Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee Session I 102621

We are recording.

Wonderful good morning everyone.

Today is Tuesday, October 26, 2021. I'm Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the Select Budget Committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Here.

Peterson.

Here.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Gonzalez.

Present.

Herbold.

Juarez.

Here.

Chair Mosqueda.

Present.

Eight present.

Thank you very much.

If we are joined by another colleague, which I assume we will be, I will make sure to announce them.

Good morning, colleagues.

Thank you so much for joining the Select Budget Committee meeting.

This is day one of three, our opportunity as a council to go through the various amendments that council members have submitted.

This is amendments to the mayor's proposed budget.

This is the beginning of the council's opportunity to shape our budget so that we can have a proposed budget for the community to review in early November.

Today, we're going to have an opportunity to hear four different sections.

You'll see those outlined in the agenda in front of us.

We have categorized all of the presentations for the various departments today into first, administration, which includes finance general, finance administrative services, the ledge department, mayor's office, and city auditor.

Next, we'll have the utilities presentation.

This includes information technology department, public utilities, and city light.

We'll then have Arts, Education, and Culture.

This includes Public Libraries, Department of Education and Early Learning, Office of Arts and Culture, Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, and finally, we will conclude with the fourth title, Planning, Community, and Workforce Development.

This includes Department of Construction and Inspections, Planning, Community Development, Office of Neighborhoods, Office of Sustainability and the Environment, Office of Economic Development, and finally, Office of Labor Standards.

Colleagues, I'd like to move to adopt the agenda, so I may make a quick amendment to this to include the walk-on amendments for today.

I move to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much Councilmember Peterson.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda.

Now colleagues I do appreciate that many of you have been working around the clock with central staff on the amendments that you submitted on time.

We do know that there are a few additional walk-on amendments.

I know for example one of these there was additional information that was provided to council members from the departments after our deadline of Monday noon last week.

So we are able to consider walk-on amendments that did not meet our internal deadline and do not have two co-sponsors by amending the agenda today.

We obviously greatly appreciate all of the work that you all have done to try to submit amendments early, but this is an opportunity for us if there are late-breaking amendments to consider those.

to make sure that we have these amendments in front of us, I move the agenda to add the following three walk-on amendments.

This includes ARTS, slash walk-on, slash one.

The next one is IDT, slash walk-on, slash one.

And the final one is RET, slash walk-on, slash one.

And place these agenda items on the, excuse me, place these items on the agenda as the last item under the associated section.

we will get to them before moving on to the following categories.

We will make sure we know exactly where those items are coming up when we get to those sections.

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Peterson?

Yes.

Sawant?

Yes.

Strauss?

Yes.

Gonzales?

Yes.

Herbold?

Juarez?

Aye.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, colleagues.

The agenda is now in front of us, and the first item on the agenda is public hearing.

We have committed to having 30 minutes of public hearing every committee meeting, and because of a late start on my behalf, I'm going to allow for our public comment to go to 10.07.

And then we will start with our regularly scheduled meetings.

We do have a lot of people sign up for public comment.

And as I have noted in every meeting, we will have public comment at the beginning of every meeting.

We also have a public hearing the night of November 10th that is just dedicated to hearing every single person who dials in.

So today, we will have public comment for the next 30 minutes.

And then if we're not able to hear from you, I apologize in advance.

That means if your number is higher than 25 or 30, it's probable that you will not have the chance to speak this morning, but you are welcome to send your comments to Seattle to ledge.

Excuse me.

Council at Seattle.gov.

That's Council at Seattle.gov.

And you also have the chance to provide public comment tomorrow morning.

Again, we will have public comment that starts at 930 a.m.

Public comment period is now open.

I will read the names in the order in which they appear on the list here today.

I'll call two names at a time.

You will be teed up to provide your public comment.

You'll hear on your end, you have been unmuted.

Folks on the line, that's your indication you need to hit star six to unmute your own line.

Again, you need to hit star six to unmute your own line once you hear that prompt.

Once you finish speaking, please do hang up and dial back in on the listen in line or watch on Seattle Channel.

Thanks again Seattle Channel for streaming.

The chime that you will hear is also a 10 second indicator to wrap up your comments.

Again, we appreciate you wrapping up your comments so that you don't get cut off.

The first two speakers are Howard Gale and Angie Carroll.

Good morning, Howard.

Thanks for waiting.

Good morning.

Howard Gale speaking on the budget and police accountability.

Nashville, San Diego, Oakland, San Francisco, Long Beach, California, Sonoma County, California, Newark, Portland, Oregon, Columbus, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh.

