Seattle City Council Briefing 22822

The council meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.01.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Lewis.

Present.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Council Member Herbold.

Council President Juarez.

Here.

Six present.

Thank you.

We will move to approval of the minutes.

If there's no objections, the minutes of February 14th will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, the minutes will be adopted.

Moving on to the President's Report.

On today's agenda, we will be hearing from our Office of Intergovernmental Relations with an update on the state capital, operations, and transportation budgets.

And Council Member Herboldt will propose a proclamation to honor an award-winning member of the Auditor's Office.

And I will propose a proclamation to declare March 2nd, which is Wednesday, Seattle Kraken Day, We'll receive reports from each council member as well.

Then we are scheduled to have two executive sessions, one 30 minutes and one 20 minutes.

If our meeting will go longer, I will move to suspend the rules and add on additional minutes.

Tomorrow, we will open our council meeting with special guests to receive today's proclamations.

And our agenda will include seven items, including the council's 2022 work plan.

And with that, we will go to the third part of our agenda, which is the state legislative update.

And I will hand it off to Gail Tarlington and crew to introduce herself and her team.

Okay.

Hello, Council President.

I'm not certain if Director Tarleton has joined us, so I think Elsa and I can just go ahead and kick it off.

Go ahead.

If that's all right with you.

Thank you.

Sounds good.

Hello, Council Members.

Joining you today is the 50th of 60 days in the state legislative session.

We have approximately two weeks left with sessions scheduled to conclude on March 10th, which is next Thursday.

A lot has changed since our last update to you, given the holiday last week.

So we're going to provide as much breadth and depth of an overview as we can, understanding you all have other business to get to, and we may need to answer some questions offline.

I think we would like to start with the budgets that were released last week and have been moving through the legislative process.

The House and Senate released their operating capital and transportation budgets, and there's quite a lot to cover, so I think we'll just go ahead and dive in.

I'll provide an update.

on the operating budget proposals.

Elsa will cover capital.

And I'll actually just tack on transportation to my update.

There's not a whole lot there, but just in the interest of time, I'll smush those two together.

So let me share this, Quinn, real quick.

Sure.

Well, I'm sorry.

Go ahead and introduce Elsa, and then I have something to say, and then we'll get going.

Of course.

And with me today is Elsa Brown.

Thank you, Elsa.

Let's let our team, because they talked to me this morning, let's let our two presenters kind of get through what they need to get through with the capital and operating budget.

And then let's backtrack with questions, if you don't mind, for today.

OK?

Go ahead, Quinn.

Thank you, Council President.

So the House and Senate have released their operating budget proposals.

Elsa put together a wonderful summary that was emailed over with the Council Bulletin.

I'm going to go through some of the top lines.

We won't get through everything, but we'll have the opportunity to address questions at the end.

And then I'll hand it over to Elsa to cover capital.

On the operating budget side, a few sort of big picture items to set the scene.

Both the House and Senate proposals include a $2 billion transfer to the transportation budget.

This was proposed as part of the House and Senate Transportation Leads Move Ahead Washington transportation proposals.

So this is funded in both the House and Senate budgets.

So any incongruencies between that, that might have been considered are dispelled at this point.

So that is moving forward good from a transportation perspective.

Both the House and Senate include just shy of $400 million to shore up the state's paid family medical leave account.

That program had a bit of a shortfall given higher than anticipated usage, which is great, but they did need a little bit of extra money.

So that has been shored up in both the House and Senate budgets.

Both the House and Senate make transfers to fund some capital construction in the capital budget, but they do so in different ways that I think are important and relevant to the city's interests.

And we'll get into that a little bit more in capital, but the Senate transfers 400 million specifically for seismic school upgrades.

So.

K-12 facility buildings getting retrofits for seismic prevention.

The House, on the other hand, transfers $737 million to the capital budget in a bit of a broader maneuver that's not sort of specifically dedicated.

However, this does allow them to make some important investments on the capital side that Elsa will detail more in a moment.

But specifically, this allows them to do more on the housing space, in particular, rapid acquisition, which is something we know you are very interested in and we have been tracking closely.

In the housing and homelessness space of the operating budget, both budgets make investments here.

But as you can see, the House does do more.

Both the House and Senate include funding for the transitioning of individuals experiencing homelessness who are living in the rights-of-way.

The Senate includes $41 million.

The House includes just shy of $25 million.

That's less than the governor proposed, however, it is still a significant increase that is matched by some additional funding proposed in the transportation budgets to specifically focus on cleanup of those areas, dealing with graffiti and other.

waste and things like that.

The House includes $55 million for statewide eviction rental assistance and $25 million for landlord assistance.

It also includes $78 million for stipends for homeless service providers.

None of that is included in the Senate side.

The House also includes $35 million on the operating side and additional funding on the capital side.

for Representative Chopp's Apple Health and Homes.

This is the policy proposal to allow Medicaid to provide coverage for permanent supportive housing through the state's health care authority.

So that is funded on the House side, but not on the Senate side.

And then finally, in this space, both the House and Senate include funding for statewide utility arrearages.

The House includes $150 million, and the Senate includes $100 million.

Moving on to early learning and childcare, a couple of highlights here, both the House and Senate include childcare rate increases to the Working Connections childcare program, the House at $77 million, the Senate at just shy of $50 million, and both budgets, House and Senate, include funding for ECAP expansion.

In the safety net, both budgets include $75 million in food assistance for the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.

This is something that was started up last year out of the funds allocated for food assistance.

The House also includes some additional funding for the State Department of Agriculture to fund capacity building grants for food assistance organizations and a handful of other smaller programs.

In healthcare and public health, both House and Senate budgets make significant investments in further COVID response and in Medicaid transformation, modernization as part of an ongoing federal program partnership.

Both the House and Senate budgets also include provisions to extend coverage to healthcare coverage to individuals who are undocumented as part of Medicaid and the state Medicaid's program.

Both budgets make significant investments and largely comparable investments in behavioral health.

You can see those outlined there.

Healthcare provider, workforce supports, rate increases, and school and behavioral health counselors.

And then both budgets continue to sort of fund the state's ongoing tweaks and obligations with regards to addressing the Blake decision, funding for the administrative office of the courts to help deal with the resentencing needs there.

And then in environment, both the House and Senate make some significant investments in electrification and electric vehicles, but they do so in different ways.

The Senate provides just north of $70 million for kind of a broad electric vehicle preparation and investment program.

The house, by contrast, provides 25 million for electric vehicle rebates specifically targeted for low and middle income communities.

And with a particular focus on large vehicles, such as the dredge trucks that serve the port of Seattle.

I will hand it over to Elsa to talk about the investments in the capital budget, which are linked, and then I'll do a quick summary on transportation.

So let's do this then.

So Quinn just went through our operating budget for the House and the Senate.

So if we have questions now on the operating budget that Quinn just went through.

And Quinn, you sent all this information, the breakdown, Is this the one that we got this morning, or you sent yesterday?

Elsa provided this with the Council Bulletin yesterday.

Okay.

So can we, if people have questions regarding the operating, you can always come back, but while it's still fresh in your mind.

Of course.

With the, what Quinn just went through, I've been through it twice, so I already kind of got my questions asked regarding housing, homelessness, safety net, and some other issues.

So are there any questions that we have of Quinn regarding the operating budget?

Okay, I'm not seeing any hands yet.

