Seattle City Council Briefing 6/9/2025

Good afternoon.

Today is June 9th, 2025, and the council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.01.

I'm Sarah Nelson.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Rink.

Council member Rivera.

Council member Solomon.

Here.

Council member Strauss.

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Council member Kettle.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Oh, and Council member Rink.

Present.

Six present.

Thank you.

And council members Saka and Moore are excused.

Okay.

If there's no objection, the minutes of June 3rd, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Okay, we have no proclamations or presentations today.

And let's see, do we have one executive session?

Just a second.

Yes, we do, we have one executive session.

Okay, so on tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, 10 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

The weekly bill payment ordinance, Council Bill 121000, an ordinance relating to city employment authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Seattle and the International Association of Machinists.

Note to self, council bills have started with 120 ever since I've been here.

So now we're up to 121. Anyway, I think that's interesting.

okay clerk file 31452 which is a full unit lot subdivision council bill 121000 an ordinance relating to prohibiting algorithmic rent fixing and adding a new chapter council bill 120997 an ordinance relating to current use taxation approving an application for current use taxation of property located at 9666 51st Avenue South.

Council Bill 120-999 ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation to enter into a golf course management agreement with premier golf centers.

Council Bill 121002, an ordinance authorizing the general manager CEO of SPU to enter into two interlocal agreements to provide for the implementation of Chinook salmon conservation.

Appointment 03177, an appointment of Joe Mikesell as member Seattle Arts Commission for term two December 31st, 2026. And Council Bill 121003, an ordinance relating to the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, otherwise known as Sound Transit, authorizing the director of SDOT to execute an amendment to the agreement between the City of Seattle and Sound Transit.

All right, and then finally, one last piece of legislation, Resolution 32172, a resolution approving the alignment station locations and maintenance-based location for Sound Transit's Link Light Rail lines in the City of Seattle.

All right, the consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and six items.

Appointment 03176, appointment of Stephanie Morris as member to the Family Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee.

Appointment 03172, reappointment of Molly as a member of the Seattle Design Commission.

Appointment 03167, appointment of Kyle Nolan as a member of the Transportation Levy Oversight Committee.

Appointment 03171, appointment of Linda Fury, as a member of the Transportation Levy Oversight Committee, appointment 03173, appointment of Lisa Bogardas as a member of the Transportation Levy Oversight Committee, and appointment 03174, appointment of Lucy Carter Sloman as a member of the Transportation Levy Oversight Committee.

All right, that is the consent calendar.

There are four pieces of legislation.

From the Land Use Committee, Council Bill 120975, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, addressing signage, clarifying requirements, and supporting efficient permitting processes for light rail transit facilities.

uh and uh and then um uh an ordinance relating to Seattle's commute trip reduction program and then from the select budget committee council bill 120979 an ordinance amending or amending ordinance 126955 which adopted the 2024 budget including the 2024 to 2029 capital improvement program and then also Council Bill 120988 in ordinance amending ordinance 127156, which adopted the 2025 budget, including the 2025 to 2030 capital improvement program.

That's tomorrow's meeting.

There are no proclamations for signatures today.

So we'll just move right into the blue sky portion of our meeting and council member Rink roll call starts with you.

Thank you.

There we are.

Thank you, Council President.

So colleagues in the Sustainability City Light and Arts and Culture Committee that met on Friday, we moved forward with two appointments, one reappointment to the Seattle Arts Commission, and we also voted to move forward on the City Light Zip Leaf Fiber IRU Sharing Agreement Ordinance.

This week, this upcoming Wednesday, in the King County Regional Policy Committee, we'll be taking up the EMS Levy Renewal Program and the 2026 to 2031 Medic One Emergency Medical Services Strategic Plan.

I want to also note that earlier this morning I attended a rally on City Hall steps in solidarity with SCIU members as one of their union leaders in California, David Huerta, was detained by ICE and is now facing federal charges.

And I wanna take a moment to recognize the gravity of the protests happening in Los Angeles in response to the Trump regime ratcheting up their mass deportation agenda against immigrant families.

Make no mistake, these are not targeted operations against dangerous criminals.

These are sweeping raids aimed at terrorizing black and brown communities and fracturing the social fabric and contract that makes American cities strong.

And President Trump's decision to federalize the National Guard and deploy them in the streets of downtown LA against the wishes of both local and state elected leaders.

And local law enforcement should have everyone at this table on high alert.

This is the first time since the 1960s civil rights movement that a president has called in the National Guard without the approval and coordination of a state governor's office.

This is anti-democratic.

