Seattle City Council Finance & Housing Committee Public Hearing 5/5/21

is May 5th, 2020, the Special Finance and Housing Committee meeting will come to order.

I'm Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Chair Mosqueda?

Present.

Vice Chair Herbold?

Council President Gonzalez?

Council Member Lewis?

Present.

Council Member Strauss?

and Council Member Morales.

Here.

Madam Chair, that is three present.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales, for being here as an alternate.

Council Member and President Gonzalez is excused for today.

When we have other Council Members join us, we'll make sure to note their presence as well.

Thank you all for being here.

This is the third meeting that we've had in less than 24 hours.

I want to thank you for your ongoing participation in our conversations, not just for the issues that usually come before the Finance and Housing Committee, but for your continued engagement as issues relate to the Federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars are being discussed in this committee as well.

So thanks to everyone who participated in last night's long public hearing.

We had the chance to hear almost three hours worth of, or I should say over two hours worth of public comments from folks who did call in and provide us with some great feedback for the Federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

Today's conversation will involve a briefing and discussion and possible vote on the annual action plan.

We will have a public hearing on this bill and then we will take potential action.

We do have a technical amendment that is included in your materials as well from central staff for a minor technical update.

We will then move on to the 2021 Carry Forward Ordinance.

This is Council Bill 120039. That does not require a public hearing, but we are interested in hearing from anybody who may want to call in today to provide public comment on either one.

That is the summary of our agenda today.

I will also note that we, again, will have a regular public comment at the beginning, and then we will have a separate public comment section before we take any action on the annual action plan.

That is very much appreciated for your attention to those two opportunities for folks to provide public comment.

So I do want to note, thank you very much, Council Member Herbold, the vice chair.

Thank you very much for being here with us as well.

I appreciate your presence here today.

If there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

We'll go ahead and move into the first general public comment on today's sign-up sheet.

As folks know, we do take the opportunity to hear from folks at the beginning of each meeting.

I would call on three members at a time.

I believe that there is nobody listed for public comment at this time.

Is that correct, Madam Clerk?

You don't see anyone.

Okay, thank you very much.

So just for the viewing audiences who might not have had the chance to call in yet, we will absolutely share your public comment if you'd like to share those at council at seattle.gov.

We will share those around.

And if you did have any interest in speaking about the annual action plan, you still have a chance to sign up.

We'll go ahead and move into the items of business on today's agenda.

And if you wanted to speak on the annual action plan, you still have a chance to, you still have a chance to go ahead and provide public comment.

I'm just gonna pause here real quick before I close public comment and just to make sure I didn't get a note from our technical folks.

Do we have somebody present to provide public comment?

Is David Hines on the line?

There is a public comment registrant, yes.

Okay, apologies for that.

I'm glad we didn't close it out.

David, David Haynes, if you are still with us, you are welcome to provide two minutes of public comment.

Appreciate your time today.

Hi, thank you.

Is this federal money going to solve the homeless crisis and the housing crisis?

Or is it specifically targeting people of color to buy off citizens and non-citizens who are represented by activists who help reelect Democrats who don't scrutinize all the tax money being spent in the name of the homeless crisis that ends up in their reelection apparatus or in some race war agenda that purposely discriminates against innocent citizens, still homeless.

Is this money going to solve the homeless and housing crisis with 21st century first world quality development with qualified developers?

Or is it further creating and empowering modern third world unqualified developers and power mongering organizers trading votes for money needed to solve a homeless housing crisis?

Please resign if you're continuing to redirect money into non-citizens' wallets and racist organizations at the expense of innocent, forsaken, homeless citizens.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today, David.

Does that conclude our public comment?

There are no other public comment registrants.

Thank you for that clarification.

I appreciate it.

That does conclude today's public comment section for the general presentation.

Let's go ahead and move on to item number one.

Madam Clerk, will you please read item number one into the record?

And item number one, Council Bill 120059, an ordinance relating to funding for housing and community development programs.

Adopting annual action plan updates to a 2018-2022 consolidated plan for housing and community development for a public hearing briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And I see with us today Dan Burton from the Human Services Department Amy Gore from our Council Central Staff.

Thank you very much for joining us today.

Colleagues, you also have a Central Staff memo on this.

Thank you very much, Amy, for drafting that and sending that around.

It is dated May 3rd, in case you're looking through your materials.

Colleagues, this is the legislation that adopts the 2021 Annual Action Plan in its final form as requested each year to accept the grant funds from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The plan describes how the city will spend four federal grants, the Community Development Block Grant, the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS Grant, also known as HOPWA, the Emergency Solutions Grant, ESG dollars, and the Home Investment Partnership Program home funds.

