missing title

Here.

Vice Chair Rink.

Present.

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are five committee members present.

All right.

Thank you.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is hereby adopted.

All right.

Well, welcome members of the public, those tuning in to Seattle Channel Land, colleagues.

Thank you for joining us today at our next our very next meeting of the STEPS Committee.

First and foremost, congratulations to our Seattle Seahawks for winning Super Bowl 60. And a lot of planning went into that from a city perspective.

It was a complex intergovernmental, interdepartment, interagency, interorganization, because not just governments were involved in such a pulling off such a successful event.

but I think it is appropriate given this committee's focus, which is an expanded transportation committee portfolio that includes Seattle Center, sports, big events like this to talk a little bit about what happened and the planning efforts surrounding the successful Super Bowl victory parade last week.

So let's double click for just a moment.

into the data.

So, events at this scale require rapid, disciplined coordination across public safety, transportation, logistics, and regional partners, all mobilized within weeks.

An estimated 750,000 to 1 million people showed up to celebrate in Seattle.

In a gathering of that size and scale, the most remarkable statistic might be this.

Zero arrests and only minor reported traffic incidents.

That doesn't happen by accident.

It happens through thoughtful and intentional planning, partnership and professionalism.

A lot of people in this city, a lot of our partners, nonprofits, along with the Seahawks were hard at work for weeks before the Super Bowl even kicked off.

doing contingency planning, doing the people's work, just in case.

We were hoping we'd be able to bring all that work to life with the victory, and that's exactly what happened.

Public safety was a coordinated effort.

We deployed 600 officers, supported by 213 mutual aid personnel from regional partners.

Same mutual aid partners in my my esteemed colleague, the chair of Public Safety Committee is, I know his ears were perking up a little bit, but the parade route stretched two miles, secured with 700 pound protective barriers, ensuring a safe celebration for families across our city.

Behind the scenes, the logistics were just as impressive.

The parade included 33 vehicles at least, We installed at least 98 porta potties and aid stations to support attendees.

Within hours of the event, 20 frontline crew members from SDOT deployed suites or street sweepers and helped clear the streets of all the debris, confetti, et cetera.

That's very focused discipline execution.

and the more specifically in the transportation context, it was also record setting.

We saw a record 200,000 passengers on sound transit alone, the highest in the organization's history.

Also saw an estimated 75,000 plus shared micro mobility trips, including a confirmed 60,000 rides online scooters alone.

We help move people efficiently and effectively.

We expanded service.

We had expanded service from partners at King County Metro, Washington State Ferries, Seattle Monorail Services, and our own Seattle Streetcar, of course.

The latter two of which are the two transit agencies that our city owns and manages, but doesn't operate.

I'm proud of the 12s, proud of the city and excited to apply these learnings as we prepare to welcome the world for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Day of execution was spot on and really appreciate that.

I think immediately after the Seahawks won on Super Bowl night, it left more to be desired in terms of what was possible to prevent some damage to the historic pergola in Pioneer Square, for example.

And there's learnings to derive from that as well.

And no doubt our city will.

But when we talk about the actual day of parade and planning and execution of that, it was a very well-organized plan and executed event.

So I wanna commend the mayor's office our regional partners, including King County Metro, Sound Transit, our own city departments that led a lot of that work, SDOT, Parks as well, so many others, and also other organizations like the Seattle Seahawks, obviously, the Seafair, and the Seattle Sports Commission played central roles in such a successful event of the parade last week.

So kudos again, and we'll be able to apply some of those learnings, the good, the bad, and the ugly, in just a few short months, so stay tuned.

At our last meeting, colleagues, we heard from the Seattle Department of Transportation about the levy delivery plan and their ongoing work to not only comply with, but exceed the requirements with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It was an inspiring and encouraging to see how the city of Seattle's transportation infrastructure is becoming safer and more inclusive, more equitable and more just.

This year, we are pleased to welcome Seattle Center to the group of executive departments for which we provide legislative oversight in this committee.

Seattle Center is one of the most visited destinations in the Pacific Northwest, welcoming approximately 11 to 12 million visitors annually in the ordinary course of a normal year.

And this is not a normal year for the reasons we talked about, namely World Cup, Super Bowl victory parade.

It is truly one of the crown jewels in terms of civic hubs, cultural experiences of our entire city.

Today, we will hear an overview presentation from Seattle Center Leadership.

This presentation will set the stage for future briefings and roundtables that will help ensure a strong, collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship between this committee and this vital public institution.

We will also today continue our discussion on transportation policy.

To that end, our partners from SDOT and central staff will provide an update on the transportation funding task force.

Now, this task force is a critical component of the 2024 transfer voter approved transportation levy.

It brings together diverse perspectives to examine Seattle transportation funding challenges and explore sustainable funding options going forward.

As this is the final Steps Committee meeting of Black History Month in February, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the profound impact of Black innovators, engineers, and leaders that have had in the field of transportation, engineering, policy, and safety in particular.

Colleagues Garrett Morgan, invented the modern traffic signal, including the addition of the yellow light.

Super cool.

A simple but transformative innovation that helps prevent collisions and saves lives each and every day.

Granville T. Woods developed an electric-powered metal wheel for trolleys advancing railway technology and urban transit systems.

William Hunter Damond patented the Safety System for Operating Railroads, very cool, which allowed trains to communicate through audio and visual signals, dramatically improving rail safety, just to name a few.

In our own city of Seattle, We've had a lot of pioneers, black pioneers and black excellence shining through and through in transportation policy.

Former SDOT Director Darrell Grigsby was the first African-American SDOT Director in our city under former Mayor Shell.

Most recently, our city welcomed Interim Director Audiam Emery, who was the first black woman head of SDOT.

There are amazing leaders within the department like Rodney Maxey and others and such tremendously impactful frontline crews showing up doing the work each and every day to make us proud and keeping us safe on our roads in our communities, on our streets.

Now, today, we have Councilmember Foster and her leadership.

Black woman showing up, contributing to the mission of making our roads safe, accessible, welcoming for all, providing her insights and her wisdom.

Really grateful for her leadership.

As the chair of this committee, who happens to be black, I stand proudly on the shoulders of giants like all those that I mentioned and so many of those unnamed that have led and provided tremendous impact to the city of Seattle and beyond in transportation policy.

Forever grateful for their contributions to our city.

Alright, with that, let us move on to today's agenda.

First, a briefing and discussion on the Seattle Center Overview, as mentioned earlier, presented by Seattle Center Leadership.

Second, a briefing and discussion on the Transportation Funding Task Force.

We're going to get into public comment first.

So, moving on, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.

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

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Chair, we currently have one in-person speaker and two call-in speakers who are waiting on the line.

Excellent.

Each speaker will have approximately two minutes.

We will start with the in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

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

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

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

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

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

That was pretty close, thanks.

It's Tina Beeka and I live downtown.

I wanted to begin by acknowledging the strong vision being presented here today for the Westlake Transportation Hub.

The goals around accessibility and creating a welcoming public space are important and appreciated.

And with no disrespect to the hard work of the Westlake Civic Committee intended, I want to name a gap that many downtown residents are feeling.

Meaningful residential involvement in this process has been extremely limited.

Westlake is not only a transit gateway and economic catalyst, it is the daily front yard of thousands of people who live here and who experience its successes and challenges 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Engaging residents earlier and more consistently is not about slowing progress.

Rather, it strengthens outcomes.

Residents bring real-time, 24-hour, lived insight into safety, usability, long-term stewardship that can only help the city achieve the very goals that are being outlined in the presentation today.

I'm supportive of the work and hopeful that the next phase includes a more intentional partnership with the residential community so that Westlake evolves both as a world-class hub and a truly livable neighborhood place.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

We will now move on to the remote callers.

The first one is Clara Cantor.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, my name is Clara Cantor.

I'm a community organizer with Seattle neighborhood Greenways and I would love to thank the council for your ongoing attention to sidewalk funding.

In Seattle, we're missing over 11,000 blocks of sidewalks, which is over 24% of our streets.

And with our current investment levels, it will take us over 500 years to complete that sidewalk network.

Even if we're just looking at tier one top priority sidewalks, we are still missing 1,642 blocks out of five tiers.

Seattle's lack of a complete sidewalk network is a safety hazard for everyone.

It limits the usability of our transit network, but it is a transportation crisis for people with disabilities, for elders, for kids.

I don't have sidewalks on my street, and it is a daily struggle to keep my two young kids safe every single time we leave home.

Sidewalk gaps are most pronounced in District 5, 2, and 1. the districts that also have the most dangerous high-speed arterials and highest rates of people being killed or seriously injured on our streets.

We are missing significant gaps of sidewalks along some of our highest used transit routes, and it is an enormous, enormous funding problem.

Our current transportation levy, which many of you helped to craft in 2024, funds construction of a total of 350 blocks of new sidewalks.

and the funding is front-loaded and it drops to zero in 2028, which is just two years from now.

