SPEAKER_02

Good afternoon, everyone.

It's August 14th, the 2020...

It's August 20...

Okay, tongue twister.

It's August 14th, 2024. Meeting of Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee will come to order.

It is 2-03.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, the chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_20

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Councilmember Strauss?

SPEAKER_04

Present.

SPEAKER_20

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Four council members are present.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

Thank you.

We have 11 items on the agenda today.

One through six.

First, we have one appointment and five reappointments to our wonderful Seattle Center Advisory Committee.

We have some of those people in the audience today and we look forward to The appointments and reappointments.

Following that, we will consider Seattle Information Technology Department's recommendations to appoint Director Rob Lloyd as the Chief Technology Officer for the City of Seattle.

After that, we will look to vote on Seattle Public Utilities 2025-2030 Strategic Business Plan.

9 through 10, we will look to vote on the drainage and wastewater rate adjustments from Seattle Public Utilities.

And finally, we will look to authorize a lease with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

We will now consider the agenda.

If there's no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Seeing none on Zoom from Councilmember Strauss in his district office, there's no objection.

The agenda will be adopted.

With that, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should be related to the items on today's agenda or be within the purview of the committee.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up today?

SPEAKER_20

We have three in person and two remote speakers.

SPEAKER_02

Each speaker will get two minutes.

Clerk, can you please read the instructions for public comment?

SPEAKER_20

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

I will call speakers by name in order in which they are registered, both on the council's website or from the sign-up sheet available here in council chambers.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

If you have not registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period.

Just go to the council's website or by signing up on the sign-up sheet near the public comment microphone.

The online link is listed on today's agenda.

When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

If speakers do not end their comments at the time allotted, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

And we will start with the first speaker, I'm assuming in person for the first three, and then the two online.

SPEAKER_20

The first speaker is Carolyn Malone.

SPEAKER_14

Carolyn Malone from senior housing.

And this is a housing police issue ongoing.

Each time I exercise my constitutional right to protest in front of the bunker at Fifth and Cherry, I'm retaliated against by this big male.

who's hitting on me at 3rd and Union.

This morning when I came out of my housing at 9th and Marion, he appeared and spat it on me again, twice.

I threw a bottle of water at him.

rides on the bus with me.

I don't know his name, but police have enlisted him to follow me around to attack me with his spit.

And I'm afraid he's going to escalate because I protest against police in my senior housing.

I'm going to continue to go to Fifth and Cherry and protest because police have no right to intimidate me or have others violate me, a woman, because I do not want them in my senior housing at 9th and 910 Marion.

This is one of the police officers who live there undercover.

Another photo.

This is the person trying to fit in.

And each time we have a confrontation or come face-to-face, this guy shows up at bus stops right across from my house.

Catholic...

community services on buses and spits on me and police must stop.

I know you are powerless to do anything or won't do anything about it.

I have a right to, and I will continue to, but notifying the public that these rogue cops, Caucasian males, are constantly violating me will keep me on the streets.

And by the way, in relation to technology, have you considered that police may have installed the ransomware in the Seattle Public Libraries?

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Mrs. Malone.

And for the record, just to clarify, we have in attendance Councilmember Rivera join us.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_20

The next speaker is Dwight Jones.

SPEAKER_02

And Mrs. Malone, if I could say something.

Just to clarify, coming to our public safety meetings would be appropriate as well to be able to articulate some of the public safety concerns that you have as well, as this is the Parks Committee.

But I just wanted to throw that out there as well.

SPEAKER_14

No, but you guys don't do anything anyway.

SPEAKER_02

I understand.

SPEAKER_14

By the best mode that I can.

SPEAKER_02

I understand.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mrs. Malone.

SPEAKER_01

Hi, my name is Dwight Jones.

I'm commenting about Seattle Parks and their leases with Department of Natural Resources.

Really exciting topic.

My name is Dwight Jones, and I am one of the owners of Marina Management.

We manage eight marinas in western Washington.

In 2017, we entered into a management agreement with the Seattle Parks Department to manage the city-owned marinas at Leschi.

Part of that agreement required Marina Management to renovate or rebuild the marinas.

Both Leschi South and Leschi North marinas were built sometime in the 1950s.

And although modest improvements have been made over time, both marinas were well beyond their life expectancy with large sections unusable.

Immediately upon signing the contract with Seattle Parks in October of 2017, marina management began the permitting and approval process.

Once approved, marina management constructed and contractually required improvements.

Those improvements included a completely new marina at South Leschi and a renovation of Leschi North.

This work was completed in December of 2022. SPD is also required to construct a new Leschi South wave attenuator dock to provide guest moorage, replacing the existing creosote treated structure and ineffective wave attenuators to protect the Marina.

At this time, we are unaware of any steps taken to accomplish this.

Marina Management has not been able to secure permanent financing because Seattle Parks does not have a long-term lease with DNR.

The current lease expired in 2022. Financial institutions are unwilling to make loans against unsecured assets.

We urge this committee to move forward with approving and sign the DNR leases.

The inability to secure financing had a significant negative impact on Marina Management and adversely impacts our ability to operate and contemplate future improvements.

Lease Ward's summary and fiscal note document, which you will get this later this afternoon, is well done and accurately describes the legislation and its impacts to the city.

However, if you have questions or need clarification, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

SPEAKER_20

The next speaker is Bill Schrier.

SPEAKER_16

Good afternoon, Seattle City Council.

Hello.

My name is Bill Schreier, and I'm here to comment on the confirmation of Rob Lloyd as the city's chief technology officer.

I was the city's chief technology officer from 2003 to 2012 under Mayors Nichols and McGinn.

I've also worked since then in a couple of other capacities at the city.

I was the Chief Information Officer for the Seattle Police Department, 2015 to 16, and I helped Chief Amy Smith create the Care Department out of the 911 Center from 2021 to 2023. And I've known Rob since 2010 when he was CIO, Chief Information Officer in Avondale.

Seattle IT has got some great strengths, like the quality of its people.

It's also got some glaring weaknesses.

For example, its inability to get projects done on time and within budget.

I honestly don't know if those problems are fixable.

But if there's somebody who can fix them, it's Rob Lloyd.

And I urge you to confirm him as the city's next chief technology officer.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

And thank you for all the work that you have done for our city.

And how much did Mr. Lloyd pay you to say?

I'm just playing.

but appreciate all those words, so thank you.

SPEAKER_20

We have an additional in-person speaker, Jay Eldred.

SPEAKER_02

You can go ahead and speak whatever is that pertains to the committee.

So what we'll do is we'll go to our online speakers and we'll come back to you if that's okay to give you some time.

All right.

All right, go ahead, Mr. Clerk.

SPEAKER_20

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue.

That is their turn to speak and speaker must press star six to begin speaking.

The next speaker is Cynthia Spies.

SPEAKER_11

Hi, I'm Cynthia Spies, a district six resident I see that a number of appointments are on today's agenda.

However, none of them are to fill the vacant seats in the community surveillance working group.

In fact, such an appointment hasn't been proposed to any of these last six meetings of this committee.

I wanted to make sure you all were aware that the Seattle surveillance ordinance SMC chapter 14.18.080 section A item three states, quote, at least five members of the working group shall represent equity focused organizations serving or protecting the rights of communities and groups historically subject to disproportionate surveillance, including Seattle's diverse communities of color, immigrant communities, religious minorities, and groups concerned with privacy and protest." Currently, there are only four working group members that supposedly represent an equity-focused organization. This is below the minimum of five required by the law. This also means that Seattle IT and the Mayor's office forcing the existing working group to produce their privacy and civil liberties impact assessments without the minimum legally required staffing of the work group is not following the spirit of the ordinance, if not also outright illegal. No surveillance impact reports should be sent to be processed to the working group nor progressed through the rest of the ordinance's process until five people are appointed to the working group who represent equity-focused organizations. As it currently stands, The working group is overly represented by industry and or lawyers. Where is the community representation in this community surveillance working group? This is entirely within your hands to correct and raise back up to the legal requirement since the vacant seat is a council appointment. Please do the bare minimum and at least appoint a fifth person to fill the vacant seat on the working group. Thank you.

SPEAKER_20

The next speaker is Sabra Schneider.

SPEAKER_13

Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, go right ahead.

SPEAKER_13

Awesome.

Good afternoon, council members, and thank you for the time today to speak in support of Rob Lloyd's appointment as CTO.

My name is Sabra Schneider and I'm currently the chief information officer for the city of Bellevue.