It is incredibly dangerous to escalate tensions between community government and law enforcement.

The table has already been set for an armed hostile takeover of blue cities across the nation by the Trump administration.

The city of Seattle cannot be complicit.

This council has passed numerous bills in support of public safety in the last year and several proclamations and resolutions supporting and celebrating and promising to protect our community's most vulnerable populations.

But in contrast, just two weeks ago on the steps of this very building, we saw SPD arresting queer and trans Seattleites protesting an unpermitted Christian nationalist concert rallying around the ousting of Mayor Harrell.

We were told that we need to protect everyone's right to free speech.

And based on the eight hour downtown road closures impacting commutes home and the scores of SPD officers deployed, clearly no expense was spared on that front.

And tomorrow this council begins the critical process of confirming our city's next chief of police.

And I plan to ask him if we expect to see that same energy in defense of Seattleites First Amendment rights when SPD is called to stand between our neighbors protesting the cruelty behind mass deportations and a federalized National Guard ready to weaponize against our community.

The Trump administration may control federal agencies, but they do not control our Seattle values and commitments to social justice.

Diversity is our strength and solidarity is our resistance.

And as a city, we must decide where we stand.

And so speaking of federal issues, this is a reminder that next week on June 20th, the Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes will meet jointly with King County Council and King County Council's chambers just across the way.

All panel topics are focused around how the region has been and continues to be impacted by various policy changes and volatility at the federal level.

And with all of that, I will end on a high note.

And I'll share that I attended the Furry 5K.

The Furry 5K this weekend in Seward Park in support of Seattle Animal Shelter, where I'm very proud to report that our policy director, Rachel Alger, and our four-legged honorary legislative assistant, Zisu, took home the top prize for the pet costume contest.

For most creative costume, He was a stick of butter and toast.

So that is a very high note to end on in the midst of a lot of really troubling news, colleagues.

I'm happy to take any questions you have for me, but if not, I will pass it to Councilmember Rivera.

And I note that we've been joined by Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you.

Questions?

Hello.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

All right.

I will say in terms of the what's happening at the federal level, it's what I continue to say.

This is an unspeakable attack on our working class families and on all of us collectively.

So I continue to be alarmed by this latest and what continues to be this perpetual situation at the federal level.

So I'll just leave it at that.

I think we are all in alignment on that.

Last week, I had my monthly meeting with North Precinct Captain Davison.

We talked about the activation plan at Magnuson Park, as well as other safety issues in the district, including the U District and Gasworks Park.

The North Precinct is committed to working as best as they can, given, of course, the continual staffing challenges, but to address the issues in the district.

And I really appreciate all that they are doing.

Sadly, this weekend we had uh, a shooting, two shootings at the park and then one in the U district.

And I know that's, um, in addition to various shootings that happened across the city.

So it is something that, um, the whole city is experiencing.

And I reached out to SPD to find out more in particular about, um, the, uh, D four.

So, um, committing to my constituents to bring them communications on that when I find out more from SPD.

Separately, last week was the NPAC meeting.

This was the one meeting of a year that they have in person.

I was there.

I also saw our colleague, Council Member Moore, there as well.

Chief Barnes spoke and the Prosecuting Attorney's Office also spoke.

The Prosecuting Attorney's Office spoke about prosecuting a large-scale sex trafficker on Aurora and some drug dealers.

The chief spoke about his priorities, which are five, crime prevention, doing proactive, not just reactive policing and patrols.

He wants to look at data for when people are calling 911 and adjust patrols to match those times.

He also talked about community engagement, wanting to make sure that people are proud of their police department and communication is really important to them.

Retention and recruitment of police, which colleagues we've talked a lot about amongst ourselves as well.

Employee safety and wellness.

As Chief Barnes says, when officers are doing well, feeling good, they work good.

So that is something that's important to him as well.

And then the continuous improvement and attention to detail by SPD.

I was really happy to hear about all of his priorities.

He'll also be doing a staffing study and based on results will determine what is needed and how to address.

He will then shift people based on response times as they did in Madison when he was at Madison.

He talked about evidence-based policing, working with other departments and groups.

Seattle-centric policing is his plan.

He also plans to have community forums to discuss policing in Seattle.

Separately, Captain Davison talked about rotating the mobile precincts around sites in the city.

I had requested this for my district, so I was happy to hear that.

And I know that it's important to you as well, colleagues.

He also talked about the use of, as they are able to have police patrols and hopefully bringing those back as available given, again, the staffing challenges.

So they were very, there were a lot of questions.

