Good morning.
Thank you for being here for our regularly scheduled council briefing.
We will go around the room and give a preview of today's full council actions.
I'll start off and then I just want to remind my colleagues we do have an executive session that we will enter into.
Very quickly from the Governance, Equity, and Technology Committee, we have two items up for vote this afternoon.
The first one is, you've heard me talk about both of these matters for a while, is the establishment of the Business Improvement Area, or the BIA, south of downtown, the Soto area.
And so we've had the hearing, and we've had many meetings on this, and so it's gone as smoothly as we hoped that it would go.
So this is, as you may recall, the BIA started in 2013. It was originally for five years.
This one extends it for another 10 years.
Actually, there's some boundary extensions in here.
Again, we're looking at how the sort of businesses assess themselves on terms of enhanced services for transportation and public safety, these kinds of things.
And so we've got overwhelmingly positive support for this, voted unanimously at a committee, and so we'll present that this afternoon.
And the second one is the surveillance ordinance, which, again, we've put a lot of time in for the last several months.
reached a really good piece of legislation.
And so both Council Member O'Brien and I made some amendments from the last meeting.
But again, here we're trying to review all of the technologies that we use now in our departments, the police department as an example.
come up with what's called a SIR, a surveillance impact report, which is a tool to look at how it affects all communities, do sort of an in-depth analysis of the 28 technologies that we use, how it affects our privacy interests.
We've created basically a privacy officer, and so we've balanced that.
that balance between protecting privacy, protecting the needs of all individuals and making sure we're doing it as transparent as possible with the use of technology and still allowing the departments to explain to us and explain to a community group that's created with advocates such as the ACLU, explain to the community group why they're doing what they're doing and how they're doing it.
So it's a good piece of legislation.
I look forward to presenting that that again came out of committee unanimously.
Thank you for the work you did with BIA.
I know I was here five years ago with you when we first looked at it.
In Soto, there was a lot of opposition at the time, and the fact that it's now received over 60% support, I understand, I think really highlights how important it's been.
to have the BIA down there and I appreciate the work you've done.
And then secondly, thank you too around working on with Shankar and with ACLU to make sure that this privacy has really been considered but at the same time our departments can be able to acquire some of the latest software and hardware and I appreciate the work you've done.
Thank you.
And with that, I'm finished and Council Member Akshar, I'll sign you.
Great, thank you.
We actually have 12 items today on Finance and Neighborhood Committee, but they will be fairly quick.
We've got two landmarks control, one in the U District and one up on Pine Street.
We've got the quarterly grant acceptance, the quarterly supplemental budget ordinance, then amending the 2018 City Light Budget to support increases and the AMI, the Advanced Metering initiative.
We've got a resolution that designates this is down in Council President Harrell's area around Mount Baker Housing Authority to be eligible for the State Department of Ecology grants.
And then we've got a series of appointments and reappointments, which I can speak to this afternoon, all of which came in front of my committee.
Lastly, I just want to remind my colleagues all four of us who are here today, that budget gets started this Wednesday.
And I want to say thanks in advance to Allison McClain in my office.
One of the things she's been working on with council central staff is to go and look at all of the slides, the statements of legislative intent that we did last year.
And by council member, we're going to go back to each office to find out, have those items actually been incorporated this year?
Did we move forward as was envisioned last year?
and then whether or not these items have ended up in our budget going forward.
So I think that's a little, for me, that's the grounding that I wanted to be able to say, this is where we were last year and this is what we've done.
This is the direction we're going along with the mayor.
So I want to just alert you there, that's something I'm gonna be focused on this year.
And then also I'm gonna be gone Friday.
I'm at the Association of Washington Cities meetings.
So if you need anything, just know that it'll be a short week here on site for me.
very good.
Thank you.
Council Member Juarez.
Thank you.
That's strong leadership.
You were very chatty this morning, Council President.
Thank you for the compliment.
I take all insults as compliments, by the way.
There are two items that have been briefed and discussed in the Civic Development, Public Assets, and Native Communities Committee.
Because of minor technical errors, one will be recommended for a full council vote today, and the other recommended for a full council vote next week.
Let's start with Council Bill 119361, an ordinance relating to the Hing Hay Park Bush Hotel Property Agreements.
This bill was heard in Civic Development, or in committee, last Wednesday, the 19th.
The committee is supportive of the legislation.
Because of a technical change in the title, it had to be reintroduced today, and with the support of my colleagues, we'd like to refer it directly to City Council for a vote at our next meeting on Monday, October 1st.
That is a lease agreement, a contract agreement, 37 years in the making.
Next, we have Resolution 31842, a resolution relating to grant funding managed through the State Recreation and Conservation Office.
This resolution is the city's application for grant funding of $5.5 million awarded by the State Recreation and Conservation Office.
It looks like we've been doing this for years.
Grant funds will be used to support toll parks and recreational capital projects.