Before joining Bellevue nine years ago, I was the director of digital engagement with the Seattle IT department, serving under one of your former speakers and served a short stint as the interim CTO as well.

I've had the pleasure of working with Rob for more than five years now.

We've served on professional boards together He's been a trusted advisor and collaborator across all things innovation, process improvement, public-private partnerships, and a lot of other civic technology matters.

Rob has a very unique trifecta of skills that I think make him stand out in this role and certainly in this region.

First, his outstanding people and relationship-building skills.

which, as you all know, isn't always the strength of technologists.

Second, his exceptional business and political acumen, and last but not least, his deep technology expertise.

He is also very generous with his knowledge and time, values partnerships both across governments and in the private sector, and I believe he will continue to work on aligning the services of Seattle IT with the growing demands of a high-tech city.

He's a true leader across the community of civic CIOs and has partnered with many of us across the nation to help deliver better technologies to the communities we all serve.

I'm thrilled he has joined us in the Pacific Northwest, and I look forward to continued partnership from across the lake.

I strongly support his appointment as CTO and would be happy to provide any further information.

Thank you again for your time.

SPEAKER_20

We have one final in-person speaker, Jay Eldred.

SPEAKER_02

And just heads up, we'd like to have public comment that is within the purview of our committee, but I know it took a lot to like get down here and I just want to respect that.

So whatever public comments you have about.

SPEAKER_07

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

And can you please use the microphone so we can hear you?

Would be amazing.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_12

Okay, so I want to address one police brutality here, and I don't know if you guys read my last three comments from the previous thing, but as far as I know, SPD trained with the Israeli military within the last two decades.

We all know what's going on in Palestine right now.

For example...

These are all, one, other than the detective who gave me her card at Pride, these are all from the last week.

This was me being held at gunpoint in Pioneer Square.

This was officers forcing me to report in person, they didn't take my report in person.

This was a non-solution, this is your card because my rapist lives in your jurisdiction and so did I.

He's not my only rapist.

I've been raped 53 times here in a six-year period.

I was a service industry worker, and I worked at Nightlife.

I was technically trafficked through a lot of service industry jobs.

If you got her drunk, if you got her high, weed and alcohol are legal.

Drugs are decriminalized.

And there's kind of this hush-hush scenario.

How many security guards are dealing?

Who owned Rebar?

Was it a front?

Yes.

who owns Supernova.

Zachary Levine has been caught up in multiple issues, including, as far as I know, a death with his weed operation.

Sarah Nelson owns Fremont Brewery, or at least still owns shares.

I addressed this yesterday.

I report to 911 when I'm in an escalated issue.

However, the officers here do not know how to de-escalate and seeing someone in uniform triggers a lot of people like me who peacefully protested in 2020 and was hospitalized, misdiagnosed multiple times against my will.

The last hit comment about fentanyl was rich considering she owns a brewery, which is a legal controlled substance.

Nonetheless, prohibition proved...

I'm running out of time again.

Anyway, I have another report that says I'm having a crisis when I'm reporting another rapist, and that's how this system works.

It doesn't.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

If there's no additional people who sign up, we will now proceed to our items of business and officially public comment is closed.

We have a number of appointments before us, which we're really excited about.

And we're gonna consider all the appointments to the committee at once.

And I know that we have a number of people in the audience that are here.

So I'd love to invite you all, if you're being appointed or reappointed to the table, And then while we're doing that, we'll read the items into the agenda because that's what we have to do.

Thank you.

Clerk.

SPEAKER_20

Agenda items one through six appointments 2939 through 2944. The appointment of Sally Bagshaw as a member of the Seattle Center Advisory Commission for a term to September 28th, 2025 and the reappointments.

of Laura Mae D. Chollet, Gloria Alvarez-Connors, Will Ludlam, Matt Mead, and Kamala Saxton as members of the Seattle Center Advisory Commission for a term to September 28th, 2027. For briefing, discussion, and possible votes, speaking today is Marshall Foster, Director of the Seattle Center.

SPEAKER_02

Director Foster, thank you for joining us.

Would love for you to say your name for the record and the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_17

Thank you very much.

Chair Hollingsworth, committee members, it's great to be here.

Marshall Foster, Director of Seattle Center.

And I'm not gonna say a lot because I know you have a very full agenda, but I do just wanna, you know, extend my or share my personal excitement to have a great new commission over the last year.

You may recall, well, A lot of y'all weren't here at the time, but last year we brought in a significant new slate of commissioners, which has been a great shot in the arm for the Seattle Center and for the work that we do.

And we're excited today to both be renewing a whole group of those commissioners, both new and some who've been on it for a longer term, as well as to introduce a new commissioner, former council member, Sally Bagshaw.

And I just wanna say, you know, I know you all know Sally, but she has been an incredible civic leader in this community for decades.

years and years, she has more than 40 years of experience in municipal policy, politics, law, civic leadership.

I've had the benefit of staff to work with Sally when she was a council member on numerous civic initiatives, whether it was the Waterfront, Seattle Center, and she's just, let's just say a force of good and a force of nature together at the same time.

So we couldn't be more happy to have Sally joining the Seattle Center Advisory Commission.

So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

And then we also have a, well, let me just say this.

Former city council member, Sally Bagshaw, how your resume is amazing.

And I know council member Strauss talks so highly of you all the time.

The only mistake you made on your resume, you did go to Stanford.

And I know a lot of us don't like Stanford, but because you went there, I will reconsider that.

loving you and the cardinal and the dancing tree, okay?

SPEAKER_10

That is bad.

That dancing tree is bad.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it is bad.

But would love to have you open the floor to say a few words.

SPEAKER_10

Oh, thank you so much.

Council members here in City Hall and Council Member Strauss, hello.

I am just delighted and really pleased to be able to work more with Marshall Foster and with the Advisory Board.

So I was on council from 2010 to 2020. And all during those 10 years, I had the privilege of working with Seattle Center, of course, with the waterfront, which is near and dear to my heart, having worked with that since 2004. So what's exciting to me is what has happened at the center.

Many of you know that it was not what it is today.

And we had to take some significant votes to make sure that we were able to go forward with what became the Climate Pledge Arena.

And I really wanna thank Marshall's good work, other council members that stood with me when we decided that preserving Seattle Center meant not having an easement and a whole new entertainment facility in our industrial area.

So we were able to work with, you'd think of Todd and Tim Lewicki and Francesca as well from Los Angeles, on Climate Pledge Arena, all the people that worked so hard to get that opened up so that the buck could drop on schedule.

But think about the work that we've done with Seattle Center overall, whether it was the Science Center, the Opera, children's theater, even redoing the armory and Mopop.

These are all things that have been a delight.

But we've also worked with the Seattle School District.

And I want to say huge thanks to all the people that have been working so hard to make sure Memorial Stadium is just rebuilt in a way that is, again, something that honors Seattle Center and the people in the city.

Thank you for including me.

Look forward so much to working with Marshall.

And I told him it's true.

Part of the real draw on this committee for me is the opportunity to work with you, Marshall.

So many thanks.

SPEAKER_02

Well, thank you.

I know we're lucky to have your experience to be in this, you know, going from council and all the experience that you've had working in our city and being able to offer that purview on the advisory committee is, I couldn't think of a better person.

SPEAKER_17

So thank you.

Director?

Yeah, I'll just add it's an exciting time to be joining the commission.

Laura May is one of our kind of newer recruits over the last year that I was mentioning before.

And I think you'd probably agree we have a pretty full agenda right now.

As you mentioned, Sally, the Memorial Stadium project will be coming before the council, we hope, later this year.

We have a growing business on the festival side with an incredible resurgence of all of our festival events.

And we're just in the very early stages of a new strategic plan for the future of Seattle Center, which is looking out at the next 10 years.

and how we reinvest in our core vision as the cultural heart of the Northwest and help put the center on a more sustainable financial footing and position to be successful for the next 60 years.

So we're very lucky to have the commissioners we have, Laura May being a great example, as well as a great new commissioner in Sally Bagshaw.

So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

And I know we have a couple comments.

I do want to say something about Laura Mae.

I've had the opportunity to know Laura Mae for over 20 years, I think it is, as her uncle was my basketball coach growing up, which is pretty cool.

And so I've had the opportunity to know her, know her and her family, and I've worked with her in a long time after school program with youth and kids and know that is close to her heart and athletics and youth and, uh, enrichment.

So, uh, just super lucky to, you know, obviously, you know, both of you all, and then obviously Laura May for over 20 years and, and looking forward to your continued service.

Um, didn't know if you want to say a few words and then I'll open up to my colleagues for comments.