I actually was disappointed to see not more folks at the North Precinct Advisory Council meeting because it's a really great opportunity to interact with SPD, the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, usually the city attorneys there and council members are there as well.

So my plug for anybody who might be listening is those council, sorry, not council, the North Peacinck Advisory Committee meets monthly online.

And so please tune in because it's a really great opportunity to get some information that I know folks care about.

All right, last week I also attended the Garfield Walkout Celebration of Life for Amar Murphy Payne.

I was honored to be invited by his dad, Aaron Murphy Payne.

There were a lot of students there to celebrate Amar, as well as the lives of two other Garfield students who lost their lives to gun violence, not at Garfield, but in community.

It was very moving and it brought up a lot of feelings for me in particular.

If you're a parent, you know, and if your family has experienced a school shooting, that's a whole different level.

And of course, if you're a family who has lost a child like the Murphy Payne family, I cannot even imagine it is unspeakable.

All right, tonight I'm headed to the Laurel Hearst Community Club annual neighbors meeting.

Chief Barnes will be present as will be the mayor's office.

Deputy Mayor Justin Farrell will be there.

And then I saved the best for last for this week on Thursday.

Colleagues, you all know we have our select FEP committee meeting at 930 AM.

We will take the votes on the 12 amendments that have been proffered and vote on the entire levy proposal as well.

Um, there's a lot to fit in into that a lot of times.

So we'll be having 20 minutes of public comment, which is about what we've been seeing at these meetings, um, except for the public hearing that was so greatly well attended, uh, council final council vote.

We will vote out of committee on Thursday and then the final council vote will take place on June 17th.

So unless someone has questions, I will pass it on.

What time is the advisory committee meeting?

You said it's every month.

What day and time?

They're monthlies.

They're Wednesday evenings.

Usually, I'll have to get back to you on the time because I don't remember if it's 5.30 or 7, but it's Wednesday evenings monthly.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Any other questions, colleagues?

All right.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

So jumping right into it, the Land Use Committee unanimously voted the SD3 Amendment's legislation out of committee, and I ask for your support for this critical bill to expedite completion of the Ballard and West Seattle light rail extensions.

At our next Land Use Committee, which will be Wednesday, June 18th at 2 p.m., we will continue our discussion on crime prevention through environmental design, as well as Review 3, planning commission candidates.

This past week, doing a lot of meetings with folks, met with a gentleman from Resource Equity.

Staff attended the Know Your Rights event presented by the Filipino community of Seattle and the Filipino lawyers of Washington.

I was also at Garfield for the Amara Murphy Payne Remembrance.

Friday had a chance to speak with the family before they took the stage and, again, expressed my support, solidarity, and condolences for the loss of their child.

It was a very moving event to be at Garfield that day.

This week coming up, I've had meetings with representatives of Safeway Albertsons regarding loss prevention and public safety in their Seattle stores.

meeting with neighborhood or neighbor care health I've got some meetings with South Shore school students gonna be attending a listening session with choose 180 do have the breakfast group law enforcement appreciation breakfast this coming Thursday and Another high note.

I'll be attending an Estelle Street Pea Patch Revitalization Project Celebration.

What's significant about this is that several years ago, they approached me in my previous role and said, hey, we've been having these public safety issues around our pea patch.

So I met with them, gave them some recommendations.

they've implemented those recommendations and want me to come back to see what it is they've been able to do.

So it's like, yay, win.

Finally, we will be hosting, along with the Department of Neighborhoods, an anti-displacement resource fair at Rainier Beach Community Center.

That'll be this Saturday, the 14th, between 11 a.m.

and 2 p.m.

This is open to everyone in the city who wants to attend, and we intend to bring those entities and organizations that have something in their toolbox that can help people stay in their homes, whether it's rental assistance, home repair assistance, utility discounts, tax relief, technical legal advice.

So again, this is open to everybody.

And we invite everyone to come out and see what is available for people to actually keep them homed.

So if there are no questions, I'll turn it over to Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Council Member.

Excuse me.

Good morning.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Council Member Solomon.

Colleagues, during tomorrow's full council meeting, there will be a vote on two bills voted unanimously out of the Select Budget Committee last week.

These two bills are product of our efforts to engage in budget reform.

Number one is the 2024 Budget Exceptions Ordinance, which retroactively adjusts prior year's budget to account for spending that exceeded the revised budget.

Now, if we are providing exceptions, how could that be budget reform?

As we all discussed this last week, both the number of incidents and the fiscal amount has dropped considerably over the last five years, and I look forward to a day where we have even fewer exceptions.