Oh, wait, oh, we do.

Dan, you got your hand up?

Oh, and Council Member Mosqueda as well.

So we'll start with Council Member Strauss and then Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you, Council President.

I was just raising my hand to alert you to Council Member Mosqueda, so.

Oh, okay.

Where's Council Member Mosqueda?

I don't see your tile.

I'm right here, Council President.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon, Director Carlson and everyone who's part of our OIR team.

Oh my gosh, just 10 days left, right?

So I just wanted to say thank you for highlighting the funding that was included in the House for coverage for undocumented adults, basically expanding Apple Health.

huge, huge, huge priority and thankful that it's in the House budget.

And I just wanted to underscore our support for that.

In January, we had a hearing with members from the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, Coalition, and Northwest Health Law Advocates, among a handful of other advocates to talk about the work that they were doing to try to lead to this moment and very thankful that it's in.

And did you say that it was in the House and the Senate?

I believe so.

Yes, wonderful news.

OK, anything we can do to support that?

I'm happy to help, but just want to say thank you for highlighting that.

And thanks to our legislative champions in both the House and the Senate for including it.

Couldn't be more important now than ever, so appreciate it.

That's very Morales.

Thank you.

Well, sort of taking off on that, my understanding is that there was a last-minute addition of about $18 million for supporting Ukrainian refugees, anticipating that they will be coming.

I wonder if you could share a little bit more information with that – about that with us.

Yeah, absolutely, council member.

So this was a last minute addition, the inclusion of that funding.

And we are working right now to track down exactly how that would be dispersed.

But unfortunately, because it is so new, I don't have those details for you right now.

But I'm happy to follow up and provide that I know it's a topic of significant interest and concern.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Casper Morales is there Oh, Casper herbal.

Thank you so much.

Three what I hope will be quick questions.

I see you highlighted as it relates specifically to the funding in both the House and the Senate different focuses for the electric vehicle infrastructure investments.

The Senate with about a $72 million.

It looks like sort of broader location and a smaller one for The House specifically focused on the Dreyage pilot program.

I'm wondering, does the larger $72.4 million proposal include support for the Dreyage pilot program?

That's one question.

And you may have you may have covered it and I apologize if you if you did and I missed it.

Can you talk to us a little bit more about the BLEA class increases and whether or not that will provide support for Seattle to have continued sort of Seattle only classes as we are going to have later in the spring.

It's kind of a rare thing to have a Seattle only class, but I'm supportive of it and hope that there are resources to continue it.

And then lastly, you just a little bit more about how we how we will bridge the big differences in philosophy, it appears, between the House and the Senate on supporting funds for additional eviction rental assistance or eviction prevention services.

Yeah, absolutely, Council Member Herbold.

So on your first question around electric vehicle infrastructure, the Senate language doesn't specifically call out or identify sort of the drage truck piece or that work specifically, but I don't believe it would preclude it.

So that's something that we can try to ensure would be a possibility under the Senate language.

On the ILEA expansion, I'm not certain if that would allow for a Seattle-specific class, but I can look into that and follow up.

And then in terms of sort of the broader, you know, negotiations between the House and the Senate, you know, I think we are working with our members of our delegation and with the budget writers to highlight the need for the additional investments as we have been throughout the session in housing and homelessness across the different portfolios and working to, you know, push as much as possible to encourage the Senate to make similar investments as the House.

And we will continue to do so.

I'm sorry, Council Member, I think you're on mute.

Oh, I wasn't even talking.

I was just- No, I just wanted to close out with a statement that it's pretty alarming that it appears the Senate is under the impression that 3.4 million is going to address the great need in the state for eviction prevention services.

So I appreciate your work in that area.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

So with that, I think Elsa is going to take us through the capital side, correct?

That's right.

Thank you, Quinn, for that overview of the operating budget.

As you mentioned, there is some transfer to the capital budget from the operating budget.

Both the House and the Senate invest significantly in the rapid acquisition of affordable housing and shelter.

$290 million in the Senate budget and $400 million in the House budget.

I would just note the Apple Home and Health investment underneath that on the line should be in italics, so that's a subcategory within the broader Rapid Acquisition funding.

And one thing that we've been emphasizing is the success the Office of Housing has had with getting new units online this past year with some of the Rapid Acquisition money that was funded in last year's budget.

So, you know, a great sort of statewide coalition has come together to support the need for affordable housing investments, both on the provider support side and on the actual capital investment side.

And we've been part of that group, making the argument to the legislature that that's really needed funding.

The House and the Senate also invest in the housing trust fund, 72 million in the Senate and 101.5 million in the House.

Beyond sort of this large pool of housing investments, there's also, you know, significant investments in local community projects across the city in both the House and the Senate budget.

One thing that's interesting is they sort of took Many of the line items do not sort of line up exactly between the House and the Senate.

That's not unusual.

Sometimes senators will sort of pick their project and House members will be a champion for a different project.

And in the end, they'll be reconciled into the same budget.

So that's not surprising, but just wanted to highlight that there's a number of local community projects across the city that have been funded in the capital budget.

And, you know, I would say one of the really significant area for the city.

that you all have been sort of interested and engaged in is around behavioral health.

On the operating side, we saw significant investments in behavioral health rate increases for workforce, but there's also investments in the capital side of behavioral health for crisis stabilization centers and for local community capacity grants.

So, you know, both the House and the Senate contain significant investments on those.

areas.

So I think those are some of the highlights for the capital budget.

You know, there's also some some continued funding increases for broadband and for environmental funds that already exist at the state level.

But I think something that we've been focused on is that the housing and the rapid acquisition dollars this year as a real need for the city and as a need across the state.

So these are statewide funds that we think would significantly benefit the city of Seattle, but also have value to communities across the state experiencing homelessness.

Thank you, Elsa.

So Elsa just walked us through some of the capital budget.

Are there any questions for Elsa?

Okay, you got off easy today, Elsa.

So we got the both the operating and the capital.

Thank you, Quinn.

Thank you, Elsa.

Is there anything else that you want to add before we move on to our agenda?

And I want to thank you again for all your hard work and getting this information to us.

Particularly, I know that you pulled it all together yesterday.

Thank you.

I just wanted to add that, of course, these will be in the process of reconciliation between the House and the Senate version this next week and a half.

So the final numbers are still subject to that negotiation process, and we'll continue to support for high levels of funding for our priorities.

But none of these numbers are final until that reconciled agreement comes forward.

OK, thank you.

And with that, since I don't see any hands up, I'm going to say goodbye to Quinn and Elsa.

Thank you.

All right, folks, moving on into our agenda.

We have two proclamations, and we're going to start first with Councilmember Herbold, who I understand has a proclamation for signature regarding the Office of the Auditor of Virginia Garcia.

Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you so much.

Just give me a second here.

I appreciate that.

Shifting to, let's see, our on-camera presence.

Pulling up my note for today.

Thank you so much.

Council president for making some time today to hear our proclamation to honor the public service and contributions that Virginia Garcia has made in her role.

as an assistant auditor, and thank you, Council President, also for co-sponsoring this proclamation.

Virginia has worked a lot to uphold the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the profession of auditing, such as work that has resulted in her being selected to receive the Association of Local Government Auditors Lifetime Achievement Award for her work to make that organization, ALGA, and the government auditing profession more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

This is an award specifically recognizing her for this work and the impact on local, regional, and on the national level as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold.