SPEAKER_08

It's been a, um, last year I was filling in That was a vacated space, and so getting reappointed for a full term is an honor to serve.

Loved the community, grew up on Seattle's undergrounds, whether it's playing soccer at Memorial Stadium, being on drill team with Filipino youth activities, and or being on staff for seafarers, for seafarer.

So it's kind of full circle for me to be able to serve and give back.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

And I thank you.

And we do have two comments here.

Council Member Strauss, and then we'll go to Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth, and let the record reflect that.

In fact, you, Chair Hollingsworth, know everyone in the city of Seattle.

But I just want to speak to Council Member Bagshaw's appointment to this committee.

It was an a privilege and an honor to get to work on behalf of her on the Seattle Center Campus work, just right there at the tail end, taking over for Alberta Bleck, who's also in the city family.

Council Member Bagshaw, am I correct that this is your first official role with the city since you left council?

SPEAKER_10

Let's say official, yes.

SPEAKER_04

Official.

So my question is, what took you so long?

SPEAKER_10

A few other things were happening, Dan, so good to see you.

SPEAKER_04

Fair enough.

But I just, you know, something that has always inspired me about Councilmember Bagshaw is your vision.

And I think that it may have come to you when you were sailing in the South Pacific with Brad and realizing that the waterfront needed to be a better civic campus for our city and coming back, running for office, seeing that plan through.

and doing it again at Seattle Center in partnership with Robert Nelms and Marshall Foster.

And so now that we are embarking in a strategic plan for the center, you are the right mind at the right time and in the right place.

And I'm so grateful for your volunteer service.

SPEAKER_10

Thank you so much, Councilmember.

Councilmember Kettle.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

I want to, Director Foster, I just want to say thank you for coming with this set and to make sure that the Advisory Commission is strong.

Obviously, it's a volunteer kind of evolution, and it takes time and effort for everybody to do so.

So for everybody, those who are not here, please pass our thanks.

As someone who's been a civic volunteer himself, I recognize that it is a time commitment, money oftentimes, and there's a lot of...

challenges that come with that and they press through.

So a general thank you to everybody that's part of that.

And of course, I like the appointment of my predecessor times two here in District 7. And so it's great to welcome back Council Member Bagshaw.

And I'd like to, since you mentioned the Climate Pledge Arena, I just wanted to say formally thank you and the other women who voted for to take Key Arena and make it is what it is today.

It was the right decision.

And I say that wholeheartedly.

And I also say it because it is a goal of mine and it is a mission of mine to ensure that we have a port that is viable 100 years from now.

And that means we need to ensure that it has the infrastructure, the heavy haul network, the freight pieces, the electrification, utilities, all of the above.

And that really demands that we have support throughout District 7, whether it's Interbay or down into District 1 with Soto and the like.

And so what you've done related to the Climate Pledge Arena is fantastic.

And I would also note the Climate Pledge Arena is fantastic, the Kraken.

And I always, as Foster knows, quickly say storm, because we need to celebrate our Seattle storm.

We're time champions.

Many Olympic champions now, too.

I should note that.

And or bronze medalists.

The Australian connection is strong.

And all I'll say on the Sonics is, and this is totally unofficial, but it's not a question of if but when.

And so we'll move on.

Memorial Stadium, so important.

Another area that Director Foster and his predecessor know that I've been pushing on.

We have to do right by the Memorial Stadium and particularly the Memorial Wall.

I'm happy to see the plans related to Memorial Wall and the stadium overall.

And we need to press through for that.

And I'm really happy.

BECAUSE I DO HAVE MY SOURCES THAT SOON YOU'LL BE MEETING WITH SOME OF THE VETERAN SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS OR AT LEAST ONE TO UPDATE THEM, SO THANK YOU, SINCE I CAN'T REALLY DO THAT ANYMORE GIVEN MY NEW ROLE.

AND THEN, YOU KNOW, ONE OF THE THINGS I'VE BEEN DOING A LOT LATELY IS MEETING WITH, LIKE, SMALL GROUPS, BUILDING COMMUNITY.

And it could be a scout troop.

It could be a church group.

It could be across the board.

And they're building community post-pandemic.

We've kind of been in the jet wash of that for a while.

And we need to step out and build community.

And for Seattle, Seattle Center is key to this.

So we need to do that, whether it's, you know, all elements of the Seattle Center, whether it's, as we've talked about, you know, Seattle Rep, ensuring that the infrastructure, the building, all those kinds of pieces, the nuts and bolts of Seattle Center are strong.

Obviously, Pacific Science Center is outside, but, you know, that partnership is really key.

So we need to ensure that those pieces, Theater Puget Sound, you know, the armory and all that, And so building this community is very important.

There's big ways and little ways of doing that.

So of course, I always want to keep the senior dance option open there, Director Faustin, so you knew that was coming.

So maybe we can get some volunteers so it doesn't cost as much so we can build that kind of community for our seniors to come back the way they danced the night away pre-pandemic.

You knew it was coming.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

This might be your first official commissioner assignment or liaison with the city, but I see you all the time out and about.

You're engaged in everything from housing to good governance issues.

And I just wanted to say, so thank you for remaining engaged.

So you already know what's going on in so many different facets of our city, and you've got the historical knowledge to really be able to be of super high value on this project.

I just wanted to note for the record that You and Richard, my old boss, were next-door neighbors right down the hall.

And in addition to the detailed analysis you'd always devote to every single topic, even something as, you know, whether it be controversial or not, you were always there.

But also, staff talk, you know, and warm conversations.

and fair and good-hearted and kind person.

So thank you very much for being willing to step up.

Very kind.

SPEAKER_02

And next, Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_09

Yes, I'm going to echo.

Hi.

It's so nice to see you.

I'm going to echo the sentiments of my colleagues here.

we are so lucky to have folks that leave city and then wanna come back and volunteer.

And I'm so super appreciative for all your efforts while you were at the city and now so lucky to have you back helping us on an advisory capacity with all your wealth of knowledge that you amassed while you were here and all the great things that you've done throughout your career.

So thank you for stepping up to be a volunteer and not going off into retirement without really wanting to continue to partner with us to make the city all it can be.

So super appreciative of yours and all our volunteer, I always say that, we always say that, all our folks who volunteer to take on these roles in an advisory capacity, unpaid that we can't do this work with our folks that sit on all the various boards and commissions.

It is such a huge contribution to the city and really want to always recognize that.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Well, with that, after our comments, I now move that the committee recommends a confirmation of appointments 2939 to 2944 to the Seattle Center Advisory Commission.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been voted.

Thank you.

It has been moved second and third and fourth to the recommendation confirmation of these six appointments.

Are there any additional comments?

Yes, I do have one.

Yes, Council President.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't mean to overlook your contribution, your continuing contribution, Ms. Cholette.

I thank you very much for being willing to step up.

It says reappointment, and you know what you're getting into, et cetera.

But again, thank you, and I value your service as well.

SPEAKER_02

She's a fierce competitor.

I should also say that too.

Very competitive.

I know that firsthand.

Okay.

Clerk, please call the roll.

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

Motion carries in the committee recommendation that the appointment of Ms. Sally Bagshaw and the reappointment of Laura May, Ms. Gloria, Will Ludlam, Matt Mead, and Kamala Saxon to be confirmed that will happen September 3rd at the 2024 City Council meeting.

So thank you all.

Really appreciate you all being here.

Director Foster and Ms. Bagshaw.

And I'm not going to call you Ms. Chalet.

I'm going to call you Laura May because I know you.

So anyways...

Thank you all for being here in person and looking forward, and thank you for your service too.

And Director Foster, you've been doing a phenomenal job at the Seattle Center.

I rode through my bike there the other day and it just was gorgeous.

So yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Fear of the tree.

SPEAKER_02

It was.

And we will love Stanford one day or another.

Clerk, will you read agenda item seven into the record?

SPEAKER_20

Agenda item seven, appointment of Rob Lloyd as chief technology officer, Seattle Information Technology Department for a term to August 1st, 2028 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Presenting today are Rob Lloyd, interim CTO at Seattle ITD and Marco Lowe, the city's chief operating officer.

SPEAKER_02

We are so excited.

I forgot that Mr. Lloyd is from the Bay Area, so he could be a Stanford, you know, fan.

You could be a San Jose fan.

You could be a Don fan, USF.

You could be St. Mary's fan.

That's across the way.

Santa Clara.

Bears.

You could be Berkeley.

You could be a lot of things.

Just don't say Stanford.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_18

Do you want him on the record to answer that before I start?

SPEAKER_02

Go ahead, please.