So this is good work in that arena.

Secondly, the bond redemptions appropriation, which will authorize the city to pay off bonds sooner than originally anticipated.

The funding source here is using interest earned off of other bonds that we've used to be able to pay this one off early.

Again, this is a product of doing that budget reform of looking through every single account and finding all of the loose change.

In this situation, it's added up to enough to pay off this bond early.

Colleagues, there's legislation on the introduction referral calendar regarding AI rent price fixing.

Colleagues, as you know, more than a month ago on May 5th, I let you all know that I've been working on the legislation ban algorithmic price fixing.

This process where corporations and landlords are using technologies, using confidential information.

the landlords to artificially increase rents.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has sued companies like RealPage over this practice.

His investigations found that properties using the software saw higher rent increases and had higher vacancy rates than properties not using RealPage.

That's a problem because the investigation also estimated that the 800,000 leases in Washington were priced using RealPage software between 2017 and 2024. This year, Washington State passed a bill banning landlords and the service providers from offering this technology.

In the Senate, every Democrat voted in favor, but the House ran out of time to pass it for final confirmation.

My office has worked over the past month or so to get advice from the law department on the bill and meet with stakeholders, including the senator who sponsored the bill at the state level.

After we began our work, we learned Council Member Moore is interested in similar legislation, and we engaged her team on this.

I submitted my legislation to be introduced a few weeks ago.

And I see on the introduction referral calendar that Council President has chosen to include Councilmember Moore's bill to move forward instead of mine.

These bills are identical, and I look forward to working with Councilmember Moore to get this passed and continuing this important conversation.

Unfortunately, with Council Member Moore's time being short with us here on Council, if this legislation does continue beyond her last day with us, I plan on pursuing this legislation and continue running that torch.

I believe we need to be doing everything we can to make housing more affordable.

While there's no single solution to solve our housing crisis, we certainly should not be hamstringing ourselves by allowing anti-competitive practices like AI rent price fixing.

If our city's landlords were getting together in a smoky back room to swap confidential information and artificially raise rent prices, that would be a scandal.

This technology is an equivalent of that, and it's happening all over Seattle.

It's time we stop it.

In my external committees in Sound Transit last week, my team and I received a tour of the I-90 floating bridge, the first light rail, fixed rail to run across a floating bridge in the room, or in the world, excuse me, are no floating bridges in this room.

We look forward to this East Link extension being opened hopefully in quarter one of 2026. On Thursday, this coming Thursday, the System Expansion Committee will meet to vote on the Tacoma Dome Link Extension preferred alternative initial engineering and initial budget.

I'm excited for this work because It is critical that we connect the spine of our light rail infrastructure from Tacoma to Everett.

We'll be also looking to authorize 15 individual multiple award task order contracts, MATOX, for five years.

I still have some questions with Sound Transit, continuing to work through those.

This MATOX...

way of doing contracting is new.

It is a way to hopefully increase efficiency and lower costs for these projects.

In District 6, I have at this time walked all of the proposed neighborhood centers in my district with neighbors.

I look forward to meeting with them The next step here is I've asked them for their feedback in writing.

I'll be meeting with them in an office and going over this before we have to submit amendments for the comprehensive plan this summer.

Councilmember Rink, as the citywide, you stated the Seattle Animals Shelters 5K was on Sunday.

Glad to hear the team did well.

And really, it's all about the animals.

If anyone is interested, there are some very cute dogs and cats available for adoption at the animal shelter today.

I'll be hosting office hours in District 6 this Wednesday.

I held them last week.

And that is what I've got.

Any questions?

Otherwise, I'll pass it over to Council Member Hollingsworth.

I do have a question, well, actually a comment.

We, just for your information, we, I don't know, I thought it was weird that there were two exact pieces of legislation on the same topic, of course.

And so we referred both to the housing committee and it's the chair who, as you probably know, marks them IRC ready or doesn't.

So that's what happened.

So I just wanted you to know that yours was also, we did our part in moving it along.

Thank you.

Nothing more.

Council Member Hollingsworth, over to you.

Hello, good afternoon.

It's a great day.

I'd start off my day.

It's a great day to be with you all.

Parks Utilities Technology Committee will be Wednesday, June 11th at 2 p.m.

We will be going over golf course contracts.

We also have an SEU audit as well, and then a public hearing for a taxation as well, and that will be June 11th, this Wednesday at 2 p.m.

