Seattle City Council Briefing 8/16/21

Thank you, son, so much.

Good morning, everyone.

The August 16th 2021 Council briefing meeting will now come to order.

The time is 9 31 a.m.

Will the quick please call the roll.

Council Member Mosqueda.

President.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson.

President.

Council Member Strauss.

President.

Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council President Gonzalez.

Here.

Six present.

Great, and I see that Council Member Herbold is connecting.

So we'll give her a minute.

Let's go ahead and move to approval of the minutes.

If there's no objection, the minutes of August 9th, 2021 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

President's Report, I do have a few announcements this morning and reminders as part of the Council President's Report.

First, I want to issue a public reminder that the City Council will be on recess from Monday, August 23rd through Monday, September 6th.

Again, the City Council will be on its summer recess from Monday, August 23rd through Monday, September 6. There will also be no City Council or Council briefing or committee meetings during that two-week period.

In addition, the Council briefing and City Council meetings on Tuesday, September 7th have been canceled in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

So the next Council briefing and City Council meeting after today will occur on Monday, September 13th.

And I do want to have the record reflect that we've been joined by Council Member Herbold.

Next, I know that you all are going to hear a little bit more about this from Budget Chair Mosqueda, who's going to speak to her during her committee report about Select Budget Committee, but I wanted to briefly acknowledge the communication she sent to you on Friday, which put forward the calendar for the Council's deliberation of the 2022 budget.

This morning, I'll issue a memorandum relating to the Select Budget Committee, formally establishing the quorum, committee dates, and additional rules for the committee consistent with our past practice.

Next, I also wanted to acknowledge the communication I sent to all of you council members and all employees of the legislative department last Wednesday, in which I announced that our department is following the lead of the governor, county executive and mayor in requiring all legislative department employees, all legislative branch employees to be fully vaccinated by October 18th of this year.

This directive requiring public employees to be vaccinated is critical to combating the dire situation of increasing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths across the nation, particularly as the Delta variant continues to spread throughout our communities.

Additional information, including directions for how to verify vaccination status, will be shared in the coming weeks.

And if any employees have any questions related to the vaccine requirement, please review the materials I sent on Wednesday.

and or you can contact our Ledge HR Finance Director Karen Jackson.

And then lastly, colleagues, I did want to take a moment to just acknowledge the heavy news of what is happening in Afghanistan with many, many individuals now seeking refuge and escape from Afghanistan as it is taken over by Taliban forces.

Our thoughts and hearts are with our local Afghan community, many of whom I know Aslan Council have friends amongst, and we continue to send our thoughts to our local family members here who may have relatives who are still in Afghanistan who are dealing with this massive humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

So our thoughts are with everyone who is dealing with the trauma of once again seeing families being displaced from this country as a result of war.

We are also, in my office, reaching out to members of our congressional delegation, including Congressman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Murray and Cantwell, to make sure that they hear directly from the city council about our ongoing commitment to being a welcoming city here in the city of Seattle.

So thank you all for an opportunity to just mention and lift up the trauma and suffering that we know folks in Afghanistan and their families here locally are experiencing.

With that being said, we can go ahead and move now to the preview of today's City Council Actions, Council, and Regional Committees.

We'll go ahead and begin that discussion with the usual roll call rotation.

We'll begin with Councilmember Mosqueda, then we'll hear from Peterson, Strauss, Herbold, Juarez, Lewis, and then I will conclude this agenda discussion.

All right, so next, and just as a reminder, folks, Council Members Morales and Solant are both excused today, so that's why we have an abbreviated list.

So, Council Member Mosqueda, you are up first.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

Good morning, colleagues.

There are no items from the Finance and Housing We do have a packed agenda again, so I encourage folks to make sure they are able to stay with us until 1 p.m., but we'll make sure to adjourn by 1 p.m.

for processing and the needs to make sure that we're getting ready for other items on tomorrow's agenda with our clerks and our I.T.

crew, so we will have a hard stop at 1. This includes three appointments to the community routes housing, a briefing on the revenue forecast from the city budgets office, a possible vote on the mid year supplemental budget legislation.

Again, thank you very much for submitting your amendments by last Wednesday.

We did have a chance to publish those on Friday's agenda and understand that there.

maybe a few additional amendments in the work so we'll seek to publish as many of those as possible by midday today so that everybody has a chance to review those.

There will be a possible vote on the mid-year grant acceptance legislation that corresponds with the mid-year supplemental budget.

We'll then also have three briefings.

A briefing on the MFTE annual report and extension legislation from the Office of Housing and Possible Vote.

A briefing and possible vote on the authorization of a new lease from the Port of Seattle Land to continue to expand the use of lands for tiny house villages located in Inner Bay.

And the FAS Race and Social Justice Initiative presentation.

As a reminder, all colleagues are welcome to attend the Finance and Housing Committee meeting to discuss items of importance related to the budget.

Please let Farideh Cuevas know if you have not already.

Let her know as soon as possible if you plan to attend so that we can make sure that you have all of the materials and can acknowledge your presence in the meeting as well.

Since we don't have another council briefing before our next meeting, I do want to remind folks that the meeting after tomorrow's meeting will be on Friday, September 10th, due to the Labor Day holiday, and we also have the following meeting for September scheduled on the 17th.

That's both Friday meetings, both of them start at 9.30 a.m.

In terms of the budget update, as the Council President noted, before the weekend I shared with you a summary email regarding the budget calendar for the Select Budget Committee that is starting later in September.

This begins our budget deliberations on the 2022 budget.

The Council President, as noted, will be following up with a memo formally establishing the Select Budget Committee, setting dates, quorum, and the committee rules.

After recess, I will also be sending out another communication to the floor to express the process for how this year's budget will be conducted.

We will make sure that everybody has information about how to participate in this year's 2022 budget deliberations far before we engage in conversation starting that last week of September.

Please do make sure to add all of the dates that have been scheduled and sent to you on that email to your calendar and my office will also be seeking to send you calendar holds so that all of those items are on your calendar.

Just as a reminder, we expect to receive the mayor's proposed budget on Monday, September 27th.

We will then have the city department presentations review each of those sections later that week, starting on Wednesday, September 29th.

We do have three public hearings scheduled in this year's 2022 budget deliberations.

which begin with two evening public hearings on October 12th and November 10th.

Those both start at 5.30 in the evening.

We also will have a chance for a morning public hearing on November 18th.

that will be an extended public hearing comment for at least an hour and a half.

Additionally, each of the committee meetings that you see on the calendar that were shared will start with 30 minutes of public comment every meeting, but we will have a hard stop at 30 minutes to make sure that we can continue into the deliberations and that we do not have a extended period during those times because we have the three public hearings this year.

We will be considering proposed amendments and an opportunity for you to engage with the community, with the public, and for us to have a transparent process so that we can bring forward a balancing package by November 12th.

This will give us time for ample feedback before we finalize our budget for 2022, which we hope to pass by November 22nd.

Thank you very much in advance for your time and your work on the 2022 budget.

And if you do have any questions, of course, please feel free to reach out to me, to Cecil Parikh, to FIFA staff, or anyone on the central staff team, especially Ali Panucci, who really helps to head up our budget deliberations on behalf of central staff.

Thanks in advance to everyone.

