Seattle City Council Briefing 8/15/22

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Today is Monday, August 15th.

The council meeting will come to order and the time is 2.01.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council President Juarez.

Here.

Next, President.

Thank you.

Council Members Nelson and Strauss are both excused from today's meeting.

Moving on on our agenda to approval of the minutes.

If there's no objection, we will adopt the minutes of August 8th.

Our minutes of August 8th will be adopted.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are adopted.

Moving on on our agenda to number two, which is the president's report.

On today's agenda, Council Member Morales will circulate one proclamation regarding the Pacific Northwest Black Pride Day.

The proclamation was distributed to your offices last week for your review and comment.

Following the signing of the proclamation, we will have a report from each council member.

There are no presentations or executive sessions on today's agenda.

On tomorrow's agenda, the consent calendar will include the minutes, the payment of the bills as well as 11 appointments from the to the Seattle Fire Code Advisory Board recommended by the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

That would be Council Member Herbold.

We'll take a vote on all items on the consent calendar again unless any Council Member wants to remove anything from the consent calendar which we will address at the end of the agenda.

Following the consent consent calendar tomorrow, we will be considering six items, including two items referred directly to council.

The first item is a resolution sponsored by Councilor Mosqueda condemning harassment, threats, and political violence against elected officials.

Councilor Mosqueda circulated this resolution to all council offices, and I believe she will be proposing a substitute, which is attached to the agenda.

The second item is Council Bill 120356, related to floodplain regulations.

Please feel free to contact Keel Freeman on central staff if you have any questions.

Following these items, we will consider one item recommended by the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee regarding Seattle City Lights integrated resource plan.

We will then consider two items recommended by the Finance and Housing Committee regarding the Seattle Aquarium And finally, one item recommended by the Public Safety and Human Services Committee regarding police recruitment.

Information on all these items is available on the online agenda.

So moving on to item item or agenda item number three on signing letters and proclamations.

Councilor Morales has a proclamation proclaiming Sunday, August 21st, 2022 to be Pacific Northwest Black Pride Day for signature.

Councilor Morales, will you please lead us in the discussion?

Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you, Council President.

So as the Council President said, we did circulate the proclamation last week.

I won't read the whole thing, but just for the viewing public, to give you a flavor, we're recognizing both Pocan and Pacific Northwest Thought and Pride.

So, One recital, whereas Autry Bell, Olivette Foster, Bishop Stephen Sawyer, along with a team of community leaders at People of Color Against AIDS Network, POCAN, which is a multicultural service agency that has worked for over 35 years to build positive and uplifting relationships among ethnic organizations.

Pocan founded Pacific Northwest Black Pride in 2018. Pacific Northwest Black Pride recently received its 501C3 status and seeks to deepen its work for the growing LGBTQIA African American community in Washington State.

So they are having their event this Sunday.

I would love to have all of your signatures on the proclamation, and I will be in attendance at the event on Sunday and presenting it to them.

They will also be in council chambers tomorrow.

If anybody is able to be there, I will be there because they are very interested in also having the experience of being in chamber as they receive the proclamation.

So that is what we're up to, and I hope all of you are willing to sign.

Thank you.

Councilor Morales, did you, I'm sorry, did you say the location for the event?

It's going to be at Jimi Hendrix Park, I believe, starting at noon on Sunday.

Yes.

OK, good.

Jimi Hendrix Park.

Got it.

Thank you.

Other council members, do you have any questions for Council Member Morales regarding her proclamation?

OK, I don't see any, so So will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like to add their name to the proclamation for proclaiming August 21st, Pacific Northwest Black Pride Day.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Council Member Peterson?

Aye.

Council President Morales.

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you, Council Member Morales.

We will have that official presentation tomorrow on the record at our council meeting.

Moving on in the agenda to the preview of council actions and council and regional committees.

So today, the lineup's a little bit different because a couple of council members are out.

So we will start with Council Member Sawant.

Councilmember Herboldt, Lewis, Morales, Mosqueda, and then Councilmember Peterson.

So with that, Councilmember Sawant.

Thank you, Council President Juarez.

Good afternoon, everyone.

And I apologize for not being on camera because of my connection.

No items on tomorrow's city council agenda from the sustainability and renters rights committee.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee will be this Friday at 9.30am.

At this meeting, we will consider a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Peterson regarding ending the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Seattle, and I'm sure Councilmember Peterson will speak to that.

Yesterday, I joined early learning teachers at Mighty Kids in Magnolia at a powerful protest in support of their courageous struggle for basic worker rights, for our union, and against the brutal and illegal retaliation by their wealthy bosses.

It was organized jointly by the teachers themselves, my council office, SEIU Local 925, and Socialist Alternative.

At the demonstration, we were joined by supportive parents, working class community members, and rank-and-file members of the labor movement and socialists.

And the rally was also supported by unions like UAW 4121, the Communication Workers of America, and ProTech 17. Teachers took the first courageous action on their own, organizing a one-day strike against low wages and brutal working conditions.

And in retaliation, last Monday and Tuesday, the bosses outrageously fired 10 teachers for their organizing.

And given the size of the total workforce in the child care center, this is nothing short of a mass firing.

The workers contacted community organizers from my office and we started organizing together alongside members from the SEIU local 925 and also other union members who have been in solidarity with the teachers all along.

We held a very successful press conference last Tuesday where the teachers told their story.

But of course, we have a long way to go.

Council members will also have seen the letter from my office to each of you urging You join me in contacting the bosses to publicly demand that they respect the workers' right to organize in a union and end the brutal retaliation, starting with reinstating all the 10 fired workers.