The special committee for the comprehensive plan land use, we have a meeting June 13th.

uh and that is this friday and so we will be going over policy considerations uh and with central staff and we will only be having this as a reminder written public comment so we can jump right into the policy considerations that central staff with their presentation have prepared for us this is a general overview of what some council members have implied that they are intending to bring forward with potential amendments, and also it's going to be surrounding the work plan that we put together as well for our intentions, which was very vague and leaves a lot of room for us to navigate some of the potential policy considerations.

Also, on June 23rd, we have a public hearing, and so that public hearing will run it like we did our interim legislation public hearing.

At 9.30, we will be doing virtual only.

That sign-up will begin at 8.30, and it will continue to 10 a.m.

for online public comment.

If you are showing up in person, We have a four-hour window of public comment sign-up, which is from 2.30 to 6.30 p.m., and our public comment for in-person will begin at 3 p.m.

We are currently working out logistics with staff, clerk, security.

And this is a plug for volunteers from everyone's staff.

If you all can spare some volunteers, we would love to have them because that helps us with our logistics as well.

And would love to hear from anyone.

And we're going to be posting this this week.

If anyone has any concerns, please bring those to our office as we like to address those.

uh, immediately to make sure that everyone is, is comfortable with our setup.

Um, so we're not making last minute, uh, adjustments because those are really hard logistically with, uh, the amount of staff and committed volunteers that we have as well.

So throwing that out there.

Thank you.

Public hearing again, June 23rd.

reminder on the 25th your concepts are due to central staff regarding just general concepts of the comprehensive plan and then permanent legislation for House Bill 1110 what you want to address so that is a reminder we our office is going to be really this is a tight timeline but we're going to be a little bit more strict And I don't want to say the word strict, but we're going to be a little bit more holding the timeline, you know, up a little bit because of, you know, it's important that we are respecting people's boundaries, but also making sure that we're getting all the stuff in there.

to our central staff so they have ample amount of time to work on legislation and then we also are requesting and we will be sending out some more dates we send out a general memo of dates that are drop dead dates for for meetings but we're also going to have another memo that outlines some of the uh amendment uh deadlines as well so people are kind of on a timeline or they know when those drop dead dates are so we can make sure that central staff is working on those um and so we're we're really going to be upholding those so i can't begin to tell you all enough um how important those timelines are for us uh if you need briefings from opcd or people just Please continue to do that behind the scenes.

We know a lot of work happens before we get on the dais, but we just want to make sure that everyone's aware of that.

And last but not least...

I know there's a lot of stuff going on at the federal level and people are like, well, you all are local and how does it impact you here at home?

Just a month and a half ago, our office hosted an elementary school of fifth graders.

And we had a time where we had questioned the council members.

And one of the questions was from a little girl in fifth grade.

How will you protect our family from ICE?

Was her question.

Wasn't about potholes.

Wasn't about parks.

Had no questions about anything that went on in the city or her school.

Not what's your favorite cookie, council member.

What is your favorite thing about the job?

How will you protect us from ICE?

and so i'll leave it at that because that is the local impacts that we are having as council members when we have to deal with stuff that happens on the on the federal level and how it impacts us here at home and what are we going to do about it so i wanted to share that story because what is happening obviously is real and a lot of us are processing a lot of stuff we're seeing on the news and and and and that is um That is real.

I also shared another story.

I went to a graduation just last weekend for our international world school.

And family shared with me that they had received emails saying that they had to leave the country within five days.

Kids were at school where they received an email saying that they had to leave the country within five days.

I'm just leave it at that.

This is having a real impact on us at home and for our kids and our babies and our children.

Thank you.

Questions?

Thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

For me, starting off with Public Safety Committee, we have a meeting tomorrow.

It's going to start with the EMS levy, which is time sensitive.

I believe everybody's gotten a briefing on it.

So this will be one of those exceptions to the rule of two meetings, look to have a meeting and then vote on the EMS levy.

It's straightforward.

And again, everybody's been receiving briefings on this.

Secondly, we'll have the second update on Star Chase.

And then finally, the chief of police confirmation.

For those around the table, for those at home, Chief Barnes has gotten his response to the questions.

Please review ahead of that and ask questions.

And as I mentioned, everybody's committee member or not is welcome to attend.

We'll be a little bit probably on a timeline, so quick questions to allow for quick answers would be appreciated.

But definitely everybody's welcome, and there's no restrictions on questions in terms of the topic areas to include, importantly.

And as a follow-up to Memorial Day weekend, what was happening there in the week following.

So additionally, just so you know, we have a couple bills coming down.

Chronic nuisance property bill.

And basically, as I mentioned at the beginning year, there's three areas that we're looking at.