These are some of the many U.S. cities that have recently established a robust police accountability system built on a foundation of real civilian control of investigation, policy development, and discipline.

Yet 17 months after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis and Terry Caper's murder by the SPD in Seattle, this city council has made police accountability an untouchable subject.

The council has found it far easier to virtue-signal than to act with virtue.

Nowhere is this more obvious than the case of the city budget, where some $30-plus million are spent on the pretense of police accountability, forcing Seattle taxpayers to pay twice for a service they don't receive.

wants to cover a police abuse for the second time to occasionally pay the victims.

Given the recent scandals surrounding the OPA and the OIG, this council must start asking the hard questions as to what these tens of millions of dollars are being wasted on.

Thank you very much.

And the next person is Angie Garrell.

Hello, my name is Angie.

I'm a Seattle grassroots landlord from Ballard.

I strongly support Council Member Lewis's FDCI amendment to convene a small landlord stakeholder group.

and also Council Member Strouse's amendment to fund a rental market study in long-awaited follow-up to the City Auditor's 2018 report recommendations.

It's critical that Seattle have a framework for understanding and engaging with small owner operators to encourage more people to become and remain as housing providers during our city's housing crisis and long term.

The latest RRIO report showed the city lost almost 5,000 properties from the rental registry.

The flurry of complicated new regulations and lengthy eviction moratorium have treated mom and pop landlords with the same broad brush as large corporations, and corporations are the winners.

This is decreasing availability and affordability of rental units, especially affordable family households.

It's increasing barriers to community ownership and equity building.

Please support the Small Landlord Stakeholder Group and the Rental Market Study.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next two speakers are Brady Nordstrom and Kate Rubin.

Good morning, Brady.

Good morning.

Hi, my name is Brady Nordstrom, and I'm with Seattle for everyone.

I'm calling in to support budget amendments related to the study of design review and OPCD comp plan resources.

We strongly support the statement of legislative intent for FTCI to study program outcomes, process improvements, and equity within Seattle's design review process.

We believe that a diverse group of organizational community stakeholders are best equipped to work with SDCI to find the right set of solutions to improve parts of the program that are not working, unnecessary or exclusionary, and then to try to fix them.

Aesthetics and neighborhood character must not be a barrier to housing inclusion, affordability, and sustainability.

We also support amendments that increase funding for OPCD to have the necessary resources and staffing to do robust and equitable community engagement related to the comprehensive plan, the major comprehensive plan update, as well as thorough environmental review that includes growth alternatives for additional housing capacity in diversity and single-family areas and 15-minute neighborhoods.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Kate Rubins next, followed by Corey Brewer.

Good morning, Kate.

Good morning.

My name is Kate Rubin.

I'm a renter living in District 2 and I'm the organizing director of East Seattle.

As proud endorsers of the solidarity budget we are calling on the council to adjust the mayor's budget to fully meet our community generated demands.

We support the solidarity budget's commitment to addressing our dual crises of affordability and homelessness.

We can't adequately fund housing in this budget without maintaining the integrity of the Jump Start Seattle spending plan.

The solidarity budget is calling for an investment of $635 million in affordable housing.

$25 million to develop a stable equitable quality workforce and homeless service and housing.

And $1 million for ongoing tenant education and organizing which hopes to ensure that the more that the more than half of Seattle residents who are renters know their rights and are able to stand up against unfair living conditions.

Additionally I wanted to voice my support for some important budget proposed budgetary amendments.

Council Member Sawant's proposed amendment of an additional $500,000 to support renter rights education and organizing, and Council Member Strauss's proposed amendment of $200,000 for rent-turn reporting and enhanced landlord registration are both essential in the wake of the pandemic.

Council Member Morales's proposed amendment of $2 million for...

Thank you very much.

Corey, you're next, followed by Charlotte Thistle.

Good morning, Corey.

Yeah, hi.

Thank you.

Corey Brewer calling.

I'm a member of a number of housing groups locally, including Seattle Grassroots Landlords.

I want to thank you for proposing a small housing provider stakeholder group.

Personally, as a member, or excuse me, as a representative of hundreds of small mom and pop housing providers in Seattle, what we've been asking for is a seat at the table to help create effective and sustainable housing policy.

So the idea of a stakeholder group is definitely a step in the right direction.

And I have a feeling that the data on housing supply loss must finally be resonating with the members of the Seattle City Council.

So I appreciate that.

I'm not entirely clear on how you're putting this stakeholder group together but I would like to be considered as a member.