On Wednesday, the bosses verbally said that they are going to increase the wages.

This shows the power of organizing a public campaign, building community support, and putting a public spotlight on the bosses to expose their blatantly anti-worker actions and proves that boldly organizing can force the bosses to concede.

Picketing and rallying and publicly campaigning with strong demands for what should change in wages and working conditions, all of this can work.

The same bosses that fired so many teachers, outrageously saying that the teachers were engaging in, quote, unquote, commercial extortion or demanding better wages, are having to say that they are increasing the wages.

At the same time, the bosses clearly have no intention of backing down yet on reinstating the fired teachers.

and certainly not on the union.

And it's very clear that their goal is to not allow the union to take root in the workplace and that they're going to concede only what they feel forced to, not one bit more, and only for as long as they have to.

The bosses have made clear that they don't intend to tolerate a teacher's union and that they will penalize any teachers who have the temerity to ever go on strike.

Specifically, they are continuing to, as I said, refuse to reinstate the 10 fire teachers.

And so I am quite confident that the teachers will continue to get organized, but they also need increased support.

We know that they're making enormous sacrifices in order to be waging this fight.

And I especially thank SEIU 925 for standing with the workers every step of the way.

And I thank President Tricia Schroeder, who was personally there to speak.

I urge all councilmembers to send their own public letters to the bosses urging that they reinstate all the fired workers and that they voluntarily recognize the child care union.

Do councilmembers have any There are no questions or anything else.

I will end the report from my office and I believe Council Member Herbold is next in the rotation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate seeing everybody today.

Items for Council tomorrow on the Tuesday, August 9th meeting from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee are as follows.

We have nine reappointments.

and two appointments to the Seattle Fire Code Advisory Board.

And those are included in the full council consent agenda.

We'll also be hearing a final vote on Council Bill 120389, the recruitment and retention bill for police officers in the Seattle Police Department.

The bill was voted out of committee last week with a vote of four to one.

Council Member Council President Madam President Juarez agreed to move this forward at full Council tomorrow.

Despite the divided report, so Council can take action before the summer recess and Council Member Nelson was added as a sponsor at that meeting.

Given the high interest of members of the public and some council members in quick action, the committee voted on this bill at the first committee meeting on August 9th rather than what we usually do, which is to first have a briefing on the bill at the first committee meeting and then hear amendments and vote the bill out at a second meeting.

As I noted in our last meeting, without ongoing analysis, we were anticipating that we might have some potential amendments at full counsel and sure enough we do.

I want to acknowledge that this expedited action on this bill has put a lot of has asked a lot of our central staff at this time, and they've risen to the occasion, but it is not the speed of deliberations that I think is sustainable or beneficial for us moving forward.

Central staff and my office have been in good contact with the mayor's office, the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, Seattle HR and labor relations on a number of issues that I'm going to cover is pretty quickly.

I sent an email or my staff, Noel Aldrich, sent an email prior to this meeting, but there are three amendments.

One amendment creates an obligation to evaluate the hiring bonus program.

It's just the same evaluation requirements in replicated in an ordinance that was passed for the 2019 SPD bonus program.

The department did not get to do that full evaluation.

So we're again asking them to do basically the same sort of evaluation that we already asked.

That amendment also includes a sunset date of end of year 2024 consistent with the executive's plan to run the program through 2024. Amendment two is to provide some clarity about the groups of police officer candidates that are eligible for hiring incentives consistent with the Public Safety Civil Service Commission's definition of candidates that are rehires and thus eligible under a SPOG agreement for a benefits reinstatement package that has to be able to provide economic value to those candidates.

Again, want to flag that central staff was required to do a deep dive into the procedures of the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, which handles these applications, as well as the SPOG contract, which clarifies that officers who leave the department have two years and their previously accrued benefits and don't need to retest.

So really appreciate the analytical work that central staff has done with the other executive partners.

And then the third amendment would simply acknowledge that some provisions of the bill may require collective bargaining before implementation.

And it would clarify that one of the retention programs that we flagged as not needing not needing to be bargained.

The amendment itself clarifies the reason why it doesn't need to be bargained, and that's simply because there is already an agreement to offer to a certain number of police officers the very desirable 410 schedule, four days a week, 10 hours a week, And that group of officers, the community response group, in exchange for volunteering for that mission, they get the 410s, and that was already the result of an agreement with SPOG.

The mayor's office has no objection to these amendments.

And moving forward on some of the other areas of my committee, I just want to mark on behalf of the Human Services Department.

The fact that tomorrow is the end of another very successful season for the Seattle Youth Employment Program, summer interns.

The summer paid internships last for six weeks, gives young people a lot of experience in work settings, both at City of Seattle offices and with other employers.

Many of these young adults emerge as writers, photographers, videographers, researchers, and they bring their lived experience and a fresh perspective to our work.

This year, 211 young people ages 16 to 24 participated in the program.

And I want to thank the 60 different employers that participated or hosted participants as interns, including 15 different city departments and offices.

Congratulations.

to all of the 211 summer interns.

Public health update on monkeypox.

As of Friday, there were a total of 224 cases.

The epi curve shows a rise in case reporting and public health is watching the curve to see if this is a trend or a result of more available testing.

Public health has received upwards of 9,000 doses of vaccine that are being administered by 16 healthcare providers.

The FDA recently approved administering the vaccine via an interdermal method.

You may recall we talked about this a little bit in briefings last week.

This new method allows them to increase the number of doses in each vaccine by about three, not the five that we'd hoped for, but still a threefold increase.