So with that, does anyone have any questions for Councilmember Herbold?

Okay, not seen any.

Will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to Council Member Herlold's proclamation for Ms. Virginia Garcia.

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Aye.

Yes, absolutely.

Council Member Herbold.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Eight in favor.

Good.

So is that all I do, Madam Clerk?

Or do I have to say, will you please affix my signature?

Are we done with that?

You should ask me to affix your signature, please.

Madam Clerk, will you please affix my signature to the proclamation that Council Member Herbold has presented before us today?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

So we have a second item which is mine, a proclamation, and let me make sure I get this right because it's a little tricky here.

I have a proclamation for Signature honoring the fans of Seattle's new NHL franchise and proclaiming March, Wednesday, March 2nd to be Seattle Kraken Day.

Before I say anything else, do any council members want to speak to this proclamation before I make a few more before I say a few more things and then ask the clerk to do the roll.

Okay, I guess nobody is a Kraken fan here, so that will be noted.

Seeing that there's no discussion, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation proclaiming March 2nd, which is Wednesday, CL Kraken Day, which I should remind everybody, Wednesday, we're playing the Nashville Predators.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Yes.

Council Member Morales.

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Herpel.

Yes.

Council President Juarez.

Aye.

Eight in favor.

Thank you.

So Madam Clerk, will you please affix my signature to the proclamation that I just presented to my colleagues?

And my understanding is both proclamations will be officially presented to the special guests at the beginning of our council meeting tomorrow, March 1st.

Council President.

Yes.

I do.

I just wanted to correct a statement just made.

I am a big Kraken fan.

So I'll be excited to be at the game watching on Kraken day.

Well, I don't think you have an official jersey like some of us, so.

Just a sweatshirt.

OK, that's good enough.

Okay, so I don't see any hands or anything else up, so I think we're okay.

So let's move on into the agenda on our preview of City Council Actions, Council Reporting and Regional Committees.

Let me do what the lineup is this week, and it starts with Council Member Lewis, and then we will go to Council Member Morales, Mosqueda, Nelson, Peterson, Strauss, Herboldt, and then myself.

Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Madam President and colleagues.

It is good to be back at briefing after a one-week break.

I'm going to break down a couple of the activities of the departments in my committee overseas, starting with the Parks Department and the Clean City Initiative.

Between February 14th and February 20th, Clean City Initiative has removed 75,000 pounds of trash from 40 encampment locations.

There are no parks included in those last two weeks, but March has been indicated by the department as a month for a focus, particularly on deep cleaning of city parks.

So I look forward to making those updates and the specific park locations that were identified.

Um, coming up in our future briefings, detailing the March reports regarding the trash pickup in the clean city initiative.

The Board of Trustees for the Seattle Public Library is going to be holding a special meeting next Wednesday, March 2nd, so this coming Wednesday, to discuss the selection of the Seattle Public Library's new Executive Director and Chief Librarian.

After a closed executive session, there will be a public vote on the final nominee.

Appreciate the community members who tuned in to the public forum regarding the finalists being considered for this position.

I really appreciate that we're getting close to having a permanent new chief librarian for us to work with as a partner.

Just as a reminder for colleagues and the general public, the vote of the Library Board of Trustees is the final vote to determine the head librarian, so it's a little bit unique relative to some of the other department heads in the City of Seattle family.

Looking forward to hearing the final result of that and being able to announce, hopefully by next briefing, who the next head librarian is going to be for the city of Seattle.

Another library update before moving on, as the Omicron variant continues to wane and we continue to reassess public health mandates, the library is working on a return to full hours of operation similar to what the pre-Omicron variant hours of the library were.

I will be able to have a detailed update on when we can expect library service to fully resume given a resumption of staffing and a general scaling down of Omicron era precautions that the library was taking.

So looking forward to that announcement coming up here hopefully by next briefing.

But the library is currently in conversations with staff and other folks on how to snap back to that pre Omicron variant service.

Moving on to Climate Pledge Arena, it was really great to get an update from the Climate Pledge Arena stakeholders in my committee meeting last week.

Really good to hear how that asset has been going and growing, or rather two weeks ago, over the course of the last several months as home to our now-proclaimed hockey team, the Kraken, in addition to all of the various other programming and concerts and everything else that Climate Pledge has been playing host to.

I do have a couple of follow-up updates from our discussions with Ophiu Group and Mortenson, the prime contractor for Climate Pledge, regarding their progress on a key cornerstone to the agreements that the previous administration and council, under Council Member Juarez's leadership in my current position, put in place with the Climate Pledge Arena regarding priority hire.

And some of the interesting information that I have to share today regarding priority hire that didn't come up during the hearing And some really interesting details, $32 million earned by workers living in economically distressed communities so far from the economic impact of Climb Pledge Arena, 14 million more than there would have been without priority hire agreements underlying the critical importance of negotiating and securing priority hire as part of our process in building these big public assets.

$179 million earned by women and minority-owned contractors in the process of building Climate Pledge Arena.

That is $43 million more than the 15% goal of the original agreement.

So this is really great information.

29% of all construction hours were performed by workers of color, equating to more than $41 million in wages and benefits.

So it really goes to show that when we engage in these kind of agreements as a city for our public assets, that the massive benefits that we realize in the economy and the ability that we have as a city to leverage those investments to really make sure that they are shared across a broad spectrum of stakeholders in our community and help to create a more equitable and equal economy in the city of Seattle.

So moving on from that to our next committee, March 2nd.

the homelessness, or sorry, the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee is going to meet.

We will have two presentations, one on the current status of the Just Care program, which my previous committee had roughly two or three updates a year on the status of Just Care, which, just to remind everyone, is a COVID-era program designed to mitigate chronic homelessness as well as to provide services and reentry assistance to people who are criminally legal system involved.

It's been a consortium of providers over the course of its lifetime.

The nucleus of it is the COLEAD program or the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program, now known as Let Everyone Advance with Dignity or LEAD.

and we look forward to hearing an update on Just Care in terms of their activities over the last several months in lots of hot spots around the city.

I'll just share a personal anecdote that I was downtown on 3rd Avenue on Thursday last week and encountered a new tent that had emerged on that stretch of 3rd Avenue between I was able to immediately contact Just Care to flag that there was a tent encampment that was returning to that stretch of 3rd Avenue.

And the law enforcement assisted diversion team was able to get on the scene, make contact with the person in the tent.

navigate the person in the tent into a hotel-based sheltering opportunity, and then in so doing, was in a position to be able to work with that person to remove the tent, to take advantage of that opportunity to go to a shelter with wraparound resources.

It is an incredibly pivotal resource.

During COVID, and I'm hoping the conversation will talk about how we can protect and expand the impact Just Care is having in the post-COVID world and in collaboration with the Harrell administration.

And then I am very pleased to report that in addition to presenters from Just Care, we're also going to be joined by Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington, as well as Brian Cannon, the Public Safety Coordinator with the Downtown Seattle Association to talk about some of the ways that has been a very productive relationship and how we might move forward.

I will just flag now, this hearing comes as Just Care faces a cliff where it will no longer be in existence as of June, unless there's additional action from the city and or the county to work on how we might maintain the caseload.

of that program and potentially even expand it for some of our chronic challenges that we're facing around homelessness and public safety where Just Care exists at the nexus of those challenges.

