are recording.
Thank you so much, son.
Today is January 17th, 2023. This meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.
It is 2 p.m.
My name is Andrew Lewis.
I am the Council President Pro Tem of the Seattle City Council for this meeting.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Strauss?
Present.
Council Member Herbold?
Here.
Council Member Lewis?
Present.
Sorry.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council Member Mosqueda.
Present.
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Council Member Peterson.
Present.
Council Member Swatt.
Present.
Council President Ores.
A present.
And I will note for the record Council President Juarez indicated last week that she would not be able to attend to this meeting and at this time I would like to formally move to see that there is no objection that Council President be excused from today's Council meeting.
Hearing no objection, Council President Juarez is excused from today's city council meeting.
Presentations, I am not aware of any presentations for today's meeting of the full council, so we will now proceed to public comment.
My understanding is that we have two remote commenters signed up, and I will ask the clerk to moderate the public comment period.
I think our our general rules and admonitions are well understood at this point for the remote public comment.
So I will turn it over to Madam Clerk to preside over our two signed up commenters for two minutes of speaking time.
I don't think we need to do the record.
Yeah, go ahead.
That sounds good.
Our first remote speakers going to be Sandy Shetlar Sandy and please remember to press star six We have a remote speaker Sandy Shetlar
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, thank you.
Oh, great, thank you, yeah.
Hi, I'm Sandy Shetler, and I'm commenting on today's Urban Forestry Commission appointment.
This is one of the rare times the council gets to interact with the UFC, but it doesn't need to be so rare.
The UFC exists to advise you and the mayor on best practices in urban forest management.
The commissioners are field experts who are up to date with the latest in urban forestry, including how to preserve trees while adding housing.
I've been going to their meetings for over a year.
The UFC has had almost no involvement in the new tree protection ordinance you will soon consider.
They haven't even seen the latest draft, which has been making the rounds at SCCI for two months.
The commissioners are resourceful people.
And based on two quick SBCI briefings, they've written letters to you with their concerns.
One is coming out this week and focuses on major things missing from the new ordinance.
I encourage you to read it and I'll send you a copy to make sure you get it.
The UFC is an amazing resource.
It's time to listen to them.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And our next speaker, which I show is not present, but we'll call the name anyway, is David Moring.
David, if you're out there, please press star six.
I believe he signed up, but has not called in.
So that would conclude our public comment.
Thank you, Madam Clerk and David definitely feel free to send written commentary and remarks.
I'm sorry we weren't able to get you online today but appreciate your interest in today's council meeting.
I do want to now move us on to adoption of the introduction referral calendar and colleagues I actually do have an amendment that I do apologize for the lateness of bringing the amendment, but it is simply to put on the IRC what is now legislation that we have discussed in committee and that we discussed last week that should have been noted for the IRC through a miscommunication that was not baked into the IRC last week and I do apologize for that and to be bringing it as an amendment but I do want to clarify it is the exact same proposal that almost two weeks ago now My committee heard a presentation from the Office of the Waterfront.
It's legislation that has been percolating in some shape or another as far back as our discussions on the Metropolitan Park District and some deliberation on prior to the council recess at the end of December.
So I would like at this point to move to amend the introduction and referral calendar.
to add Council Bill 120496, an ordinance related to the Seattle Waterfront Park, authorizing the Director of Seattle Center to accept non-city funds, amending Ordinance 126725, which adopted the 2023 budget, and creating a new position at Seattle Center.
Is there a second?
Second.
moved and seconded.
Madam Clerk, well first are there any comments on the amendment or questions from colleagues on the amendment to the introduction referral calendar?
Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment to the introduction referral calendar?
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council Member Morales?
Yes.
Council Member Mosqueda?
Aye.
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Aye.
Council Member Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
Yes.
Eight in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, colleagues.
The amendment is adopted to the introduction referral calendar.
Is there any objection to the introduction and referral calendar as amended for it to be adopted for our meeting today?
Seeing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.
And now adoption of the agenda.
If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Adoption of the consent calendar.
So fortunately, this is a great meeting to be president pro tem of colleagues, because pretty much everything is on the consent calendar for this afternoon.
And I will Now entertain if there are any motions to remove items from the consent calendar.
Seeing no such motion, I move that we adopt the consent calendar.
Is there a second?
Moved and seconded.
Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Councilmember Morales.
Yes.
Councilmember Mosqueda.
Aye.
Councilmember Nelson.
Aye.
Councilmember Peterson.
Yes.
Councilmember Sawant.
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
Yes.
Thank you.
The consent calendar passes and will be adopted.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes and legislation on the account, on the consent calendar on my behalf.
Moving on to committee reports.
There are no committee reports for presentation today, and there were no items removed from the consent calendar, and there are no resolutions to be considered for adoption.
And with that, is there any other business from council colleagues?
Council Member Nelson.