It is absolutely essential that this task force convenes, that it moves quickly, and that it is given the tools and power that it needs for Seattle to finally have a sustainable and reliable funding source for building out that sidewalk network that is actually commensurate to the need.

I appreciate your hard work on this.

I know it's not easy, but it is vital.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Clara.

Our next speaker is David Haynes.

Hi, David Haynes.

Luckily, the law-abiding parade for the Seahawks was in the morning.

But it's noted that there were 600 cops that deployed to get overtime.

But when it comes to fighting crime, we still have the same bogus excuses that they need more staffing.

It's like the cops got plenty of cops to deploy for a law-abiding event to get rich on overtime.

But when it comes to actually doing their job crime fighting, there's not enough cops that are deployable that are properly trained.

It's a real concern.

You know, public transportation sucks on so many levels.

And one of the main ones is people smoking and doing drugs in and around.

When is council going to collaborate with the county and make some law that makes the cops and the metro police work together instead of arguing about who's responsible for policing the neighborhood's bus stops and sidewalks.

We have to ticket cigarette smokers, vaporizers and pot smokers, and we need to trust past illicit drug users and send them to drug addiction instead of constantly, cowardly capitulating to the devil's minions and making it seem like we're not allowed to judge these people where they're constantly passive-aggressively predatorizing innocent people and bothering us.

That said, we still need green light priority for these buses who for some godforsaken reason have all of these traffic congestion backups on 3rd Ave where you're only allowed to drive a bus but because you have these stupid lights that are so antiquated and outdated in their programming that the bus drivers have to stop at the red light.

And when you're trying to do a transfer because they screwed up the bus stop to make it seem like the city's bigger than it really is, you have to leapfrog every other bus stop.

So you're trying to catch up with the other bus you're trying to make a transfer to, and it's just asinine.

And, you know, there's a couple other things that are a real concern.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

We have one more person who's joined.

Our final caller will be Rick Grossman.

Hi, my name is Rick Grossman.

I and 130 seniors live at Pride Place on Broadway.

We understand the problems with traffic in the city and the need to use multiple means to reduce car use.

and we're pleased that we have a bicycle lane right on our block.

But we added e-scooters several years ago to our mix and we never created a safety program and we never have reviewed it or made it safer, whereas other cities and locations are adding new regulations.

We've added none.

There is no one responsible for the behavior of these scooter riders.

We've had as many as 11 scooters on our sidewalk, even with the bike lane, in a single minute.

Every one of our seniors has either been struck by, knocked over or terrorized as a silent scooter suddenly bears down upon them.

even a dog was nearly decapitated as a scooter ran through the leash, went through the leash.

We've spoken to the Micromobility Department.

They've done nothing.

There's no way to identify scooters and no one in the city is responsible for their behavior.

Perhaps our problem is that there's not enough staff.

Maybe it's the fact that the leader of Micromobility fits in a board of directors of an industry group, which is a clear conflict of interest.

We need to have a safety program.

We don't have a safety program after years.

No planning, no one responsible for the behavior.

Thank you, Mr. Grossman.

All right.

Looks like there are no more Registrar speakers.

So we will now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, briefing and discussion, Seattle Center overview presented by the Seattle Center.

Thank you.

And it looks like our presenters have already joined us at the table.

Welcome.

Please do introduce yourselves.

And when you're ready, share your presentation.

Sounds good.

Thank you, Councilmember Saka.

Good morning.

For the record, I'm Dematris Winston, Interim Director at Seattle Center.

With me here is Karin Butler, our Organizational Development Manager at Seattle Center, the one and only.

Somebody that's been really instrumental in a lot of our org-wide projects, including our strategic plan.

And this morning, well, and thank you all for letting us have an opportunity to share with you our org overview this morning.

We very much appreciate it.

This morning, we're going to cover the following, who we are and what we do at Seattle Center, provide you an overview of our organizational structure and budget, and share you some of our 2026 priorities, and then leave plenty of time for questions.

And so, as you all know, Seattle Center is a 74-acre campus.

About 40 acres of that is a green space.

And so Seattle Center is both a regional destination for events, but also a green space for the community.

Seattle Center welcomes every year about 11 to 12 million visitors.

So it is the most visited arts and cultural destination in the region, in the state.

and it ranks about number 22 in the nation.

Hold on, can you pause for just a moment?

Do we have the...

Are we able to share the slides?

Are they up?

Yeah.

Just on my screen.

Can the Seattle Channel view them?

Accessible.

It's coming from their computer, but we can figure that out.

I'll take a second.

Hang tight, just a moment.

Be at ease while we fix this accessibility issue.

I think I got it here.

We're all set.

Okay.

All right.

Let us proceed.

Thank you.

We just had a, we literally just had a presentation on accessibility.

So allow us to appreciate your grace and patience for members of the public while we try to promote accessibility with these slides here.

Looks like they're accessible now, go ahead.

Director.

All right, I think where I left off is Seattle Center sees about 11 to 12 million visitors a year, making it the number one arts and cultural destination in the state and in the region, and it ranks around 22 in the country.

We're looking at some point to be the top 10, that's our long goal.

We're home to about 30 independent organizations, some of those arts and culture, sports and entertainment, all things that bring the community together.

We are largely self-funded.

We generate about 70% of our own operating revenue every year.

Seattle Center also manages waterfront operations in terms of the maintenance and also provides security down at the waterfront.

Seattle Center has about 240 plus employees and about 500 intermittent staff that come on throughout the year.

And Seattle Center houses about 10 labor unions.

that are all essential partners in serving our mission.

Within those unions, we have painters, we've got carpenters, HVAC, electricians, security folks, landscapers, janitors, ushers, et cetera.

And so, when you talk to people about Seattle Center, they all have a story.

It could be their first theater experience, their favorite music events, could be their first date, an exhibit they went to, or a sports memory they have.

Our vision is to create more memories for people similar to those, and to be a place where a community comes together in an iconic, inclusive destination that delights and inspires the human spirit.

I think we do that on a daily basis.

To do that, we value Seattle Center being a safe and welcoming, inclusive and inviting place, a place that's well maintained and invested in, and a place that enables our arts and culture, sports, entertainment organizations to thrive and to better serve everyone in the community.

So, on the screen now, you'll see a map of our campus.

It's a mix of private, public, and nonprofit organizations on campus.

It's the 30-plus organizations that we refer to as partners or resident orgs.

You'll see on the list, on the bottom there, there's some separately owned and operated places on campus.

That would include Memorial Stadium, the Pacific Science Center, and the Space Needle.

and I'd just like to say that there's so much to see and do on campus.

Campus is really an ecosystem that extends into the community and throughout the region.

Seattle Center has a long history of public-private partnerships.

You can add philanthropic partnerships into that.

Relationships and partnerships are very important at Seattle Center.

So much that with these resident orgs you see on the screen here, we have bi-monthly meetings to talk about the challenges, opportunities, upcoming events, and opportunities to work together.

So an example of a private partner on campus is the Climate Pledge Arena.

Climate Pledge Arena.

We should go back one slide, please.

Thank you.

So, Climate Pledge Arena is an anchor tenant and a key partner on campus.

Climate Pledge opened in 2021. It's privately operated by the Oak View Group under a long-term lease.

It's home to the Seattle Kraken, the Seattle Storm, and the Seattle Torrent.

Last year, the Climate Pledge welcomed about 1.7 million visitors across all events.

and so it hosted about 20 or 200 plus events last year, which makes it a strong national presence for events and it adds value and activation to the Seattle Center campus.

and that really flows through to our revenue and our ability to operate and to gain sponsorships and other activities.

Climate Pledge is also MBA ready.

We're looking forward to that opportunity at some point.

And, you know, Seattle has proven to be a strong market and has strong fan support.

And so as far as we know, the commissioner has reported that there could be a decision in 2026. We'll have to wait and see, but we're looking forward to it.

I'm gonna pass it to Karin Butler to talk about the waterfront.

Thanks, Dematris, and thank you, council members.

So Seattle Center expanded our services to the city outside of our campus borders a little over two years ago, and we now provide operations and public safety services at the gorgeous new waterfront park, which is now fully open as of late last year.

So we wanted to share just a little bit about this fairly recent addition to Seattle Center's portfolio and a whole team of Seattle Center staff that help make Waterfront Park the success that it is.

On the next slide, I'll just review a couple of the operational points So just to be clear, Seattle Center provides a dedicated and specialized city maintenance team and also a 24-7 public safety team or emergency services unit on the Seattle waterfront at Waterfront Park.

And of course Waterfront Park is managed in partnership with the fantastic nonprofit Friends of Waterfront Park.

They are our partner in this work and they are to thank for much of the philanthropic support and all of that free public programming and events year round that we're all beginning and continuing to enjoy.