Providers are being trained on this method and some have already begun using it.

There was a vaccine clinic on the 6th of August.

It was a big success, vaccinated more than 660 high-risk individuals.

And then last weekend, two additional events were held.

One held at the Lumberyard in White Center, hosted by Public Health.

586 people were vaccinated at that event.

And the second was in Kent, sort of the Kent-Des Moines area.

and was hosted by a healthcare provider who identified their own high-risk patients and worked with community-based organizations to turn folks out.

We're not widely publicizing these events.

Again, there are specific populations and specific strategies to reach those populations.

And in doing so, we can make sure that we're driving those at highest risk to the event rather than just doing an all-call.

Public Health's sexual health clinic also administered 500 vaccines each day last week and the lines are still long.

They're becoming more manageable for staff as we receive more vaccine.

Then finally, I just want to uplift that public health continues to expand the network of providers that can prescribed teapots, the treatment for monkey pox.

Now there are 89 separate enrolled providers who can administer the vaccine.

And public health is pleased to report that Harborview also filled 48 courses of training for administering teapots in the first week of August alone.

On the public safety front, I just want to uplift that the police department has formally not launched the Before the Badge training program.

I'm sure folks remember that the council championed funding for the Before the Badge program.

It's an innovative program focused on new recruits during the period of time when they're, after they've been identified as recruits, but they're not yet in the academy for training.

And it's, again, an innovative program that works to immerse all of our recruits in, quote, introspective experiences that will provide them a community-based foundation upon which to build their careers as police officers.

And so there's a curriculum for recruits to learn about different communities in Seattle, meet with different community stakeholders, and really get that grounding before going to the academy.

Also, I want to observe the fact that there were a number of shootings this week, leading to more than one death.

This shows the urgent need to continue our work on reducing gun violence.

One example that we heard about in my committee, a couple weeks back is the Harborview violence intervention program that the city funds.

provides matching funding as well as the county.

And that focus of that program currently is for 12 to 25-year-olds.

But in analysis of the population of people who are perpetuating gun violence right now, we're seeing a lot more in the upper ages.

And in one way, that suggests that The intervention for 12 to 24 year olds is showing some early results, but it's also pointing to the need to expand the cohort to older folks in collaboration with the regional peacekeepers collective.

So the Harvard U presentation in my committee noted a need to expand and enhance the program to older age groups, high risk individuals from other counties and other areas.

And just wanna flag my interest in helping to facilitate using a strategy that is showing promising results for another cohort of folks where we definitely need to focus some efforts in gun violence reduction.

As far as updates, I talked last week about my attendance at the WIRA 9 meeting, so I don't need to rehash that.

I did mention that I wouldn't be able to attend the last week's Domestic Violence Prevention Council, which I represent the city council on, but my staff attended.

I just wanted to report out that they reviewed data and research highlighting the significant overlap between domestic violence and other violent crimes.

An analysis of King County prosecutor data with court conviction data found that DV offenders are overrepresented in non-DV homicides, non-DV attempted homicides, and in all violent crime.

That's, I think, a really important data point to report out.

Appreciate Christina Katsubos at my office being there.

And wanna flag as well that the presentation that we heard or that they heard called for funding treatment for indigent DV offenders and for kids who witnessed domestic violence as well.

Coming up this week, just I will be attending Council Member Lewis's Community Town Hall tonight in Rainier Beach.

and on Friday, I will be participating all day in a police chief search committee.

Last week, I attended two, both on Tuesday and Wednesday night, two police chief search community engagement meetings, one in the South End, the other in South Park.

On Friday, I joined, along with Council Member Nelson, the Seattle Fire Department's graduation ceremony for a recruit class, Recruit Class 115, 28 probationary firefighters graduated to full-fledged firefighters.

And for those who are listening along, want to flag, I had a meeting last week with King County Director of the Department of Community and Human Services, Director Flohr, to discuss the county's progress on increasing behavioral health services and facilities.

Specifically, the city had contributed a match in $5 million in funding with leadership from this council and a match to King County's contribution and really appreciate the efforts of King County to implement this funding this year.

And then lastly, before I open up for questions, just wanna announce that because of the all day police search committee meeting that I'll be attending on Friday, I will not be having my regular Friday office hours this week.

That's all I've got.

Does anybody have any questions or comments?

All right, not seeing any.

Pass it on to Council Member Lewis.

Thank you Councilmember Herbold and thank you for foreshadowing this evening's town hall at the Rainier Beach Community Center and looking forward to being joined by yourself and Councilmember Morales there.

So let's just jump into some of the broader updates.

For this coming Wednesday's meeting of the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, the final meeting before our August recess, We will be hearing a presentation from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to get an update on some of their initiatives and projects, including a number with investments from our last City of Seattle budget.

So looking forward to that presentation.

We're also going to hear a presentation from Seattle Parks and Recreation on comfort stations and bathrooms in Seattle parks.

This has been a big area of discussion both within the City Council and externally in the media around priorities for the Metropolitan Park District.

I do want to extend an invitation even though it's a committee hearing.

If there are colleagues who do not sit on the committee who would be interested in being part of this discussion around the hours of operation, cleanliness, and general state of comfort stations in city parks, Opening, opening up for full invitation to anyone who would want to participate and be able to ask questions and engage in that presentation since I know it will be an ongoing area of interest for our metropolitan park district discussions.

I do want to give another update that is related to parks.

Camilla Brown on my staff and I had a great opportunity this past Saturday to do a ride along with park ranger Sandra around the downtown neighborhood to really see up close and personal what our park rangers do as part of We do unfortunately only have two Seattle park Rangers it's it's the lowest number of Rangers we've had since the inception of the program, just as a little bit of background, our park Rangers are are unarmed.