Improving, amending, fixing, all the above legislation.

And that kind of falls in that category.

Also graffiti, pillar four of the strategic framework plan.

So looking to work on that as well.

And separately, I wanted to give a shout-out to the advisory committees.

I served on the West Precinct Advisory Committee, the Westpac, for I don't know how many years, and ours was always on Wednesday morning at 7.30 a.m., and so I'm not sure how that works out.

But they're very important.

And definitely recommend, you know, particularly neighborhoods, organizations have representation there so then they can get the word out.

It's really important.

So I'm definitely a big supporter.

Whatever precinct, their advisory council, their PAC.

I will say one thing, too.

Last week I mentioned going to the downtown school.

FOR PUBLIC SAFETY FORUM WITH THE KIDS.

I'LL SPEAK TO THAT TOMORROW IN COMMITTEE.

AND ALSO, I HAD A THIRD PIKEN WALK WITH THE DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY COUNCIL ON THURSDAY NIGHT, EVENING, EARLY EVENING, WITH SOME OF THE CHALLENGES THAT THE RESIDENTS FACE DOWNTOWN.

SO I'LL SPEAK AT THAT COMMITTEE TOMORROW.

FOR THIS WEEK, THIS MORNING, ALREADY TODAY, HAD A Speaking of being on the ground, I was in Belltown, basically second in Blanchard, third in Blanchard, and so forth.

And I met with CARE, but also LEAD, and we deliver CARE.

It was really important to meet with all three entities there to see what the challenges are and how we can do better in terms of tackling the challenges that we see on our streets every day.

And as I mentioned, this kind of builds on like the walk on Thursday at Third Pike and Pine.

So that was really good to do today.

So thank you to those organizations for participating.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with the FIFA World Cup reps on safety security related to FIFA World Cup.

which is also very important.

And as you know, we have the Club World Cup starting on Father's Day, I think, if I remember right.

And then we'll have a match here too with our own Seattle Sounders on Juneteenth, by the way, just to note that.

On Wednesday, continuing the public safety theme this week, I'll be at the West Precinct Roll Call.

I'm starting up again my rotation through the precincts, kind of like an annual check-in, which is important.

And as it happens that day, I just happened to be meeting with Chief Barnes afterwards and IG Judge in terms of her work as related to oversight.

And then later that day, also very important, as mentioned last week, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

On Thursday, there will be no PSRC, Puget Sound Regional Council, because I'm going to be at the FEP levy meeting.

I just wanted to note that.

And separately, I won't be able to make it on Thursday, so I just wanted to, I've already told Mr. Scholes, but I regret not being able to make the DSA mid-annual meeting.

I just wanted to bring this up because it gives me an opportunity to give a shout-out to the MID, the ambassadors, that this program does, which does such great work for downtown, the greater downtown, not just the downtown, capital D downtown, but broader than that as well.

And I think it's a really important program that's done great work for our city, and I won't be able to be there on Thursday, so I'm taking this opportunity to say thank you, John, and to the entire DSA mid team.

And then finally, on this week, I have my District 7 Neighborhood Council meeting, quarterly meeting.

And this one's going to be focused because we're basically a year out on the FIFA World Cup.

Again, there's a second theme going on with my remarks today and that's that.

And I bring this up too because there's opportunities for each of the neighborhoods, each of the districts, to really get engaged and so that this is something for the whole city to be part of.

And then we really put our best foot forward.

If everybody's engaged, I think it's gonna pay dividends across the board.

And I think that's important because this is an opportunity in terms of getting our city ready, take opportunities to kind of promote different pieces in terms of murals or things like that, or my idea of the columns under I-5 looking like flagpoles with the countries represented in the World Cup, whatever, if I keep saying it will happen, particularly at First Hill Association gets behind it.

And so I just think that's important, and I bring it up under that context.

Next week is relatively quiet, so I'll just say to close, I mentioned last week with Downtown School and then also Third Pike, I also went to the Habitat for Humanity luncheon with Council President, where Lieutenant Governor Heck and others received awards, and the great Sue Bird was the guest speaker.

And I just wanted, again, kind of like the DSA mid, I just wanted to highlight and give a shout-out to Habitat for Humanity and the work that they do, which is really important.

And then last Friday, along those lines, I had an opportunity to speak to the Seattle Propeller Club, on All Things Maritime hosted very nicely.

Thank you to Royal Caribbean for hosting that meeting by Seattle Propeller Club.

And that was a great opportunity to meet a lot of different folks from that world.