An oversight committee, the waterfront oversight committee is in place that helps ensure accountability and mayor and council reporting.

And then we also want to just acknowledge that Seattle Center collaborates with our peer departments, especially SDOT and Seattle Parks for certain elements of waterfront parks success.

Dematris, back to you for our next slide around year end stats.

All right, this is the introductory slide here, and we've already mentioned that it's number one in the city, number one in the state, and 22 in the nation.

And the numbers are great, but we also pride ourselves on what makes that possible, which is being affordable, accessible, safe, welcoming, and inclusive.

And so the stats- On the next slide, thank you.

The stats really show that.

Few public places are asked to do so much.

Again, home to 30-plus resident orgs.

We internally produced last year 362 events, about half of which were free events, attracting about 1.2 million visitors.

Of that 1.2 million, there were 25 Festall events that attracted to 400,000 visitors.

The visitor impact, pretty significant here.

47% of the visitors were from King County, 74% from the state of Washington, and we attracted about 26% of the folks out of state, and that includes 5% international visitors.

Diversity and civic engagement, also important at Seattle Center and in our community.

47% were BIPOC, really just kind of indicating that it's a safe and welcoming place for everyone.

We also host the Seattle King County Health Clinic.

Last year was the 10th year.

And so, so far over those 10 years, 33,000 patients have been served and $30 million of donated care have been contributed through the clinic.

Seattle Center also houses cold weather shelters and emergency sheltering in Exhibition Hall and the Fisher Pavilion.

Seattle Center also has a regional economic impact as well as a city economic impact.

And so the economic activity is about 2 million plus every year, 15,000 jobs.

tens of millions in taxes, and home to thousands of arts and culture and entertainment opportunities.

And so the partners at Seattle Center support the local economy in significant ways every year, as I've indicated here.

So next I'll give you Thank you.

An overview of our organizational structure.

You see we have six core functional areas from administration and finance to public programming and events, marketing and strategic partnerships, campus operations, waterfront operations and planning and capital development.

Seattle Center is a very dynamic campus with dedicated teams doing so much.

And so on this list, you'll see that we have about 240 FTEs.

We don't always reach that level of FTE, so we have a small but mighty team covering 74 acres of campus.

So the budget snapshot, you'll see here that our operating budget is comprised of three different budgets.

We have the campus budget, McCall Hall budget, and the waterfront budget.

and so our total operating budget is $59 million for 2026. We're budgeted at 260 FTEs, but again, we rarely reach that because of budget constraints, whether they be internal or external or citywide.

Approximately 60% of our operating budget goes to staffing cost.

On our capital budget, you'll see that for 2026, our budget is $38.3 million.

We'll have a breakout slide later on that.

But you'll see a large jump in 2026. About 27 million of that, $38 million, is related to Memorial Stadium.

And you'll also see a jump in 2025. About $9 million of the 2025 was also related to Memorial Stadium.

Next slide.

So our campus budget, this shows the structure and the income sources.

You'll see on our campus budget that 61% is earned revenue.

You'll see that 38% is general fund.

You'll see some payroll expense tax there.

For the McCall Hall budget, you'll see that 83% is earned revenue.

About 12% is general fund.

In the waterfront budget, you'll see the highest funding source there being the park district funding at 88.5%.

and you'll see about a 9% contributed by the Friends of Waterfront specifically for security down at the waterfront.

This is our emergency services unit that we also have at Seattle Center but they also provide services at the waterfronts.

And you'll also see at the waterfront about 2.6% of our budget comes from SDOT for a landscape that SDOT operates that we maintain.

And so the next slide just shows you kind of our business model at Seattle Center for the campus specifically.

61% of our revenue is earned revenue, and that comes from leases, parking, event rentals, sponsorships, food and beverage, ticketing, other strategic partnerships.

About 38% comes from general funds and the New Sierra capital budget, real estate excise tax, grants, and other private-public partnerships.

And when it comes to the capital funding, a lot of things have happened through public-private partnerships on campus.

And so our business model at Seattle Center is good for the city in that Seattle Center activities generate lots of taxes, including emissions tax, Sweden beverage tax, commercial parking tax, sales tax, and other taxes for the city.

And here's that breakout of our capital budget, just to give you a little bit more detail.

You see 38 million.

That is a large number, but it's not that large on most years.

You'll see that 71 percent of that 38 million is related to Memorial Stadium.

And so that's a currently that's funded through an interfund loan that will be paid back through a general obligation bond starting in 2027. And so you'll see that $8.8 million of our capital budget relates to building campus maintenance and improvements.

Usually that just means maintenance and improvements.

It doesn't mean new facilities.

You know, $8.8 million doesn't go that far.

As you all know, if you own a home or maintain a car or anything like that, it goes pretty fast.

One-time funding of that $8.8 million, $1.6 million almost goes to bollards this year to get ready for FIFA.

We also had money from 2025 also going towards bollards in a phased effect.

$1.2 million of our capital budget comes from the Federal Transit Administration for monorail rehabilitation.

And I'll now pass it back to Karin.

All right, well, we wanted to just wrap up with a look at some of our department's organizational priorities for this current year.

Some of these items have already come up in the room today.

So first of all, we are focusing this year on doing the work to advance our new strategic vision and 10-year action plan, which was established last summer.

We look forward, perhaps, to coming back to this group.

to do a deeper dive there, and it's guiding a lot of our strategic work at this time.

We also are excited to have kicked off just this past weekend our annual season of the Seattle Center Festall Cultural Festivals.

We kicked that off with Tet on February 14th, and there's a lovely photo there for you.

The Seattle King County Clinic, the 10th iteration of that is coming up in April and I believe there are still volunteer spots available should anyone be interested.

FIFA World Cup fan activities, Seattle Center will be a hub for those activities.

We're looking forward to our partnerships across the city to make that a safe and enjoyable time this summer.

Waterfront Park, we're full speed ahead.

This is our first year of full park operations.

Now that the park is fully open, it's an exciting time.

Our team down there is doing an excellent job and we're making sure we have all the staffing and attention necessary to continue to make the Waterfront Park the gem that it is.

And then finally, as Dematris mentioned in our capital budget, Memorial Stadium is happening outside our office windows every day.

It definitely changes the view from the Armory looking to the north, and it's fun to watch that in development.

And that will be continuing through the target of an opening in Q3 of 2027. So those are just a short list of our organizational priorities at Seattle Center for this year.

And I believe that is the last slide we have for you.

So we'll look forward to your questions.

Thank you so much.

All right.

I will open the floor to my colleagues for any questions, comments, feedback, insights, quick trivia, if any.

All right.

Actually, let me give my, I'm gonna adopt the practice.

Vice Chair Ring, I'm gonna give you the opportunity.

If you have any questions, comments, if not, no worries.

We can come back to you if any pop up.

No questions for today, but did want to take, if I've afforded the opportunity.

Thank you, Chair.

Just a chance to really reflect my appreciation for just all of the work that Seattle Center is doing, being able to join alongside folks for the groundbreaking at Memorial Stadium and then I also want to emphasize the support and appreciation that we're continuing on the health clinic day and opportunity.

I know a lot of our community members really rely on that healthcare service that we're providing alongside public health.

I'm glad that we're continuing it.

I'm curious to know how demand will go up as we're hearing increasingly that folks are losing healthcare access.

And so thank you for the opportunity, Chair.

Go Seattle Center.

Awesome.

Thank you, Vice Chair Rink.

Modeling a good best practice from our Public Safety Committee Chair Kettle, who always traditionally defers to me as his Vice Chair.

I think that's a great inclusive practice of letting folks know that we are essentially two in the box.

The Chair does hold an important role, but we're two in the box.

So thank you for your comments and reflections there, Vice Chair.

I note that Councilmember Lin was next with his hand up, but I'm actually gonna go, okay.

First refusal to the person who actually represents Seattle Stadium, Councilmember Kettle.

Go ahead, Councilmember Lin.

Thank you.

Thank you for this presentation.

Kind of more of a comment, but it's...

Just interesting to me to see, you know, that these are the top sites for visitation and what is...

What I notice is that these are car-free pedestrian activated spaces.

These are incredibly popular spaces.

And we've heard time and time again that one of the number one public safety issues is vehicle traffic safety.

And unfortunately we lost the life of another Seattle resident just recently on Capitol Hill, because, you know, despite our best efforts, pedestrians and vehicles often don't mix well.

So partially I just, I wanna, call out the amazing success that you all do for activating these spaces, creating great programming and providing public safety in these spaces.

And I just think that we as a city have a lot to learn from what you do and including things like the public bathroom on the waterfront.

I've heard great reviews about that.

Another thing that we you know, desperately need to improve upon.

So, yeah, just would love to do what I can to support your programming and your capital needs and to really learn how we can expand what you do in other places throughout the city, given your success.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Lin.

We certainly appreciate the support.

Like I said, last year, we received money for bollards.

