and our commitment to providing everyone with access to city services and that we do so without delay.

And so I say that because I anticipate that this bill will be before council next week on March 25th, but I also said in committee that there I understand that there could be questions or concerns from council members.

And so there is a week, you know, including, well, eight days, including tomorrow to work with central staff and get any questions answered or perhaps amendments.

And then finally, in the next meeting of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, that will be on March 27th, and the Office of the City Auditor will present their most recent audit on steps the city should consider taking to reduce gun violence.

And I think that that will be sent to all council members.

I'm sure it will be if it hasn't already been.

Last thing I'll say is that there will be another Bob show, this time a Bob and Sarah show on Thursday, or at least it'll be taped on Thursday on the award-winning Seattle channel with council member Brian Callanan.

So that will be coming out soon.

All right, are there any questions about what I just said?

Okay, seeing none, if there's no further business, we'll move into the executive session.

I'm not seeing any further business, so we'll move into the executive session.

And as a presiding officer, I'm announcing that Seattle Council will now convene into executive session, the purpose of which is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

And the council's executive session is an opportunity for council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

And a legal monitor is always present to ensure that council reserves questions of policy for open session.

And I expect the time of the executive session to end by 425. which is 60 minutes.

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

And at the conclusion of this executive session, the council briefing meeting will just automatically adjourn.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing is on March 24th, 2025 at 2 p.m.

All right.

Council's now in executive session.

Please log into the Zoom meeting in your offices.

Thank you.

It is 325.

Bye.