I also, Madam President, do have a note from Council Member Morales, if I may share her notes from this morning.

Good morning, colleagues.

This is the 10th anniversary for this designation nationally, originally started in 2011 by Dr. Jackie Oliver-Copeland and the Pan-African Women Philanthropy Network to quote, illuminate the ingenuity and transformative impact of Black generosity.

In Washington State, this is the first year celebrating Black Philanthropy Month as Black philanthropic leaders such as The Black Future Co-op Fund, Seattle Foundation, Threshold Philanthropy, and Philanthropy Northwest and their allies have come together to organize a series of events to explore the theme of, quote, demystifying philanthropy, moving towards black abundance, end quote.

They have a series of virtual events that will be taking place during the rest of August that are free and open to anyone who RSVPs to discuss how we invest in a liberated future by, for, and with black Washingtonians.

In a quote from the organizations and the organizers of this event, they state, quote, it is no secret that anti-Black racism has purposefully and persistently undermined the opportunity for Black people to build wealth over generations.

Since its founding in the early 20th century, predominantly white-led institutions, philanthropy has over-invested in white-led nonprofits.

The revenues are 76% larger than Black-led nonprofits.

Institutional philanthropy invests only 1.8% in Black communities," end quote. Collectively, with philanthropic and government investments, we must intentionally and equitably invest resources to undo the legacy of injustice that has entrenched inequities within Black communities. I'm honored to bring forward this proclamation today on behalf of Councilmember Morales in honor of Black Philanthropy Month and look forward to bringing this to full council with your support. Madam President, I do have just a few more updates, if I may.

Before you do that, I would like to, since you've already spoken about the Black Philanthropy Proclamation, I would like to go ahead and gather signatures at this point.

Again, so signatures will need to be affixed to the proclamation as described by Council Member Mosqueda before it is presented this afternoon.

I am going to ask the clerk to call the roll to confirm which council members' signatures may be affixed to the proclamation.

But before I do that, are there any questions about the proclamation?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signature affixed to the proclamation proclaiming August 2021 as Black Philanthropy Month?

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Strauss.

Yes.

Herbold.

Yes.

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Council Member Lewis.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Six signatures.

Thank you so much.

Sorry, Madam President.

I wasn't able to come off mute there.

I do want to be added as a signature.

I apologize.

Thank you.

That's seven signatures confirmed.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

Appreciate it.

Seven signatures.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Esqueda.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

I just wanted to note a quick note of appreciation for the Seattle Restaurants United.

Hundreds of community members who are part of Seattle Restaurants United who have sent us various requests for how to support them in this time, making sure that there's clear guidance from not only public health and our local officials, but knowing that there's a harmony in terms of guidance for masks and vaccine requirements.

They've asked for additional clarification and additional support.

for how to make sure that there could be stronger guidance issued for those who are seeking to enter public places like restaurants and bars.

I look forward to continuing to work to support the requests that they have put forward and have been in touch with members of Public Health Seattle King County who I understand are also reaching out to to see what else we can do to support the request so that no individual, no worker, no small business is in a position of having to be the sole enforcer of what should be good public health practices across the board, and look forward to working with all of you as we learn more about what is possible in response to the request many of us have received.

Just a strong note of support and appreciation for members of Seattle Restaurants United and their hundreds of small businesses that they represent and the request that they've sent in, and look forward to following up with you all shortly on that.

Thank you.

Any comments or questions on that report?

Okay, Council Member Scado, on that last point that you just made, I would be interested in having a conversation with you.

As you know, my family is in the restaurant business, and there, I think, are varying degrees of opinions about this particular issue that we are seeing.

bubble up in cities like San Francisco and New York City in terms of requiring vaccination, proof of vaccination to be able to come indoors.

And I think that there's an opportunity for us to sort of better coordinate with the county.

But I do think that there is a varying amount of opinions on the expectation that a vaccine mandate imposes upon ordinary employees to be the enforcers.

And so I think that that issue needs to be resolved if the county and the state decide to move in this direction, but would welcome an opportunity to continue to be engaged with you on that particular issue.

Okay.

Any other comments or questions, colleagues?

All right, we'll go ahead and go down the line.

Next up is Councilmember Peterson, and then after Councilmember Peterson will be Councilmember Strauss.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council President.

Good morning, colleagues.

Our City's Transportation and Utilities Committee has three clerk files on this afternoon's full City Council agenda, all related to technology.

Clerk files 314, 482, 483, and 484. These clerk files accept the updated schedules from our Seattle Information Technology Department for finishing the review of various surveillance technologies.

The theme is the need to provide more time due to delays lingering from the COVID pandemic.

The good news is that we already made substantial progress during the past year, approving two batches of technologies, what we call Group 2 and Group 3, covering 12 technologies.

So two of today's clerk files adjust the timelines for Group 4, which is divided into Groups 4A and 4B, so they're easier to analyze and approve.

4A would be submitted soon, 4B in December.

One of the technologies that has attracted interest is the traffic management tracking called a cyclica.

SDOT is currently examining the possibility of discontinuing a cyclica, but we will still plan to have SDOT provide a status update on that technology at our September 15th Transportation and Utilities Committee.

Seattle IT already provided a heads up to us about the need for this extension with the clerk files.

The other clerk file provides our city auditor with more time.

in part because our auditor's office has been short-staffed recently as they try to complete.

And then they've also completed similar reports on the technology, so we're going to give the city auditor more time to get back to us again on those technologies.

These three clerk files are all placed on the introduction and referral calendar published online August 6th.

Our Transportation Utilities Committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9.30 in the morning, so our next committee meeting is this Wednesday, August 18. We published the agenda online this past Friday.

Here's a quick preview of the 12 items.

The University of Washington has asked us to approve their updated transportation management plan for major events, including how they intend to encourage the use of transit during big sporting events in and around Husky Stadium.

I believe there may be important items buried in their plan that we should lift up and memorialize in the accompanying council resolution, such as boosting transit and making sure sporting event ticket costs cover the costs of having city government employees manage traffic flow.

So central staff has prepared an amendment to accomplish this, which we will circulate soon.

We have five appointments to the various transportation boards, bike, transit, and freight.

Our committee will also consider Council Bill 120138 to provide limited condemnation authority in case it's needed to secure portions of property necessary to implement a quiet zone that will support freight operations at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 facility.

So these are in West Seattle.

Then we will vote on Council 120159 to authorize our Seattle Department of Transportation to accept various grants totaling $40.5 million.

This includes federal, state, and regional grants for the West Seattle Bridge, a PSRC grant for 15th Avenue South, and a pedestrian safety grant for Aurora Avenue North.

The 1.5 million state grant for Aurora is vital.

That state highway has been a dangerous area that we must address for the city to meet its Vision Zero transportation safety goals.

We will have a briefing and discussion on a new renewal energy program called Renewal Plus, which is being developed by Seattle City Light.

We won't vote on that, though, until September 15. For the second time, we will discuss the three SPU rate ordinances implementing the strategic business plan and rate path already endorsed by the customer review panel and then by the city council on May 10 via Resolution 321. I will move substitute versions of those three bills.

As you may recall we have good news with the average SPU rates coming in lower than what was promised during the previous strategic plan in 2017. This will be our last Transportation Utilities Committee meeting until after the two-week recess of our City Council.