You know, the first installment in 2026, we have money for bollards as well.

So that's part of keeping vehicles and pedestrians separate.

Very important to us.

When bollards don't work, we have to put out ecology blocks, which can be dangerous, but it's certainly time intensive when you're, you know, using equipment to move the ecology blocks around.

So we definitely appreciate the council's support of those two investments.

In terms of public bathrooms, we actually took a tour with a member of the mayor's office earlier this week to look at the bathroom at the waterfront to see how that could be replicated, or something else done differently, but to make sure there's more bathrooms downtown.

I know when people go downtown or anywhere in the city, they want it to be clean, and sometimes it's not.

So we certainly have a lack of bathrooms around campus.

or around the city.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Now moving on to Councilmember Kettle, the council member who coincidentally happens to represent this geographic part of the city and provides legislative oversight on this committee.

Yes, Chair, thank you so much.

Director Winston, thank you for being here.

Ms. Butler, really appreciate it.

And as Chair noted, yes, there's been a change with the committees, but obviously been very much engaged with your two previous directors.

I know you're acting, but the two previous directors of Seattle Center on a host of issues to include the stadium.

Really appreciate your calling out of the neighborhoods because It's interesting with a comprehensive plan, like right now we're going through our downtown regional plan, which includes Belltown, but we also have the South Lake Union and uptown regional centers be coming up soon as well.

And I think with the amount of work that's being done on those comm plans, in a way Seattle Center's role in that, as noted in slide three, being a green space and being a place for locals.

You talk about visitors, but particularly when our daughter was younger.

You don't know how many times I was in Seattle Center with our daughter and some neighborhood kids, you know, going into that space.

And it really goes to activation.

And so thank you for that highlighting.

And it's going to be important as we go forward with the comprehensive plan.

And I understand there's a pretty robust relationship with the neighborhood surrounding, particularly Uptown, with the Seattle Center.

and then of course the other thing out there really requiring this kind of interaction with the neighborhoods is sound transit.

Can you speak generally, because for those that don't necessarily know, your engagement with those four neighborhoods to include Queen Anne, which has now an urban center that comes right basically a block or two, a couple blocks away from Seattle Center.

Yeah, we've got frequent engagement with all of the community organizations just to hear about their needs.

Obviously, Seattle Center drives a lot of traffic in the area, you know, in terms of cars, people on foot, also a lot of business opportunities.

So we regularly meet with all of the neighborhood associations just to let them know what's upcoming, to hear their concerns and their challenges, but also to find opportunities to work together to mitigate the challenges.

Okay.

and definitely encourage that to continue and with our office as well.

Separately, on that same slide, you note about the 30 independent organizations.

I know from my work over the last couple of years, a lot of work that the Seattle Center has done in support of the rep or in support of in the armory like the Seattle Theater Group and the others, the great amount of work.

Can you speak to that?

Because I don't think most people in the city realize what Seattle Center does in terms of partnering and engaging with its various types of tenants in terms of making sure everybody is successful and then offering those experiences, those opportunities for Seattleites and our visitors across the state and country and the world.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mentioned earlier that we have bi-monthly meetings with the resident orgs on campus, and so that's one thing we do.

We also allow for rent reduction for orgs on campus through public benefit, and so that's a pretty significant reduction in rent that's allowed, and in return, those organizations provide free and reduced price ticketing and access or space rentals to the spaces that they operate on campus but lease from the city.

And Dematris, if I can jump in here, I would also say that, you know, at another time we'll look forward to talking to you about the vision of our 10-year strategic vision and action plan, but I will say that one of the key pillars of that plan is focusing in on how we can lift up and support the campus writ large and all of the organizations within it.

And our partner in that work is the Seattle Center Foundation, which is a nonprofit partner that supports Seattle Center.

So we definitely are focused on the good of the whole because that's how we all thrive.

Thank you, Karin.

Yeah, it's just, it is an ecosystem and we need to support that ecosystem.

And that ecosystem expands, you know, off campus to the economic impacts, the arts and cultural impacts.

and so you know at some point in our strategic plan we would like to elevate that and maybe even provide some shared services for folks on campus, shared marketing, shared ticketing, taking some of those things off their plate so they can you know excel and thrive.

Thank you for that and by the way I noted your visitors which is encouraging because generally we've seen a lot less we don't see as many Canadians nowadays last year as we did previously and concerned about impacts on the city overall but encouraged by what you're noting regarding visitors generally to Seattle Center.

Can I ask about Memorial Stadium status?

You said you had a great view of it from the Armory, Ms. Butler, but how do you see that interaction in terms of how you're seeing the changes from what's going on with Memorial Stadium and Seattle Center?

Yeah, I see it as being as dynamic and as attractive, you know, more attractive than it was before in terms of hosting events.

You know, currently there's walls going up, there's some structural and foundational work going up at the stadium.

The sewer work underneath the field is ahead of schedule, so that's really good.

But yeah, like Karin mentioned, you know, in 2027, you know, we look to open it up.

for high school sporting events, some semi-pro events, some other things that could be captured in the stadium, concerts, and really just going to add to the activation and the dynamic campus that we currently have.

And the changes to the physical profile of the stadium is going to be fantastic for the campus.

It'll open up some connections from the International Fountain Lawn to the stadium itself.

We'll no longer have the tall walls that are down now, and it'll have, like I said, a lower profile and a lovely integration into the campus.

So it's all moving in a very positive direction, even though there's a lot of dirt right now.

Yeah, a lot of dirt, a lot of construction.

It does have local impacts, too.

Construction always does.

And it came to our attention, and since we have SDOT here, Mr. Labode, the question of, because we've been talking to different groups, like bike lanes, coming from Thomas Street, Mercer, and that area.

I'm just raising this, is this something that you've seen, and we'll have SDOT coming up as well, but the possibilities of having a temporary protected bike lanes related to the construction and what's going on with that part of Seattle Center?

Yeah, I mean, if needed, there would be opportunity to do separated spaces for pedestrians or bikes.

I think S.Dot would probably be best to speak to, you know, what those opportunities are.

We would surely like to engage with them if there's a need on resolutions or solutions.

Yes, this is kind of a heads-up question.

Over.

Two last things really quick.

I understand your points about security and the safety pieces of FIFA World Cup.

I've been obviously seeing that for a while now, and it will continue, and it actually will continue in other parts of the city, too.

Can you speak, you know, with the plans for the World Cup and so forth, Is there engagement, going back to the neighborhoods around, you know, engagement with the neighborhoods because I know that there's some changes, but can you speak to like what's the Seattle Center's looking to do with FIFA World Cup and also possibilities with those surrounding neighborhoods in terms of partnering, you know, with them as well maybe?

Yeah, we've already had conversations with the resident orgs on campus about things they would like to do.

Like I said, we do talk to the neighborhood associations on a regular basis, and there are some that are interested in doing different things.

FIFA has changed to a distributive model, the celebration.

And so, you know, it won't just happen at Seattle Center, it'll happen at other places in the city.

You know, for us, our focus is gonna be on free and affordable programming.

You know, doing something in the armory.

So we'll show all games, all matches in the armory.

And if we can, we'll activate the mural amphitheater for the Seattle specific games.

and our programming will include match streaming so everyone can watch the games.

Lots of us won't be able to get into the stadium for those games, pretty expensive.

And so that's accessibility and affordability.

Some live DJs, live music, some cultural performances.

some arts and culture and heritage exhibits some global food just to kind of recognize the global environment that you know World Cup and FIFA and soccer have and then some interactive activities too with participating nations just to really highlight the arts and cultural significance that we have in Seattle and so we welcome the neighborhood organizations if they have, you know, watch parties or things they would like to coordinate on.

We actually have our programming and events team that have, you know, I can't give you all the details, but they're actively working with people in the neighborhoods surrounding Seattle Center on activations to make it as robust and as inclusive as possible.

Thank you.

I've been pushing this for a year now, so I'm glad to hear that, because that's really important.

When you've been overseas and seeing World Cup, how it's been done, the potential is great.

One last thing.

Thank you, Chair.

I was recently at the Boombuna opening on the Overlook Walk, and I noted in my remarks at that event about how the waterfront is a connecting, because we're kind of a north-south city in ways from a transportation perspective, but we need to work on the east-west and I love the connections to the stadiums or to Pioneer Square, Pike Pine, you know, and the market, Pike Place Market, and then the Market to Mohai, the Bell Street project that was coming up.

A lot of these are, now we have the, you know, the connection park that, with Mackenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates, there's an opportunity to connect Seattle Center.

I mean, I know Seattle Center was brought in to support Waterfront Park in terms of what they're doing, but to actually really kind of connect.

And I just wanted to ask if, you know, broadening that relationship as opposed to like in terms of security and so forth and management, but also build on these connections like Market to Mohai and all these different east-west connections and really connecting Seattle Center physically to the waterfront.

Do you have any thoughts on that?