But are given the, the authority to enforce park rules in a civil nature by potentially issuing citations though that is something that they rarely do.

And mostly just through building a rapport and a general connection with the people using park spaces to resolve potential violations of park rules if they arise and also be a resource for park patrons and Seattle Parks and Rec employees who are doing their jobs on park and recreation sites.

It was a great opportunity to ask Ranger Sandra questions about the program and how it might potentially be protected and expanded as a priority in the Metropolitan Park District.

And if the Rangers could play a bigger role in programming and providing public safety services.

in Seattle parks and recreation spaces.

We did get to see Sandra patiently and compassionately resolve a number of situations and respond to several wellness checks and person down checks in the park to make sure that neighbors in some kind of potential distress were able to get access to some kind of resource if it was needed.

for their situation.

So I do want to just say that I appreciate Parks and Rec making that ride-along available and certainly encourage council colleagues, if you want to learn more about the Ranger program, to similarly contact Parks and Rec to see if a ride-along can be arranged given that this will be an area that my office will want to look into and pursue as we put together our Metropolitan Park District investment priorities.

That is a good pivot to Metropolitan Park District Town Halls.

Last week, I wrapped up the last two of the three town halls conducted just just by my office in District seven to hear from District seven constituencies about their potential priorities for the Metropolitan Park District in neighborhoods throughout District seven.

About three weeks ago, we held our first of these town halls in the Queen Anne neighborhood, which was well attended, probably had nearly 35 or so attendees.

This past week, we were able to meet with a delegation of folks from the Queen Anne, I mean, sorry, from the Belltown community last Monday at Block 41. And last Thursday, we met with probably about 40 or so people at the Magnolia Community Center.

to hear people's ongoing priorities for parks and recreation.

As will probably be of no surprise to my colleagues, lots of interest in leaning into the maintenance and cleanliness of park bathrooms.

Lots of interest in people wanting to feel safe in parks and having parks be a program space where there are park personnel who can be of assistance in a potential public safety situation, or just programming the space to enhance the recreational programming opportunities available in Seattle parks.

We will be having two additional joint town halls outside of District 7. One tonight in the Rainier Beach Community Center at 6 p.m.

and looking forward to joining Councilmember Morales in her district as well as Councilmember Herbold for that joint town hall.

And on September 7th, we will be holding another joint town hall at the Northgate Community Center from 6 to 8 p.m.

in North Seattle.

And I appreciate Council Member Juarez sharing that town hall in her recent update to the district.

Really look forward to hearing from the broader Seattle community in both of those settings.

I can say that if the three town halls that I had in District 7 are any indication, People are very excited to have conversations about the Metropolitan Park District and very excited about how we build up and invest and protect our parks post-COVID as part of our recovery strategy.

They have been great experiences.

People have been very excited and results-oriented, and I hope we can continue that momentum with these next two opportunities for feedback.

Moving on to Seattle Public Library updates.

The Seattle Public Library will be partnering with the University of Washington, the Meridian Library District in Idaho, and the Charles County Public Library in Maryland, as well as the American Library Association, to develop the capacity of libraries in addressing teen mental health crisis in the United States.

This project is going to expand the library staff's ability to co-design virtual and physical spaces with teenagers and reinforce positive teen mental health, and we'll develop a website to disseminate the teen mental health co-design framework nationally.

So looking forward to that initiative getting more fleshed out and of course those national partnerships coming to the fore to help us with this critical work that has long been a strong council budget priority and thank our partners at Seattle Public Library for showing yet again what a great hub they are for community programming and partnership in a number of different areas.

The library is also excited to announce that homework help returns the week of September 12 just in time for school really getting started again at six locations throughout the city and virtual tutoring remains available as well for folks who can't get to one of those branches.

The relaunch of this program.

coincides with the second week of Seattle Public School and Homework Help is a free drop-in program that provides in-person academic support for K-12 students on weekday afternoons and evenings.

Volunteer tutors work with students one-on-one or in small groups to help with school assignments, reading, and skill-building activities.

The library's virtual tutoring program is in partnership with Tutor.com and offers services in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

Adults can also access services through tutor.com, such as help with cover letters, resumes, and job applications.

And I will read out those branches and their hours for those who are watching at home or later on Seattle Channel.

The Columbia Library branch, Tuesdays from 4.30 to 6 p.m.

The Douglas Truth branch on Tuesdays from 4 to 5.30 p.m.

and on Thursdays from 4 to 5.30 p.m.

The High Point branch, Tuesdays from 4 to 7.30 p.m.

and Wednesdays from 4 to 5.45 p.m.

The Lake City branch, Tuesdays from 4.30 to 7.30 p.m.

and Wednesdays from 4.30 to 7.30 p.m.

The New Holly branch, Tuesdays from 5.30 to 7 p.m.

and the Rainier Beach branch, Mondays from 4 to 5, 45 p.m.

In the coming weeks, the New Holly branch will be expanding these hours and opening on Sundays from 12 p.m.

to 5 p.m., and the library is pleased to add these additional hours for patrons in the New Holly community.

Finally, the Clean City Initiative data for August 1st to August 5th The Clean City Initiative recovered 816 needles and removed 72,320 pounds of garbage from 39 pickup locations.

There were no focus cleans for parks during this period.

And with that, colleagues, I am done with my report for today.

Are there any questions on my report?

Seeing none, I will pass it on to Council Member Morales.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Before I begin, I do want to acknowledge the two tragedies that occurred over the weekend.