So items passing out of this week's committee would not get to the full Council until Monday, September 13. because we've canceled September 7 full council meeting.

So I'm still eager to pass items out of this committee, otherwise it'd be delayed to September 20th.

So a lot of stuff for us to review and get through on Wednesday.

District 4, this past week, my staff and I attended the annual Maple Leaf Community Gathering at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.

I really appreciate the ongoing work of the Maple Leaf Community Council and organizing this fun annual event for neighbors to enjoy the park, connect with other families, learn about different community organizations, and eat ice cream.

Lots and lots of ice cream was devoured at this event.

A week ago, I attended the police roll calls for the early morning first watch in the North Precinct and this past week I attended police roll call for the second watch, which is the nine hour shift from 11am to 8pm.

Officers continue to be generous with their frank feedback and I I believe it's in the city's best interest to let our officers know every way we can that we appreciate the difficult work they do in our communities across the city.

Focusing on officer wellness is just one way to address their extremely low morale and show we care about our fellow city employees serving Seattle.

I believe we can't afford to lose more highly trained officers and detectives beyond the record-breaking attrition the department has already experienced.

and the need for our police officers and detectives was emphasized just this morning.

Early this morning in my council district four, police responded to shots fired.

A dead body was found near the entrance of Gasworks Park in the Wallingford neighborhood with gunshot wounds.

I've been in contact with the police department this morning.

Homicide detectives have taken over the case and will work with a medical examiner to confirm the cause of death.

I want to thank Chief Adrian Diaz, police officers responding, the detectives now investigating, and the department for their overall responsiveness with this tragic incident.

Thank you.

That concludes my report.

Thank you.

Any comments or questions on that report?

All right.

Hearing none, Council Member Strauss, please.

Thank you.

Good morning Council President Good morning colleagues there is one item from the land use and neighborhoods committee on today's full council agenda as Council Bill 1201 to one, which provides temporary flexibility for downtown storefronts to address vacancies.

I want to start with addressing this bill with my apologies to council members on the committee.

and specifically Councilmember Juarez for not having the amendments to the bill published on last week's agenda.

This is out of line with my personal standards for my own amendments coming forward before committee and moving forward.

I will ensure all of my own amendments are published on the agenda for my own committee, except in extenuating circumstances and by I can't control each of you colleagues for walking on your amendments.

This was out of line with my personal standards.

So apologies, council members.

Apologies, Council Member Juarez.

And also to this point, I had had commitments that some of the issues result surrounding these amendments would have been worked out between committee and today, which is why I allowed the bill to be passed out of committee.

These issues have not been resolved at this time.

There has not been consensus.

And so.

Council President, between now and full council, if we can't bring resolution to these issues, I will ask that we hold this bill until September 13th.

Because moving again, it is out of line of my personal standards to bring half-baked ordinances from committee to council.

And so I don't want to occupy full council with work that should be done in the committee.

So getting to the bill, Council Member Lewis is proposing three amendments to Council Bill 120121. These were not resolved in committee.

I'll let Council Member Lewis speak to these at this time.

And then colleagues also just flagging that at 9.09 a.m.

there was a letter from department directors expressing their concerns regarding one of the amendments.

So it was not just on committee members that this, that did not fully resolve these issues.

Departments have only just now weighed in, which is why, unless we can resolve these issues before full council, I'm gonna ask to hold the bill.

Council Member Lewis, would you like to speak to your amendments?

Yes, thank you, Chair Strauss.

So, I mean, as your comments just indicated, it's been kind of an iterative process on working through these amendments due to, you know, when we do receive feedback on the proposals.

I think Director Quadrango sent an email to us just before Council briefing expressing some concerns that are old, some concerns that are new.

But I'm happy to talk about these amendments for Council Bill 120121. I think I would preface at the beginning of this presentation on the amendments or discussion of the amendments.

that I do not think, Mr. Chair, it is necessary to hold the bill.

I think that some of these issues are just going to continue to come down to philosophical disagreements between some council members and the department and would respect a vote on those amendments and just kind of taking it where it lies.

But I don't think more time is going to address the concerns with one exception, which I'll speak to, which was mentioned in the emails from department heads, where I do think there's at least a resolution that will satisfy the community stakeholders, if not the department.

So with that, I'm happy to just jump into this, but I would say that I would be happy with just having a vote on the amendments, regardless of the outcome.

But given the importance of the underlying bill, I would personally support simply voting on the amendments and the bill this afternoon, and then calling it good and moving on, given the importance of the legislation.

Councilmember Lewis before you jump in, I just want to say this, this work needed to be done in committee.

And that's, and there are still further conversations that I'd like to have with you, because I don't think that amendment three has been fully resolved but jump in and then we can have that discussion.

So if I could just intercede here really quickly.

So by design, it would be my preference that if there are outstanding policy issues, that those policy issues be hashed out in working sessions during committee meetings.

And it seems to me that there are enough amendments here that perhaps that is an indication of there still needing to be some additional work on this bill before it is hashed out in full council.

Now, that being said, I haven't had an opportunity to connect with either Chair Strauss or Council Member Lewis, who is a proponent of three amendments.

I would welcome the opportunity to do that over the next few hours, just to sort of assess whether there are truly some additional policy work sessions that need to occur, or if this is just fundamentally a disagreement on direction.

So if that's the case, then we can call it to question and put this to rest.

But I think if there is opportunity for some additional policy work, Then that seems to make sense to me for us to give us an opportunity to work those things out in committee as appropriate.

Other committee members are welcome to chime in on that if you see fit.

But for now, for expediency purposes, let's have Council Member Lewis talk.

through your amendments in the event that we do end up in a place where we vote on the bill and related amendments so that the full council has the benefit of understanding your motivation and your proposals, and we'll leave sort of the procedural aspects related to whether or not we should pursue the bill and the amendments in today's full council meeting or a full council meeting on September 13th to be decided after the fact.

If that is acceptable to you, Chair Strauss and Council Member Lewis.

That's how I propose we move forward.

Okay.

I got a thumbs up from Chair Strauss and head nods from Council Member Lewis.

So Council Member Lewis, take it away.

Talk about your three amendments, and then we will have a quick conversation about that.

And then we will leave the conversation about whether to hold or not for offline conversations.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Council President.

So I think that process definitely makes sense.

So I'll jump into the amendments, and I also will just take a moment to discuss my position on whether further deliberation on these amendments would warrant a more productive process if it were sent back to committee.

So based on the conversation that we had in the Land Use Committee, it was evident that with one of the amendments that my office was proposing that would expand the level of allowable downtown street-level uses to include street-level office space as well as light manufacturing, that there was a consensus on the light manufacturing use, and indeed, the department The relevant departments did endorse that use in the email that they sent to us earlier today.

But there continues to be disagreement over the office use.

So I divided that amendment in two so that we could have a pretty brief, non-controversial vote on the light manufacturing where there is a consensus.

but could then have a separate vote on the office space.

So those issues could be divided out and allow for discussion where there is still discussion to be warranted.

So those are two separate amendments now.

The office space issue continues to be one where there is division with policy makers at the city, though I would note, I don't think there's significant opposition from any downtown stakeholders, but it would essentially allow.

up to 30 feet of frontage of office space in the downtown business district as a street-level use.