Go ahead, please.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth and Council Members.

My name is Marco Lowe, and I'm the Chief Operating Officer for the City of Seattle, appointed by Mayor Harrell.

I am proud to have IT among one of the departments in my portfolio.

Okay.

I can't top what Bill Schrier said earlier, but I'll do my best.

I'll probably be longer and less effective.

It is my pleasure to be before you today to introduce Mayor Harrell's nominee for Chief and Director of Seattle's Information Technology Department, Rob Lloyd.

Seattle IT is the backbone that provides secure, reliable technology and leadership to city departments and to ensure these departments can do their job effectively.

The chief technology officer has overall responsibility for the vision strategy and leadership of the department.

This is a role that requires intense and collaborative talents as IT touches so many departments in the work that they do.

This role also serves as an advisor to executive leaders on policy issues and decisions, including the selection and effective implementation of large applications, as also mentioned by Mr. Schrier.

The mayor selected Rob following an extensive, competitive national search that was overseen and informed by a stakeholder committee featuring representatives from Chair Hollingsworth's office, labor partners, and our own city departments.

I want to take a moment to thank the search committee and all of their work was very helpful to lead us to Rob.

I also want to take a moment to thank Jim Loader who led IT for three years in the interim.

His effective work was able to get us to a great place that we are today that Rob will step into hopefully.

Rob has hit the ground running already working on the budget that was submitted to CBO and also presenting yesterday at a cabinet meeting on the city's adherence to the ADA on our outward facing websites.

Council members, I know you each have a commitment to good governance and carry an expectation of excellence when it comes to an effectively operating local government.

After spending time with Rob, I hope you recognize his talent and capability will exceed your expectations and serve him in this role.

With that, let me turn things over to Rob to offer his introductory remarks.

SPEAKER_15

Good afternoon.

SPEAKER_02

Press the button, that's how it should go green.

SPEAKER_15

I got it now.

Oh, it's hardware.

Good afternoon, Chair Hollingsworth, Vice Chair Nelson, and esteemed committee members.

Thank you for your time today, for the work of the mayor and the hiring and interview teams that brought me here.

The Seattle Information Technology team, city departments, and our partners have welcomed me with warmth.

My family and I are truly grateful to have found such a vibrant and supportive community to call our home.

I was drawn to Seattle by the One Seattle vision and my previous experiences with Seattle colleagues like Bill.

The vision of tackling the toughest challenges of large cities, public safety, homelessness, blight, equity, transportation, climate, and sustainability, all head-on through partnership with honest data and using the power of technology and transformation, matches my career's work.

It's a mission I'm eager to contribute to and help achieve.

My encounters with Seattle colleagues and friends over the years have consistently reinforced that here are peers who help lead the way on the nation's critical issues.

Since my arrival, I have now met with over 250 Seattle teammates, department colleagues, and council members.

It's clear to me that we have both the foundation and the inspiration to do remarkable work together, building on successes of the past.

I've shared with the Seattle team that we have 759,915 Seattleites counting on us, giving us a compelling reason to strive for excellence every single day.

Our mission will be realized by unleashing the brilliance of 13,000 city employees, including the Seattle IT team, as well as our community.

Our focus will be on empowering our partners and departments to deliver exceptional municipal services and to achieve the mayor's and city council's direction.

As resources become more limited and expectations continue to rise, technology will actually be the bridge for that gap.

So far, I've heard and seen opportunities to improve the ease of customer-facing processes for residents and staff, significantly enhancing our project effectiveness and road mapping, continuing our cybersecurity and resilience work, and optimizing our technology architecture and costs.

Our staff and partners are aligned on these priorities, which will drive a culture of IT powered by people.

Our culture and my commitment to you and to the community is that you will always have an IT partner that will act with integrity, collaborate effectively, and that masterfully leverages technology and innovation to unlock the full potential of Seattle's people.

I am genuinely incited by the future that we will build together.

Taking a moment, I would like to recognize my colleague, Jim Loader, for his leadership and steadiness as interim CTO.

He guided Seattle IT with care when it was needed, and he deserves a world of credit for that.

Finally, a special thanks to my wife and daughters and in-laws who have been advocating for our move to Seattle for some time.

My wife even bought Kraken gear before she knew what sport the Kraken even played.

So kudos to your marketers for that.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a loving and supportive family who understand how much the public mission means to me and my passion for taking on big challenges to help communities.

It is a gift to have this opportunity to serve Seattle.

And I'm happy to answer any questions that you have of me.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you and thank you COO Lowe for being here.

It's a long title.

And then obviously our interim director Lloyd for being here.

I'm gonna open up to my colleagues before I make my comments and we'll look down to my right if anyone has any comments here.

Council member Kettle.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth and thank you, CEO Lowe and also Mr. Lloyd, thank you so much for coming.

We had a conversation talking about some of the elements of Seattle IT.

And one area of interest for me is within the public safety side of things.

And obviously we talked about the rollout with the Seattle Municipal Court and the city attorney's office, how to do things better, ensure that we're all set.

But I also talked about that we're in a new era and where we're bringing that alternative response.

We have the care department led by Chief Barden I'm probably saying that for the first time officially.

It's LinkedIn official as of yesterday, so I feel safe saying that.

But Chief Barden now leads the care department.

And this is a new area, you know, with the 911 call center.

But, you know, bringing in the different pieces.

And I've been one to say, as someone who's gone through these kind of processes in the military, that, you know, there's going to be some major course corrections, no doubt, over the next five years in this alternative response space that we're dealing with.

And IT is going to be central to that.

And...

Two things, one, encourage you to meet with her.

And then secondly, if you have any thoughts on that specific area.

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_15

Absolutely.

And we actually have already met.

So we talked about a couple things, and let me categorize them into three different areas.

One is you've done the hard part already by taking the kind of bold move to say that we can try something different.

The PSAP, the Public Safety Answering Point Model, has been pretty entrenched for a long time.

But the ability to have situational awareness, to take the alternative acuity response model, IT'S RIPE FOR INNOVATION.

YOU'RE RIGHT THAT THAT'S GOING TO MEAN THAT WE MIGHT GET SOME THINGS WRONG, BUT WE'RE GOING TO GET A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT AND TRY THINGS THAT CAN BE VERY MUCH BETTER.

AND SO THE DIRECTOR AND I HAVE TALKED ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS IN TERMS OF THE CALL SYSTEMS, CALL HANDLING, ANALYTICS, AND WHAT WE HAVE TO DO IN TERMS OF INVESTING INTO THE CAD CALL ANSWERING AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND THE ANALYTICS WE WANT TO PUT IN WHO'S HANDS.

And area two is what that roadmap looks like.

And so the strategic work that IT needs to do across police, fire, and care, and what is the priority list of what makes them better off in year one, year three, and year five and that long-term roadmap and the investments we need to make and how we need to list that out for the organization and what council needs to see in the budget process that's going to be that roadmap and investment path.

And then the last is how that connects with other things that the city needs to do.

Public safety, and you'll hear me say this a lot, is there was a time when there were swim lanes in government.

There was just policing issues.

There were just transportation issues.

That's past.

Now, instead of swim lanes, we have water polo.

Government is about single goals where we all swarm and work together.

And if you talk about public safety, if you talk about equity, if you talk about the Vision Zero goals that we have, It requires an all-hands approach, and technology needs to play that role because we can connect information and systems in action, and that's the role we have to play heading forward.

And so that interconnectedness, the systems, the work management, the intelligence, the analytics, that's how I see our role playing heading forward.

SPEAKER_03

Great.

Of course, when you say water polo, now the first thing that comes to my mind is Flavor Flav, but...

Harken back to the Olympics.

I have three questions.

Second one is IA, I think two weeks ago now, I was out at Redmond, and I'll be having a follow-up in South Lake Union with another major tech company, and IA has the opportunity to do some real research big changes, and I think of it relates to good governance.

You know, you mentioned a little bit in terms of the customer facing, I can't remember exactly how you phrased it.

Can you speak about how IA can, you know, lead to better and good governance and to have that better customer-client relationship in terms of the residents, the constituents here in Seattle?

SPEAKER_15

Yeah, I think the artificial intelligence, I think, is the road that you're thinking about is the analytics and the ability to do queue management and where that Artificial intelligence is an umbrella that can do machine learning, generative, large language models, and can take us down a number of paths.

Where it has a lot of promise is I THINK IN ESPECIALLY TWO AREAS AND WE'LL EXPLORE MORE.