As a reminder, the city estimated that the 2021 grant funding amounts from the four programs and appropriated that in the 2021 adopted budget.

In March, the city received notice of the final grant funding amounts, and therefore, this legislation updates the annual action plan and the 2021 adopted budget with the final correct numbers.

There isn't a huge difference, and I'll turn it over to Amy to walk us through what those differences are and a slight amendment that we will also consider after we go into a public hearing.

But let's do an overview of what the legislation is in front of us so everyone can get oriented.

Thanks, Amy.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Good afternoon, Councilmembers.

I'm Amy Gore from Council Central Staff.

Dan, do you want to introduce yourself briefly?

Yep.

I'm Dan Burton from the Human Services Department, and I manage these federal grants with my team.

Thank you, Dan.

Councilmember Mosqueda, you gave a great introduction.

I just wanted to highlight a few things.

The council bill before us does five things.

It adopts the final 2021 annual action plan.

It amends the 2019 and 2020 annual action plans to reflect the federal CARES Act funds that the city has received, as well as changes that were made to the budget to respond to COVID-19.

It approves the submittal of the plans to HUD.

It authorizes the acceptance of grant funds and amends the 2021 budget.

to reflect the actual amounts of these grant funds.

To dive into the most substantive thing that the bill does is to finalize the 2021 annual action plan.

If you look at table one of the memo, you can see that the final 2021 funding amounts are relatively close to the estimated funds that were included in the 2021 budget.

CDBG, HOME, ESG were slightly lower than expected and HOPWA was about $200,000 higher than expected, but the net change across programs was approximately $6,000.

To reflect the changes in grant revenues, the plan makes relatively minor changes to the use of funds, which are shown in table two of the memo.

These changes require an amendment to the 2021 budget, as shown in table three of the memo.

As noted in the memo, the appropriations table in the bill is transmitted will require a technical amendment to be corrected, and that amendment is attached to the memo.

It's the very, it's the final page.

And again, that is just a technical correction to make sure that the 2021 appropriations are correct.

The bill also adopts amendments to the 2020 and 2019 plans.

As I mentioned previously, that are all funds that have already been appropriated by council in previous actions.

And this is just updating the AAPs to reflect that.

And then it will be submitted by, finalized and submitted by Dan and his team so that we can get those funds in the door.

So that is what this piece of legislation is.

Can I answer any questions for anyone?

I'm not seeing any questions.

Thank you very much, Gaymee.

Dan, is there anything else you'd like to add for context to this legislation?

I don't think so.

Amy did a good job of explaining what this is.

The total amount of money we're getting from these grants is about $22 million.

And we had a slight decrease this year from our previous years of allocations, about 2%.

We're hoping not to see decreases every year, but we're doing some research on that.

to try and predict the population changes that drive our allocations.

Great.

I'd be interested in that research as well.

I did see from the memo that Amy provided that there was a slight change in some of the funding because of the Seattle's demographics and housing characteristic changes that is noted on page three.

And I'd be very interested in hearing more about what that what that means.

So if you have any additional context right now either Amy or Dan, feel free to provide that, but I'm also happy to wait for additional information to come in.

Yeah, I'll put something together for you and send it over.

Amy, anything else from you?

Excellent.

I don't see any additional comments.

Let's go ahead and move to the public hearing.

Colleagues, again, this is an opportunity for us to have a public hearing.

This is the second public hearing, on the annual action plan.

As Amy noted, we took some assumptions that were made early in the year.

Once we get clarification from the feds in terms of the final appropriations, we like to have this cleanup bill to address any changes in those assumptions.

And we also offer the opportunity for another public hearing.

At this time, I'm going to open the remote public hearing on the annual action plan.

Each speaker will have two minutes to provide public comment.

The comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Before speaking, remember to push star six so that you can be unmuted on your line.

I do see one person signed up for public comment.

And David, I see you listed again.

You are welcome, David Himes, to present at this time.

If you'd like to hit star six to unmute yourself, we would love to hear from you.

Madam Clerk, he is no longer on the call list.

OK, thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

I will wait one more minute just to make sure that he didn't accidentally get dropped off or is trying to dial back in.

Again, if you do have additional public comment that you'd like to provide on any items on our agenda, but including this public hearing portion, you're welcome to email us at council at seattle.gov and we'll make sure to get that information circulated.

Okay, if he's still not present, I don't see him on my end.