This is something that's been requested by a number of stakeholders in the district.

It is something that the departments, the relevant city departments have made clear that they do not support, and I totally respect their decision to do that.

I represent constituents, not city departments, so that is why I'm bringing this amendment to be discussed.

The general concern, as I can gather, is that office space is not a dynamic street level use.

I fully and totally concede that.

I have no disagreement.

Where I ultimately think this is a good public policy, is that there are some places downtown that might not be activated in any way except with a use like street-level office use.

Street-level office use, even though it is a fairly static street-level use, is still more desirable than vacant storefronts or vacant buildings.

And giving this option to stakeholders and property owners in the downtown core to activate spaces with an active use that is providing some kind of activity, even if it is a mostly static activity, is one that I would support in cases where no other use can be attracted, which, you know, like all of us would like to see cafes become or street fronts become cafes.

That's not always possible.

And in some cases, I don't think any amount of additional policy discussion is going to get consensus between the city but I don't think more process is going to create some kind of meaning in the minds.

It's like we either support office space as a street level use, or we don't.

And I just wanted to put that out there as kind of my view, having discussed this fairly extensively with the relevant departments for several weeks, and we'll respect the decision that is made.

The final amendment, would allow, you know, office space among other uses for street level uses in the Pioneer Square Historic District.

It would allow administrative approval by the Department of Neighborhoods Director.

The issue that was cryptically alluded to in the email we received earlier by the Alliance for Pioneer Square, the only named stakeholder in the email that had any issue with any of the amendments.

The Alliance, I was able to call Lisa Howard to ask her about the issues.

She said as long as the amendment makes it clear that the office space frontage rule is the same for downtown and Pioneer Square, she does not have any problem with that component of the amendment.

My office has talked to Lish Whitson, who is going to be distributing a change to that amendment to reflect it, which is a fairly small technical change.

And that satisfies that issue.

There is also some issues with how the Department of Neighborhoods might administer the program that goes to the enforcement of the measure rather than a legislative component of it.

So again, I don't think any more process is going to change those issues aside from the technical change to the frontage, which is an easy cosmetic change to make to the legislation.

So those are the amendments.

And I certainly respect the decision of the chair if the chair wants to the bill for additional deliberation and consultation back in the land use committee on this.

You know, it's my opinion that more process isn't really gonna change anything here, but I certainly respect, since this is Chair Strauss's policy area, if he wants to, I'm happy to have another committee hearing on this and these amendments, but, you know, also happy to just resolve these this afternoon.

So with that, I don't have anything else to add.

Thank you for that Councilmember Lewis.

And it is sort of a tradition of the council to respect the chair's request for hold if the chair so deems that a request is appropriate.

So I certainly want to be conscientious of that longtime tradition on the council.

But again, I think there'll be an opportunity for us to all connect offline here to see if that is truly the chair's desire and if it is, again, consistent with past practice, would certainly want to honor the chair's request.

I'm gonna hand it back over to Council Member Strauss, since this conversation is being had amidst your report.

Thank you, Council President and Council Member Lewis.

I think you highlighted the policy difference that I was trying to iron the wrinkle of, which is between your Amendment 2 and your Amendment 3. Amendment 3 has office space that needs to be consistent with Amendment 2. So if Amendment 2 were to fail, then Amendment 3 has policy issues.

I think that there are ways to resolve for that and in a similar way that you resolved for the issues in your amendment.

Um, 1 and 2, and so that's that's kind of the crux of the afternoon.

And if we can resolve that before full council, I'd be happy to bring it forward.

If there are.

Conversations about how to move that amendment forward in a way that creates sound policy.

we'll need to hold the bill.

And that's where I'll sit from there.

Council members, again, my apologies for having this committee work being done during council briefing and at full council.

Moving forward, unless there are serious extenuating circumstances, I will only bring fully baked ordinances from my committee to full council.

Again, apologies to committee members and council member Juarez.

for not having the amendments published on the agenda last week.

We did not receive these amendments in time to publish, and that is still no excuse for my amendment not being published.

Further items from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, there's one item from the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee on the introduction referral calendar.

Council Bill 120157, which amends legislation that the council adopted earlier this year related to affordable housing on religious institution properties.

Since adopting that legislation, council has heard from many stakeholders, including the Nehemiah Initiative.

The amendment adopted by council, lowering the AMI requirements from 80 to 60% made the legislation unworkable for them and many in our community.

In signing the legislation, Mayor Durkan also communicated her intention to transmit this legislation that will address those concerns and while also mandating reevaluation down the road when data is available to ensure that the program is working as intended.

Because the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee has already considered these issues and voted differently than the full council, my intention is to bring this legislation directly to full council for a public hearing and vote in September.

because we've already had the committee work, we've already had the full council work, so this is a fully baked ordinance.

We will be rescheduling also, and in other news and land use and neighborhoods committee, we will be rescheduling our September 8th committee.

Council President, I will be requesting a special committee meeting during September as we do have a full docket of work to complete prior to budget requiring two meetings.

And due to Rosh Hashanah, we will be rescheduling our September 8th meeting.

In other news, the supplemental, while I will unfortunately not be able to attend tomorrow's Finance and Housing Committee meeting, I'm proposing two amendments to the supplemental budget.

Amendment 9B would provide $500,000 in funding to the Garfield Superblock Project using excess REIT revenue that is unallocated.

This is not in competition with Council Member Sawant's amendment, or this amendment recognizes that REIT revenue is typically how city funds capital projects such as the Garfield Superblock and that public safety dollars should be dedicated to public safety.

My intention in bringing this amendment is to give committee multiple options to fund the Garfield Superblock because it is such a great program and project.

Given the larger conversation that is also occurring to SPD overspend, I just want to have another avenue of making sure Garfield Superblock is able to be successful this year.

My amendment 11 would provide $50,000 to SDOT to conduct the 10% design of the street improvements needed to Ballard Avenue Northwest, which is our pilot for how we can further encourage permanent street cafes across Seattle.

So while this is Ballard specific, it is the prototype that will be rolled out and inform citywide policies.

which is why I bring this.

This amendment has changed since the summary was distributed to council members last week in order to better reflect the cost of this design work.

As you know, we held the design shred just two weeks ago, and there's fast-moving work that needs to be completed to make sure that we have the pathway to permanency for street cafes ready to receive the report by December 15th and ready to be implemented by next May 2022. I previously proposed an amendment also in addition to these two to secure funding for Green Lake Boathouse.

I have at this time withdrawn that amendment after discussions with CBO.

I believe we'll be able to secure more funding for this project during the fall budget process.

Here in our office, as I just mentioned, we were able to host the Ballard Avenue Design Charette with Ballard Avenue restaurants, business owners, community members, residents, and property owners to look at dream big and be bold about how we can make sure to keep street cafes permanent here in the city using Ballard Avenue as the example and the prototype after the design shred on Tuesday.

And so after the design shred, we were able to summarize a lot of the good work.

We are excited to make sure that we're able to keep these really this really amazing cafe culture here in our city.

Before the pandemic, cafe culture was not part of Seattle, and I'm excited that it is now.

I also was able to join District 6 residents at their annual night out block parties.

It was really great to chat with so many neighbors, especially since last year's night out was canceled.