I asked to be excused on January 31st, please, from city council from full council.
Is there any objection to Councilmember Nelson being excused from the January 31st full council meeting?
Councilmember Strauss, is that hand an objection to excusing Councilmember Nelson or is that another matter?
That would be rude.
No, not an objection.
Just checking because you did raise a hand.
Hearing and seeing no objection, Councilmember Nelson is excused for the January 31st full council meeting.
Councilmember Strauss?
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
I just want to take this moment, colleagues, usually I would share these remarks in Council briefing, but due to not having Council briefing this week, I just want to share this in the good of the order.
Today is City Hall Gardener Peter Zhu's last day before retirement.
So I want to take this moment to thank and appreciate Peter.
He has been on loan to Finance and Administrative Services Department from the Parks Department.
He has served our city for over 30 years in the Parks Department.
And if you wonder why all of the plants in City Hall stay alive, stay watered and are thriving, it's because of Peter.
If you haven't been lucky enough to receive one of Peter's calendars or be invited to one of his history walks or hikes in the mountains, I'm sorry, I guess he does all of these things and it's really amazing to see him have so many different touch points with people throughout the city that are not just gardening.
And the fact that the fig in my office was originally Sam Smith's fig and he's kept it, Peter has kept it alive for so many years.
He's done his best to teach me and I'm doing my best to keep it alive.
So if anyone wonders why the water or the plants weren't watered next week, I just wanted to take this moment to thank you, Peter, for your over 30 years of service to our city, and as Christopher Williams said, there's only certain types of people that can work in City Hall, and I really appreciate your service, Peter.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Strauss.
Council Member Sawant.
Thank you, Council President Jordan-Lewis.
to be excused from the City Council meeting on January 31st.
Okay.
It's been requested by Council Member Sawant to be excused from the January 31st full Council meeting.
Is there any objection to Council Member Sawant being excused at the January 31st full Council meeting?
Seeing and hearing no objection, Council Member Sawant is hereby excused.
Councilmember Muscata, please don't be excused from the 31st meeting.
We're going to need a quorum.
What's going on?
I promise I will be there on the 31st, Mr. President.
I just wanted to note last week I did already move to be excused from January 23rd and 24th, but I misstated the dates when I asked for it.
So just make sure that there's no confusion.
I wanted to make sure that I got that into the record as well for January 30th.
January 23rd and 24th, January 23rd and 24th next week, and then just the 13th for council briefing in February.
Those are the dates I was seeking to be excused for and just wanted to reaffirm those.
Right.
Just a clarification with the clerks, for council briefing, do we need to put, we don't have to put an excuse on the record.
Yeah, an excuse.
So, I guess just for good measure, in open session here, is there any objection to council member Mosqueda being excused from full council on January 24th?
hearing and seeing no objection, Councilmember Muscat is excused from the January 24th full council meeting.
Similarly, if there's any, did you say February 13th, Councilmember Muscat?
Yes, but thank you for the clarification.
That would just be for February 13th.
Because I thought you just said January 13th, which has passed.
So February.
I was trying to be excused for January 10th, which had already passed.
I didn't know how much scheduling was involved serving as Council President.
So if there is any objection to Council Member Mosqueda being excused from the February 13th full Council meeting, Council Members please state their objection.
Seeing and hearing no objections, Council Member Mosqueda is excused from the February 13th full Council meeting.
And Mr. President, sorry to confuse things, the 13th would be the Council briefing, so I'll be here for the 14th for the full Council meeting on Tuesday.
Oh, sorry.
Okay, that's yeah I think I think we can I literally just for the purposes of letting folks know about next Tuesday so I appreciate that a lot.
Great night and I literally just clarified with the clerks that we don't have to put the briefing on the record, so.
Okay, well thank you very much colleagues, I have a brief good of the order.
I know that we had received some communications I know my office had I don't know if other council offices had about the appointment that we just approved on the consent calendar for David Baker.
to the Forestry Commission.
Mr. Baker is a very good nominee and I'm glad we approved him as part of the consent package.
I did just want to put on the record that we've received correspondence advocating for the incumbent holder of that position, David Moehring, who will be rotating out of that position.
I did have an opportunity over the weekend to talk to David Moehring about the appointment.
He is a constituent of mine in District 7, and I've really appreciated my collaborations with him.
and just wanted to thank him for his service in that position as he rotates off and would just say that he had very gracious words for Mr. Baker coming into this role that I was really touched by and appreciate David's service to the city and know that he will still be involved as he rotates off of this opportunity and appreciate community members reaching out and expressing their support for David's tenure and his service in that role.
So I did just want to acknowledge his service before we signed off for this afternoon.
And with that, Council Colleagues, I have any other matters and there's no more business to come before the council so we will move to adjournment.
So colleagues this concludes today's meeting.
The next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held on January 24th of 2023. Thank you all and we are adjourned.