And then that day, I also went to the Gethsemane Lutheran Church, had a walk with them, and that's formerly the Mary's Place Day Center.

And I bring that up because they're looking to continue their engagement and community and helping in a different direction.

And I support them in that.

But it's also an opportunity that we still need to get some type of day center for women's support because what's happened is Other entities are standing up to fill that void, but it's difficult when they're maxed out, like WEAL and their shelter that they have.

And so I just wanted to give, again, another shout out to these entities.

So any questions, colleagues?

Actually, I have a public safety question.

Um, council member Kettle, but I think actually this is maybe, um, I was going to ask you and then it seems, uh, more, uh, on point with your work.

Council member, um, rank is on the Seattle public, I mean, Seattle city light and the, um, from a public safety standpoint, we've had this in the district as well.

the issues with the bulbs that are not working and replacement of the bulbs.

And then this is something that's been ongoing in my district, in particular to Magnuson Park, because we wanted to make sure the lighting was fixed there.

And then I saw a Seattle Times article over the weekend about the challenges with that.

And so I wanted to ask should have asked earlier, but in the context of the public safety piece, what is City Light doing?

What can we expect in terms of their ability to to make sure that they fix and replace those bulbs?

Because this is actually also on point to the work that you do, Council Member Solomon with the SEPTED safety to environmental design work.

The lighting is a big issue.

So do you have any thing you can say about the city light and what they're doing and what can we expect?

And if you don't have that today, happy to talk offline, but wondered.

I thought the Seattle Times article on this was really informative, just highlighting the issue and really diving into, you know, just the backlog of work.

Of course, there's the matter of just like the labor and getting feet on the, you know, boots on the ground to do the work.

And so we're diving into with City Light leadership about how do we really unpack that and we'll be taking it up in committee, but happy to follow up offline as well with additional information.

But I know it's front of mind for our team.

We want to make sure we're getting the lights on because it is really critical for

safety and just the basics of city service so it's it's on our radar and we'll be following up great thank you councilmember rink I will make sure that I pay attention I don't sit on your committee but I will prioritize attending when you have city light coming through as it turns out I don't talk about internal meetings but director Lindell's actually on my calendar coming up and on a different topic but

I will be sure to ask that question just to highlight it, and she knows, but to highlight because it is important for crime prevention through environmental design, SEPTED, and it's so important just for the good governance piece, but it's just the regular streetlights, but also like we've seen downtown on 3rd, and different locations, the string of lights to kind of change the dynamic.

And that's really important.

This is what goes to these walks that I've been talking about and so forth.

And we need to, this lighting is definitely a key factor among many others.

So thank you for bringing it up and highlighting that came up.

Yeah, and just to follow up on this point, I really appreciate the interest.

And I know we have oftentimes departments coming in to provide briefings during briefings.

So if it's of interest to the full body, happy to facilitate perhaps during one of our upcoming council briefings, a brief presentation or update from City Light.

And we're happy to take the lead in bringing that in again to allow for folks who may not sit on my committee to have that opportunity to interface with City Light and have an open dialogue.

I think that's great.

There's transportation versions of this.

There's different pieces.

Not that I'd look at everything through public safety.

Council President.

I will say, though, that I'm happy to attend.

I regularly attend everybody else's meetings on issues that are of importance.

So however way it shakes out, happy to attend your meeting.

or however it gets done is just really critical work.

So thank you.

One of my takeaways from that article was that it's not just a question of changing the light bulb because I learned that many of the street lights are damaged, copper wire is stripped out, so it's...

it's more complicated, takes longer to fix than just switching out a burned out bulb that's come to the end of its life.

And that kind of makes me think, I wonder what if, I'm sure that this has been done, but the market for copper wire, I'm interested in knowing if we know about that, because remember we tried to stem and I think that there has been progress made on catalytic converter theft.

So anyway, just a thought.

Yeah.

And what City Light is doing, you know, what alternatives do we have to the copper wire technology?

Because this is going to...

If people are stealing it, it will continue to be an issue.

So what is being considered?

I don't know.

But it's just something that we should...

Now you're getting into chemistry.

Or engineering.

You can ask the question tomorrow morning.

All I ask is make it quick.

All right.

Okay.

All right, colleagues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There's nothing on tomorrow's agenda from the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee.

Our next meeting is coming up this Thursday, June 12th at 2 p.m., and we'll be having a briefing discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 120922, an ordinance approving a programmatic term permit for the Downtown Seattle Association to install, operate interactive media kiosks in the right-of-way.

And so this is our second time having this in committee, and this is where the details of the vendors and DSA's responsibilities will be laid out, so all the terms that make up the SDOT term permit.