We had another light rail fatality yesterday afternoon, this time at the Mount Baker station.

And a person was killed in Cal Anderson Park and many folks were injured across the city due to gun violence.

So I want to first offer my condolences to the friends and families of all of the victims and say that I know we are all on this council and in city leadership committed to increasing public safety in our city.

As Mayor Harrell said at a news conference this morning, whether it's transit safety or safety from violent crime, we have a lot of work to do.

to change the community conditions here that put people in danger.

So I think we we all know that we are committed to doing that.

And do want to again extend my condolences to those families.

On Friday, the Neighborhood Education and Civil Rights Committee passed several appointments to the FEPP Levy Oversight Committee, to the LGBTQ Commission, and the Disability Commission.

On the full council agenda September 6th, we will be hearing the Council Bill 120399, which passed out of committee as well, related to limited service pregnancy centers.

The next meeting of the neighborhood education and civil rights committee will be September 9, where we will vote on some FEPP levy amendments that were presented in my committee last week.

There aren't any bills from my committee on the full council agenda tomorrow.

There is one bill from the Land Use Committee.

And so if it's okay, I will give a quick report from that committee from Council Member Strauss.

We will be hearing Council Bill 120356 relating to floodplains.

This is the third extension of some interim regulations that were established.

I covered this a little bit in briefing last week, but we will be hearing that tomorrow in full council.

And the next Land Use Committee meeting is September 14th.

The agenda includes public hearings on design review board, let's see, sorry, omnibus townhouse density limit legislation, comprehensive plan docketing, OPCD director confirmation, Crown Hill design guidelines, virtual design review, and a clerk file on the Roosevelt contract rezone.

So that will be September 14th.

Back to my departments.

I met with the city auditor last week to get updated on a request I made last year for a workplace equity audit for the city.

In the city's 2021 workforce equity report, it did show that women of color are underrepresented in the top 25% levels of pay and supervision in city departments.

But there is no analysis or data on the percentage of women of color who were promoted or reclassified upward.

And right now it's unclear if the city is implementing best practices to achieve our equitable workforce goals.

So I am working with the auditor who will be undertaking research to create some baseline data and review our workforce equity retention practices.

And we'll keep you updated as that work continues.

This week, I'll be meeting with our arts department for my monthly meeting about programming at the department.

We will also be meeting with Station Space, which is a project of the Cultural Space Agency that supports creative youth development.

I'm very excited that they've raised about $2.5 million so far and will begin construction in October.

This is a space in the King Street Station.

And they'll be building out a recording studio, flexible theater, gathering space and lounge and flexible classrooms for our city's young people.

this for aspiring creatives who will be able to access the station space for free through programming that's hosted by six youth-serving arts organizations that partner with the PDA, including Totem Star, Red Eagle Soaring, and the Rhapsody Project.

So I'm looking forward to hearing more from them, and we'll share with you when we have an opening date.

Tonight as Council Members Herbold and Lewis said, we'll be attending the MPD meeting in person.

Looking forward to having Council Members Lewis and Herbold join me in the South End and looking forward to hearing from South End residents about their priorities for how we spend parks levy dollars.

Let's see, last week, I joined the Port of Seattle, the Northwest Seaport Alliance, and Washington Maritime Federation, along with electeds from all over the region, to take a tour of the port and the harbor and get an up-close look at our waterfront and how things work there.

Was excited to talk to folks particularly about the investment that we made earlier this year in the Maritime Academy and how we can get young people into Maritime trades, they offer high paying good union jobs and we know that they are soon to experience the silver tsunami.

So we're doing everything we can to make sure that we're getting more young people into into the maritime sector and I look forward to continuing to work with the port in that effort.

Councilmember Nelson was there along with a lot of people.

My staff also joined the Mayor's Office, Department of Neighborhoods, OED, and OIRA for a walk-in tour of the Empire Way Shopping Center on MLK.

where we heard from business owners about their desire for more language access in city resources.

And I should say, if I haven't said this already, I am working with the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs on some language access legislation.

It's probably for early next year, but we wanna make sure that folks, that our departments are moving in the same direction to make sure that everybody has access to the services that the city is providing.

Just yesterday, I attended the Othello International Festival and presented a proclamation alongside Deputy Mayor Wong and on board Othello to Mona Lee, who is a tireless neighborhood organizer.

Between she and her husband, Dick, I don't know how many causes they promote and sponsor and advocate for to make sure that the South End and our communities down there get the attention they deserve.

And she's been working for a long time with Othello Park Alliance.

So it was great to see her and to share the proclamation with her while celebrating in community.

This week, I've got several in-district events coming up.

I'll be attending the opening of the Seattle Indian Health Board Clinic in Pioneer Square at the Chief Seattle Club building.

All, all, you think I'm saying that right?

On Thursday, I'll be joining community organizers of Link to Lake at their summer event.

I will be judging a barbecue contest at the Rainier Beach Grillmaster event.

I finally get to put my Texas skills to use.

This weekend, I'll be joining the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways for their Feast in the Street event at Plaza Roberto Maestas.

And on Sunday, as mentioned earlier, I'll be presenting the proclamation celebrating Pocan and Pacific Northwest Black Pride at their event at the Jimi Hendrix Park.

and as I said, we'll get a chance to hear from them again tomorrow.

Colleagues, that is all I have.

Are there any questions about my report?

I'm not seeing any, so I will pass it to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Council Member.

I know there is a lot going on We will have the following items on our agenda.

We're going to start with a follow-up conversation on the three pieces of cannabis equity legislation.