So I'm looking forward to that presentation and looking forward to hosting those additional guests as well as the Just Care team.

Finally, we will have a second agenda item later on in the afternoon.

We'll be receiving a general overview of the Seattle Public Library's operations for committee members, particularly committee members, including myself, who are new to being on a committee that oversees the Seattle Public Library and the great community and education resource that the Seattle Public Library is and the important functions that it serves.

I look forward to that presentation and look forward to digging into those issues.

I want to finally close by addressing the situation over the weekend on 3rd Avenue in the middle of District 7 in the middle of downtown where we saw yet another tragic shooting.

The situation behind which investigators have currently not released any additional public information.

but we certainly know enough to conclude that it's a horrible tragedy in a neighborhood that has experienced considerable hardship and tragedy over the course of the pandemic and before.

I want to particularly thank Deputy Mayor Harrell and Public Safety Director Andrew Meyerberg for an extensive briefing this morning on that situation or on related issues this morning, as well as a related meeting with Council Member Herbold discussing the future of a public safety plan for downtown that the administration has been working with my office and Councilmember Herbold with since before the time the administration even took office going back to transition in December.

I'm really encouraged by the progress that we've made.

and talking about the unique public safety challenges of the Third Avenue neighborhood.

As I stated before, I was down there on the ground myself on Thursday, as I am on multiple days during the week, getting my own personal on-the-ground assessment of the evolving situation on that particular street.

I appreciate the work that the Seattle Police Department, West Precinct, as well as Co-Lead and Just Care have done to better coordinate over the last couple of months under the leadership of the Harrell administration to start to really work on putting into place a more sustained and proactive public safety policy that is the focus of the Herald Administration.

And there will be more to announce publicly on that, I believe, in the near term based on some of those plans.

that the Herald Administration and my office have been discussing and that the Herald Administration is currently scoping for how quickly and effectively those interventions can be implemented.

So I will leave it there for now, but I really appreciate the professionalism of everybody in the city of Seattle who has been really responding and pouring their heart out to 3rd Avenue over the course of the last 24 hours and beyond.

and look forward to continuing that critical work on future public safety plans that will be coming down in the coming weeks to make a sustained difference in that corridor.

So thank you so much, Madam President.

I don't have any additional updates.

You want to hand it off to...

Well, first I will ask if there are any questions on my presentation.

And seeing no questions, I will turn it over to Councilmember Morales.

Oh, sorry.

I just heard a hey that I think is probably Councilmember Herbold.

It was a wait, but yes.

Thank you.

So yeah, I did have one quick question.

about the follow-up from the Climate Pledge Arena presentation.

I appreciate you sharing the additional information around priority hire.

I know Council Member Mosqueda and I raised some concerns at the meeting, and I don't believe I've seen the follow-up on that, and that's regarding the big public health fair that occurs there each year that they're working to find another date for.

You received any follow-up on that?

No, Council Member Herbold, thank you.

That's a really good reminder.

I actually remember that was one of the last things I personally did when we were still meeting in person and temporarily because Climate Pledge was under construction.

That event was held, I believe, at McCaw Hall at that time.

And I took that tour with some members of my staff and mayoral cabinet members of that really important event.

So I have a shared interest in getting an answer on that.

We will ping them again to try to get a sense of how that is going to come down and that essential service is going to be delivered.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

and seeing no additional questions and hearing no last minute pays from anybody else, I'm gonna go ahead and pass it along to Council Member Morales.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Let's see, we did not have a Neighborhood Education Arts and Rights Committee meeting last week.

That was canceled.

The next meeting will be March 11th at 9.30.

We will hear from Interim Director Derek Wheeler-Smith from the Office of Civil Rights about the 2022 work program.

and we'll also have two appointments from the Arts Commission that we will consider.

Tomorrow's full council agenda, I have one item.

Council Bill 120270 would delay the heating oil tax one last time.

You'll recall we have done this twice in the last year.

And the idea here is that it would allow the Green New Deal Oversight Board, which was only very recently seated, To have an opportunity to contemplate using different revenues to help pay for the heating oil conversion for Seattle's low income families, the central staff memo Yolanda sent out a very helpful memo yesterday I believe.

points out that we did set aside 1.7 million last year to ensure that the conversions can take place this year.

Additionally, we have jumpstart funds set aside specifically for Green New Deal investments and specifically for investing in conversions.

So we will be talking about that more tomorrow, but please do let me know if you have questions that were not addressed in the memo.

Today, just before briefing, as a matter of fact, I met with a constituent in Georgetown, a resident and business owner who wanted to talk about the Maritime and Industrial Lands EIS.

He was very concerned that it seems no one in the community knew that this EIS was underway and said that there was really no city outreach or community engagement, no translated materials made available for folks in South Park.

and I know I've been asking the questions about what community engagement would look like for this in particular since at least last summer, so it's a little bit disconcerting to hear that residents in our neighborhoods were not aware that this process was underway.

I know that there was one extension allowed for public comment, but I am interested in learning more about what that process was.

The feeling is that right now the process was very focused on industrial and port interests and left residents out of the discussion altogether.

And so there is a request to try to slow the process down make sure folks are able to engage in an authentic way, and really put this particular conversation in the broader context of our comprehensive plan, which we will be talking about over the next couple of years.

So I just want to flag for my colleagues that I know folks in South Park are concerned.

I don't know if folks in Ballard have expressed any concern about this.

I'd be interested to hear from Council Members Strauss and Herbold.

I would love to follow up with you.

to see what you're hearing from your constituents.

And I would also like to follow up with OPCD and DON to see what their process was like and what the outcomes of their community engagement can teach us about what residents have to say about this process.

We had lots of community meetings last week.

You all know I'm meeting twice a month with folks in Mount Baker.

We met with Georgetown business owners last week who are also frustrated with, you know, the trash and some of the illicit activity that's happening in the community.

Council Member Lewis, I'm excited to hear that you're able to pick up the phone and get resources from Jump Start.

I would like to urge us to keep in mind that as people get pushed out of downtown, the rest of the city also needs resources for street outreach and connection to shelter service and other housing provision so that other neighborhoods can also benefit from these services that we're wanting people to benefit from.

I just wanted to correct for the record, I think you said jumpstart when you meant just cares, get resources and services for just cares.

Is that correct?

In neighborhoods, yes.

OK, thank you.

My ears popped up when I heard jumpstart.

Thank you.

We also met with folks from the Filipino Community Center who are interested in getting a plaza between the new senior housing facility and the existing Filipino Community Center.

It is basically an alleyway.

And they're looking for some help figuring out how to slow down traffic a little bit because they've got seniors and kiddos running back and forth between the two buildings and traffic going a little bit too fast through there.

And also attended a panel on implementing international models of social housing in the US.

There was a panel hosted by UCLA last week and had folks from different parts of the world talking about how they do that and how they can implement that.

So really excited to learn more from them and to see what we might be able to do here.

Let's see, just a couple more things.

This week I'll be participating in the Baltimore Healing Cities Summit.

I was invited by Baltimore City Council Member Zeke Cohen and the Open Society Foundation, who are partnering together to focus on healing, on city action that can be taken to focus on trauma, violence, racial inequity.

This is, That partnership resulted in Councilmember Cohen passing the Elijah Cummings Act, which provides year-long training for all city agencies to learn about trauma-informed care.