Because of a process of delay, this resolution was briefed as information, as an information item in committee last Wednesday.
According to council rules, a resolution can be introduced and adopted at the same council meeting.
With the council president's approval and committee support, I will introduce and recommend a vote on this resolution, I'm sorry, this resolution today at 2 p.m.
In regards to civic arenas, there are two major items that were voted out of the select committee on civic arenas on September 14th.
starting with Council Bill 119344, which revises the use of the admissions tax, and Council Bill 119345, which includes the three transaction documents, the development agreement, the lease agreement, and the integration agreements.
On September 14th, we had a discussion and a vote on Council Bills 119344 and Council Bill 119345, both passed out of committee as amended.
There's one proposed amendment for City Council's consideration to amend Council Bill 119344, that's the admission tax, to correct a Council Bill number referenced in the section of the bill.
It is not substantive.
As you know, these two bills represent the arrangement between the City of Seattle and ArenaCo to redevelop KeyArena into a first-class sports and entertainment facility.
I look forward to the final step of this long process this afternoon.
Excellent.
Thank you, Councilmember Morris.
Councilmember Herbold, just in time.
All right.
Good morning.
Good morning.
And so we had committee last week on Friday, but since the item is moving out of committee on Friday, we're late for today's full council agenda.
We'll be hearing those next week, so I have no items on the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts Committee agenda on the full council.
Committee does not meet this week.
And the only other two things I wanted to highlight is we have two presentations at full council today.
One is a proclamation honoring the Seattle Symphony for being named Orchestra of the Year for 2018. So we'll be presenting the Seattle Symphony with a proclamation at today's full council meeting.
I'll be circulating that.
for signatures.
In addition, like we do maybe not every year, but many years, we also have a proclamation honoring and observing Diaper Awareness Week.
We have two copies of the proclamation for signatures, and we'll be joined by Westside Baby to have them lead the presentation and receive the proclamation.
Remind me, what are we aware of here?
Is it using cloth diapers as contrasted to disposables?
Is it just the need to have more donations?
It's a great unmet diaper need and how that unmet need impacts low-income children and impacts their development.
Great, I respect that very much.
The question is, are we doing a drive again?
Are we asking for...
We are not doing a drive.
We are raising awareness so that folks individually or organizations collectively can contribute.
I think we are all encouraged to contribute and there are many ways to do so.
It doesn't always have to be just with contributing diapers.
They also accept donations of formula, toys, and also bodies to volunteer at West Side Baby.
And then the only other thing I wanted to mention is this week, on Tuesday, there will be an LGBTQ senior housing report that will be coming out of some community-based organizations.
And you may recall that this is another need that we have highlighted here, both in putting the housing levy on the ballot.
We identified this as a need.
Seattle is one of the only major cities in the nation that does not have senior housing for LGBTQ populations.
And so, again, this report will be highlighting the need for housing for LGBTQ seniors, as well as some ideas for meeting that need.
And that's all I have for today.
Thank you.
Very good.
Council Member Johnson.
Good morning all.
We've got a couple of things on today's full council agenda.
Legislation related to curb ramp requirements, which will result in us getting a lot closer to meeting our city's ADA goals and objectives.
It's going to ask developers to build more curb ramps.
We also have a vote today on design guidelines in the South Lake Union neighborhood, an extension on the moratorium of certain land uses in the Aurora-Licton Springs Urban Village, aka ALOVE, and a resolution related to the UW Major Institution Master Plan.
So I'll remind my colleagues that that is a quasi-judicial matter, and so when we're together today at 2 o'clock, We will be prohibited from hearing any public testimony related to that resolution.
The resolution, as you may remember, is the first action that the council takes in relationship to the growth plan submitted to the city by the University of Washington.
That resolution then goes to the parties of record for comment.
Parties of record there include both the UW Board of Regents as well as those who have appealed the decision and our own Department of Construction and Inspections.
They then report back to us additional findings and we use the reporting back process to formulate a final ordinance which will be likely on some time after the first of the year.
In addition to those votes, I'm bringing forward a companion resolution to Councilmember Juarez's excellent work related to the key arena process.
And that companion resolution really is about planned transportation projects.
in the uptown neighborhood and the connection between those projects and the arena access management plan, really about how we are going to pay for those projects, the timeline of those projects, and who pays for what when.
So a lot of good work going into that.
I know several of my colleagues may have seen a final draft late last week and may also be bringing forward amendments as well, which I look forward to that and supporting those discussions.
We do have one item on introduction and referral as well.
University District Neighborhood Design Guidelines.
That is our attempt to help make sure that those are easily accessible for folks who've been asking questions about the update to the Neighborhood Design Guidelines in the U District.
But because of that quasi-judicial matter with the UW MIMP, we decided to hold off discussions of the University District Design Guidelines until after the MIMP.
discussions were completed because it would be really hard for us to convince people to show up and not say something about one and say something about the other.