This concludes the public hearing on the annual action plan and we will go ahead and move on in to Taking up the technical amendment or any additional questions?

Not seeing any hands for additional questions.

Amy, would you like to summarize the technical amendment in front of us one more time?

Absolutely, there is an error in the appropriation tables that is that are inside the two appropriation tables that are in the bill.

One of them is in Section 5 and one of them is in Section 6. one table of how the money increases and how the money decreases.

And it's just that those were divided up a little bit incorrectly.

And so this corrects the appropriations needed in the 2021 budget to enact the plan.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Are there any questions about that?

Okay.

Then I will go through this procedural process to make sure that we are including this in the appropriate ways according to our Roberts rules of orders here.

If there is no objection, the council rules will be suspended to allow the committee to vote on a recommendation on the same day as a public hearing was held on Council Bill 120059. Are there any objections?

Hearing no objections.

the committee will proceed with moving a committee recommendation.

At this point, I'd like to move the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120059. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Vice Chair Hurdle.

It's been moved and seconded.

Are there any additional comments?

Hearing none, colleagues, at this time, I'd like to go ahead and add the small technical correction that Amy Gorgeous summarized from central staff colleagues.

Amendment one is the amendment to correct a small change in a number on the table in Section 5 included in the legislation moving the number from 131,572 to 131,632.

You can see that in amendment one as attached to the memo that was described and sent to council colleagues dated May 3rd.

I move to amend Council Bill 120059 as presented on amendment number one.

Is there a second?

Didn't we just do that?

Sorry.

We first recommended passage and now we're moving the amendment.

Yes.

Thank you for doing both of those seconds.

It's been moved and seconded that the amendment number one be added to the bill.

Is there any additional discussion?

Okay.

Hearing none.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1?

Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Vice Chair Harbold?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Madam Chair, that is a four in favor, none opposed.

Wonderful, thank you very much.

The bill in front of us is amended.

Now it includes Amendment Number 1. Motion carries.

And now the bill as amended in front of us.

Is there any additional comments on the amended bill?

Hearing none.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of amended Council Bill 120059. Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Vice Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Madam Chair, that is four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, colleagues.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass as amended will be sent to the May 10th Seattle City Council meeting for final vote.

Amy, thank you for your work on this.

I really appreciate the central staff memo and Dan, thanks to your team for managing these dollars.

Excited to continue to see the type of assistance that is provided for in these funds, be able to get out the door and hoping for continued increased partnership from federal government as we see additional funds come down in the form of assistance for housing, especially given that we're at a 40-year historic low.

We got a lot to make up for.

But thank you for your work on this bill, and we look forward to its final passage on Monday the 10th.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Wonderful.

Let's move on to item number two.

Madam Clerk, can you please read item number two into the record?

agenda item number two, council bill 12039, an ordinance amending ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget, including the 2021-2026 capital improvement program for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

And thank you, as always, Tom Mikesell for being here with us today, central staff and budget extraordinaire.

who has been in this committee many a time.

Today we are considering the Carry Forward Ordinance as transmitted by the Mayor.

The Carry Forward Ordinance is an annual bill that allows the departments to continue programs from last year into this year without, with unspent dollars.

These dollars would typically be sent back to the overall budget if not otherwise appropriated.

and the purpose of the bill in front of us today is to consider carrying those dollars into the 2021 appropriations for discrete programs.

Thanks again to Tom Meisel, who's done incredible work on this and also provided information in the memo in front of us, and will walk us through the legislation in front of us for our consideration today.

Thanks so much, Tom.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just to reiterate for the record, Tom Meisel with your central staff.

And as you described, Madam Chair, what we have, what I have today is provided an overview, not just of the bill, but of the budget adjustment process writ large, since it's a process that's year long and has many different steps with the carry forward bill, which is today's bill.

being the first significant one.

I've put together a PowerPoint that will help describe some of these concepts.

And so here's just generally the roadmap for today's presentation.

I'll just go briefly through a background on a budget adjustment process.

There's more detail in the staff memo that accompanies the record.

behind this information.

Some of it gets a bit wonky, but it's useful to know because these themes will be present throughout the year.

I'll talk about the adopted budget, automatic carry forwards, which is more of a technical exercise, supplementals, which includes today's bill, and then conclude with a brief discussion on exceptions, and then dive into the bill on the agenda, talk about next steps and then have an issue for identification for committees review.

So the first step in the budget process is, in fact, the adopted budget.

According to state law, 30 days before the start of the next fiscal year, the City Council must pass a budget.