It also directs all Baltimore City departments to review their policies and practices for ways that may be causing trauma to the people of Baltimore.

I was invited to the panel to speak about participatory budgeting in particular and how sharing power with our neighbors can help reduce trauma.

So I'm excited to be participating in that.

It's later this week, and I'll be happy to share what I'm learning from other cities across the country.

The introduction here was made by Local Progress, which is an organization that I know several of us are members of, so I'm excited to be able to participate in that.

This week my staff will be meeting with neighbors from Nicholsville to discuss their plans to open a new tiny house village in District 2. We'll also meet with a group of graduate students from the University of Washington who are working together to create a student housing land trust and taking part in our regular meeting with residents and business owners in Little Saigon.

And then finally, my staff and I will join Council Member Juarez on Wednesday at the Kraken Community Iceplex.

I'm excited to check out our newest community asset there and really looking forward to that visit.

That's all I have, Council Members.

If there are any questions, I'm happy to take those.

I don't see any, so I will pass it over to Council Member Mosqueda.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

Colleagues, the next Finance and Housing Committee meeting is on March 2nd at 9.30 a.m.

We will have a panel discussion again, as I noted in last committee meeting, inviting other jurisdictions to come and talk about the work that they have done on cannabis equity initiatives.

This is a continuation of a meeting discussion that we had last month that I think will continue into the upcoming months as well as we look at the ways in which various jurisdictions have been able to recapture some of the revenue in the industry to invest more in creating opportunities for workers, opportunities for entrepreneurs, and creating additional health and safety protocols in the industry.

We will have the opportunity to hear from Boston City Council members, representatives from Oakland, representatives from the city of Sacramento, and representatives from the city and county in Denver, along with representatives from the Color of Cannabis Initiative.

We will then hear from the Department of Finance and Administrative Services for an update on their cannabis equity work, which was very briefly described in their RSJI or Race and Social Justice Initiative presentation to my committee in December.

We'll have subsequent conversations on this topic as well, which will be involving additional community members and small business owners in the upcoming months.

So if you didn't get a chance to tune into our Finance and Housing Committee meeting last time, feel free to Let us know if you're interested and I think it's going to be a robust conversation with these other jurisdictions and in the upcoming meetings There are no items from the finance and housing committee on this week's full council agenda And there's nothing from us on the introduction and referral calendar as well A few items that I'd like to highlight for this upcoming week.

Um, I too will be joining council member Juarez in district and look forward to that tour.

Though I think the original ask was to actually go to the cracking game with her, but I'll keep poking to make sure that that happens.

I do look forward to coming to D5 and having that tour with Councilman Morales.

I'll also be joining a panel to talk about democracy vouchers.

This is one of many conversations we've had over the last few years, thanks to members of the Seattle ethics and election committee for all of the work that they have continued to do to analyze the impact and the use of democracy vouchers.

I'm going to be joining Money Talks.

It's a program hosted by the Bay Area Political Equity Collaborative, also called BAPAC.

This will be a discussion about the ways in which publicly financed election campaigns have promoted access to democracy across our city and looking forward to sharing.

are examples with other jurisdictions.

Again, I'll have a similar conversation with folks from the Masters in Public Administration cohort from the Evergreen State College Tacoma campus to talk about democracy vouchers as well.

And I'll be attending the KCSARC Be Loud Breakfast on Thursday.

This Friday, I'm also going to be attending our first ever, excuse me, our first ever Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

Colleagues, I'm really excited about the opportunity to do this with Council President Juarez.

Both Council President Juarez and myself are members of the Economic Revenue Forecast Council.

As you'll remember, this is a piece of legislation that Council President Gonzalez at the time and myself supported to create a independent economic revenue forecast body.

And thanks to the previous council for their support of the legislation, we now have the Economic Revenue Forecast Council being established.

At the helm is the newly appointed director, Director Ben Noble.

Again, selected by legislative and executive branch members prior to the end of the year.

Director Ben Noble has left his position at the city's budget office.

As you know, last week we confirmed Julie Dingley as the new director of the City Budget Office.

And so looking forward to working with Director Noble in this different role.

Again, as a reminder, this is a completely independent office, free from political influence or policy influence from either the executive or the legislative branch.

And we have built a system to ensure reporting to both bodies at the same time via the Economic Revenue Forecast Council that's made up of council members, Council President Juarez, myself, and two members of the executive branch as well.

You can check out all of the information, and I know that the new office is excited for you to see what they have to offer at their new website.

That's seattle.gov backslash economic and revenue forecasts, plural.

Put a hyphen between that, economic.

and revenue forecast.

Check it out.

They have a lot of information that's available on their website there and they will have the chance to have all of the materials available for this Friday's meeting.

There was not going.

There's not going to be public comment for this this Friday, but they are looking at options to make sure that that's available for future meetings.

And thanks to Seattle channel, it will be broadcast live again.

These are quarterly meetings that the economic revenue forecast has, so very excited about this first quarterly meeting.

In other updates, folks might remember when I served as chair of the Seattle City Light Department in my first few years on council.

In 2018, I requested an audit of Seattle City Light after hearing numerous constituents who had received outrageously high bills, some in the hundreds of dollars more than expected, some with thousands of dollars more than they expected.

I had neighbors at the time as well who were calling and saying that they had received requests for payments completely out of the ordinary when they had used normal electricity amounts.

And when I contacted Seattle City Light on these numerous occasions, we were given lengthy explanations about how this was catch-up billing, billing, catch-up, C-H-A-T-B-I-L-L-I-N-G, meaning that, I guess in layman's terms, like when a, Inspector was going around looking at the meter outside when the meter inspectors were going out.

If they couldn't get into a building, they would do an estimate.

And that catch-up billing happened when they tried to true up some of the estimates versus the actual cost.

It didn't make a lot of sense at the time that there was individuals getting thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars more than they anticipated.

So I ordered an audit of Seattle City Light alongside community members and customers who demanded corrective action from Seattle City Light to amend their building practices.

I want to thank the new CEO who came in at the time in 2019, I believe, who did take to updating some of those practices very quickly.

The issue continued to, I think, affect some of the customers who had bills that they could not afford.

Seattle City Light took accountability for those practices.

And again, I want to thank them.

And they have offered $3.5 million in settlements to some of the customers who had experienced this true up or catch up building.

This settlement admits no liability, but I'm hopeful that Seattle City Light will continue to remain committed to reviewing those practices that led to this.

And I know that they are continually looking at updating ways that they can maintain and improve transparency and accountability.

The reason that I'm flagging it for folks today, and we were going to put it in our Teresa Tuesday newsletter tomorrow, but there is a deadline of today.

If you believe that you had been issued a a bill to pay an amount that you did not actually encumber.

You have until the end of today to submit your claims form and you can submit a claims form online at Seattle City Lights, a website which is SCL, or Seattle City Light, sclbillingsettlement.com, sclbillingsettlement.com and you can download and print a claim form from their website and please submit it today.

I think we're also putting that up on our social media.

So I wanna make sure folks have the opportunity to capture back some of those costs that they may have submitted to City Light for bills that were over.

Finally, I want to take a few minutes to talk about some of the activities happening in our labor community in line with the national upswing for unionization in previously hard to organize areas.

I want to say a huge congratulations to the baristas at Storyville Coffee.

The workers at Storyville Coffee filed their election to unionize with UFCW two weekends ago, and they succeeded.