And a personal thank you to a handful of the council members who have taken the time to meet with our group personally recently and again for the overall consideration of the stakeholder group.

Thank you.

Thank you for dialing in today.

Good morning, Charlotte.

Charlotte's followed by Anna Marie Dooley.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, thanks.

Hello?

I'm sorry, can you hear me?

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I wish to thank Council Member Lewis for proposing the much needed small landlord stakeholder group.

Over the last several years, mom and pop landlords in Seattle have been disproportionately impacted by legislation and pandemic eviction moratoriums.

Many have lost tens of thousands of dollars in equity or unpaid rent.

Others have been forced to tolerate abusive and destructive tenants who've been enabled by carelessly written policies.

According to the City of Seattle's 2018 rental housing study 60 percent of Seattle landlords make less than $75,000 per year.

Our group Seattle Grassroots Landlords includes school teachers artists stagehands single moms and even city employees.

We want to be part of the solution to Seattle's housing problems and our voices need to be heard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anna Marie will be followed by Jennifer Hawk.

Good morning Anna Marie.

My name is Anna Marie Dooley.

I'm a doctor and a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.

We need a solidarity budget to ensure climate justice is addressed without delay.

Last June, we crossed a threshold with over 400 people dead in a heat dome here, and thousands will die every year from heat in the years ahead.

What's been missing in budgets past is a failure of imagination and an assumption that business and community members will not accept big change.

Well, the last 18 months have shown us that people can radically change their behavior if lives are at stake.

We need a massive investment in people, tens of millions to remove fossil fuels from homes and for local climate resiliency projects.

I'd like the council to understand that the survival of people in Seattle is more important than a commitment to the status quo.

The solidarity budget's not an activist wish list.

It's critical for keeping people alive.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling in.

Jennifer will be followed by Ala Hassan.

Good morning, Jennifer.

Jennifer, I can't hear you.

If you can hit star six on your line.

Looks like you're still muted, Jennifer.

After Jennifer will be Ala and then Liz Hussar.

Jennifer, it looks like you're still muted.

I'm going to move along and we're going to keep you on the screen.

Star six, Jennifer.

Can you hear me, Jennifer?

Okay.

Ala, you're welcome to hit star six.

Wonderful.

Good morning.

I'm Allah Hassan the volunteer programs manager with Low Income Housing Institute and I'm reading the following letter on behalf of the Community Advisory Committee of Camp Second Chance Tiny House Village in support of Council Member Herbold's budget amendment.

We are the Community Advisory Committee for Camp Second Chance.

We thank you for this opportunity to respond to the proposed improvements at our beloved tiny house village.

We say ours because all of us have been deeply involved at this village since its inception and we consider them family.

We believe in work.

We believe in and work toward the dignity of every individual.

From the start this site has posed challenges for the lack of water and sewer creating less than ideal standards of living.

Lack of sewer has always been a bone of contention.

The city didn't want to make the events fit and yet we have always believed that when all people experiencing homelessness are housed this site would become a city park.

Putting in a sewer line now invests not only the dignity of the current village but provides the infrastructure for a future park.

The other improvements bring the site up to par with the sister villages, alleviating historic inequities.

Installing paved paths.

Thank you so much.

And we are going to Liz.

Good morning, Liz.

Liz is followed by Poppy Handy.

Good morning.

My name is Liz, and I am currently the youth programs manager at El Centro de la Raza.

I'm here supporting the addition of a $2 million allocation to deal for culturally responsive afterschool programs for middle and high school students to prioritize the support of immigrant and youth and their families.

Supporting this investment is exactly the kind of infrastructure our community needs.

After school programs have proven time and time again that intervention during critical times can make all the difference.

Research also demonstrates that a positive sense of belonging to school and community make all the difference for youth navigating the pipeline.

Our program offers exactly this while also being unique in the model we offer.

Our model is one that should be replicated.

Our students who walk through our doors develop their critical consciousness under their roof.

They become advocates for themselves and those around them.

All of this while maintaining their grades passing every class and reporting that sense of belonging both at school and with us.

We ask that you vote yes in this amendment and we hope that you'll invest in the potential of our Latino students.

Mil gracias.

Thank you so very much.

And Jennifer we still have you on the line here so if you unmute.

Excuse me, good morning, Poppy.

Thanks for being on the line.

Poppy's followed by Alice Lockhart.

Hi, this is Poppy Handy.

I'm the managing director at Third Place Design Cooperative, and I've been an architect in Seattle for 25 years.