That budget covers operations generally from January 1st to December 31st.

of the next fiscal year.

The operating components of the budget are what we call lapsing.

So they go away absent any further action in general terms.

So most of those operating appropriations will go away at year's end.

Any capital budget appropriations pursuant to provisions in state law, those do not lapse.

They continue into future years until fully spent or formally adopted by the council.

Um, and that's because largely council, uh, capital budget appropriations are for projects that are significant and can take numerous years.

Um, the, as you will recall, on November 23rd of last year, uh, City Council passed ordinance 126237, which is amended by the, which would be amended by the carry forward bill, which authorized the 2021 budget from all sources of $6.5 billion.

So the first step, and I'll have a table that summarizes this a bit later in the presentation, but the first step is automatic carry forward.

And this is a technical exercise that does have an impact on the budget, though it doesn't come to council.

That's because, as I mentioned previously, the capital appropriations that are provided in budgets do not lapse.

So they continue from year to year until the project work is done or the budgets are abrogated by the council.

So that's a significant component of automatic carry forward.

Next is legislated adjustments.

So for grants in particular, and then also some other administrative adjustments, there are components of spending appropriations that are given.

So these are operating appropriations that are given carry forward authority to automatically continue into the future.

And so that's something that is handled technically.

Once council gets the authority, the monies persist as viable budget for expenditure until they are fully expended or abrogated.

And then in a further technical is the issue of encumbrances.

And these are monies that are that are just reserved by the city finance department to pay for promises to vendors for services that have been provided in the year for which we have not received the invoice.

So we need to have the budget authority in order to pay those bills, but it's to essentially make good on those promises that we've made to vendors and outside providers for prior year expense.

So in total, there's a $1.7 billion of this automatic carry forward budget that has been carried into the 2021 fiscal year.

And there's no further council action required for this to take place because in all cases, it's either just purely technical or prior authorization was given in ordinance.

So this next step is the significant point at which council does have a significant role this current year.

And this is with regards to supplementals.

So as provided by state law, Um, the city can make adjustments to the budget from the emergency fund.

So I'm gonna read specifically from the law, since it's it's interesting from the emergency fund or other other designated funds, an amount significant, sufficient to meet the actual necessary expenditures of the city for which insufficient or no appropriations have been made due to causes which have not could not reasonably have been foreseen at the time of making the budget.

So it's essentially saying that these additional supplemental appropriations are required because we were unable to foresee them when the budget was being deliberated in the prior year.

The supplemental bills can take a number of forms.

We have the traditional form, but really any increase to the budget is being made under this state supplemental budget authority.

We have standalone bills, and in fact, There have been a total of six bills passed by the City Council as of April 30th, when I was preparing these materials, that have appropriated a total of $79 million.

I won't go into the detail of what those are.

They're covered in the memo.

But those have been upward adjustments and appropriations made through this supplemental budget authority.

The next kind of bucket of types of supplementals are what I would term comprehensive.

Um, and these are comprehensive in that they are citywide.

So the standalone ones affect discrete programs or just a small subset of departments.

Um, whereas more comprehensive ones are a call to all departments made by the city budget office to, um, to kind of find, identify those, those areas of spending that would, that would meet the criteria in state law, um, serving a request for an increase to their budget.

So today's council bill 120-039 is the carry forward bill, which is essentially a supplemental bill that is characterized, and this is the chair, you described it well, it's money that would have otherwise lapsed at the end of the year, or did lapse in fact, and the departments are asking in order to continue the program or service for which that money was originally provided, they're asking the city council to approve increasing this year's budget to pay to continue those programs and to meet those objectives.

And then the final piece is the quarterly civil miles.

We have not seen one of those yet.

Those are regular periodic bills that we receive from the executive and they're comprehensive in that they cover the citywide requests and aren't discrete.

And I'll talk a little bit in the next steps category about about what is potential supplemental bills in the future.

And then finally, in the event that after the year ends, there are cases in which departments may have overspent the authority that is granted by the city council.

In past years, the executive has transmitted an exceptions bill, which is a request to provide budget authority for those areas where spending may have been greater than the authority provided.

And so this encapsulates the status as of April 30th in terms of those various categories of adjustments.

And just at a very high level, starting with the $6.6 billion adopted budget, The auto carrier forward added $1.7 billion.

Standard loan pieces of legislation has added $79 million, built into a revised budget of about $8.5 billion.

And that is approximately a 27% increase from the 2021 adopted budget.

And so I'll just pause, actually, very quickly to see if there are any questions about that overview.

OK.

So now I'll dive in.