I want to send solidarity to the workers at Crossroads Trading Company who began their unionizing efforts, and elections are happening this week amongst stories of union busting.

And final note of solidarity to the folks at Garden Cycles who voted at the tail end of last year to join LIUNA.

242. I want to thank the members of LIUNA 242 for all of their support and congratulations to the new members from Garden Cycles who've been fighting for better wages and benefits and proper classification in addition to fighting for greater safety standards.

I understand their first negotiation date has been set and I wish them the best of luck in their bargaining and look forward to hearing more about a quick resolution and ensuring a fair and equitable contract.

Madam President, I think that that will conclude my comments for today, and I will save some of my updates from Finance Administrative Services to share with folks next week in light of time.

Great, 11 minutes.

11 minutes.

Thank you.

One minute over.

If I hadn't teased you about the crack in, I would have been under that 10 minutes.

I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Nelson.

At this point, I don't hear any comments or questions.

OK, thanks so much.

Handing it over.

Well, hello, happy Monday, everyone.

I am the...

The committee does not have legislation that came directly out of committing on full council tomorrow, but there is a resolution that we'll be voting on, which basically starts the public process for a rate change of the Seattle tourism improvement area.

And so just a little bit of background for those of you who don't know what that is.

The STIA was established by council in 2011 to help promote leisure tourism in Washington state.

and I mean within STIA's boundaries, which is largely downtown.

And there was a $2 charge for occupied nights in all, in about 60 hotels around downtown.

And there was a vote by the advisory board that wanted to increase that rate to $4.

And so this change in In the rate does require a public process.

And so we're getting at the will be voting on a resolution that basically announced Announces that there will be a public hearing in our committee and it provides the time and all the details for that.

So this is basically a a procedural piece of legislation that we'll be voting on in full council tomorrow, and I'll provide more information about the rest of the process as it comes forward.

But if you have any questions about what you'll be voting on tomorrow, feel free to reach out to me.

Our next committee meeting is on March 9th, and there will be a briefing about the subsequent ordinance that will raise the assessment to $4.

and give a little bit more information about the requirements in RCW that set forth this process.

So that's going on tomorrow and the following week in my committee.

So this past week, I attended the, let's see, it's Seattle Fashion Group International's Black Fashion History Month that featured the, the clothing and a question and answer period with some local fashion designers, Faye Wu and Mac Fashions and Rosario George.

One of the perks of being a council member is that you're invited to these wonderful things.

And so if anybody can attend next year, I fully encourage it.

Last week, I also had the privilege of attending the ribbon-cutting of two new charging stations for electric vehicles.

This was by a company called EVgo, who has charging stations in parts of Seattle already and in several other cities.

And I thought that this was a very important event to attend and signal a welcome a note of gratitude to this company because they were very deliberate in citing the charging stations, of which there are two, in the South End and in fact at Othello Plaza, which is, for lack of a better word, basically a strip mall of local independent stores that serve the community.

This helps fulfill not just our climate protection goals by extending our EV charging station infrastructure more broadly by partnering with private companies that do this, But also because it advances our economic equity goals and environmental justice.

Because as these cars become more affordable, if you don't have a single family home or live in a building where there's a charging station, it is very difficult and expensive to charge your electric vehicle.

So these are heavily subsidized charges and I thank them for helping to build out their network in Seattle.

It's consistent with our climate and equity goals.

And I must note that Evigo had a choice about where to install these charging stations.

They could have done so in the Safeway parking lot just a few doors down, but they chose to put them in this parking lot that served all these different restaurants.

Because when you plug your car in, then you have 30 minutes and people then patronize those businesses.

So that was a fun event to attend.

The director of Seattle City Light, Deborah Smith, was there, and so was our county counterpart, Gurmeet Zahilai, who also voiced support for this initiative.

So it was a fun event.

Yesterday, I attended the, well, what is called the CD Panthers Winter Workout.

event and this was really special because I had gone to the CB Panthers homecoming event over the summer, which was coming together of community that really did show the importance of this local and independent league of football teams at all ages.

And that was following the gunshots that rang out the previous week.

So this is a community that comes together to put on games and teach kids how to play, and also really bridges some of our needs for greater community involvement in sports.

And also, as many of the folks said, this is true crime prevention by getting kids involved in sports.

And I believe that the city's attention and support of the CD Panthers is really important.

And this was a special event because the head coach, Terrell Elmore, was able to work a deal with the Seahawks for a donation of about 120 pairs of tennis shoes to the players.

And so I got to meet the Seahawks mascot, Blitz, and as he helped distribute these these shoes to the players.

And I also noted the really deteriorated state of the field that the players are playing on.

And I'll be talking about the need to turf that field later on after I speak with the people that are more lead on those sorts of things amongst my colleagues.

I want to thank Council Member Morales for inviting me to attend the meeting that happened on Friday afternoon.

She's been hosting meetings with members of her district, small community organizations, as well as small businesses.

And I really do appreciate hearing the perspective of folks in Georgetown about some of the struggles that they're facing, because I can't get to all these meetings.

And it was very generous of Council Member Morales to invite me to attend.

Let's see, I'm checking my notes to make sure that I have not missed anything.

Some events that I'm attending this week, I will be attending the Sea-Tac Airport's International Arrivals Facility Reveal Reception.

It's always fun to be invited to these things and get a peek because I don't travel internationally, so I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity of checking out the new terminal.

This has been in the works for a very long time.

I appreciate that and I will be participating in both the Wallingford Community Council's meeting on Wednesday night as well as Queen Anne Community Council meetings.

So I look forward to hearing from those neighborhoods about what's going on there.

And then finally, I'm really excited about attending OED's launch.

It's a press conference on Wednesday.

where OED will launch a new project, a new program called the Capital Access Program that will leverage about $8 million of city monies for grants directly to small businesses to improve their, to make capital improvements following what's gone on over COVID so that they're in a better position to access loans from local CDFIs.

So basically, these are grants up to about $115,000 that will enable these businesses to get into shape for their ability to access large grants to expand or even, perhaps in some cases, start new locations.

So that's upcoming.

And I wasn't checking the time, but I'm sure I'm nearing my end.

I was checking the time.

Good job.

You're good, 10 minutes.

Okay, any questions?

Thank you.

I pass it on now to Council Member Peterson.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are no items related to our Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities, except for the 2022 Work Program for all committees.

The Transportation Committee is on page 51 of the 57-page Council Work Program.

Our next committee meeting on transportation and Seattle Public Utilities will be tomorrow, Tuesday, March 1st at 9.30 a.m.

Our agenda includes our initial presentation on the various easement and lease agreements with the Washington State Department of Transportation, Sound Transit, and North Seattle College regarding access and maintenance of the John Lewis Bridge, which will be memorialized in Council Bill 120271. We also have a presentation from the City Auditor's Office about their recent performance audit on Seattle's efforts to maintain and repair sidewalks.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis, for your leadership on that audit.

That concludes my reports.

Any questions before I turn it over to the next Councilmember?

Councilmember Strauss, and well done, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Strauss, hi.

Hi.

Council President and colleagues, good afternoon.

I'm in a great mood today.

I spent the morning building tiny homes with former Council Member Sally Bagshaw and Sound Foundations Northwest.

There's an assembly line set up building tiny homes here in the city.

So if you're watching and you want to volunteer to build tiny homes, you can go to soundfoundationnw.org and sign up.