So, those are the items up for discussion and as part of introduction and referral today.
We don't have any committee discussions, obviously, until post-budget.
And after budget, we'll have a lot of work to do both on the city's mandatory housing affordability issues as well as our usual PLEZ work.
That's it.
That's it for me, boss.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to go ahead and start with a proposed amendment to Councilmember Johnson's resolution around the arena and the transportation report.
Thank you.
First of all, Councilmember Johnson, I appreciate your work on the resolution and continue to work with both advocates and Department of Transportation to get some language right, and we weren't able to get it ready in time.
But this, I believe, is posted with the agenda today, too.
It basically does a couple things.
The environmental impact statement and the master use permit have some requirements for the project to build some bike facilities adjacent to the arena.
As you can imagine, the community was hoping for a much broader set of investments that aren't there, but I believe we went as far as we could with MUP and the EIS.
But there are other pieces to the network near Seattle Center that are missing that won't be covered in those first two devices.
What this does is it creates a new section asking the Department of Transportation to come back and report to us sometime next year about what their plans are to complete that.
In their response to previous inquiries from community, they had some problems with some of the roads that had been identified for bike facilities.
And so I think this is an effort to say, hey, Streets are not going to be viable.
Is there an alternative that will meet the need to create connectivity?
And this also puts a little more language about report backs between now and when the arena opens on the ongoing work to, we know we have this transportation plan, the AMP, that will continue to evolve over time.
And it's a way to incorporate the community, make sure they have some feedback in that process as that evolves over time.
That amendment looks great, Council Member O'Brien.
Thanks, Council Member Johnson.
Council Member O'Brien, thank you.
That section three, that really puts a focus on identifying the gaps for the bicycle connections.
I really appreciate that.
Any support that you need from me as we're going forward, this is something very important, but also It's in my district.
I want to make sure that this gets done this year.
Absolutely.
And it was really important for the Department of Transportation, and I think everyone involved, that this also highlight that these projects go through a filter of the Bicycle Master Plan, too, because there's a whole host of investments throughout the city that are being done.
And so these aren't just standalone projects in the context of, OK, is this a top priority, middle priority, lower priority?
So that'll be part of that evaluation as we go forward, too.
The sustainability and transportation committee has a couple items on this afternoon's agenda.
We have appointments to the sweetened beverage tax advisory board.
We also passed out a committee last week the transit benefits legislation.
This is a a requirement with a long ramp up, almost a little over two years now, for employers with over 20 employees to allow their employees to have a pre-tax deduction for transit passes.
I have asked that that be held for one more week to come to full council.
I don't anticipate any changes to it, although if folks have concerns, certainly love to hear them.
I just, there's a lot of activity on this afternoon's agenda, so I thought I'd give it an extra week so we can have a little more time to discuss that when it comes up.
One last thing I'll just mention, of course, there's no standing committee meetings, but there is going to be a special committee meeting for the Sustainability and Transportation Committee Friday morning, October 12th from 930 to 1030. And I want to thank colleagues for allowing this to happen.
This is a special report back on the racial equity toolkit around the work that we've been doing about accessory dwelling units and detached accessory dwelling units.
The reason I asked for this timing is because the environmental impact statement, the final environmental impact statement, is expected to be released about this time.
And there's been a lot of work done, led by Susie and my staff, to do a racial equity toolkit to really understand as we make it easier for folks to build backyard colleges and mother-in-laws, Are we going to see the same disproportionate benefits or are there things we can do?
And there's been a lot of good feedback we've got from community members, especially low-income homeowners who participated in the racial equity toolkit to help frame how we may do this.
And so I wanted an opportunity to share that racial equity toolkit concurrent with the final environmental impact statement.
Legislation for all those things will likely not be until early next year, but it's an important milestone and something we've been working on for a couple years.
Very good.
Thanks, Council Member O'Brien.
Council Member Gonzalez.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I'm going to make my report pretty short.
We have three agenda items from the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans, and Education Committee on this afternoon's full council agenda.
Those are items 17, 18, and 19. Two new, excuse me, one new appointment to the Seattle Fire Code Advisory Board and two reappointments to the same entity.
And that is all I have.
Thank you very much.
Okay, so just strong leadership, always from Councilman Gonzalez.
We are going to listen for the public to a special presentation, of course, at 1230 today.
I think all of you know the mayor will give her 2019-2020 biennium budget speech.
That'll be at Fire Station 10. We have chairs reserved for the council, and we look forward to hearing that.
And with that, we're going to move into executive session.
We have one item we need to discuss.
And so as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will convene an executive session.
The purpose of the executive session is to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.
This gives us an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.
A legal monitor from the city attorneys is always present to ensure that we reserve questions of policy for our public open sessions.
I expect this session to end in 30 minutes, which, I just can't see the clock.
1022. At 1022. And if it goes beyond that period, I'll announce its duration, its expected duration in the public setting.
With that, let's move to executive session.