I will say thank you, Tom, for the memo that you provided.

If folks want to take a look at the summary, starting on page two of the supplemental discussions, I think there's a lot to be really proud of here.

And some of the standalone supplemental ordinances that we passed, including earlier this year, the twelve million dollars that was included for non congregate shelter services for for hotel rooms, tiny home villages and enhanced shelter.

You'll remember the 23 million that we just passed last month that was related to rental assistance.

And of course, the ongoing desire to make sure that the AAPI community had additional supports as well.

That was $1.2 million, just to name a few of the pieces that we passed.

So we just thought those were important pieces to lift up among the categories that Tom described.

And Tom, thanks as well for including RCW 35. 32-A-060 because I think that there's a lot of work to be done still to further understand how the city uses the supplemental budget process as opposed to state and other jurisdictions.

So I'll look forward to having more conversations with you about that.

I appreciate you lifting up the RCW there.

Of course.

So now to turn to Council Bill 12039, the 2021 carry forward.

Um, so this is a bill that requests an appropriation increase of $80.1 million across all funds.

Um, there are several items, um, numerous items in the bill as it does affect multiple departments across the city.

Um, what I've included for today's presentation and in the memo, uh, are the, the, uh, some highlights, um, um, to, to elevate for just for the committee's awareness.

The first slide I have is those items that represent significant changes to the department's budget.

They don't necessarily indicate an issue.

There are no issues raised by central staff.

It's just by virtue of identifying the significant items that could be highlighted.

And I would also note that the memo has an attachment that shows a large table by department The information I showed in the prior slide, building from the adopted to the revised budget, and then places the requests that are being made through this carry forward bill.

It shows the amount and the percentage increases to the revised budget for each one of these departments, just to give a sense of how much the budget is being increased for those departments as a result of this bill.

So the first item I would highlight is a $1 million general fund increase for the Office of Civil Rights, Office for Civil Rights.

And so this is actually a 14% increase to the revised budget.

And it's primarily for the execution of two collaborative grant-making project grant awards that that were made last year that have not been executed.

And so the office is requesting that these monies be reappropriated this year so that those grant awards can be fully funded.

The next item is $4.2 million general fund increase to the Office of Emergency Management, or OEM.

And what this is, this is actually a sizable increase in percentage terms.

It's 152% increase to their budget.

But the reason for this particular increase is that there were a number of non-lapsing grants.

So this kind of goes back to the prior discussion of automatic carry forward.

There were some non-lapsing grants that had been awarded to the Seattle Police Department.

And some of those functions that were covered by those grants have now been reorganized into OEM.

And however, the non-lapsing budget authority, given that it's operating off of prior council approval, technically it can't automatically go to OEM.

So this is the executive signifying that along with the other reorganization elements, that these grants also should shift over to OEM's management.

And that's essentially what this increase is.

The bill does abandon in the Seattle Police Department that same amount of funding that was for these grants, and then applies a non-LAFC provision to the new appropriation and OEM so that these grants will continue into the future, assuming council authorization to add them to the budget.

So that's that item.

The next item is in the Office of Planning and Community Development.

This is a 124% increase, again, a large increase, but there's a reason why.

This represents largely $26.8 million for equitable development and initiative awards to community organizations.

Similar to the collaborative grant ranking projects, the awards have been made or are pending and the budget authority needs to be there in order to fully fund those awards.

And so it's just matching the availability of the money with the timing of the awards.

And then finally, it's a small dollar amount, but the 13% increase to the Office of City Auditor, this is a $500,000 increase funded with sweetened beverage tax revenues to continue the evaluation of the city's sweetened beverage tax.

Last year, that evaluation was paused, this just continues that money so that valuation can continue into the year, into this year.

This next slide, these are not necessarily notable on the percentage basis, but they're notable in terms of dollar amounts and in terms of council transparency.

One is a request of $7.2 million to the Human Services Fund and HSD, and this is for childcare facility projects.

that have been awarded to be funded from the child care bonus funds.

And so these amounts, similar to prior highlights from the last slide, are things that have been awarded and the budget authority needs to follow to be able to fund those awards.

Next is the Seattle Community Safety Initiative.

This is $4 million in the general fund to HSD.

These were one-time funds that were contracted out to community passageways.

for the community safety program.

And similarly, the budget authority is requested to be available to fund those contracts commitments with community passengers.

And then finally, a $2 million increase from community cumulative reserve sub fund unrestricted in the finance general department.

So this is the city's kind of holding pattern for funds.