All you need is a vaccine card and good spirit, and they've got the rest, gloves, materials.

everything that you need in the assembly line to build tiny homes faster.

In these last two weeks in District 6, I continue every week to hold operational coordination meetings with community leaders, governmental entities, and non-governmental entities making meaningful interventions and impacts addressing homelessness in specific places in District 6, including Woodland Park, and the Ballard Fremont Industrial District.

If you're interested in meeting with me to discuss more information or updates, please do feel free to sign up for my office hours.

In these last two weeks, I was able to meet with SDOT to discuss the Green Lake Outer Loop Project.

And then separately, my staff attended the public open house.

I was able to meet with some community members about making improvements to the skate bowl at the Ballard Commons Park, which I'm very enthusiastic about.

I get to continue meeting with SDOT weekly and stakeholders about the implementation timeline now for making improvements to the Ballard Avenue Cafe Street.

I was also able to attend the North Seattle Industrial Association meeting where we heard from Sound Transit about the ST3 expansion to Ballard.

I got the opportunity to meet with and take a tour of the National Nordic Museum with arts and culture director Royal Ali Barnes.

It was a fantastic tour and if anyone has not been to see the most recent exhibition, I strongly urge you to do so.

I was also able to join City Light for a tour of the Fremont substation to better understand the power infrastructure in our district and I got to join the Fremont Chamber of Commerce for a coffee hour where I provided updates and answered questions and one of the topics that came up was regarding the Solstice Day parade and fair.

So I want to thank Council Member Nelson, who also sprung into action.

She and I met with Fremont Chamber and Fremont Arts Council regarding some issues around the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade that we are hoping to iron out immediately.

And while it's technically out of my district, I got to meet with a group from the University House in Wallingford, who have a number of born and raised Ballardites living there, to answer their questions and provide updates about our city.

It was a really great group.

I hope to go back with them.

During my D6 office hours over these past two weeks, I met with many neighbors from Greenwood, Finney, Upper Fremont, Blue Ridge, Sunset Hill, Woodland, West Woodland, And six folks from Ballard, we discussed many topics, including homelessness, public safety at large, and specifically in Ballard industrial area, and at 65th and 8th Northwest, small landlord issues, policing and property crime, residential noise complaints, tree protection violations, and a proposal to change parking in downtown Ballard.

This coming week, I'll be joining the Fremont Neighborhood Council meeting.

I'll be attending the AWC Legislative Steering Committee and PSRC Growth Management Committee.

My staff will attend the Finney Ridge Neighborhood Council on Tuesday and the North Precinct Advisory Council on Wednesday and I'll be hosting my weekly office hours with six residents on Thursday from 2 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

Outside the district in the last two weeks, I was able to meet with the Office of Housing to discuss rental assistance and what improvements and resource investments need to be made.

I was able to meet with the Seattle Police Department Chief Diaz, and I testified in support of Senate Bill 5528 in Olympia to expand mass transit revenue options at the Washington State House Transportation Committee.

I want to take this moment to thank Director Tarleton, Brown, and Majeski for your great work this session.

And most importantly, the Land Use Committee, colleagues.

The Land Use Committee did meet last week, and we were able to have a public hearing and briefing on Council Bill 120266, which expands transferable development rights program on First Hill.

We voted it out.

Clerk File 314441 and Council Bill 120276, which are both associated with a contract rezone in Northgate.

This contract rezone will come to full council only when the noted changes, especially to the environmental protection area, are signed and recorded.

So to any parties of this contract rezone, again, this contract rezone will not come to full council until that final document is signed and reported.

In committee, I also shared the news that SDCI has now published a SEPA decision and draft of a tree protection ordinance, clearing a really big hurdle and a multiyear process to strengthen tree protections in Seattle.

I look forward to taking up this legislation, as well as Councilmember Peterson's tree service provider registry legislation as soon as possible.

His bill will be back before us, not in this next committee, the following committee, and then it will come to full council.

and I'm excited to be a co-sponsor of that.

I'm really excited to have this before us.

There are two items on the full council agenda for tomorrow.

It is this clerk file and council bill, which enact contract rezone of 10735 Roosevelt Way Northeast.

in Northgate.

And again, colleagues, that will be put on pause if I have not had confirmation that the final signatures and recording have occurred regarding the environmentally sensitive area and protections that need to be put in place there.

The next meeting of the Land Use Committee is on Wednesday, March 9th, starting at 2 p.m.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report.

And I will take this moment to see if there were any questions and to get a time check from Council President.

How did I do?

Oh, you're good.

Seeing as I have no questions, Council Member Herbold, really great to see your face.

Glad to have you with us.

I'm going to be sitting upright.

So first item to cover is, as far as full council agenda, does include a bill that I'm sponsoring.

It's Council Bill 120272. This legislation we've talked about would provide retroactive approval for bonuses for police officers and 911 dispatchers that were hired during the month of January.

The bill would authorize up to, and not more than, $220,000 in funding for this purpose.

This will cover the hiring bonuses for five police officers and 14 communication-centered 911 dispatchers.

As I know everybody knows, last October, the former mayor issued an order to provide for hiring bonuses for officers and dispatchers.

The council supported this hiring bonus through the end of 2021. We modified it so that it would only go into effect through the end of the year.

No funding was included in the 2022 budget.

There were proposals for extending a bonus program into 2022, but none were approved.

Council adopted a request for a report for a potential citywide bonus program and voted to end the order at the end of 2021. The department unfortunately offered the bonus after receiving a directive from the former mayor on I believe it was December 30th at 6 p.m.

And in this letter she claimed the council's actions to limit the executive order was not effective.

This of course we all know is inaccurate and though she claimed to have some legal advice that would support that opinion, city attorney's office has noted that they provided no such advice to the former mayor.

In early February, the Herald administration directed the departments to immediately cease offering the bonuses, and we at that time committed to working together to ensure the officers and dispatchers offered a bonus are provided with that bonus, and this legislation is the result.

I'm really grateful that the Herald administration We took such quick action when finding out about the conflict between the mayor, the former mayor's direction and the council's action.

And this is really important to support this collaborative approach to governing in recognizing the council's authority in this matter as we consider the need to resolve together.

And I know Ali Panucci with council central staff is with us today if there are questions about that legislation after I give my report.

In addition, just some quick Human Services Department updates.

The Human Services Department is seeking volunteers for its victim support team.

Victim support community volunteers provide short-term advocacy, safety planning, and culturally relevant referrals to victims of domestic violence and other crimes.

You may have seen the op-ed in the Seattle Times speaking to the very, very disturbing increase in partner violence over the last year.

Volunteers must be at least 21 and pass an SPD background check.

Applications are due March 17th.

No experience in social work or counseling is required.

Free training and mentorship is part of this program.

These volunteers operate in person on weekdays as a mobile crisis response team and during the week offering remote phone advocacy.

The next volunteer information session is on Monday, February, that's today, so we'll skip that one.

The next one is March 8th, and you can contact the support team at Seattle.gov.

On the health front, today the governor announced that the statewide mandate will end on March 11th instead of the previously announced March 21st.

and Public Health of Seattle King County quickly followed suit to support that change and also identified their intent to not extend a local mask order for schools beyond the state's order.

After March 12th, masks will be required still in health facilities, long-term care homes, transit, cabs and ride shares, correctional facilities and anywhere that private business or local governments choose to continue requiring masks.