Sure, yeah, I can jump in.

Again, we'd love to talk to you further about our tenure plan, but absolutely those kinds of connections for Seattle Center, physical connections between Seattle Center and Waterfront and also South Lake Union are in our big picture vision for what might be possible in the future, and we're actively thinking about that.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And thank you, Chair.

The big thing there, as you know, is just funding that, you know, we're highly in favor of connecting, you know, Southwood Union, the waterfront Seattle Center, making it more walkable, having a trail or a loop that people could, you know, travel on, you know, without getting into a car would be great.

It'd be great for, you know, the quality and the livability of the City of Seattle, but the health.

impacts, too.

So we're highly in favor of that.

We'd be happy to partnership with as many, and there would probably be multiple departments and probably even the state, you know, in terms of getting the funding to be able to do something like that.

Yes, Thomas Street being a great example, like with South Lake Union.

But don't worry, Chair Saka will take care of all the funding issues.

Appreciate that.

Just talk to the Chair and we'll get everything sorted.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's see.

Council Member Foster.

Nice.

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you so much for this fantastic presentation.

I really appreciate it.

Big fan of the Seattle Center, great memories.

I don't know if kids are actually allowed to play in the water fountain, technically speaking, but great memories there and just appreciate all the work that you do.

A couple of questions that I have for you.

One of the things I also love about Seattle Center is the small businesses there.

I wonder if you can just speak a little bit to the relationship with the Seattle Center and our local businesses in the armory and in the surrounding community.

Yeah, we have quite a few small businesses that all contribute to the vibrancy and the activation of Seattle Center.

Thankfully, when events come on campus, festivals, festals, they all support those small businesses on campus.

We actually have an economic impact study that was last renewed in 2016, but we're in the process of updating it currently, and so we'll be able to give you some more facts and figures.

But small businesses, I think, thrive in Seattle Center.

just in terms of the rent structure, the amount of traffic that comes through with 11 to 12 million visitors a year, whether they go to Climate Pledge or they go to one of the arts and cultural attractions on campus.

And so there's a lot of ways that we support small businesses, but small businesses also support us because it brings traffic onto campus.

And obviously it supports the city through tax revenue.

But yeah, certainly small business is an important part of Seattle Center in addition to the nonprofits that are on campus.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Another question I have, I know this is not technically part of Seattle Center, but I know that PacSci is in the midst of selling a portion of their property.

I believe it's being purchased by the Space Needle.

I'm curious how you're anticipating any impacts to Seattle Center from that change.

Yeah, so, you know, for the record, you know, PacSci is a private nonprofit.

And so, you know, they considered what to do for years, you know, in terms of selling off a piece of property.

And so for them, it was really a mission and a business aligned decision to sell it, you know, a portion of the property, about 20 to 25 percent to the Space Needle in order to help them invest in, you know, their their infrastructure.

new experiences and exhibits, you know, so to, you know, stabilize their budget.

But for us, you know, at Seattle Center, as I mentioned earlier, public-private or philanthropic partnerships, that's the way Seattle Center has thrived over the years, having people come in and invest in campus.

And so no major changes do I see from us.

You know, we still are committed to opening up the courtyards and helping Seattle our Pacific Science Center restore the arches.

And so, but it's gonna actually just provide, you know, through that project and taking down the gates more public access and really expand on campus and also offer a better gateway entrance onto campus from that portion of campus.

So positive things that we're seeing.

And I know for the PACSI, they believe they found a partner, and we do too, that's mission aligned with the direction they'd like to go.

And so the Space Needle acquisition of that property is probably favorable to Seattle Center as well as Pacific Science Center.

Thank you.

I appreciate hearing that.

And especially given, you know, just the other council members have spoken to in terms of need for open space and accessibility.

So I'm happy to hear that vote of confidence.

And then I want to take us to one thing that I know is significant for you all, which is just anticipated infrastructure needs.

You've talked a lot about the value that the Seattle center brings.

And I also know there's been investments that we've made recently and updating electrical and other things at the Seattle center.

But can you just talk a little bit about the, those infrastructure needs that you have?

Yeah, so we have, you know, it's an aging campus.

It has a lot of needs.

You know, the further you push those needs down, the greater the cost of those needs are.

You know, we have buildings there that were built for the World's Fair, you know, and so those buildings are certainly aging.

Some of those buildings were supposed to be, you know, demolished within two years after the World's Fair.

They're still there.

So we have the below ground infrastructure.

We've had heating problems.

A lot of things that have operational costs on us that aren't capital costs, they're operating costs because you have to do emergency fixes.

Not only that they impact the city and its operations on campus, but also impact our resident orgs on campus.

who lease space from Seattle Center.

And so for us, it is time to reinvest and look at some funding options, probably voter-approved funding options, more than likely.

We've done facility condition assessments, you know, so those are outside groups, not just our staff, you know, take our word for it, but also, you know, validate, you know, what those needs are.

And they're significant numbers, as you've probably read, and, you know, the Seattle Times articles and other news articles.

recently.

So we've been pretty open about what our needs are and we are currently in talks with the mayor's office about what the options are to fund those needs.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

I'll just quickly comment on that.

Thank you for the thoughtful questions and comments from my colleagues here.

Just comment on that before I jump into a few other quick questions.

So as Council Member Foster alluded to, there are some non-trivial, in fact, substantial maintenance backlog capital improvement needs within Seattle Center.

And, you know, widely reported the last administration was considering a potentially $1 billion levy proposal package to help meet the need.

And I've said this before, had some productive initial conversations with the mayor, the mayor's office about this as well.

As chair of this committee that oversees Seattle Center, I am not at all interested in continuing to kick the can down the road on these long deferred maintenance needs.

priorities shift as a city from time to time.

And that's totally understandable.

So a $1 billion voter approved levy when we're already approaching the cap, we already have, I think a library levy likely expected this year.

It's not, might not be reasonable or realistic at this point.

But I do note that We need to do something.

MLK Labor Council passed a resolution on January 21st calling for a voter approved levy to help fund these mission critical maintenance backlog needs.

I'm open to a specific dollar value, whatever that could be, but I think we need to get creative, less flexible on timing.

We need to act.

sooner rather than later, but flexible on the amount, the investment vehicles, whether it's bonding, creative exercise of our bonding authority, potential levy, robust public-private partnerships and the like.

There are multiple options.

And this is intended to be a kind of an overview presentation of the center.

And so I intentionally asked the department not to speak extensively about that, but I'm glad Council Member Foster asked, cause it's definitely appropriate.

And I do plan to use this committee to daylight that issue a little more extensively and talk about the current need and some potential options in any event.

Let's go to slide 17 that says 2026 operating budget structure and income sources.

Let's use that as a kind of a launching point.

So great questions, comments around the cross collaboration, cross pollination, inter department, inter agency work that goes on every day between Seattle center the Office of the Waterfront separately.

So this is intended to focus mostly on Seattle Center recognizing, of course, that there's that natural cross pollination and collaboration that happens with other city departments and agencies as we talked about.

Separately at another committee, we'll have a brief overview of the City Office of the Waterfront.

I think the formal name for that is the Office of the Waterfront Civic Projects and Sound Transit.

but there is obviously a lot of important work that goes on between the various, this department and other offices and agencies across the city and externally.

Memorial Stadium renovation.

We're gonna do a separate sort of slightly deeper dive or just check in about that project using taxpayer funded and a mixture of public-private partnerships to fund that long needed renovation of the stadium.

And as someone, you know, on this council at the time when we authorized that, and as an Air Force veteran, I'm particularly proud of the new Veterans Memorial aspect or feature of that Memorial Stadium renovation project.

And I know my My colleague here who's a Navy veteran as well shares in that and appreciate his leadership on, you know, getting that done.

So we'll separately invite you all to talk about and just check in about the status, but can you just high level talk about where we're at, timeline?

Are we on track and on budget currently for that project?

We are on track and on budget.

Like I said, the sewer project underneath the field is ahead of time, which is good.

There's foundations and walls going up currently.

You should certainly come take a tour of it.

As Karin mentioned, the space is going to be a lot more open.

So if you're looking towards the Space Needle, you'll be able to see it from that part of campus.

It'll be more open in general to campus, towards the International Fountain, so that's good.

But it is on time right now.

It's on budget.

As you know, the city committed $40 million towards the project.

Money also came from the State Department of Commerce, about $4 million.

$60,000, $69,000 from the school district.

And then some of it were from private and philanthropic contributions.

And so, you know, another great example of a private-public partnership.

And you mentioned the memorial itself that will be, you know, more open and kind of more conducive to people, you know, going and observing and spending some time there.

It won't be as close to the parking area.

And so that'll be a major improvement there in respect to the memorial.

Awesome.

Thank you.

World Cup readiness.

So that that was a a thread that connected multiple questions, specific topics that you covered in your overarching presentation.