Uh, and this is for, uh, uh, basically build out of the West wing of the King County Correctional Facility.

And so these amounts were funded in finance general in 2020. Um, however, given, um, the COVID crisis, um, that has not taken place, all this does is then, um, re up those monies in finance general, um, pending the ability to complete that project.

The I would note that the city's operating budget does include in finance general $400,000 for partial year operation of these improvements this year, assuming that that is able to commence.

And so those are notable increases.

Again, I'll pause to see if there are any questions about any of the other items or these items that I have mentioned.

Vice Chair Herbold, please.

Thank you.

I do have a question about the transfer from SPD to the Office of Emergency Management.

You mentioned that the reason for that transfer was because some of the activities that the grant funds are activities that are now occurring not in SPD, but in the Office of Emergency Management.

If you have that information, or if you could direct me to where I might find it, I would just love a little bit more detail about what sort of activities are now being implemented by OEM.

Thank you for the question, Council Member Herbold.

I do indeed have a lengthy I like the email that we've received in our Q&A from OEM, and I'd be happy to forward that along to you if that would suffice.

It's perfect.

Yes, absolutely.

And then on the community safety initiative, I was under the impression that that, so there was the $4 million and there was another 12 million associated with capacity building grants for programs that could include the Community Safety Initiative or may include other types of community safety programs.

And I know the $12 million, they're still engaged in the RFP process.

I was under the impression that the $4 million had already been, was awarded after our summer supplemental, but I, I guess there wouldn't be a need for a carryover if that had actually happened.

So I guess I'm just wrong there.

I was thinking that those dollars were awarded at the end of 2020, but you're saying that they're still not out the door yet?

That's correct, Council Member Herbold.

The description of this item is essentially that, that the award has been given.

It's really ensuring that the money's there to complete all the funding allotments given that the award has been given.

So it's simply doing that.

But because it's not a non-lapsing authority, we need to consider reappropriating it in order for the money to be there.

OK.

Thank you so much.

So I will now move to just some next steps.

And so this is upcoming budget adjustments.

Um, kind of consistent with my prior overview.

Um, so there are some additional standalone supplementals that are in the works, some of which have been recently discussed, um, or prefaced, um, in, uh, the finance committee and, um, largely, um, considering American Rescue Plan Act allocations.

Most significantly, there's the $119 million, which is the first tranche of ARPA monies.

And then also a smaller allotment, which is more of the direct allocation of ARPA targeted aid, which is for home investment partnership programs.

And there may be other targeted aid also that is upcoming that is still in the works.

But those are two bills that are of a standalone nature of which of which we are aware that will be forthcoming to committee.

And then also the comprehensive supplementals.

And so these are the ones that will be familiar to the committee members.

We will have a second quarter supplemental, possibly, or more likely than not, which is normally discussed and introduced in the middle of the year.

And it includes a grant acceptance.

And so a large portion of that is spend those, um, appropriate the monies for those grants.

Um, and then after that, um, during the summer budget process from October through November, um, we will, uh, council will receive a third quarter.

So went on, this is part of all the other budget legislation.

Um, and that's similar to the second quarter at home, accompanied by a grant acceptance.

Um, and, and it's normally adopted alongside the, the timing of the the annual budget adoption ordinance, which in this case would be for the 2022 fiscal year.

And then in the past, we've received a fourth quarter supplemental bill, which comes after the budget process is completed at the end of November.

So it's a committee in December, and it also accompanies a grant acceptance.

None of these bills are guaranteed or certain, it's just kind of a, a recap of how past processes have worked.

Um, the fourth quarter process, um, raises an issue that, um, that staff's highlighted for communities, community consideration.

Um, and it's really good with regards to the timing of when the fourth quarter bill is received.

Um, since the fourth quarter bill, fourth quarter bill is received, um, in, in late November, um, right around the time when the, um, when the budget, the select budget committee and the full city council are are finalizing the resourcing decisions for the next year.

And then, so those decisions are made, and then there is the fourth quarter bill that is introduced.

There's not much of a deliberative timeframe for that bill, given the timing of its introduction.

Particularly if there's a robust Q&A, there's usually limited committee time to have that discussion.

Furthermore, It's a bit out of sequence with the larger budget discussion that's happening in the fall.

Decisions are being made in the October to November timeframe that assume some level of resources are available to be spent, which assumes some knowledge of how the current fiscal year is going to be completed.

And then those decisions are made, and then a fourth quarter bill comes into play And it just seems out of sequence with perhaps that the resourcing decisions that are being made during the budget processes are not necessarily complete.