On the public safety front, a few updates here.

Just because we haven't met for a week, I want to let folks know that I have regular, as I know many of you do, have regular meetings with the chief police.

police chief.

I met most recently with the police chief week before last.

I'll be meeting with him again this week.

We discussed in that meeting issues related to retail theft, recommendations of neighborhood districts coming out of council member Nelson's committee meeting a couple weeks ago, and how those recommendations intersect or don't intersect with existing programs.

We also discussed the state legislation on gun safety and catalytic converter theft.

I also met with the mayor's office last week, and as Councilmember Lewis mentioned earlier today, discussed public safety issues, specifically safety downtown 12th and the efforts there, important issues related to OPA complaints, some complaints from the George Floyd protests, status of SPD compliance with less lethal weapons ordinance.

and this week's gun violence.

We also spoke about the plans to support hiring goals for SPD and other departments.

And I know many of us are waiting for a report to respond to the council statement of legislative intent related to a citywide hiring program.

I learned today that the executive needs just a couple more weeks to finalize delivery of that report and hopes to give us all one on March 15th.

Of course, with the governor moving forward, With the timeline to lift mask requirements for schools and businesses and the public health support of that, this really highlights how important these efforts to address community safety needs downtown and in our commercial business districts throughout the city.

It's so important as additional businesses choose whether and how to bring more employees back to work.

I want to also mention that my office has recently held our regular meetings with the Community Police Commission and the Office of the Inspector General to discuss the Monitor's ongoing preliminary assessment reports on the consent decree, which will lead to a recommendation on the future of the consent decree from the Monitor.

and specifically with the Office of Inspector General, their work on the Sentinel event review.

And then finally, you might recall that in the Mood Year Supplemental, we funded a protocol system for CSCC, that's the Community Safety Communication System, that will implement a more consistent process for obtaining key information from 911 callers and to better support data analysis and for resource development, including alternatives to police response We received an update just this morning that the RFP for the protocol system is in its final review and they are aiming for March 4th release of the RFP.

Many thanks to Director Lombard for making sure that I'm in the loop as this project moves forward.

Office hours update.

I held office hours last Friday and spoke with constituents on topics ranging from public safety home zone programs, the Seattle Parks Department and Metro Park District, homelessness, the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, high cost of building and ADU, and the efforts of the South Park Neighbors to support new community development, and finally, the Alki Moving Program.

In closing, I want to take a moment to express solidarity with our local Ukrainian community, which, as the Seattle Time has noted, has increased by 69% since 2000 in Washington State.

I cannot imagine how difficult it is for people in our community to have the uncertainty about the safety of loved ones during this unwarranted and horrific invasion of the country, disruption of their communities, divisions of their families, and loss of life.

Thank you.

So does anyone have any questions for Council Member Herbold?

So customer herbal, are you done?

So is it my turn?

I'm done.

Um, I, uh, sorry, I'm supposed to invite questions.

I'm sorry.

I, um, I'm in under one minute, uh, under the wall.

I did.

I did want to make sure that nobody had any questions for Allie before inviting, um, general questions about my report.

Not seeing any.

Okay, great.

No raised hands from council members about my report and thus I will pass it over to you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Sorry about that.

I forgot that you brought Ali in on that.

Okay, so I will go ahead with my report here.

I will be brief because I know we have an executive session.

There are no items from the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee on tomorrow's council agenda.

However, our next meeting is March 17th at 930. I'm excited to welcome council members Mosqueda and Morales to the Kraken Community Iceplex Wednesday at 9.30.

And we also will be joined by our friends from REWA, that's the Refugee Women's Alliance, from the Early Learning Centers from the three schools.

So all the kids will be there from Lake City, Beacon Hill, and MLK, Rainier Valley.

As you know, since December, or was it January?

I can't remember.

Um, NHL has been providing a bus and picking up the kids once a week.

And I've been there a couple of times and we helped lace up their skates.

Then we let them get out on the ice.

So, um, I guess I'm going to have to show customer mosquito Morales, what a real good time you could have up in D five.

So I'm looking forward to that, uh, Wednesday morning and I'm going to challenge them both to ice skating.

So we'll see how that goes.

Yeah, you're gonna have to learn, Mosqueda, in between now and Wednesday.

Okay, so next, Sound Transit.

At last Thursday's Sound Transit Board of Directors meeting, the board appointed Brooke Bellman as the acting CEO.

She will start her new role after Mr. Rogoff, who is the current CEO, will be leading on May 31st.

Let me put my glasses on for this.

I was wondering why I couldn't understand this because I can't see.

Ms. Bellman brings more than 17 years of experience working for Sound Transit, and during her tenure has devised and executed community-driven social impact strategies and innovative partnerships to facilitate the planning, development, and construction of major capital projects.

Since joining Sound Transit in 2004, Ms. Bellman's leadership roles have included deputy executive director Land Use and Planning and Development, Chief of Staff of the Design, Engineering, and Construction Management Department, and Director of Community Engagement.

So I look forward to working with Ms. Bellman.

As you all know, I'm also currently serving on the search committee for a permanent replacement for the Sound Transit CEO.

Um, I wanted to just briefly touch on, and thank you, council member Lewis, for doing the update on the climate pledge and some of the numbers that came up.

But, um, I just wanted to, to again, say how proud I am that OBG, NHL and Morrison met and exceeded our expectations on the priority higher as council member, um, Lewis shared with us an additional $14 million more than, um, what we are expecting.

And an additional $43M more under the Wimby contract.

So we were projecting $136M and we hit $179M.

And so we're really proud of that number and we plan on moving forward with that as well as almost 30% of all construction hours were performed by workers of color, and we will continue to work with OBGNHL to, and I really want to thank the Todd Lewicki and their team and Todd Humphrey up at the Krakow Community Ice Flex who've been so good.

about sharing information and Council Member Herbal, I too will follow up on the medical services that before the Seattle Center or the arena used to provide.

I'd actually was going to follow up with that tomorrow.

I'll certainly try to get an answer if Council Member Lewis doesn't get one to you before I do.

In addition, I had a meeting with Matthew Richter, the interim director of the Cultural Space Agency, a public development authority.

Also in attendance at that meeting was Naima Clark, founder of Nurturing Roots, who's a member of the governing board as well.

We discussed working together to incorporating art spaces into the development of the Northgate Commons.

That's about 1,400 units, affordable housing, and some market rate housing.

It's on about 10 acres and we are looking at providing some indigenous space and some other innovative spaces, including childcare on those 10 acres with these 1,400 units that we've been talking about for almost a year now.

Other than that, is there any questions from me?

I think I will close out my comments and we will go into executive sessions.

Anyone have any comments or questions of me?

Okay.

Not seeing any, Madam Clerk.

It is now 329. So I'm going to go ahead and call us into executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will now convene two executive sessions.

The purpose of the executive sessions are to discuss pending potential or actual litigation.

The council's executive session is an opportunity for the council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

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

I expect the time of the executive session to end by, Madam Clerk, 3.50 or 50 minutes puts us at what, 4.10?

Okay.

I'm going to say 410, that's 50 minutes.

And if the executive session extends beyond that time, I will announce the extension and the expected duration.

So at this time, Madam Clerk, can we all go into executive session?

Recording stopped.

And this is Elizabeth.

And yes, we are now moving into executive session.