And we'll devote at least one committee meeting to diving deeper into World Cup and World Cup readiness we can devote a whole committee to solely talk about transit policy on World Cup as it relates to World Cup readiness.

So we'll have to figure out appropriate scoping, but we do need to talk about it and starting next month, so stay tuned.

But can you talk about the, and you mentioned how the department, how the organization is funded, a mixture of fees.

Can you talk about, for World Cup, the projected increase in potential revenue from operating income, whether it's from parking, event rentals, sponsorship, food, beverages, ticketing, etc., based off of the estimates of I think the latest that I've seen from the local organizing community is still sort of ballpark, 750,000 on the conservative end, high end, 1.5 million around the region.

And the center plays obviously a role, but it's a distributed model, as you noted earlier.

Any initial estimates or projections on potential increases in revenue from the center as a direct result of World Cup?

Yeah, it's a great question, Chair Saka.

And so we know during that time of year how much revenue we generally generate.

And so for us, the World Cup least needs to do that for campus.

And so the revenue would be generated through parking, through concessions and other activities on campus.

We don't have an exact number.

Obviously, we wouldn't have an exact number, but we don't really have an estimate right now because the distributed model means that some of these events or things, the traffic is gonna go to other places.

that aren't on campus.

But we do expect a higher volume of people on campus and parking garages to be full, people taking the monorail.

Last year's monorail was the second best year in recent history.

And so we expect to see that again this year, which will all contribute.

But right now we're kind of in a pivot mode to pivot and make sure that our programming on campus is sufficient and advertised and supported enough so that we can at least make the revenue that we'd usually make during that time of year from other events.

and so while we were planning for some of the FIFA events we had to kind of put on hold some of the other programming we would have otherwise done to make sure that it was coordinated but now that it's a distributed model and an open model you know without gates and fencing and all those things you know we still we have to recalibrate what we think we were going to do revenue wise our goal is not to lose any revenue during that that period of the year as a result of the pivot.

Thank you, thank you.

if there are some more, appreciate the initial answer and the initial clarity and would definitely love some more specific follow-up data around revenue offline.

Thank you.

As a few of my colleagues noted, the center is truly at its best in an enjoyable and safe environment for all when it's car-free.

and pedestrian friendly and accessible and also accessible to shared micro mobility as well.

The department, this council has a, has provided direction that we want to across the city build at least 600, might be 650. I can't remember the final number that we landed on during budget last year, new scooter corrals.

It's one thing we can do to address safety, actually an important thing we can do to address safety, not the only thing we should be hanging our hats on.

So scooter corrals, obviously that requires a lot of coordination with SDOT.

What's the deployment at a high level?

What's the deployment plan and approach for scooter corral deployment within the center, in and around the center?

Yeah, hard for me to speak on.

We have, you know, bike, places where you can put bikes in terms of scooter corrals.

I don't know that we have any dedicated scooter corrals.

On the perimeter, I believe there are some.

We do have an internal team that would be our subject matter experts on that, and so that's probably something we would like to come back to you on and get a little bit more information.

All good.

Thank you.

All right, well, Director Winston, Ms. Butler, really appreciate your time today, you sharing your insights and perspective on this truly a community treasure, a gem that we have here in this city.

Vibrant arts, culture, and sports experiences happen there every day.

We welcome the world there.

FIFA World Cup years and not.

So love this presentation.

Really appreciate all the terrific work that you all do.

Looking forward to our continued partnership together and more to come.

Any of my colleagues have any final questions, comments before we move on?

Council Member Kettle, is that a stale hand?

Awesome.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Members.

We will now move on to our second item of business.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, briefing and discussion, transportation funding task force update presented by central staff and SDOT.

All right.

Thank you.

Will our presenters please join us at the table?

And when you're ready, share your presentations and introduce yourselves.

Welcome.

While we address some technical issues, getting the slides up, colleagues, let me just share, kind of orient this conversation from my perspective.

We're here today to check in about the Transportation Revenue Funding Task Force.

And we'll talk about kind of some specifics around council direction, how this came about, but at a high level, this came about because there was a recognition that at the time it was the biggest levy in Seattle's history, a $1.55 billion transportation levy that was overwhelmingly approved by generous voters across the city of Seattle.

But there was recognition that even if we did a $3 billion levy, even if we- if we...

All right.

Okay, no awkward echo.

All right.

Recognition that even if we had a $3 billion transportation levy package, as some advocates were calling for at the time, that didn't include bridges, we still wouldn't meet the needs.

Public commenter earlier today talked about the compelling need for more sidewalk funding.

It still wouldn't have put us on track to deliver the, fill the 27% missing sidewalk gap across the city.

If we devoted it mostly to roads, still probably wouldn't have did it.

Bridges, same thing.

And so just a recognition that it was a generous contribution and down payment from voters, but we need to find other options that don't solely rely on voter generosity from a levy perspective.

And so we created this task force to look at three asset classes, roads, bridges, and sidewalks, to figure out how we can get creative here.

And ultimately, our hope for this body is that they'll provide some actionable recommendations and policy options that are truly implementable.

That's why we also not only created this task force, but we backed it with dollar investment to ensure that the final recommendations and policy proposals that flow from this task force have actually been vetted by consultants and legal professionals to ensure that if there is sufficient political will and we say yes, we can actually do it.

So that's just the overview from my perspective, as someone who is an architect of this work, I'm gonna turn it over to our experts here.

Again, please do introduce yourselves and hopefully got rid of all that background.

Good morning, council members.

I am Calvin Chow with council central staff.

It's okay.

Oh, and Sarah Strand, SDOT.

Pillowboard SDOT.

So, council members, I have a small presentation.

Actually, the chair has already gone through most of the information that I wanted to present, but I will do it fairly quickly.

As the chair mentioned, the Transportation Revenue Task Force was originally proposed as part of the executive's proposal for the 2024 transportation levy.

This was presented to the select committee.

and really the intent was to provide a public forum for ongoing community and stakeholder discussions to look more broadly and into the future of what transportation funding needs are and what ways that the council and the mayor can think about in the future to address them.

And so at the bottom here I just have a list of some of the potential transportation revenues, some of which we do use, but property tax, sales tax, the vehicle license tax, the commercial parking tax, transportation impact fees, tolls and congestion pricing, local improvement districts, and of course general fund resources are all things that could be used.

The Council, when it put the proposal for the levy before voters, it also included a companion resolution, and that resolution endorsed the idea of forming the Transformation Funding Task Force.

This resolution had some requests about diverse and representative membership on the task force, really focused, as the Chair mentioned, on practical options that could be implemented quickly, and proposed a timeline for final recommendations by the end of next year, 2027. The resolution did highlight the need for sidewalks, bridges, and pavement projects as the transportation network greatest needs.

Following that resolution, there was a subsequent resolution that gave a little more definition to the Council's expectations for this work.

So this was, again, just identified that Council would confirm the actual membership through a future resolution, that SDOT would lead the technical working group to support this task force.

It clarified just the minimum scope requirements for what the task force should cover.

anticipated the anticipation of members by June of last year with, again, recommendations by the end of next year.

And so in terms of current status, the transportation levy did pass through voters.

That package includes about $5 million for durable infrastructure solutions, of which about 1.5 to 2 million would be set aside to cover the cost to support this task force.

And the levy spending breakdown did include some specific direction to investigate transportation impact fees as part of this work.

During last year's budget SDOT did provide an updated schedule recognizing that we were a little behind in getting the task force set up.

But you can see here, I think the SDOT is here to give us a current status of where they are.

So maybe with that I'll turn it over to them.

Thanks, Cal.

Sarah Strand with the Revenue and Capital Development Team Policy and Planning at SDOT.

I joined as the project manager for this project in August of last year.

And as you know, we're a little behind, but we went through a really complex and robust procurement process through last year and were able to bring a consultant on board at the end of October.

We're gonna be working with Nelson Nygaard.

They have a lot of expertise in transportation planning, finance, a lot of local context.

They supported some of the West Seattle Bridge response.

So they've worked with SDOT.

We also have a great sub-consultant team, a variety of technical experts, some focused on more revenue, finance, some asset, as well as a spousal who is a really equity-driven facilitation team that's going to be supporting the actual task force facilitation work.

Since October of last year, we've really been digging in and working on further refining the scope.

So as Cal mentioned, the guiding legislation really establishes a bare minimum of the focus areas that we know that we are tasked with and that we will adhere to.

but as we step through it, we wanna make sure that we have really clear expectations, not just for what the scope and the desired outcomes of this task force will be, but what the membership composition will look like as some of those categories for representation are defined by the resolution, certainly need to be diverse, but the process that we go through in order to reach that will also be important.

So right now, the phase that we're actively in is we are very close to having recommendations on these things to bring forward that we will be wanting to work through our new SDOT director's office, our new mayor's office, and city council to ensure that we have alignment on those expectations.