I want to thank the mayor's office, specifically Dan Eater and Breonna Thomas and the team at FAS, OLS, Office of Economic Development as well for the work that they did on the legislation that they submitted to us.

We had a chance to walk through a robust set of central staff memos last week.

and to hear some initial concepts around amendments.

As we noted, amendments were due on Friday last week, so central staff had the opportunity to work on those amendments.

I know central staff is finalizing those amendments, which should be published by midday tomorrow as well.

We will make sure to hear all of the amendments and we will have a vote on the amendments and a vote on the final bill tomorrow with the goal to get that out before recess so that we can then consider it when we come back on September 6th.

The second half of our Finance and Housing Committee meeting will be on revenue forecast projections.

We will have the Office of Economic Revenue Forecast provide their revenue forecast presentation from last week.

We'll have City Budgets Office, Julie Dingley, Director, providing an update on the forecast presentation from the CBO's perspective.

And then we will have central staff do an overview of We promised that we would follow up with the May 4th meeting with an outlook over what the next six years look like and how we are going to address the shortfall in terms of current revenues.

And we will follow up that conversation on Wednesday with the last item on our agenda.

And if we have time, we will make sure to include an overview of the American Rescue Plan Act expenses.

Again, we want to thank the mayor's office for turning these quarterly reports into something that's more real time and public with the portal that they put up earlier this month that shows ARPA investments and spending as well.

So we'll have a chance to walk through that time permitting.

Regarding full council agenda tomorrow, at Seattle City Council full council meeting, we do have, as the Council President noted, Resolution 32065. This is a resolution condemning harassment, threats, political violence against elected officials and those seeking elected office, including public servants and election workers.

I really want to thank Council Members Herbold and Council Members Peterson for your work to include amendments into the resolution in front of us.

We amended that title and we also amended the body of the resolution itself to really note the importance of condemning what we see at a national level as well, which is concerns and threats against public servants and those seeking office, election workers, and I want to thank council member Zahili from King County Council who is similarly bringing forward the same resolution on the same day.

We're doing this in conjunction to send a united message from our region and really appreciate that Pastor Carrie Anderson is going to be dialing into King County Council meeting.

That starts at one o'clock.

You haven't heard of the experience that Pastor Anderson had as an African-American candidate who was running for the state legislative district.

He was targeted with bullets from a BB gun while canvassing and he is slated to call into King County Council at 1 p.m.

and hopefully if time permits we'll be able to dial into ours as well.

I want to thank as well the Council President, doling out my thank yous, Council President, for your flexibility and your office's flexibility.

Last week in our Finance and Housing Committee meeting, we did have two bills related to the Aquarium Expansion Project.

These are Council Bills 120396. and 1230397. Our intent was to bring these forward tomorrow at full council.

These did pass with a vote of four to one.

And with this divided vote, we appreciate the council president's flexibility to include this on the agenda given the upcoming recess.

However, out of respect for some of the outstanding questions and concerns that we're hearing from council members, We do want to allow for some of those questions to be addressed by central staff and or the aquarium folks.

And so we will be just going with the regular timeline to have Council Bill 120396 and 120397 be considered our next meeting, which will be September 6. So Council President, just a early heads up that I'll be working with your team and this clerks to help make sure that that's official on our agenda.

So we will consider those two bills on September 6. I also want to thank the Council President again for the work that you did with central staff and our office in preparation for next month.

Next month already begins the Select Budget Committee's deliberations.

We start meeting at the end of September.

The Council President sent out a memo on Friday, and we sent out a memo as well as a follow-up to that.

the list of instructions from the Council President's Office and our team at Central Staff.

I want to thank Allie Panucci, who's the Deputy Director for Central Staff for the follow-up that she sent outlining our proposed process for the upcoming budget deliberations.

We will again be highlighting this when we come back from recess in September, but you should have received a full calendar.

I'm holding up the paper version, but it is available online and I believe we are going to be linking to it in our Teresa Tuesday alert that goes out next Tuesday and it will be online.

At the Seattle City Council websites as well.

This year, we have made sure to have 3 opportunities for public hearings.

I think we've gone from 2 to 3 now, and we will have 3 specific sections of our committee time dedicated to just a public hearing.

In addition to that, we will have the opportunity for public testimony at the beginning of each meeting that sets off the series of meetings for our week.

So we will have the opportunity for public testimony.

Obviously, anybody can write in in writing.

We can receive written testimony at any point.

But in terms of verbal testimony, oral testimony, we will start off the meetings on Let's see the CBO's presentation on September 28th with the opportunity for both verbal and written testimony.

We will start the meeting on October 11th.

We are doing this instead of 20 minute public hearings each week so that we limit the amount of time that individuals are going to be in actual city hall.

We are going to be condensing all of the public comment into those first meetings that set off the series.

Again, we will have the same opportunity at our CDO presentation on September 28th.

The public hearings will be October 11th at 5pm, November 7th at 11am, and again, November 15th at 5 p.m.

So again, colleagues, you should have received that information and we're doing the best we can to make sure that this is a collaborative, thoughtful process that invites members of the public to share their opinions while also doing our best to limit in-person presentations.

There will not be presentations at the dais, for example, from the departments or from guests coming to present on the city budget to try to really be in line with the public health guidance.

Well, last week I mentioned to you that I had the opportunity to visit with Congresswoman Jayapal and with Congresswoman Gwen Moore from Wisconsin to talk about the city's investments in labor and economic resilience at the House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness and Growth.