BUT ONE IS CONFRONTING THE BARRIERS OF LANGUAGE AND ACCESSIBILITY AND GETTING RID OF THE LONG LIST OF NUMBERS AND THE LONG WAITS HAS A LOT OF PROMISE THERE.

IF WE WORK WITH OUR 911, 311 and Customer Service Bureau partners, we can make it easier for our community to get ahold of us and get the answers and status updates on requests for help.

And then on internal routing and customer and work management, artificial intelligence has a lot of promise there as well.

And in Redmond and in Seattle, there's a lot of partners that we have that have promise to be good partners.

And we're structuring, we just had some meetings this morning about how we structure those innovation demonstration partnerships and agreements, where Seattle can be a leader in this space and how we can tap the brilliance of Seattle and national partners to use these technologies in smart ways and with some good sideboards to protect and have responsible use, but to actually show some leadership about how we can yield great efficiencies, but also be responsible use models for other cities to copy to.

but lots of promise on accessibility, but also efficiencies.

And one of the dreams I have is to make the ease of asking for help easier for the community and easier on staff.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

And yes, AI.

I got too many acronyms in my head right now.

I wrote too many down, too.

Which leads me to my next question, because I saw in your background chief security officer.

I formerly used to be an SSO, special security officer.

So I used to be responsible for all the top secret information systems, the physical spaces, and the personnel issues for an aircraft carrier.

And so one of that is, in the military sense, it's one thing.

But, you know, I think about our library system, you know, these denial of service and, you know, these attacks, ransomware and all the like.

That's a bigger and bigger problem.

It's going into healthcare now.

You know, how do we keep our city IT safe?

And, you know, what can we do to avoid like challenges what we've been facing with our library?

SPEAKER_15

I think the call to action is it's going to be continuously harder.

We have to be careful what we say in public always because of the critical infrastructure nature.

But the goal I will say is always that we keep our incidences few and small, that it's one of those things that we can no longer say that we have to trust and verify and make sure that we have coordinated action and that we can always prove that there's intentional security at every level.

From our bonds, to our insurance, to our auditors, there is now representation that they require for materiality that we verify security is absolutely addressed.

And the mayor and council will have to see and hear more of that on a consistent basis.

and then our partners at the federal level from Homeland Security to the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency.

We have very close partnerships with them and they're extending into the state level and then to the local agencies, Secretary Mayorkas and Director Easterly.

HAVE MADE THE LOCAL LEVEL AND DISTRICTS AND UTILITIES A PRIORITY FOR THE EXACT REASON THAT YOU'RE MENTIONING, COUNCILMEMBER, BECAUSE THE RISKS ARE NOW GROWING AND ALMOST INSURMOUNTABLE FOR SOME LOCAL AGENCIES BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN UNADDRESSED FOR TOO LONG AND WE INHERIT SOME OF THAT RISK BY ASSOCIATION.

SEATTLE HAS A VERY MATURE APPROACH.

and I'm going to be very careful what I say in public, but we're going to be relentless on the security and resilience front, and Director Curry, Meyer, and I have had those conversations as well, including drills and exercises.

So you're going to see a lot of activity and relentlessness on that front from me.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for including that last part, OEM.

OEM is very important, but not really appreciated element of our public safety arena and across city government.

So thank you for, because that's a great tie-in.

So I appreciate that point.

SPEAKER_02

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you had me with Bill Schreier's comments, but that's a strong endorsement.

My question is, number one, has the department ever had a strategic plan?

I notice that that is one of your priorities in your question answers.

SPEAKER_15

It's had strategic directions.

From what I've seen, there has been...

Let me answer this in a sharp way.

There has been strategic direction documents, and I will say that I'm working on a strategic plan now.

And the strategic direction that you will see from me actually is one that we will maintain every three years.

It involves listening and working very closely with departments to set an IT architecture and direction where we say every three years we're saying what departments are heading on in a one, three, and five-year roadmap.

And the reason for that is when I look at the IT architecture and technology stack for the city is it's very diffused.

We have a consolidated IT department, but if you look at our technology stack, it doesn't look like it.

we have a couple of everything.

We have five to six CRMs.

We have a number of database platforms.

We have another number of analytics platforms.

And so when we try to do customer service, when we try to do unified direction, it's really hard because we have 6,000 integration points instead of 600. And so the plan I'll set is when we see consistencies across departments, our job as strategic technologists is to marry up that direction, invest in one direction, hopefully, and make exceptions from there, rather than buying a couple of everything.

And that makes it easier for us to manage, easier for us to secure, and easier for us to deliver services.

So on your point, there has been strategic direction set, but not in a, as I can tell, in a strong unified way that stretches across the organization, but I'll be bringing that to you.

SPEAKER_00

Great.

It does seem as though that could perhaps address some of the issues that were hinted at in public comment.

We sometimes hear from departments that come to us to talk about issues the difficulty or the slowness of a rollout of a technology.

And then it seems to me that technology changing so fast, those projects can take so long that now we're behind, you know, we're behind the pace of technology when it comes to what would allow us to work most efficiently in a cost-effective way.

So I'm sure you're going to start looking at that.

At the same time that we have internal challenges, we also, it appears to me, have a lot of external opportunities.

I mean, we do live in a tech town, right?

And I always think there's all so many companies and so many smart people out there that think in their minds, why don't they do this?

Or why don't they do that?

Meaning the city.

not to set you up as a sitting duck for a whole bunch of vendors out there, but I'm wondering if in developing your strategic plan, do you have any thought about asking or just, I don't know, meeting some of our leaders out there who've watched the city maybe struggle in certain areas in technology implementation Were you thinking about looking externally for, not necessarily advice, but just to sort of bridge that gap between the city hall and the technology excellence that exists out there?

SPEAKER_15

Absolutely, and that's actually where I've known Bill and Sabra Schneider, who spoke, is that public partnership model that I've had a lot of success with.

And so when you set a strategic plan and you know your direction and you know your portfolio, you can tell the vendor community, here's where I'm heading, and if you can help solve solutions or solve problems and offer us solutions in these directions, we're ready for you.

Here's what we need and when we need it.

And bring your best ideas.

And then we also can develop what I call a portfolio product project office that is exceptional about delivering those projects.

Because what we do is who we are.

The projects we execute and invest in is who we're trying to be.

And we have to maintain a very high say-do ratio to maintain trust in the organization, from council to departments.

If we fail on many projects, the organization gets hesitant and sensitive, saying, why do we invest if we don't get full value?

And so my line is I want 80% of our projects to be successfully delivered on scope, on schedule, on costs, and the business value that we aimed for.

Because that 80% means too much higher and that we probably gave ourselves too many softballs.

Too much lower and we're wasting too many resources.

But if we maintain that rough 80% equilibrium, the organization is going to keep on investing.

It's going to keep on saying, we can evolve.

We can keep on getting better.

Councilmember Kettle's point is, we'll get a couple things wrong, but we're going to keep on continuously improving and using technology to the full value.

That's also a signal to the community, and that's where I had a partnership with Zoom, for example, when they were a $20, $30 million company.

We helped invent some of their public meeting technology, and then when COVID hit, we had that partnership, and they turned into a $30 billion company.

and we worked with Axis Security when they invented SASE technologies and security, and then they became a huge acquisition.

We were the first company to work with large language models when it was GPT, no number, no chat, when it was CLAWD and we used it for cybersecurity, and for a while we were immune to BEC and phishing attacks.

So you can work with the vendor community if you have a great strategy, if you have intentionality, you have a great team, because you know exactly what you're doing and when you're trying to do it, and you know how to interface with the companies that are out there, and you know how to execute, and they really want to work with you as a strategic partner, because they know that you're a great team to work with, and you can deliver on strategic value for them, too, because you can prove what they're trying to do, and you can both own that win.

So they don't look at you as just as a sales target, which I hate.

But they look at you as a strategic partner, and they're trying to do something different and better with you.

And Seattle has a treasure trove of those potential relationships.

But we have to be a good partner in our own right.

SPEAKER_00

That's...

I thank you very much for that perspective.

I hadn't thought about that.

I just don't want to miss out on any opportunity because we have so many challenges.

Permitting being one is addressed in your answer, but also...

Homelessness, for example, somebody said, why don't you have real-time menus of housing units that are open right now so we can get some...

The list goes on.

So thank you very much for your answer.

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

And I'm trying to recognize other colleagues if they have comments before I make my final comments.

Seeing none.

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_09

I'll just quickly say that...

I had the opportunity to meet with Rob earlier in their week.

Always very much appreciate the opportunity to meet with folks ahead of time so we can have a conversation and get questions answered.