You know, very much a measure twice, cut once approach so that we can, in fact, have a successful task force that can work towards actionable, viable, legal, long-term.

funding solutions.

So we'll be looking forward to coming back with additional details and updates, but right now that is our primary focus in the next few months with the goal of launching the task force this summer.

So we would want to get that initial input, get recruitment going as soon as possible, and then proceed with that onboarding and launch this summer in order to reach the final recommendations to Council by the end of 2027. So with that, I will pass it back for any questions.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Chow, Ms. Strand.

Appreciate your insights here on the more specifics about the history and current status of this very, very important strategic work stream that's going to set the foundation for success Are we able to fund all the cool things and projects and priorities that are listed in the Seattle transportation plan that we adopted two years ago, or are we not?

Or is that just a pipe dream?

Need to back all those cool things.

and purported policy priorities with investment.

And that's what this task force is ultimately designed to help us achieve.

I'm gonna turn it over now to my colleagues for any questions, comments, insights that you might have.

And I'll start first with Vice Chair Rank, if you have any.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, and thank you for this presentation.

I know we had some conversation about this topic, um, a few months back and certainly feel a lot of urgency towards getting this group together.

And so, um, thank you for today's presentation.

I want to dive into kind of two points related to some of the tax specific options, if I may.

Um, one of which being, could you go over the caps and limitations that we have or understand at this time related to a commercial parking tax?

have we already hit those caps or is there room to adjust?

I know it's a little in the weeds and less about the body itself, but I'm just eager to get into discussion on these options.

To my knowledge, the commercial parking tax does not have a statutory cap.

It is more of a, I think more of a political consideration.

It is essentially acts like a sales tax.

So for that specific function, It starts to add up.

So it was implemented with a 10% initial commercial parking tax.

It was increased by 2.5% to help support the Alaska Way of Iaduct removal work.

And I believe we added another 2% a few years ago.

So it's at 14 and a half currently.

All right, thank you, Cal.

And my second question is related to a little bit on the scope of the work for this group.

I'm curious whether there'll be some consideration for this group to also identify opportunities for expanded authority and things that we could take to the state.

I know in our team we've been evaluating our local options and had some proposals that we brought forward to state legislators this year to expand local authority.

I would hope this group would also offer some recommendations that we can also use in our legislative advocacy to the state.

Yeah, and I think that's exactly the type of feedback we're going to be coming around kind of on the circuit to receive from executive leadership to make sure that we're aligned on what types of outcomes such as those you all want to see, as well as what's feasible to fit into a year and a half task force timeline.

So we'll be coming soon.

Thank you, Sarah.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Rink.

Councilmember Lin, floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for this work.

A couple comments as we, you know, are looking at options, certainly hoping that we are looking at more progressive revenue options and that that's the priority.

Second, I would love to sort of understand how we can look at these revenue options to help us do mode shift.

And so, you know, as we look at things like congestion pricing or just other options that can help us achieve multiple goals, not just raise revenue, but also change behaviors, help us achieve our Vision Zero goals.

And in that sort of regard, also just coordinate sort of our revenue options with our comprehensive planning and I know there are different sort of areas but I just want to think holistically as we do sort of look at both our sort of taxing or revenue options but also our planning to make sure that we're not working at cross purposes.

More of a comment than question, but if you have any response, please.

Yeah, I can speak a little bit to it and just say these things are definitely on our radar.

We're considering it as someone who's also worked on our Seattle transportation plan, very familiar with our priorities, our goals, and I think that's going to be an important part of our conversation with the task force.

Equity is going to be central to this, not just in the recommendations analysis and scenario analysis that is going to inform the recommendation, but also the process itself.

And so we'll be working through all of those things with the task force.

And I think, you know, one of the grounding things the task force is going to need to start with is understanding what the transportation assets are and what the needs are.

And I think that is, you know, part of ultimately getting voters approval is going to be making sure that people are on, that we have a compelling story and we can make the case.

And so I think that's a lot of what the task force is meant to do early on is understand what the needs are and what the priorities should be.

I think this conversation also raises questions about there's that tension between, if we're looking at potentially new tax sources or tweaked tax sources that exist today, what's the line between what's realistic, what's achievable?

if changes are needed in Olympia.

And one that comes to mind, talking about the commercial parking taxes right now, what commercial parking taxes is parking that's already priced.

It doesn't tax parking that's free.

And there's sort of a basic inequity in that just right there, it's sort of sending the wrong price signals in terms of our climate goals and equity goals for that matter.

All right.

Thank you.

Council Member Foster.

Floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, SDOT team.

I really appreciate you.

One thing I'm a little curious, maybe concerned about is I know that the resources that the council put into the levy, specifically for sidewalks, I believe are intended to be spent down by 2028. I think is correct, or I believe that's what we heard a public comment or reference earlier today.

My understanding is these recommendations are meant to come to council in December, 2027. And with some experience that I've had in new tax sources, I know that even when council or a legislative body passes those, you may face you may face other challenges, again, not knowing what's forthcoming.

So I'm just a little bit concerned around the timeline.

And my question is, is it at all possible, I know we're here in Q1 of 2026, is it at all possible to do this before December 2027?

And if so, are there things that council can support the task force with to achieve that earlier timeline?

I just wanna address the sidewalk part of that question first.

So there's funding in the levy for, I believe it's 330 block faces of sidewalk or pathway and an intentional decision made by council and the executive at the time was to front load the sidewalk commitment.

So 250 of those blocks would be delivered in the first four years of the levy.

So it's, It's not so much a matter of the dollars running out, it was just a sequencing decision that was made to show commitment and really reflect the need for sidewalks.

So even though the money doesn't run out, we still certainly recognize the need, and I think a big part of the rationale behind the task force was to figure out how to accelerate and keep going on delivering new sidewalks.

Yeah, and I'll tag on to that.

The need is far beyond what the levy can provide.

And so the task force is really about looking at additional ways that we can either grow the pie or improve the processes that we currently have, either via policy or project delivery.

So we'll be exploring all of those fronts with the task force.

Just to speak a little bit to the timing, Estat may have some other opinions about this, but I think asking volunteers to come together and understand the level of detail that we want to get to understand the transportation priorities and the trade-offs, I think that is going to take some time.

And so to get to a period of a draft recommendation, some feedback, some public airing of what those are, if they start this summer and that's a year and a half, that seems like a lot to get done in a year and a half.

Awesome.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Kettleley, floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

Welcome.

Thank you for being here, Ms. Strand and Mr. Labore, as usual, and of course, our own Mr. Chauff from Central Staff.

I view this, and I think Chair does too, is really keeping up with the good governance principle.

I think it's so important that we do so with this task force, and just overall, generally, to include our role on this committee, but as a council overall as well.

and you know there's different areas of you know that I've been speaking to like bridges and freight programs making sure that those are being done and then of course Division Zero is highlighted with our latest tragedy this week to continue to do that and have the flexibility to do that and an example of that is my earlier question related to Seattle Center and the Memorial Stadium of having flexibility when there's a change, a temp change to also look out for those situations as well in terms of like temporary bike lanes around Memorial Stadium construction project.

And so I think by continuing engaging and building up these other pieces as well and having that mindset is really helpful.

I think on slide two from our resolution that, you know, we asked for diverse and representative membership.

I just wanted to highlight one thing too is that it's about, you know, in terms of the engagement, we heard in public comment related to the Westlake project because we do have and now a downtown capital D community council along with Belltown, South Lake Union.

You heard about Seattle Center with Uptown as well.

In addition to that, Queen Anne.

And we bring all of them together within our District 7 neighborhood council that my office coordinates.

But I think it's really important to have that community engagement.

And it's important to have diverse and representative membership but to be proactive, and I just ask, because I've been saying this recently to department neighborhoods and to other departments, but for SDOT to engage all of us, particularly the district reps, because we are so engaged in the district with all the various organizations, particularly those that have that neighborhood community broad remit.

I think it's really important to ensure that these pieces of the levy and the work that's being done over the course of the levy is really connected to the communities that they're serving.

So it's not really a question there, it's just an ask to do that.

Because it pops up, you heard it in the public comment earlier, the ladies are now gone.

But I think it's important to have that kind of engagement there with the neighborhood, the residents of these different communities.

So thank you again, and thank you, Chair.

All right, thank you.

A couple of comments, reflections from my perspective.

First off, as Mr. Chow noted, I think when this committee forms, priority number one is to align on transportation needs and what's actually doable and achievable, realistic, set of smart goals.

And I think actually I know this council provided some strong direction and guidance on that in terms of calling out specific as with respect to the pavement conditions and our roads, calling out specific asset sustainability ratio, information, composite, pavement condition index information, very nerdy, nitty gritty engineering ways of assessing the overall state and condition of, in that context, roads.

Talking about, you know, the overall state of our bridges, the bridge audit, good launching point, the sidewalk audit, good launching point.