In my office, I'm also meeting with AW Association Washington City's members to ensure that we have a good working relationship and good policies ahead of next legislative session, which starts in January.

My staff also met with the Finney Neighborhood Association last week.

And here in District 6, there's good news.

The Ballard Pool will be reopened.

Seattle Parks and Recreation will be ramping up public services and programming at recreation facilities all across the Seattle for fall.

And on October 18th, the Ballard Pool will reopen for lap swim, aquatic fitness, and limited exercise classes.

So thank you to the Seattle Parks Department.

as well as today the fish ladder at the Ballard Locks.

The viewing gallery will be reopened today.

The viewing gallery has been under construction for nearly five years and I'm excited to see, anticipating a beautiful display of how salmon migrate through our waterways.

There's still much to be done to change how salmon get from Puget Sound to Lake Washington to better encourage their health.

Unfortunately also in Salmon Bay this last week there was a drowning.

A woman fell off of a paddleboard.

She was not wearing a life jacket and she did not resurface.

When these accidents happen they can happen in just brief seconds and if you're not there to respond Once somebody goes under, they may never come back up.

This is a kind reminder to always wear a life jacket if you are on a kayak or a paddleboard.

Always wear a life jacket, just simply, and make sure to swim within your ability level.

Here in District 6 also, I've been able to speak to neighbors and we've spoken about West Green Lake Way North, Ballard Avenue, street cafes, public safety, and speeding on Seaview Avenue.

As a recap on West Green Lake Way North, the mayor has accepted my proposal to have a two-way walking biking path on the lakeside of West Green Lake Way North and reopen the street to traffic while also increasing the amount of speed reduction modules in the street so that cars are only going 20 miles an hour.

She is committed to reopen this fall and I am continuing to work with SDOT to understand what that timeline is and asking more questions.

Here in District 6, we will be pausing our District 6 resident meetings, our office hours, during this council recess that is starting next week, and we'll resume office hours on Thursday, September 9th.

If you still need assistance from my office, please do email us, as we'll be standing ready to assist you.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, colleagues.

That is my report.

Thank you so much, Council Member Strauss.

Any other comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, we're gonna go ahead and continue down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Herbold, and then we will hear from Council Member Juarez.

Good morning, Council Member Herbold.

Good morning, thank you so much.

First of all, before I get started, I just wanna thank Council Member Peterson for his update about the shooting in Gasworks Park at 4.30 a.m.

this morning.

We understand that detectives are investigating this shooting as, unfortunately, another homicide.

I have no committee agenda this week.

I do have my next committee meeting in September after the break.

That's September 14th.

As far as items from the public safety and human services committee, there are two items on today's full council agenda.

One is Council Bill 120105, to limit the use of less lethal weapons.

And the other is Council Bill 120148, transferring the parking enforcement unit out of the Seattle Police Department.

Just a quick review on the legislation limiting the use of less lethal weapons.

As background, there are currently no restrictions in the Seattle Municipal Code on the use of less lethal weapons.

You may recall last summer the council did pass legislation, but the courts have basically issued an order on that piece of legislation, and it is not in place because of the restraining order on the council's bill.

So the Public Safety and Human Services Committee has been working a alternative piece of legislation through committees since the beginning of this year.

Most recently, the Public Safety and Human Services Committee voted for one to pass out the version of the bill that we'll have before us.

We voted in committee on July 13th.

At that time, I moved to hold the bill so that we would not have it in full council until after the consent decree status conference that occurred last week in case the court wanted to weigh in on the legislation.

We know that of eventual policies that would come out of this legislation from the court, if necessary, per the consent decree, because it pertains to the use of force.

So we were interested to know whether or not the SAS conference was going to give any insight on that review.

The court had no comment on the legislation at the, at this conference, and so we are moving forward with the full council vote today.

Just as a bit of background on the content of the bill, the legislation includes a full ban on acoustic weapons, energy directed weapons, blast balls, ultrasonic cannons, and water cannons.

Use of noise flash devices, otherwise known as flash bangs, are banned in demonstrations, but under the legislation there are circumstances where flash bangs can be used.

But they are not permitted in demonstrations.

So, for instance, certain types of SWAT activities, like flash bangs, can be used.

The bill conditions the use of pepper spray and pepper ball launchers on those instances when the risk of serious bodily injury from violent actions outweighs the risk of harmed bystanders.

And finally, Cleargrass is committed only in very narrow circumstances.

The bill does not regulate in any way the use of non-chemical launchers, for instance, beanbags, rubber bullets, blue-tipped projectiles.

And so, again, the legislation is silent on the use of those less lethal weapons.

So out of my respect for the process, we have met with the monitor and the Department of Justice.

Council President Gonzalez has also joined in those meetings to get feedback in advance.

be clear, that process is informal feedback as part of the – which is separate than the formal feedback that is required by the consent decree that will happen after the passage of legislation.

The committee first acted in February to recommend a draft bill, and that draft bill is what was used for those discussions with the monitor and the Department of Justice.

and conversations about the draft bill.

The Department of Justice expressed concerns about the potential that restricting the use of certain less lethal tools in crowd management circumstances could actually lead to officers using higher levels of force, including both assaultive protesters and surrounding non-violent protesters at greater risk of harm.

Richard Bird had expressed similar concerns, and DOJ was inquired as to whether or not the draft bill would provide time for relevant SPD officers to be trained in the changes to the policy.

So, and this also was an issue that James Robart had raised.

So that's the concern, the amendment, or the legislation was amended, or not amended because it hadn't been introduced yet, but it was, the legislation added a new definition of crowd control, provided time for training after the court approved the legislation and made a number of other types of changes, such as allowing for the use of rubber ball launchers in a demonstration or rally, but not for crowd control purposes and only when the risk of bodily serious injury from violent actions outweighs the risk of harm to bystanders.

Again, this change is in response to the feedback that we've received.

and judicial decisions.

You may recall a district court ruling allowed use of pepper ball launchers in restricted circumstances, and Robards specifically authorized the use of these launchers in late February as part of SPD's mandated annual update to the use-of-force policies.

So again, in August, the CPC, the OIG, and the OPA recommendations, August of last year, were sent to counsel and Judge Bard, because he requested them as well.

These were recommendations in light of our June 2020 legislation.

And that has been served as sort of the foundation for this bill is based on, we first, produce legislation that reflected things that those three accountability bodies agreed on.

And then again, as I've described, there have been changes throughout the course of the year's worth of deliberations.

CPC has written as in response to this most current version of the bill, wrote in to offer their support of the bill, wrote saying that they believe it's inclusion of clear delineations of when less lethal weapons can and cannot be used.

and the limitations on who can use them is a significant first step in ensuring the safety of community members when they get engaged in First Amendment protected protests.

They note that they appreciate the improvements, but they also want to make sure that we understand that there's more work to be done and that the legislation works towards implementation of some of the recommendations.

but their recommendations identified additional changes necessary to best protect community safety and civil liberties.

And they ask that we continue to start working towards addressing those additional changes.

So everybody's clear on the process.

If this bill becomes law, what happens next is SPD would draft policy revisions within 30 days.

I'm sorry, 60 days.

The DOJ and the monitor would review the policy revisions, and that's when their formal review and the consent decree takes place.