And so I don't have any for you today.

Appreciate you being here.

Appreciate you for being here.

And I look forward to taking the vote.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Also, I can see why the executive and the team, and I know that our office was involved with the search committee and meeting you, Rob, has been great.

Sorry, interim CTO Rob Lloyd.

Meeting you, one of the best things that I, just us connecting, your vision for where you want the department, the shared, I talked about we have a world-class city.

People really expect world-class services, and they really want a world-class IT department.

and how important it is how we interface for our community, what that looks like for Seattle to make transparent access for folks to be able to navigate our city website or how they're paying bills or contacting offices, whatever that looks like and making it easier for them and that piece.

I know that's one of the things that we shared and talked about and just really appreciate you and your family making the move up here to Seattle and hopefully you enjoy your time here and we'll make sure that you enjoy your time here.

With that, I move that the committee recommend confirmation of the appointment of Rob Lloyd as the Chief Technology Officer of Seattle Information Technology.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Are there any final comments from my colleagues?

Awesome.

Last comment, really important before we take a vote.

Are you a Stanford fan?

SPEAKER_15

I did do a program at Stanford, yes.

SPEAKER_02

That's going to waver my vote.

SPEAKER_15

It is an ugly tree, but he's funny.

SPEAKER_02

I'm just playing.

Okay.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome, the motion carries.

The committee recommendation of the appointment will be confirmed and it will be sent to September 3rd, 2024 for the city council meeting.

Thank you so much.

Looking forward to seeing you at our council meeting and thank you COO Lowe for your words and comments and looking forward to working with you with our IT department.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you as well.

SPEAKER_02

We can clap.

Jazz hands and I'm just playing.

Will the clerk please read the agenda item number eight into the record.

SPEAKER_20

Agenda item number eight, resolution 32136, a resolution relating to Seattle Public Utilities adopting the 2025 to 2030 strategic business plan and endorsing a three-year rate path and subsequent three-year rate forecast to support the strategic plan update for briefing discussion and possible vote.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

Thank you, Brian.

Good night from Central staff.

We always appreciate when you come here and give us your expertise on the SPU business plan.

And I know that we do have SPU in the audience if there are any questions.

So definitely want to thank you for being here.

So please say your name for the record and jump right in.

SPEAKER_19

Great.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council Members.

Brian Goodnight from Council Central Staff.

So this is the committee's third discussion of Seattle Public Utilities, or SPUs, proposed 2025 to 2030 strategic business plan.

The committee received a presentation from SPU at its June 26th meeting and received a presentation from the chair of SPU's customer review panel and from Central Staff on July 10th.

As a brief reminder, every three years, SPU engages in a planning process to update its strategic plan for all three utilities, and that's drainage and wastewater, solid waste, and water.

The planning process is a chance for SPU to reevaluate its priorities and project its operating and capital program requirements, and is also a chance for council to weigh in on the proposed direction.

So as you've heard at the prior meetings, the combined average rate increase over the six-year period that's covered by the proposed plan for all three of the utilities is 4.7%.

And three primary factors contributing to those increases are higher than expected increases in wastewater treatment costs, increasing operating expenses due to inflation, and increasing capital expenditures due to regulatory requirements, aging infrastructure, and then increased interest rates as well.

And that's all I have today as a brief summary.

But as you mentioned, SPU staff is here and I'm happy to take any questions and we can bring them up to the table as well.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome, and colleagues, and I forgot to kind of set the table.

My apologies.

We've had a couple briefings.

We've had two briefings, I believe, about the plan and just wanted to open up to any questions that you all might have about this.

And I'll look on the screen to see if Council Member Strauss has any questions.

But like I said, we do have Director Lee here in the audience and SPU.

Let's see, Susan, if we have any questions for SPU.

And I'll look down.

Okay, well.

SPEAKER_00

I have one.

Oh, Council President Nelson.

Customer review panel comment letter, is that similar to...

It doesn't really sound like it, but City Light has a rate review panel.

Does SPU?

SPEAKER_19

Yes, it's a very similar structure.

SPEAKER_00

So is that what I'm seeing the link on the, okay.

SPEAKER_19

It is, that's correct.

And then the chair, Noel, who's actually in the audience as well, he came to the committee's meeting on July 10th and provided a brief presentation of their comments.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Chair Hornsworth.

I just want to take the moment to appreciate both Central Staff Member Brian Goodnight and SPU, as well as the committee, for taking the number of meetings regarding this great path.

The number of meetings that we've held and the briefings that I've been a part of in my office have been very helpful to get me to a place of supporting this path and voting yes today.

So I just wanted to acknowledge everyone's hard work because I know that Not all my questions were easy.

Appreciate you all.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

I just wanted to first, Mr. Goodnight, thank you for your support, your background, the memos and the like.

It's a good summary, very helpful and also helpful.

I just wanted to thank the SPU team for The briefings, but also the ability to go to West Point, the ability to do the Ship Canal water project and seeing things firsthand, getting briefings from different people, different perspectives is very helpful.

And I recognize the challenges are great.

And I recognize that there's going to be increases in the rates, which is unavoidable.

And it will be a challenge, especially when there's other parts of the systems, City Light and others, that are going to be compounding these.

But I recognize that we need to continue to invest in what we're doing and ensure that we are in a good place related to our infrastructure.

So thank you very much to the SPU team, Director Lee.

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

I'm so glad you brought that up.

I know a lot of people...

You know, we talk about rates and I know that we have a really great discount program as well and want to continue to help elevate a lot of those programs in our community so people know about those as well.

And I know that that's number one concern that I always have is about affordability.

And I don't see any proposed amendments and I don't, are there any other additional comments?

Council Member Rivera?

SPEAKER_09

I'll just say that I also know and I appreciate, first of all, Director Lee's always available to answer questions, and he's always so responsive when we have questions about these important topics.

And we had a conversation.

I'm aware that SPU and City Light are looking at UDP program.

We've talked about this.

We talked about this at the last two presentations, looking at, you know, is there a possible expansion of the program and what that would look like?

And so this is a continuing conversation because Director Lee and his team And we all here are concerned about the rising costs for residents, and so it continues to be a source of conversation and something that we will continue to look at.

I just want to make sure that there is awareness and just acknowledge that that is happening, and we will continue to do so.

SPEAKER_02

No, absolutely.

Thank you.

And before I say my next, my final comments, I really appreciate SPU.

I had a chance to view the Cedar River watershed this past, last week, and to see the strategy and intentionality behind SPU and taking care of our assets.

And making sure that we have clean drinking water and making sure that our environment is protected and the waste and all these different things that encompass um our our spu has really been eye-opening and the the department technology left so i can say this sp is my favorite department um today And then when technology comes back, you know, how we do it.

But I do want to say that the amount of care that is put into our public utilities, we have the best public utilities department in the country.

I know we do.

Just from the leadership that we have, Director Lee, and all the way down, just the assets that we're protecting.

So I just want to thank you all.

And Thank you, Brian.

Good night for always bringing in the policy and legislative piece to the conversation as well and all your work.

So there's no proposed amendments for this item.

I now move the committee recommends adoption of resolution 321136. Is there a second?

SPEAKER_00

Second.

SPEAKER_02

It's been moved and second.

Thank you, Council President.

Are there any additional comments?

Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_09

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

The recommendation will be sent to city council adoption for resolution 321136. The motion carries and this will be presented September 3rd, 2024 at city council meeting.

Thank you so much.

Now we will move on to agenda items nine and 10. Will the clerk please read the items, short title into the agenda.

SPEAKER_20

Agenda item number nine, Council Bill 120819, an ordinance relating to drainage services of Seattle Public Utilities, adjusting drainage rates and amending sections in 21.33 of the Seattle Municipal Code to reflect adjusted rates.

Agenda item number 10, council bill 120820, an ordinance relating to wastewater services of Seattle public utilities, adjusting wastewater rates, amending sections 21.28 of the Seattle municipal code to reflect adjusted rates for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Presenting is Brian Goodnight from council central staff.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

Colleagues, you may recall SPU presented on this topic last committee meeting.

Brian Kinnight has prepared a central staff memo on the topic.

Brian, please reintroduce yourself and you can just jump right into your comments.

SPEAKER_19

Okay, thank you very much.

Still Brian Goodnight from Council Central Staff.

So as you mentioned, SPU briefed on this at your last meeting on July 24th.

The two bills are directly related to the rate path that the committee just considered as part of the strategic business plan.

So again, there's three different utilities that SPU operates.

And although the committee just voted to endorse the rate path for all three utilities for the next six years, the council, the way you actually implement the rates is through via ordinance.