So aligning on those needs and what's doable with smart goals, very key priority of this new task force up front.

I also think it's going to be critically important for this new task force to carefully pair, craft and pair its scope.

Time is already of the essence and We want to avoid boiling the ocean.

There are so many different...

This is such a complex, hard challenge.

If it were easy, it would have been done years ago.

But there are so many complex rabbit holes that we could potentially dive deep on.

So many dependencies with the state.

We are, at the end of the day, operating under the current tools that we are empowered with from the state.

So aligning on what's doable, what's achievable, realistic, again, within SMART goals, that sort of framework can be very key.

It's already a substantial effort that we have three asset classes, sidewalks, bridges, and roads.

Can't be all things to all people at all times, but very important to align on a very ambitious but smart set of goals and narrow that scope.

And I've had some productive conversations with the department on this effort since I created it, we created it basically together two years ago now, productive conversations with the past administration, current administration, and I think there's a shared understanding now with the new administration We need to do this, this is very important.

And this is also an exercise of the principal power that we do have on this floor, because we're talking about it.

I invited the department, we've had productive conversations offline, now it's time to talk about it openly upfront in a transparent manner for the public to see.

And even though there's not much net new to report, but the good news is there is a plan in place, by June to propose that slate, get it through council, get this important body stood up.

So appreciate all the work.

This is a complex effort and I also wanted to say, I wish this had been able to proceed and been able to stood up, stand up six months ago I think in line with what the resolution was calling for, but I also at the same time definitely recognize the complexities surrounding the department needing to staff up to support this new levy, to stand up a net new levy oversight committee.

To implement this levy, it's a challenge, it's a complex thing.

And so I totally recognize that.

And I appreciate the shared commitment and urgency to getting this done once and for all.

Some comments were made about strategies, which excellent feedback.

My colleagues never cease to amaze me.

They're mic drop moments throughout, but are there specific strategies or things we can do now?

Yes.

And we've already been thinking about them.

We've already taken initial action on this council.

and there's more work to do even in the absence of that final December, 2027 report, shiny report and package of options.

There's stuff we can do, there's stuff we have done.

I'm thinking of two high-level strategies.

We know what it's going to say.

The report's going to say, high level, every single revenue bite at the apple that you get, devote some of that money towards transportation infrastructure.

whether it's new sidewalks, roads, bridges.

It's gonna say every single bite of the apple you get, devote some more money, more money, increase resources towards those things.

That's why last year around this time when we consider the automated traffic safety camera legislation, I sponsored an amendment to increase the allocation for SDOT, for revenue allocations specifically for SDOT, raised it from 20% to 30% or whatever it was, and specifically said at least half of that must go towards the construction of new sidewalks.

That's in line with the strategy we already know they're gonna say, the task force is going to say, It's also why I added amendment, and I appreciate my colleagues for passing that.

That's why I also added amendment last year during the B&O tax restructure proposal.

Added an amendment to make sure transportation infrastructure is an authorized category of expense.

Now, whether that ends up being the case.

That remains to be seen, but we can at least add it as an authorized expense, and I'm thankful for my colleagues for supporting that.

We also, a second strategy we know they're going to say is revisit cost allocations for new development.

Revisit cost allocations for new development.

That's why during the phase one of the comp plan last year, I sponsored an amendment, appreciate my colleagues for supporting that, to add neighborhood centers to areas that, when we're talking about new development, we must add and do more for new sidewalks.

Previously, under the base executive proposal, it was just urban centers that we were talking about.

Now it's neighborhood centers.

So there's more.

We're better sharing the cost of new sidewalks for development.

So we know those two things.

High level, they're going to say now there's now the challenging part is like what it means.

More specifics.

So I'm, as chair of this committee, I'm going to continue to look for those ways in the absence, in the next year and a half, in the absence of a final, you know, baked report of vetted recommendations.

We'll continue to look for strategies to better invest and make progress on those three specific asset classes.

Finally, I'll note the, on that slide one there, though that last bullet with all the sub bullets of potential transportation revenue sources, those are just some suggestions, non-exclusive, non-exhaustive list of options, but I think fairly representative at the same time as well.

Transportation impact fees was definitely added as sort of a mandatory thing, but that must be studied and examined in connection with this work.

My only thoughts there, said it before, worth repeating now.

One, it comes down to the composition of the account to this committee.

We need to have representatives from the developer community on this, talking impact fees.

And I think that's already called out in terms of specific guidance and direction in the resolution, but that's important for those reasons.

Also, to the extent impact fees even would make sense and does flow out of a final recommendation from this task force.

We need to make sure that it fairly and accurately reflects the true cost of development here in the city of Seattle.

What I mean by that is impact fees impose a cost burden and can have the potential on development and have the potential to slow or hinder housing.

It's no secret.

And when you layer that in which we do not currently have transportation impact fees in Seattle today, other jurisdictions like Bellevue and others, they have impact fees.

What makes us different is we have with those other jurisdictions across the state that do not have, that have impact fees today while we don't, we have MHA.

which is another tool that requires payment or performance of providing affordable housing, which is another It's another important tool amongst our broader tools to improve affordable housing here in our city.

But all I'm saying is, and that's why we added resources with consultants that can, if that is one of the options, it's not gonna be a mirror image of the Bellevue proposal, for example, of like, oh Bellevue, this is the amount of impact fees.

This is what it should be in Seattle.

No, again, Bellevue doesn't have MHA.

So it has to reflect you know, it has to, whatever recommendations included in this report is my hope is they would be, you know, recognizing the complexities and nuances involved in our unique system here in Seattle.

Cause we do absolutely want to build and continue to grow and develop and allow more housing, especially in including affordable housing.

and at the same time, we need to improve our transportation infrastructure.

Those two things can and must coexist at the same time.

And this task force is in part intended to harmonize that.

So that is my color commentary, my two cents from the cheap seat.

I welcome any final questions, comments from any of my colleagues or anyone at the table, if you have any.

All that is to say, Ms. Strand, Mr. Laborde, Mr. Chow, really appreciate you and your insights and your partnership offline to get this done and look forward to bringing this vital transportation funding task force to life once and for all.

Let's go.

All right.

We have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Our next meeting is March 5th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.

Is there any final business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Vice Chair, floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Sacca, and thank you, colleagues, for a robust discussion today.

And I want to take a moment to thank Councilmember Kettle and Councilmember Lynn for discussing the fatal crash that happened in Capitol Hill this week.

I want to recognize the 27-year-old woman who lost her life, Liliana Moreno.

You know, our office has engaged with SPD.

As we understand, the investigation is ongoing.

No arrests have been made.

But I want to note in the past 48 hours, Fire Station 25 alone, in 48 hours, responded to three pedestrian and vehicle crashes on Capitol Hill alone.

That's shocking.

That's frightening.

and these locations where these incidents happened were not, as I understand it, a part of our higher injury network.

This has been devastating for community, and people are wondering, what can we do?

Where do we go from here?

Because, colleagues, I want us to think about the message we're sending right now to our residents, that you could just be walking down the street, and a car could hit you.

And from a legal standpoint, it would be on you to provide evidence that the driver was negligent.

And I'm thankful for Representative Reid's Bill 2095, which would actually flip that assumption and now would say that if you're in a space you're supposed to be as a pedestrian, it would be on the driver to prove that they weren't driving negligently.

I think that change just makes sense.

The legal piece of this is one component, but it's on us to be changing our infrastructure fundamentally so we are just creating a built environment where we don't have pedestrians in close proximity to vehicles.

Councilman Berlin noted it earlier, vehicles and pedestrians don't mix.

And so I just wanted to center us on that.

Again, appreciative of today's presentations, focusing on how do we fund the critical infrastructure that we all agree that we need, infrastructure that's going to make us safer and create safer spaces for pedestrians so we can have less harm and death in our community.

Thank you for indulging me, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Any final questions, comments?

Just note that definitely in line with this committee's laser focus, traffic safety, safety first.

So plenty more work to do as a city to better position our city to truly make progress on our ambitious, but I think ultimately achievable Vision Zero goals.

Hoboken, New Jersey is getting it done for the most part.

We can too.

And it's not just, you know, sufficiently distinguishing the two say, oh, well, that was, it's more dense and it's more urban environment.

So Seattle's more sprawl and you can't just dismiss that, raise that.

It's a valid point, but there's more we can do here as well.

So to be more like Hoboken, or Helsinki when I was speaking with Senate Transportation Chair Senator Leas during Olympia Action Days.

We both share proud Finnish dissent.

He's telling me the successes of Helsinki in traffic safety.

More to come.

Appreciate the grounding there and the comments from all of my colleagues on that, because definitely in line and on brand for the highest strategic priority of this committee, safety on our roads.

Thank you.

All right.

We've reached the end of the committee.

That was the last comment.

Hearing no further business, come before the committee.

We are adjourned.

It is 11.27 a.m.