The court then reviews the policy revisions, and if the court approves the policy revisions, then the revised policies and substantive provisions of the bill take effect.

So looking forward to The culmination of many, many months of work begun with Council Member Suant's legislation passed unanimously by the Council last June and continued over the course of the year in my committee and really appreciate the collaboration from the other Public Safety and Human Services Committee members on this bill.

The second item on today's full Council agenda, as mentioned, is the Parking Enforcement Officer You may recall in late May this year we had the conversation of transferring both the parking enforcement officers and 9-1-1 dispatch and into the new community safety and communications center, consistent with the unanimous position taken by the council during the budget process.

But at that time, due to a divided workforce and council members wanting additional time to deliberate on what is the proper home of the parking enforcement officers, we removed the parking enforcement officer unit from the bill and transferred just the 911 dispatch to the community safety and communication center while also passing an extension to the proviso to allow the PEOs to continue to get paid while at the Seattle Police Department.

That proviso extension expires on September 1st.

And so given that although the parking enforcement officer unit and the folks over at Protect 17, who represents the supervisors at the Park Enforcement Division, have begun to meet to discuss their differences between the preferences of the supervisors represented by ProTec and the preferences of the PEO officers represented by SPEOG.

There is still a divided workforce, but I have heard clearly at committee that more council members are interested in transferring the parking enforcement officers to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

So for that reason, the bill has passed out of committee unanimously does transfer a parking enforcement officer unit to the Seattle Department of Transportation, and that is the bill that we'll have before us.

from the Human Services Department on their heat response.

Aging and Disability Services case managers and contractors are completing wellness checks to 1,600 clients who live alone and receive in-home services for complex health needs, ensuring they have resource information to stay safe during heat and smoke events.

And then a quick COVID update, and I'll close out with this.

We know that last week, health officers from all 35 local health jurisdictions across Washington State, including here in King County, joined together to send the message that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, should wear masks in indoor public spaces.

This was a unified recommendation And it's coming as case counts in the region are rising again, driven heavily by the spread of the very contagious Delta variant of COVID-19.

I've been in contact with stakeholders in the community, including those in the hospitality industry.

have been reaching out to public health and the mayor's office to discuss this troubling rise in community spread of coronavirus here in Seattle, and the possibility that our hospitals and healthcare workers may become overwhelmed if too many people are hospitalized due to COVID.

The governor and the state are creating a vaccine data verification tool that will help us in considering our opportunities in the area of vaccine verification.

As raised by Council President Gonzalez, the public health department has limited enforcement mechanisms other than their jurisdiction over food and beverage regulations.

And we saw the limit enforcement mechanisms in last year's and this year's mask mandate.

Mask mandate, the city and county did use the Joint Enforcement Team for particularly egregious violations of the mask mandate and based on complaints that were coming from workers.

So we're looking to see whether or not this function would be something that would be of use for vaccine verification purposes.

Again, it's time to take every precaution possible to avoid overwhelming the hospitals, emergency room and healthcare workers.

This includes masking up in public spaces and of course getting vaccinated.

Of the 1.4 million residents fully vaccinated in King County, 0.004% have been hospitalized for COVID-19 and just 0.001% have died.

Overwhelming majority of COVID hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated.

If you know someone who's unvaccinated, please encourage them to get vaccinated.

This is our best defense against the Delta variant.

You can find free vaccination at www.kingcounty.gov forward slash vaccine.

Free child care available and free rides to vaccination sites.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Herbold, really appreciate that.

Any comments or questions on that report?

I'm not seeing any hands raised, so we'll keep going down the line here.

Next up is Council Member Juarez, please.

Good morning.

OK, I will be brief for this morning's briefing.

Let's see.

There is one item of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee on this afternoon's IRC.

and the council agenda referenced as Resolution 32018. This resolution supports Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland's Truth and Healing Commission.

This commission will study and address the ongoing impacts of the 1819 Civilization Fund Act.

And for those of you that don't know what that is, that is when Congress passed an act in 1819 to civilize us.

Apparently that didn't work.

The federal policy established Indian boarding schools for the sole purpose to forcibly remove American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families to assimilate into white settlements.

The commission would lead investigative efforts of past and present U.S. boarding schools and identify services to respond to the intergenerational trauma that continues to affect indigenous families today.

Just a quick note, one of the things is, Senator Warren actually introduced this a couple of years ago and it didn't pass the Senate.

And now that Deb Haaland is head of interior, they've actually have a better model, if you will.

And hopefully it will go forward and this will get passed and we can actually address and provide services to tribal communities and indigenous urban organizations to address this type of historical trauma.

And I'm happy to report that the American Bar Association passed Resolution 801, which is a phenomenal resolution, I read it and I was actually very impressed, supporting the U.S.

Interior Department and its work to uncover the troubled legacy of federal boarding schools.

And again, the historical trauma that these institutions have caused to indigenous communities here and in Canada.

The next Public Assets and Native Communities Committee is scheduled for Friday, September 10th at two o'clock.

and there are four items on the agenda.

The first item is something we've been working on for quite a while and it's finally done.

A lot of terms we had to figure out in negotiations with our lawyers.

The first item is a public hearing and a briefing of the Woodland Park Zoo operations and maintenance agreement renewal, which was transmitted last week.

This legislation is on the IRC for this afternoon.

The second and third items are reappointments of Colleen Echo Hawk and Iris Friday to the Seattle Indian Service Commission.

And finally, we will consider legislation designating a park boulevard along the downtown waterfront.

Parks, just very briefly.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is gearing up for their annual summer recreation event, the Big Day of Play.

Big Day of Play encourages neighbors, communities, and families to have fun, build relationships, and be active together.

Big Day of Play will be held on Saturday, August 21st at the Rainier Playfield and online From noon to four, the event is completely free and includes activities for all ages and abilities.

Parks is requesting volunteers to help set up, pass out water, and monitor activities during the event.

If interested, please visit the Big Day of Play organization volunteer.

Native communities, very briefly.

I'm happy to report, and I'm glad our Seattle City Council did it first.

Here in Washington State, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the members of a support team that will facilitate the working of the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force.

The team will be responsible for supporting the 21-member task force as they produce two reports to the governor and the legislature in August of 2022. in June 2023 to share the task force findings.

The task force will include tribes and tribal organizations, as well as state and local policymakers, our friends and tribal leaders.

The facilitation team is made up of Annie Forsman Adams from the Suquamish Nation, Asa Washines from the Yakama Nation, and Ellen Austin Hall.

Annie is a leader in the field of work and has been an incredible resource for our office when crafting legislation in the past.

I don't know who on Council, I think it's Keller Muscata is involved with the Association of Washington cities.

So I know that they're going to have an opportunity to make some recommendations for this 21 member task force.

So I'm hoping that we can have conversations with you customer Muscata on what that looks like.

I think Council Member Strauss as well.

Yeah, as well.

Okay, well, who's ever on it needs to talk to me.

You got two good folks to talk to, which is always a pleasure.

Thank you.

I like to call Dan Ted Lasso.

Thanks.

Thanks, Dan.

Okay, thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Any comments or questions on that briefing?

Next up is Councilmember Lewis and then I will go ahead and wrap up this section.

Thank you Council President.