That's how you officially set the rates.

So the council typically considers rate setting legislation for one of the three utilities per year, and they're set for a three-year period of time.

And so this year, 2024, is the year for drainage and wastewater utility.

And there are two separate bills because one bill is required for the drainage line of business and one is required for the wastewater line of business.

So the bills before you today would set rates for 2025 through 2027. Prior to this, the most recent update for drainage and wastewater was in September of 2021, and that established rates for the 2021 through 2024. So in terms of the proposed rates, as previously described, the proposed rates for drainage are 5.0% for both 2025 and 2026. It slightly goes up to 5.1% in 2027. And then for wastewater, the proposed rate is 5% for all three years.

And just to help determine the proposed rates, SPU staff, each time they come up with one of these cycles, performs a detailed rate study.

And that revises key assumptions.

It projects customer demand, determines the level of resources that the department requires to meet all of their financial policies.

And then they also calculate the revenue requirements for each of the systems.

And just as a note for reference, that detailed rate study is attached to the summary and fiscal note for each bill as exhibit A.

And then my final comment lastly for the first bill, so for Council Bill 120819, there is one technical amendment that's on the agenda and that was prepared at the request of SPU.

It's posted to the agenda as amendment number one, and it would revise the definition of the term highly infiltrated pervious surface.

The legislation as it was transmitted inadvertently included language related to the previous eligibility requirements for the low impact discount program, and this amendment would just correct that error.

So again, as mentioned previously, SPU staff obviously is in the audience in case we need to bring them up if you have questions that are more technical than I'm able to handle, so.

And that concludes my remarks.

SPEAKER_02

No worries.

Thank you, Brian, and thank you for your analysis.

I will pause before I make my comments to see if any of my colleagues have any questions.

SPEAKER_00

I have a question that's motivated by your memo.

There's a nexus between the accomplishment rate and the rate path.

And you note that if the department overperforms on accomplishment, that could require an increase in rates that were accelerated more than normal, what is proposed right here.

So are changes in accomplishment rate, are they decided in order to slower the rate of increase of benefits?

you know, people's bills, or is it a function of something happened and this project took longer or something like that?

SPEAKER_19

I mean, typically, so what they set, so this is more related to the previous item, the strategic business plan, but they try to right-size it based on historical performance.

So there's a number of reasons why projects get delayed over time.

Typically, they have a certain amount that they want to do, and they may need to move resources if...

supplies aren't prepared.

Obviously, the pandemic had a big impact in terms of performance.

So I don't, it's not a strategy to underperform on the CIP, but where they set the rate and it kind of adjusts over time is to try to right-size that based on their historical performance.

So it does definitely have an impact on rates.

The other, if they were over-performing, you could either, they could come back and propose to increase rates, or they might choose to delay projects to future years to meet that budgetary restriction, so.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Council Member Kettle.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

First, Mr. Goodenough, I'd like to thank you for your memo again.

And, you know, it's really interesting.

It's good to see it in a different format and to speak to, like, the accumulated cash balances.

That's really important.

And I note the points made about that and what what we're looking to do on that front.

That's very helpful.

I also, you know, I'm mindful too that we have overall goals, and this kind of goes to the amendment, overall goals in terms of like tree canopy.

You know, in a lot of ways we're failing when it comes to tree canopy.

We're failing in terms of planting trees, particularly evergreen trees.

And it's really an all-hands-on-deck effort, and so this is where SDOT comes in.

You know, it's really important, right-of-ways and the like.

They're going to be a major provider of trees, and as we look to improve our tree canopy, and, you know, I think about the waterfront project compared to the viaduct in terms of that's like a step forward as well.

And I note...

you know, in the slides in the background talking about increased imperviousness, increased runoff, increased charges.

And so this is like another area, like in the SPU side of things, in terms of what can we do TO CAPTURE, WHICH AGAIN GOES TO THE ADMENDMENT TO CAPTURE THAT RAINWATER, TO NOT HAVE IT, YOU KNOW, PARTICULARLY GO INTO THE SOUND OR ANOTHER WATER BODIES.

AND I THINK THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE SHOULD LOOK TO HIGHLIGHT, YOU KNOW, AND TO PARTNER.

I KNOW IT'S DONE TO A CERTAIN DEGREE, BUT REALLY LIKE WITH SDOT, YOU KNOW, DO IT IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT'S NOT JUST THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY.

EVERY DEPARTMENT HAS ITS PLACE.

I LIKE HAVING THIS IN HERE AND HIGHLIGHTING HOW THIS CAN PLAY INTO OUR TREE CANOPY GOALS BECAUSE WE'RE NOT WHERE WE NEED TO BE.

And so I really appreciate it.

The only thing I would ask future additions of the trees is that we don't use deciduous trees only, that we butter evergreen trees in there, because this is a push of mine, because that's what makes Seattle unique.

That's what makes Seattle the evergreen state.

And so please, some evergreen trees next time.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

That's just so important.

You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_03

Over to you, Chair.

SPEAKER_02

No, no, you're good.

So colleagues, we have read both items into the record, and so we'll need to vote on each bill separately.

I just want to pause to see if there's any more additional comments regarding this.

Boom.

So we're going to consider Council Bill 120819 first and then Council Bill 120820. And before we vote, and I apologize, Brian, thank you for the memo.

It was super helpful and it helped really like just get across some of the information and questions that some of my colleagues had and then I had and just, you know, just better educated us to feel comfortable to vote today.

So thank you.

So we do have one amendment, like Brian said, from SPU making a technical correction to the bill on 120819. Before we consider this amendment, we will place the bill before us.

So I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120819. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

To recommend passage of the bill, we will now proceed with a consideration of the technical amendment.

So I move to amend Council Bill 120819 as presented on Amendment 1 on the agenda.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_09

Second.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt Amendment 1. This amendment fixes the definition of...

I can't even, highly infiltrative previous surface.

Would our colleagues, I need glasses apparently, would our colleagues from SPU like to come up and comment briefly on this change?

Do we need them to come up?

Does everyone feel comfortable?

No?

Okay.

I see head shakings, yes.

I see them saying no.

Okay, thank you.

Do any of my colleagues have any questions before we vote?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1?

SPEAKER_20

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Chair Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_20

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

Motion carries.

Council Bill 120819 has been amended to reflect Amendment 1. We will now vote on the drainage rate bills.

Are there any comments on the amended bill?

Seeing none, I move to recommend Council Bill 120819 as amended.

Is there a second?

SPEAKER_09

Second.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll?

Thank you Council Member Rivera for my seconds.

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council President Nelson.

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

I know there's a lot of technical with Robert Rule, so I appreciate you all bearing with me.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill passes as amended will be sent to September 3rd, 2024 city council meeting.

We will now vote on the wastewater rates and I move that the committee recommends passage of council bill 120820. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Are there any comments?

Seeing none, okay, will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_20

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Rivera?

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Council President Nelson?

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Chair Hollingsworth?

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_20

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

Motion carries, the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to September 3rd, 2024 City Council meeting.

Great.

Now we're moving on.

Thank you, Brian.

Good night.

You're the best.

Will the clerk please read agenda item 11 and to the record.

SPEAKER_20

Agenda item 11, Council Bill 120837, an ordinance relating to Seattle Parks and Recreation authorizing the execution of the required harbor leases with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for the North and South Leschi Morages and the Leschi South Public Morage and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

For discussion and possible vote, presenting today are Michelle Finnegan and Lise Ward from Seattle Parks and Recreation.

SPEAKER_02

So SPU's gone.

Here's my favorite city department.

They're gone.

SPU's gone.

I'm just playing.

Thank you all for being here.

Really appreciate you bearing with us and being last on the agenda.

So appreciate that.

Please, while we're getting the...

presentation loaded up, please introduce yourself for the record and then you can jump right into your presentation with my favorite city department.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

I'll kick it off because I actually did a phone a friend and asked another participant here today.

So I'm Michelle Finnegan, Deputy Superintendent of Policy and Finance for Parks and Recreation.

SPEAKER_06

I'm Lee Sward, Property Management Interagency Advisor for Seattle Parks and Recreation.

SPEAKER_04

Uh, David Graves.

Uh, Seattle Parks and Recreation, strategic advisor, Mending and Capital Development Branch.

SPEAKER_05

And I will kick us off.

Councilmembers, thanks for having us here.

We are excited to be here today to meet one of the requirements set forth in our 2017 contract with Marina Management for the improvements, maintenance, and operation of our morages on Lake Washington.