This was Congresswoman Jayapal's opportunity to host the committee here, and we had the chance to talk about jumpstart investments, investments in labor standards, and ways that we are really creating a robust economy by investing in workers, and I think it was really well received.

You will be happy to note that the committee really appreciated all that we're doing and labor standard investments and the ways that we're supporting small businesses continue to get lifted up at the national level.

On Thursday, I'll be attending the grand opening of the Chief Seattle Club, Sheba Pioneer Square Clinic as well.

Council Member Morales noted that.

And Council Member Sawant noted the solidarity rally with the childcare workers at Mighty Kids in Magnolia.

I too sent a message of solidarity to those folks.

who had used their labor and put everything on the line by withholding their labor and demanding better conditions and pay, an opportunity to organize.

And I thank Trisha Schroeder from the president of SEAU 925 for reading my statement as well, standing in solidarity with those workers and continuing to send, we have sent a letter as well, and we'll continue to send messages of solidarity.

Madam President, I know I said I'd be brief, but there was one more item that I really wanted to get to, and that is to do an announcement that the Department of Education and Early Learning has partnered with King County Best Starts for Kids to release the $7.4 million in funding to support child care workforce in Seattle and King County as we continue to recover from COVID and This is directly as a result of the council's investments in funding for child care workers through American Rescue Plan Act dollars and other funds.

Department of Education and Early Learning received $2.4 million as well from the Jump Start Seattle payroll tax to expand child care stabilization grants.

that began in 2020 for childcare licenses in Seattle.

King County also had 5 million from the Best Starts Program for the Seattle Kids Levy and dedicated a one-time investment towards workforce compensation.

I think I misspoke and said that this is in part ARPA.

This is actually just Jumpstart and King County's Best Starts for Kids, bringing us to a total of $7.4 million.

I just wanted to highlight how excited we are that these dollars are getting out the door and thank a deal for their.

their important work with community members to get these dollars out.

One more update.

Okay, I'm gonna be very brief.

The Office of Housing, okay, this is really exciting as well.

They are announcing they're accepting fall proposals for the 2022 funding for preservation and new construction of affordable housing, rental housing.

And this is the 2022 notice of funding availability.

The NOFA goals for the Seattle investments are listed on the website and policies.

about how to apply for these dollars are on Office of Housing's website.

The preservation and production of affordable housing is, as we know, the foundation to a truly thriving and equitable community, but also the foundation for how we are going to create healthier communities.

This NOFA is specifically focused on addressing displacement, projects that create or preserve access to housing for people experiencing homelessness, and projects that will increase access to opportunity.

The NOFA is currently at $44 million and will be awarded for preservation and development of affordable housing.

We expect there to be significant increase in the number of proposals this year.

As we know, more folks are really trying to respond to what they see in their own communities, communities of color-led organizations trying to respond to displacement and the need for affordable housing.

Friends, please get your applications in by September 15th.

Information is available at Seattle.gov slash housing slash funding opportunities multifamily program.

Thank you, Madam President.

Two minutes over.

All right.

I'm handing it off.

Thank you very much.

And I don't see any.

Oh, do I see a question?

I see a question.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you for giving me more time out here.

Not a question, but just related to your report, I want to share with everybody that for tomorrow's full council meeting related to Council Bill 120396, I do have an amendment that is designed to take a belt and suspenders approach to ensuring that the negotiation terms in the bill are accomplished and implemented.

You'll recall the bill authorizes negotiation on the amendments to the agreement, but does not require the aquarium to agree to the negotiation terms set out in the bill.

There's some sort of squishy language in the bill.

that is sort of presenting this opportunity to, again, to clarify our intent, ensure that the authority of the bill not be used without actually executing the specific amendments.

And the amendment itself was circulated at 1020 this morning by central staff member Eric McConaughey for everybody's review.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And when we consider that bill, I will be supportive of this approach.

The language that's there right now is what we had requested to try to put some sideboards on it.

And I appreciate you really drawing that out.

So thanks for flagging that and your work on it.

Thank you.

My favorite talkers.

So yes, Council Member Peterson, it's all you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's Full City Council agenda, there are no items from the Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Our next committee meeting on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16, at 9.30 a.m.

We have five items on tomorrow morning's committee agenda.

First, we will hear introductory remarks from Gregory Spotts, who is Mayor Harrell's nominee to become the next Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

I'm grateful to Mayor Harrell and his team for delivering such a strong candidate for our consideration.

Our committee will consider that nomination, which is appointment 02333 at both our August 16 meeting and our September 6 meeting.

All council members are invited to attend both committee meetings for that particular item.

We're following the vetting process for all executive nominees is outlined in resolution 3, 1, 8, 6, 8, several days before the September 6 meeting will circulate Mister spots is answers to the written questions that we just recently provided to him.

He's also available to speak with each council member individually at any time.

So we'll use the first meeting tomorrow just for opening remarks from the nominee, and then we'll reserve the September 6 committee for an exhaustive Q&A session before we vote on the nominee.

other items for August 16. Our committee will receive an early preview of a petition from downtown developers via clerk 314497 asking the city of Seattle to vacate an alley two blocks east of the Space Needle, specifically the alley currently bounded by Thomas Street and John Street and by 6th Avenue North and Taylor Avenue North.

We're not voting on the item yet, but we'll welcome comments from committee members We have received a number of comments.

We have also invited the district council member to that meeting who is also welcome to connect with us separately on this.

We will also hear from us on I hope to vote on that item tomorrow because it's just accepting property as already envisioned by that project.

Council will present their annual report on the Seattle transit measure, also known as the Seattle Transportation Benefit District.