And then third, and this is a smaller issue, but there is some element of potential efficiency with the possibility that some of the grant decisions that are being made in the fourth quarter really just are unspent and go into the next year's automatic carry forward and then at times, some amounts that are requested in the fourth quarter could possibly show up in a further request in the future.

Again, not too likely, just kind of raising that as a possibility.

So the issue is that the timing of the fourth quarter silver medal, given the cramped timeframe and the wedge between the end of the fiscal year the full budget option discussion, it raises an issue for the committee's consideration that as there is a third quarter supplemental that is traditionally introduced and discussed alongside all of the larger budget discussions that are being made for the next year, one option could be to direct the executive to marshal all of those those decisions that would come into the fourth quarter, put those into the third quarter supplemental adjustment instead.

So, this is not a, this option is not necessarily a light option.

What it would mean likely is that the size and scope of the third quarter supplemental would be larger.

Departments would be required to be a bit more conservative in their planning and assumptions so as to try and avoid those items that would normally go into a fourth quarter supplemental bill.

And then finally, the size and the scope of the exceptions ordinance.

So those cases where the executive has overspent existing budget allocations for the prior year, the size and the scope of these exceptions could be larger for those times and instances where the budget increases in the third quarter supplemental weren't sufficient to cover all known variances at the time.

So that's kind of the con side of that option.

Of course, another option is no action.

Fourth quarter supplemental is a consistent part of the process.

Staff's just highlighting this as a consideration for committee.

Tom, I appreciate you outlining that in the presentation and also in the memo that you provided.

I think it's probably no surprise to this committee and our colleagues here And I've had direct conversations with the city's budget office and Director Ben Noble about the complications that arrive with receiving a fourth quarter supplemental a week, a week and a half after we've just passed our final budget for the year.

Not to mention the sheer amount of work that would be required, I believe, of central staff and of council members to the budget process.

I know that director noble has heard me loud and clear he said I know that they're beginning some planning or looking into how they mitigate the need as we endeavor to make it a more efficient system, especially as the year end wraps up.

So wanna make sure that folks know explicitly what my preference is on that fourth quarter question that's been outlined in the memo here and in the presentation.

Tom, I also have a question for you on just general supplemental.

I appreciate the outline that you provided in the memo for us here and the difference between the supplemental bills that can act as a standalone, the annual carry forward legislation and the quarterly supplementals.

I guess one thing that I'd be interested in continuing to explore with you as well is whether or not it makes sense to have an annual supplemental instead of quarterly supplemental.

And if there is the possibility of a combination that looks at carry forward legislation combined with a second quarter supplemental to make it one supplemental bill and ideally moving us towards a true biannual budget process is my end goal if we can accomplish that.

Do you have any thoughts about the concept of marrying more explicitly carry forward legislation with a second quarter supplemental instead of quarterly supplementals?

Thank you Madam Chair for the question.

The From past experience, I have seen a cadence where there have been two supplementals.

So similar to the option described here, where there would be a mid-year budget adjustments and then a year-end budget adjustments that accompanies the final budget deliberations at council.

The carry-forward supplemental appropriation is distinct and unique because it's looking for authority to continue some work that was provided in the, or that was kind of started or approved for a prior year.

And so there may be some desire, um, you know, and I'm just trying to channel what the executive might say, frankly, um, there might be desire to have some more, um, guarantee that at least those, those items that are carried forward from a prior year.

would have some funding so that work that perhaps had been started in the prior year could continue.

And that, again, would be an exercise of trying to either push the mid-year supplemental process earlier to match up with the carry forward or finding some middle ground that works.

Again, I don't know the answer to that question or whether or not it truly is a concern.

I'm just raising it as a possible item Um, because functionally they do the same thing.

They provide budget authority.

Um, but it's that it's that unique characteristic of the carry forward and what what the executive is communicating with the request that that would be what would would be need some additional scrutiny and perhaps communication to ensure that it doesn't pose any operational issues.

Um, Excellent, thank you.

We will add this to the ongoing list of ways that we can improve this process, both for transparency and accuracy.

Additional comments or questions?

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I do have a question about a very small element of the carry forward.

And that is specifically, there's $20,000, like I said, small amount, but it's $20,000 for the Bennett Midland study on The report was expected in 2020 and my office has inquired a number of times about its status.

The report was completed as to its original scope.

And Bennett Midland submitted that report as the pandemic started last year.

And the report remains in the mayor's office.

And I understand that there's considerations of perhaps an expanded scope given.

the change in Leeds operations due to the pandemic.