I am going to start because the updates are very long from the economic development committee that I vice chair with Councilmember Morales.

on this afternoon's agenda from the committee that I will be reporting out on this afternoon and giving a preview of now.

So I will begin with Councilmember Morales' report, which is mostly a report from the committee.

So as I just said, we had a marathon meeting, mostly some great appointments that we're gearing up to put on a number of boards and commissions.

by a total of 30 items, nine appointments to the governing council of the new cultural space agency, eight appointments to the music commission, two to the women's commission, and 11 appointments and reappointments to the human rights commission of which council member Morales and I are both alumni of.

there will also be a proclamation that Council Member Mosqueda is going to bring on behalf of Council Member Morales, which Council Member Mosqueda I believe alluded to in her report earlier today.

So starting off here, the Cultural Space Public Development Authority is a critical step in realizing our goal as a city of building community wealth.

The intent is to have a mechanism in place that helps secure long-term affordable cultural commercial space with community partners, and to build community wealth through direct investment in real property, create opportunities for ownership of commercial cultural space, and partner with communities of color with a particular focus on the needs of Black and Indigenous communities.

Today we are voting to seat the first governing council of the Cultural Space Agency.

The council will be responsible for ensuring that the Cultural Space Agency is meeting its mission with impact and integrity.

While the council is not involved in the day-to-day management of this agency, they are ultimately responsible for the agency's finances, property investments, compliance, and executive staffing.

Moving on to these appointments, the inaugural appointments to this body, Geneva Arunga, who has served on multiple councils and boards, including the African Youth United Hip Hop Congress, the Mayor's Youth Council, Umuja Peace Center in Africatown.

She created the Central District Reunion in 2017 as an annual re-migration of displaced Central District alumni, and we look forward to confirming their appointment this afternoon.

Mia Arunga has been involved in community organizing through her connections to multiple community organizations, including Technology Access Fund and Seaweed International, which she owns with her sister.

Naima Clark is founder and director of Nurturing Roots Farm located on Beacon Hill, a program committed to addressing food justice issues in the community.

She currently hosts workshops ranging from germination to systemic food oppression, participating on panels and lectures, and sharing her journey as a Black female entrepreneur.

Afua Kliate spent the last 50 years building a ministry of African-American and Native African folkloric culture.

In 1986, she founded the Afua African Music and Dance Company that provides cultural entertainment to youth and families.

Sergio Max Legon-Atelemony is a practicing architect and graduate of Building Artspace Equitably Program.

He is co-founder of La Union Studio that weaves cultural narratives into the space they design.

Melina Rivera has dedicated the last decade to community health and environmental justice.

She serves as director of operations at Front and Center and brings direct experience in commercial lease management.

C.M.

Ruiz is a graphic artist, a curator, and a cultural space organizer and producer.

He is the founder of the much-celebrated Miyamoto Art Space and has partnered with the Low-Income Housing Institute, MoPOP, and KEXP.

Julia Chang-Schulman, also known as Julie C., is a hip-hop artist, interdisciplinary cultural worker, writer, and educator.

As a recording artist with BOC Music, she boasts a discography of over 40 compilations, soundtracks, and artist guest spots.

And Michael Siwery has over two decades working in affordable housing and cultural space.

He is the executive director of SEED, Southeast Effective Development, a community development corporation providing housing and art space.

So we are super, super excited to be approving that slate of board members this afternoon.

Again, the inaugural board members and looking forward to getting those efforts off the ground.

But for the Music Commission, we will be considering three-time Latin Grammy nominee Jovino Santos Nido.

Nido is a master pianist, flutist, composer, arranger, conductor, and educator from Rio de Janeiro.

Jovino lectures on the connections between biology and music, usually coupled with live performances.

He taught at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle for 26 years, and we are looking forward to that confirmation.

Jessica Toon has dedicated her career to developing and supporting creative communities through mission-driven arts and culture organizations.

Jessica joined the Recording Academy Grammys in 2019 as its Executive Director for the Pacific Northwest, serving the music communities of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, and Western Canada.

Nick Vayerwick is Vice President of Programming at Climate Pledge Arena and is responsible for the strategic content programming of all concerts, family shows, and special events, as well as facilitating the NHL hockey and WNBA basketball schedules at the new facility.

Shannon Wells is the founder of Friends of the Showbox, a community coalition to landmark and save iconic music venues like the Showbox, and she holds a management position with the Showbox.

She has deep knowledge of venue operations and worker relations and is an AEG One Earth ambassador dedicated to reducing venues' environmental impact.

Andrew Jocelyn is a composer, orchestrator, and violinist.

He currently runs his own production studio in Seattle and leads the Passenger String Quartet and has scored several feature-length films.

Anne Barry O'Dowd has been executing festivals and events in Seattle and beyond for 20 years.

She currently serves as Events and Festivals Manager at Friends of Waterfront Seattle, stewards of Seattle's new Waterfront Park.

Keola Kama is a native Hawaiian from the island of Maui, whose education and music career has taken him from Seattle to Los Angeles and back.

After 10 years at Record Labels, Keola joined Mapster in Seattle to help the team innovate in the streaming space via both marketing partnerships with indie artists, as well as negotiating licensing agreements with labels.

Bassist, composer, and producer Nate Omdahl is one of Seattle's leading music innovators, and his production work can be seen and heard all over the city of Seattle.

Currently, Nate is serving on the Director's Board of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 76493, and works as a contractor for Sky Muse Studios.

Moving on to some of our final appointments here to the Women's Commission.

We will be considering Sophie Lee, a Korean American immigrant, transgender woman of color.

She is currently a software developer at Microsoft and the board chair of a transgender rights organization, Gender Justice League.

Rachel Morowitz is a first generation Fijian American who strives to increase awareness of LGBTQ issues in her law firm, She hopes to advocate for policies that make Seattle a more equitable environment for women, particularly concerning economic opportunities and physical safety, and wants to do so in a way that acknowledges and addresses the intersectionality of women in Seattle.

The Human Rights Commission appointments.

We'll be considering Natasha Bennett, a trilingual social science researcher and analyst specializing in human rights.

She serves as an advisory board member for the World Without Hate, a Seattle-based organization focused on building empathy and breaking the cycle of hate and violence.

Alan Nerebo has been involved in the community mental health sector and has functioned in various capacities as a case manager, therapist, and program manager.

He is currently a graduate student at the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington Tacoma and holds a bachelor's degree in social psychology.

Julia Ismail is the founding head architect of Aspirations of the Equity Consortium, a convener and gatherer of collective wisdom.

Julia is also a transformative justice practitioner.

Gunita Chadha is a first-generation intersectional woman and a child of a formerly incarcerated parent who is a passionate and curious leader with a mission to engage in solutions and policies for families and youth impacted by incarceration, She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and human rights from the University of Washington and a critical race theory and intersectionality certificate from Dr. Kimberly Crenshaw's summer program through the African American Policy Forum.

Kylie Cleva grew up in the Puget Sound region, earning a BA in the comparative history of ideas from the University of Washington in Seattle and an MA in human rights from the Central European University in Budapest.

She currently works as administrative assistant at a law firm in Seattle and coax dances and bikes in her free time.

Claire Auwald-Gilmette is a data-driven management and evaluation professional focused on solving problems for the social sector organizations.