As we know, that's the 0.15% sales tax that 80% of voters approved in November 2020 for extra bus service and related projects over the next few years.

While this presentation is just a look back on 2021, the Council will eventually need to approve a spend plan for 2023, but that'll happen later.

For example, adjustments will be needed since the state government's now funding the free passes for youth 18 years of age and under.

Also, we've got several infrastructure projects to consider.

we'll have a public hearing and hopefully a vote to enable Seattle Public Utilities to grant minor easements to the city of Renton to enable public roadway work focused on utilities, storm drainage, and installation of traffic control equipment.

The Cedar River pipeline owned by Seattle Public Utilities flows under Rainier Avenue South in the city of Renton.

And due to the minor nature of this proposal and the fact that it's impacting Renton rather than Seattle, We're likely to vote on this council bill 120395 the same day we have its public hearing.

And I think we already announced that SDOT plans to reopen the West Seattle Bridge on Sunday, September 18. So I know we're all looking forward to that.

Regarding the leaf blower resolution, which I know you're This is the pinnacle of my remarks here.

This Friday morning, August 19th at 9.30 a.m., the Sustainability Renters' Rights Committee will hear and with council recess quickly approaching, hopefully vote on this environmental resolution 32064, calls for the city to phase out the use of harmful gasoline-fueled leaf blowers in Seattle.

I want to thank Chair Sawant and her staff for setting aside ample time to discuss this important resolution at her committee.

As I mentioned last week, a whopping 82% of the Northeast Seattle constituents who responded to my survey said they'd favor an outright ban of the harmful gas-powered leak blowers from Seattle.

This resolution calls for a gradual phasing out of these harmful fossil-fueled machines over time, and it's endorsed by the environmental organization 350 Seattle.

I want to thank all of you for joining us today.

as a sign that this environmental and public health issue is revving up, I believe our offices have been raking in a colorful pile of emails in support of this resolution.

if you have any questions about resolution 32064, please feel free to contact my office or central staff including the science backing it up, and examples from some of the other 100 cities that have already surpassed Seattle on this environmental and public health issue.

That concludes my remarks, and I refer back to the Council President.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Those of us playing D4 bingo, we were happy to see you mention the West Seattle Bridge and the leaf blowers.

So, thank you for that.

OK, that was my attempt at humor.

Council members and public, I will be brief.

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

Last week, our office participated in the Economic Revenue Forecast Council meeting.

You should all have received that report as well.

We also met with the new director of the Office of Economic Development, Mark McIntyre, regarding economic development opportunities citywide with tribal governments and in District 5 with a focus at Northgate and the Northgate neighborhoods, which we affectionately call Seattle North.

Our office also attended the community conversation hosted by the Community Police Commission.

with the new acting director of the Office of Public Accountability, Gino Betz.

And we also participated in the chief of police search, along with Council Member Herbold.

We did that Friday.

My staff and Council Member Morales' staff also joined community members for a tour of potential locations for the new Soto Light Rail Station, which is part of the West Seattle Ballard Link Extension.

The Sound Transit Board of Directors will be considering possible station locations in this area in September.

I got a lot of notes on this one, so this may take a little bit.

The Salient Health Board, as you know, will be opening its new Pioneer Square Medical Clinic officially on Thursday.

They've been working in conjunction with the Chief Seattle Club.

I will be speaking, and I also invited former Seattle City Council Member Sally Bagshaw.

As many of you know, this has been in the works for many years with many mayors and many budget cycles, and working with tribal leadership and indigenous-led organizations So this is a historic moment for I think all of us for the Chief Seattle Club.

and for the tribes, indigenous organizations, and of course, the Seattle Indian Health Board.

I will also be meeting with Tim Radon and Francesca Mernon and leadership from our native communities and tribal governments to discuss plans for our participation in the United States Department of Interior's outreach to boarding school survivors in the Road to Healing Tour.

As you know, it started on July 9th, and I believe they've been in the Southwest, and they just finished up in Michigan.

And on Saturday, August 13th, while they were in Michigan being hosted by many tribes, several hundred folks showed up, as well as U.S.

Secretary Deb Haaland, to hear people talk about their experiences in boarding schools, as well as their, not only their relatives, but also those children whose parents were in boarding schools and the effects of intergenerational trauma.

As a reminder, our last council meeting before a two week recess will be tomorrow.

There'll be no council briefings on August 22nd or August 29th or September 5th.

The first council meeting will after recess is Tuesday, September 6th.

So let's see, we got Salient Health Board, we got the Boarding School, we got Interior, the committees, I think we're good there.

Oh, finally, last Friday, Seattle Storm play the Minnesota Lynx, which sets up their WNBA playoff schedule.

So there'll be three games coming this Thursday, August 18th at seven o'clock.

They'll be playing the Washington Mystics Sunday, August 21st at one o'clock.

These two are both home games and climate pledge.

And hopefully maybe not their last game will be on Tuesday, August 23rd in Washington, DC.

With that, let's see.

I think that's all I got.

This concludes our items on today's agenda.

Our next scheduled council briefing meeting will be held after the two week council research, which begins next week and the week after Labor Day holiday, which will be on September 12th.

Two o'clock will be our next actual council meeting, not briefing.

So is there anything else?

Councilor Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Councilman, Council President.

I will make sure to follow up with your offices about the aquarium bills tomorrow.

It sounds like some of those questions that other council members had actually were already addressed.

So if that's the case, then I will not be making a change to tomorrow's agenda.

But we'll follow up with you, Madam President, before well before well before the full meeting.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right.

Not seeing any questions or comments.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.