And that requirement is to make a good faith effort to execute and extend the DNR leases associated with those properties.

Fun fact, I realized in preparing for today that that contract, even if Dwight knows this, was actually passed by city council on this day in 2017. So since that passage and the contract was executed, Dwight Jones and his team at Marina Management have been excellent partners and operators of these facilities.

And we appreciate his patience and advocacy to ensure that we and the staff at DNR prioritize this important work that got a bit stymied during the pandemic.

We also appreciate you council members for considering this legislation as item number 11 on your agenda today.

And with that, I will turn this over to Lise Ward to continue our presentation.

SPEAKER_06

Council members, Seattle Parks and Recreation has had a long history with mortgages at Leschi starting when the Port of Seattle had jurisdiction of the waters.

And later, by state law, that jurisdiction was transferred to the State Department of Natural Resources, otherwise known as DNR.

We last entered into these 30-year leases with DNR at North and South Leschi in 1992. And 30 years sped by.

The lease terms have ended.

We're on a sanctioned holdover status.

We have a concession contract with Marina Management.

That contract stipulates that we enter into these renewed leases with DNR, and so we're fulfilling our obligation underneath the Marina Management agreement.

So this legislation authorizes Seattle Parks and Recreation to enter into the renewals of the two 30-year lease agreements at North and South Leschi morgues.

It also requests your approval of a new lease with DNR for parks construction of a South Leschi transient public morgue facility.

So this legislation requests your approval for three separate documents.

And just maybe a moment to talk about definition.

The two existing leases for North and South Last Shire are called Inner Harbor leases.

So they go from the point where the park's property ends to a line drawn in the water that's called the outer harbor line.

And then the outer harbor goes beyond that line.

So the two north and south Leschi leases are inner harbor leases.

And the transient mortgage lease is called an outer harbor lease.

And DNR can only grant those to other government agencies.

to sort of clarify what we're talking about, the areas that we're talking about here.

The photo on the north outlines the North Leschi lease area of the North Leschi Marina in yellow.

And it stops at that outer harbor line that I was just describing.

The photo on the right shows the two other leases in this legislation.

So the small rectangle is the renewal of the South Leschi Marina lease, inner harbor area.

And the backwards L is the new lease for the public transient mortgage facility as well as restoration or renovation or replacement of the wave attenuators that you can see in the middle of that lease area there.

They get battered a lot by the waves and winds and help protect the investment behind them.

So the two existing leases that are being renewed, we're required to pay fair market value for those.

So we negotiate with the state to establish a fair market rate for those leases because Parks Department is the lessee.

The Parks Department pays the rent and then request reimbursement from our concessionaire, Marina Management, which comes from the mortgage fees charged for those two facilities.

The third new lease is a no fee lease due to the nature of it being a transient public mortgage facility that's available on a first come first serve basis to the public at large.

So I hope this is helpful.

We've been working a long time and look forward to being in front of you to gain approval of these agreements.

In addition to the renewal of the agreements and the issuance of the new lease for the new facility coming up in the future, this will lead to the improvements that Marina Management wants to make to the facility.

And the upgraded wave attenuators will protect that investment.

And we'll be able to serve both long-term moorage and transient recreational boaters at these facilities.

So we look forward to continuing the association with DNR with your approval.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

SPEAKER_06

And this is the magic question slide, if anybody has any questions.

SPEAKER_02

It's everyone's favorite slide questions.

I'm just playing.

Before I make my comments, I will pause to see.

I know this is incredibly important to our city, and we really always appreciate parks being, you know, managing all of our phenomenal assets that we have in our city.

And I know Leschi community very well have spent a lot of time down in that area, especially that dock area.

Is that like the long one?

It's seen better days, but it really has.

But we as kids used to go down there and just hang out on the dock.

Would love to open it up to any questions if anyone has any at all.

SPEAKER_09

I do.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for being here.

Just so bottom line, we lease it from DNR and then we sublease it to Marina Management.

Is there any costs involved to us or do we recoup through this sublease with Marina?

SPEAKER_06

It's more of a concession agreement than a sublease.

Okay.

concession agreement, you know, if we had the appropriate staff, we could run the marina, but it's not a park specialty per se, so we've put out an RFP and hired the services of a professional management company to manage the marinas.

But Dwight is bringing a lot to the table in terms of improving the marina, both for the fun and enjoyment of the users and to bring it to sort of a class A status and bring in uh, competitive revenue, uh, with part of which we paid to the state and the rest is, is for parks is, is parks is revenue.

Just as if we managed the Marina, we would have our operating costs, improvement costs to maintain the Marine and keep it in up to a class a status.

SPEAKER_09

And then, uh, so we pay Marina management to manage it.

This is what I'm sorry.

I'm not,

SPEAKER_05

So we don't pay Marina Management.

So that contract, they're actually responsible for reimbursing us the amount of the DNR lease.

They also pay any leasehold excise tax related to that operation.

And we actually get 3% of their revenues coming back into the park fund to support contract management and other public recreation services.

SPEAKER_09

So net zero to us.

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah, great question.

Um, anyone else?

No.

And I don't see council member Strauss on there.

Um, really appreciate the presentation and everything.

Um, I was doing my own research and didn't have anything.

And I know I spoke with our staff and, uh, seemed pretty straight.

How long is, and you might've said this, how long is the lease?

Um, usually 30 years.

Okay.

So this has been in place for 30 years and now it's up and now it's re it's going to be another lease for 30 years.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

My child was born and graduated from college during all that.

SPEAKER_02

Amazing.

Is the reason why it's a long lease and not like a shorter one usually, or.

SPEAKER_05

In part for this, because you put a bunch of investment in.

So the, um, the operator wants to be able to recoup that investment.

And, you know, it's bureaucratic process for both us and DNR.

And I think unless we think something's really going to change in that time, we support that length of a continuation.

SPEAKER_02

Understood.

No, that's good to know.

And I'm looking forward, I don't know who's in charge of that dock down there, but that being...

That being fixed nicely.

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Very excited to do that.

SPEAKER_02

Kids still love it.

My son goes there.

It's a nice dock.

It's great.

It's right next to Blue Water Bistro.

It's like perfect, right?

We as kids, I used to go down there all the time.

So anyways, but it's seen better days, but it still gives that, you know, Seattle vibe.

You know, we all know it's the dock on Leschi.

Anyways, okay.

We'll have to have a parks committee meeting there.

That would be nice.

We can have a park at Blue Water Bistro or the dock?

SPEAKER_03

Start at the dock and then retire to the bistro.

SPEAKER_02

I got you.

All right.

Shout out to Bart, the owner of Blue Water Bistro.

Okay.

I... Yes, Council Member Strauss.

SPEAKER_04

My apologies.

Just because as you were talking, a quick quiz question.

Do you know what year Leschi was annexed into the city of Seattle?

SPEAKER_02

I do not know.

SPEAKER_04

Answer.

1907, same year as Bryan, West Seattle, and Ballard.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, 1907. That's good to know.

See?

I love Mr. Fax.

Thank you.

That's good to know.

SPEAKER_99

1907.

SPEAKER_02

And Ballard was West Seattle and Leschi.

Correct?

And Bryant as well.

Oh, okay.

Nice.

That's amazing.

That's when that dock was built, probably.

Okay.

I'm just playing.

Okay.

Now I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120837. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Are there any additional comments for this?

Seeing none, the clerk, will you please call the roll for recommendation that the city pass council bill 120837.

SPEAKER_20

Council member Kettle.

Aye.

Council member Rivera.

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Council member Strauss.

Yes.

Council president Nelson.

SPEAKER_02

Aye.

SPEAKER_20

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to September 3rd, 2024 city council meeting.

Thank you all for being here.

Really appreciate y'all hanging in until the very end of the meeting.

Heavy agenda, but appreciate y'all always.

SPEAKER_06

We strive to become your favorite department.

SPEAKER_02

You are.

Let me tell you, you're my dad's favorite department.

Okay.

And mine too.

If he heard any other department was my favorite, he would be very angry.

So anyways, Seattle Parks Department.

With that, there's no other item on the agenda.

Do any of my colleagues have any more items of business for the committee?

Seeing none, that concludes our August 14th, 2024 meeting of parks, public utilities, and technology.

I will also like to note that was the first time where we had all three departments present at our meeting, which was kind of cool.

We had parks, we had public utilities, and we also had technology.

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11th, 2024 at 2 p.m.

If there's no for the business, this meeting is adjourned.

Time is 3.40 p.m.

Thank you, colleagues.

SPEAKER_09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Meeting adjourned.