As a proud Seattleite and social justice advocate, Claire is inspired by the opportunity to serve on a city board or commission and eager to meet new Seattle residents and curious to learn more about their experience of living in the city and ideas for making Seattle an incredible place to live.

There are also going to be reappointments for Tyrone Grandison, Aaron Orovio, Jessica Bouillon, Brian Egger, and Erica Chen.

So with that, Madam Chairwoman, I will note there are no additional updates for the report this afternoon that will be from the committee.

As you can see we had an appointment of commissioners and it was great to hear the stories of the commissioners which we briefly summarized.

I look forward to supporting their appointments this afternoon.

I will note all appointments were I will follow-up with Council President and Councilmember Strauss in the period between briefing and full Council to discuss those amendments more in the potential process for resolving those amendments at this afternoon's committee.

We have a lot of work to do.

Moving on to a report from the select committee on homelessness strategies and investments.

We did have a committee meeting last week.

Thank you to all councilmembers who attended that committee meeting on provider capacity.

I noticed three big themes coming out of that committee that we should queue up for a discussion in social service organizations and our provider community.

I think it is notable that like a lot of positions that interface with the public in this really challenging time, where there's great community need for support, that there is high attrition, trouble with retention, and high rates of vacancies being experienced by lots of our provider partners.

This has really big implications for the health and safety of our neighbors experiencing homelessness in the city of Seattle to be able to access the services that they need to be successful and to be cared for.

A couple of other things I noticed in addition to the high rate of attrition and the issues with retention that are related were more of an effort for fair and equitable pay for people who were doing this work.

Making sure that there are efforts to have culturally competent outreach services, highlighted as especially critical by Chief Seattle Club and their presentation.

And by almost every provider, the crisis in accessing behavioral mental health resources for their clients and making sure that that work is being done.

So I look forward to really digging into those issues as we go into the fall budget session to make sure that we can respond to the crisis that we see on our streets every day of our neighbors without the ability to access those critical services and that hit a lot of these bottlenecks in the provider community that we have a lot of power over as a council to rectify and change through our budget priorities.

City Hall Park, as many community members are probably aware, there was extensive outreach last week from our partners over at Just Care.

I would note my gratitude here at the front for the efforts of the mayor's office and the human services department to deploy the council's investment in the Just Care program.

As council members will recall, the council unanimously approved legislation to front load up to $12 million to invest in emergency homelessness responses like Just Care last April.

That legislation was further liberalized in June to make it easier to deploy that resource without the expectation of potential federal reimbursement.

As of August 1st, the city has secured 89 additional placements of additional capacity for the Just Care program, which will help stretch the Just Care response to address the critical demand for our neighbors experiencing homelessness to be able to get inside the safe, well-resourced shelters, mostly hotel-based shelters for the Just Care program.

We saw this on display at City Hall Park last week.

a pre-outreach estimate from Just Care, which was conducted by the Defender Association, estimated that there were about 77 people living in City Hall Park.

Just Care, in their post-outreach report, has placed 68 people who were living in City Hall Park into some form of enhanced shelter, so in some cases they're hotel-based shelters, in other cases city shelter like tiny house villages or the navigation center, but 68 people placed.

Seven people are currently pending to be placed based on additional outreach work that had to be done with seven individuals who had to find more unique and better resource placements for public health barriers like behavioral mental health or other issues that there needed to be a little bit more work to find an appropriate placement.

In total, there should be somewhere between 75 and 78 total placements.

There are a few additional people who are not currently on the pending placement list that just cares optimistic they will be able to find a place for them to go.

But would note that in total, the amount of folks who are going to be given a place to live the number of people who are living in the park.

By far, either meets or exceeds the number of people who are living in the park.

There were some folks associated with the park but not living there who are also given offers of shelter and assistance.

I just want to highlight again, with Just Care's model of outreach, the incredibly high rate of acceptance and the incredibly low rate of to our unsheltered neighbors experiencing homelessness.

These 75 or so people who are going to be in these placements a week ago were living in an environment where they were exposed to extreme heat.

They were exposed to wildfire smoke and are now in a place where they can live with dignity and safety.

And I think it's important that we continue to focus Those priorities as a council, as this council has continued to reflect through our budget priorities, the ability to do more outreach.

on the Just Care model hinges on the availability of enhanced shelter assets that are stood up.

This council has funded for 2021, 2,250 enhanced shelter spaces that are non-congregate.

And it's important that we continue to work towards partnering with the executive and continue to stand up these shelter resources so that we can model more of our outreach to emphasize getting people inside, minimizing displacement, and addressing the chronic homelessness crisis that we have in Seattle.

So with that, Madam President, I don't have any additional updates, and I am happy to hand it back over to you.

Thank you, Councillor Lewis.

That was a big lift, both yours and Council Member Morales's report.

So really appreciate that.

Colleagues, any comments or questions on that report?

All right, hearing none, I'll go ahead and conclude this section with my report.

Just as a reminder, we do have an executive session at the end of today's meeting, so hang tight here.

I'll try to make mine as quick as possible.

I have one item on today's introduction referral calendar.

It's an appointment to the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, which is also on the City Council agenda for final action.

The work of this committee supports apprenticeship programs housed at Seattle City Light in particular, and I will speak to this item in more detail this afternoon's City Council meeting.

In addition to this appointment, I'm sponsoring one piece of legislation on the City Council agenda.

That's item four, which is Council Bill 120144 in ordinance related to city employment adopting the 2021 position list.

This legislation is an administrative action that does not substantively impact city operations or employees.

Administrative actions include reclassification of job titles, returning positions to the civil service system, and authorization of emergency positions.

I don't have anything more to report from the Governance and Education Committee.

Just a quick note that we will have our regular meeting on September 14th.

And also just want to remind folks on behalf of the Department of Education and Early Learning that registration is now open for the City of Seattle's preschool program.

So if you have a three-year-old or a four-year-old and are interested in enrolling them in the Seattle Preschool Program, now is the time to head over to DL's website and find information on how to apply.

Individuals who are interested in applying can go to www.seattle.gov forward slash apply SPP, or you can call 206-386-1050 to begin your application process for the Seattle Preschool Program.

We'll also have information about this in our newsletter and of course posted on our social media channels for folks to be aware of the opportunity.

Later this week, I'll be joining a panel discussion on, it's a national panel discussion on gun violence as a public health issue at John J. College's Center on Media, Crime, and Justice.

They're holding a two-day event about gun violence as a public health issue, and I'll be joining panelists from Felicia Moore, who's the current Council President of Atlanta, as well as the representatives from New York's New Yorkers Against Gun Violence and Cities United, an organization that has been dedicated to working to build safe, healthy, and hopeful communities for young black men and boys and their families.

Looking forward to joining them this Thursday in that panel conversation.

That is all I have to report in addition to the items I discussed in my president's report at the top of today's agenda.

Any comments or questions before I move us into executive session?

All right.

Hearing none, I'm going to go ahead and move us into executive session.

Colleagues, as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene an executive session.

The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or 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.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions of policy for open sessions.

I expect the time of the executive session to end by 1130 PM.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond 11, I'm sorry, AM, 1130 AM.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond 1130 AM, I will announce the extension and expected duration in open session.

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