I have another inquiry into the mayor's office to check on that assumption and ask for the ability to review the report.

But I'm hoping that the carry forward item, which is, as I understand it, in essence, authorizing or funding the expanded scope of the bid, that Bennett Midland report, I'm hoping that by approving a carry forward with this funding in it, that we're not sort of incentivizing the delay of receiving the original completed sort of narrower scope, originally planned report that we've been seeking receipt of since I think back in October.

The report covers, leads operations, pre-pandemic operations and is really critical to add value to our ongoing conversation around rebuilding community safety and avoiding the traumas of criminal legal system involvement.

Council Member Herbold, I'm not aware that approving the money would preclude them from releasing the unscaled up report.

um uh it's the carry forward bill is not it's really not the mechanism to kind of communicate that level of intent um so we can we can follow up with the executive and and and learn more um yeah i'm i'm i'm not suggesting that approving it would uh preclude the uh the sharing of the

I'm suggesting that we might be incentivizing the continued reluctance to share that report with us.

Because we are, in essence, providing the funding for the expanded scope.

for the report.

And I'm just wondering if that might be inadvertently creating an incentive to allow them to continue to say, no, we're not going to give you that original report because we just received the funding to do the desired expanded scope report.

And I want to avoid that.

Council Member Herbold, I'm sorry to cut you off, Tom.

I had a suggestion.

I appreciate you flagging that.

I wasn't aware of that, and I can understand how it's a lot of carrot and no stick.

I'm wondering if between now and when this gets voted on on Monday, if there is any indication that there's not going to be the sharing of information or the follow-up that you've requested.

I'm wondering if there is a desire for proviso on this or limitation on that.

I'd be happy to work with you on that too.

Thank you.

I had explored that and unfortunately, the title of the legislation does not allow for a proviso.

It could be a striking of that amount.

That I think is an option that's worth considering.

Great.

So let's stay in touch on that, because I think that it is important that you get answers to those questions.

And I also want to assume best intentions that it's going to be shared.

But we also don't want to be rewarding or awarding additional funds if there's still some questions that are lingering and not answered.

So happy to work with you on that as well.

And I hope that this serves as a very visible signal that we are interested in those answers ASAP.

Okay.

Any additional comments or questions?

Tom, did you have anything else on Council Member Hurdle's question on that last line there?

No, at that committee discussion, I would have nothing additional.

No, central staff is, you know, available to work on amendments as needed between now and full council.

Okay, great.

Well, looking forward to hopefully getting some answers that satisfy the council members' initial requests.

I'm not seeing any additional hands.

Tom, thank you very much for your presentation.

The memo I know will be seeing you again very shortly.

And thanks for all your ongoing work on the ARPA bill as well.

Anything else for the good of the order on this item?

And seeing no major concerns, I believe that we will be able to go ahead and entertain a motion to move this out of committee pending future conversations that Council Member Herbold will be having and circling back to us before our final vote in full council.

Okay, wonderful.

I'd like to move the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120039. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded.

Are there any additional comments or questions?

Okay, hearing none, and I don't believe there's any amendments to be offered here with the clerk.

Please call the roll on the final passage of Council Bill 120039.

Chair Mosqueda?

Aye.

Vice Chair Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Madam Chair, that is four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

I will note that the motion has carried.

The committee recommendation will be sent to the May 10th Seattle City Council meeting for a final vote.

That does bring us to the end of our agenda today.

I did get a note from Councilmember Strauss that he will be joining at 3 p.m., but if we wrap up in the next minute, we'll just miss him.

So we'll send him our regards.

Thank you for attempting to join Councilmember Strauss.

If there's nothing else for the good of the order, I'm not seeing any hands.

Our next meeting for the Finance and Housing Committee will be on May 18th.

The draft agenda includes the American Rescue Plan Act Direct Aid Draft Bill, the transparency requirements for contract workers, continuation of that discussion, Domestic Worker Standard Board recommendations, and the MOB for the Senior Center.

is what our current agenda has, and we are still working on the translation and interpretation services that we have mentioned at the last.

I'm really hoping we can work out the details for simultaneous interpretation for our friends at the Domestic Workers Standards Board.

I'm not seeing any additional items or additional hands, so I'll thank folks from Seattle Channel, our IT folks, our clerk, and the clerk's office, again, Amelia and Elizabeth, for always being on the line here with us.

Thank you all.

I hope you have a great rest of your afternoon and thanks for your participation in our back-to-back meetings for the Finance and Housing Committee.

See you on Monday.

Take care.

Thank you.