And on June 4th, Central Staff Analyst Calvin Chow, I thought I would bring it, but did distribute in his memo, so the details are there.

All right, position nine update.

Last week I met with members of the Portage Bay Roanoke neighborhood at their annual meeting, and members of that community shared a number of concerns, including trees, road construction impacts, street racing, and as always, public safety.

And it was a really informative meeting with ice cream, I might add, and I learned a lot about Dutch elm disease.

There are some elm trees up in Roanoke Park that are suffering also on the streets.

Okay, I also met with community members from the Southwest Precinct Advisory Council.

It seems like the PACs are getting a lot of airplay today.

The quarterly meeting was held at High Point Neighborhood House, and I was joined by Natalie Walton Anderson, who is, of course, the mayor's office chief.

Chief Public Safety Officer, and also Captain of the Southwest Precinct, Chris DeBar.

And Neighbors shared a lot of concerns about continued frustrations around, well, a lot of different crimes, but gun violence and shooting events were mentioned many, many times.

And it was particularly timely meeting because earlier that day there was I think it was on Tuesday there was another drive-by shooting event at in the North Delridge neighborhood which did result in at least one suspect being arrested and charged thanks to the availability of SPD resources already in the area to canvas the neighborhood so Anyway, I'm sure that Council Member Sacco would have something to say about this if he were here.

Interestingly, one of the questions, because we were talking so much about shooting events and gun violence, one person did ask, why did Council not fund the ShotSpotter?

And so I did have to...

explained that that was part of a suite of technology that council did approve the previous year, and I think that it was because of cost concerns that that particular piece was not slated for implementation, but Natalie Walton Anderson did talk a lot about the Real-Time Crime Center that will be coming online soon.

Okay, let me see here.

Well, I'll skip some of that detail.

I just wanted to note that while some of the...

So I just talked about two community meetings, really different parts of town.

It was really interesting, and I don't say this just as...

It was interesting that there was a lot of optimism at these meetings.

The folks there did...

did express appreciation for the direction that the city's going, how far we've come in the last few years about since the pandemic when it comes to improving public safety.

And everybody said, we know there's a long way to go, but thank you very much.

And so just wanted to pass that along.

Interesting that people are tracking things.

If you have a chance to tour the Populous Hotel, or Populous Seattle Hotel in Pioneer Square, I recommend that you do it.

I was offered a tour last Thursday, and it's in Pioneer Square on King right at first, and it's a gorgeous new independently owned hotel.

with a stunning rooftop bar, and it's taken a lot of work, but it is definitely worth your trip.

I am mentioning it because it's a new developer.

It's Denver-based developer, Urban Villages, and this is I think their first project in Seattle, but it's definitely, I always like it when smaller shops come to town and add to our neighborhoods, and they are excited for more residents and more activity south of the stadiums when and if there is housing in the stadium district.

All right.

Councilmember Kettle already talked eloquently about the Habitat for Humanity luncheon, it's a great event.

I really value Habitat for Humanity's work and hearing the stories of the people that actually got keys is always very moving and I'm always pressing to.

I always have to note that I think that it'd be great if affordable home ownership had a little bit more of a boost workforce level in our housing levy.

But in any case, there are other resources for that.

And then last Sunday, I attended Girl Scout Troop 41696 Summer Celebration, where I talked to 12, for five to 12 year olds, about my experience working on policy.

At City Council, they updated me on the new Girl Scout Creed.

It's on my honor, I will try.

Anyway, it no longer has some of the elements of the last one, but it was really interesting to see through their eyes what our job is and what they think might be hard about it.

And then finally yesterday, I also did attend the Ballard run for their lives.

There are two regular gatherings, one on Mercer and one in Ballard.

And I went to yesterday's in Ballard and I was inspired in part by our discussion last week about rising antisemitism in the Jewish community here.

And that's why I wanted to go is to show support for this community.

Anyway, that's all I've got.

Anybody have anything else?

Okay, well, since there's no further business, we'll move into executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that Seattle City Council will now convene into executive session, and the purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential and actual litigation.

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

And a legal monitor is always there to make sure that we don't stray from the issue at hand and get into talking about policy.

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

Well, it'll be about 45 minutes long.

So let's just say, give us time to get to our desk.

Let's just say to be sure 3.54.

And then if the executive session's to be extended, of course, I'll get back online and say that we've extended it.

Otherwise, this meeting will adjourn automatically once it is over.

So with that, I'll catch you online.

Thank you, everyone.