I'm speaking on the design review statement of legislative intent, and I support the statement to study program outcomes, process improvements, and equity within Seattle's design review process.

SDECI's analysis should happen in close coordination with a group of diverse organizational and community stakeholders.

A truly broad group of stakeholders is best equipped to find the right set of solutions to keep the helpful parts of design review intact while boldly reforming the parts that are not working are unnecessary or exclusionary.

We should ensure that design review is welcoming and inclusive to those from diverse racial gender socioeconomic professional and housing backgrounds for example renters and homeowners at all levels including applicants board members and public participants.

The racial equity toolkit analysis is critical to understand how the program might reinforce racial exclusion or create barriers to participation and we should fully understand the link between housing affordability and Seattle's design review.

If it has become a barrier to urgently needed affordable housing the

Thank you very much, Poppy.

Good morning, Alice.

Alice is followed by Maria Caseras.

And Alice, there you go.

Good morning.

Good morning, Council.

I'm Alice Lockhart, and I organize with 350 Seattle.

We strongly support the Green New Deal amendments for transitioning low-income homes off oily heat, for Indigenous-led sustainability projects, and for community climate resilience planning.

I'd also like to thank Council Members Straus and Gonzalez for amendments that expand the budgets for COMP Plan to allow for sufficient community engagement and EIS alternatives.

We know the COMP plan needs to include zoning changes as recommended by the 2019 UN emissions report, but we also know that the COMP plan process needs to be driven by the voices and the needs of the communities most harmed by past and current zoning and the displacement pressure it has produced.

Resilience in times of adversity absolutely requires community support.

A climate-resilient comp plan requires a plan and, frankly, funding that will center the community voices and reverse displacement so that communities can support each other in place.

Thanks for expanding comp plan funding.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

And Maria will be followed by Flora Luna.

Flora, it looks like you're not present, so please dial in.

And if you're not present, we'll go to Bertha Castaneda.

Good morning, Maria.

Buenos dias.

Good morning.

I am Maria Castro and I am the after school program coordinator at El Centro de la Raza and I agree with the dollars allocated for culturally responsive after school program programming for middle school and high school students.

Through our program we've been able to assist youth of color and their families in a variety of ways.

For example with academic tutoring rental assistance and food support just to name a few.

Overall, our program is made to inspire critical thinkers through community building and ethnic studies programming so that they can be leaders in the community.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

And Flora, it looks like you're still not present.

Please dial in.

We'll come back to you.

Bertha, you are up next.

Just hit star six.

And Bertha, you'll be followed by Patience Malava.

Patience, it also has you not listed as present.

Bertha, can you hear me?

Star six.

There we go.

Please go ahead.

Hola, buenos días.

Hola, buenos días.

¿Puedes empezar?

Mi nombre es Berta Castañeda y estoy aquí apoyando al programa del Centro de la Raza.

Para que voten por un sí para que el programa después de Escuela del Centro de la Raza continúe apoyándonos.

El programa ha sido de mucha ayuda para todos los hispanos, ¿verdad?

Los latinos.

Los programas que provee el centro de la raza han sido de mucha ayuda en tiempos de pandemia.

Y pues pedimos que nos apoyen con su voto, con un sí, para que el centro de la raza continúe.

Porque pues sin esas ayudas, el centro de la raza no podría seguir brindándonos ayuda, ¿verdad?

Y pues les pedimos de su voto.

Es todo.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to translate very quickly.

Thank you for calling in.

Good morning.

My name is Bertha.

I'm calling out to support the El Centro de la Raza Child Care Program.

I hope you vote for supporting child care at El Centro.

This will help us continue to keep the doors open and this program helps everyone, especially our Latino community in Seattle.

This has been an especially important program, especially during the pandemic.

I hope that you vote to continue El Centro de la Raza Child Care Program.

Without it, we can't continue this good work.

We ask for your support and your vote.

Gracias, Berta.

Patients, it looks like you're still not present.

Camille, you are listed next.

Camille Baldwin Bloney, followed by John Grant.

Good morning, Camille.

Good morning.

My name is Camille, and I'm a resident of Seattle City Council District 5. I am calling on the city council to continue their commitment to BIPOC communities, greater public safety for all Seattle residents, and leading the way in putting climate sustainability by supporting the solidarity budget and the Green New Deal.

I'm urging the City Council to support the Green New Deal amendments including $13 million for transitional low-income homes off oil, heat, and support for impacted workers, $100,000 for community climate resilience planning, and $300,000 for an Indigenous-led sustainability project.

We're all seeing and experiencing the effects of climate as evidenced by the record heat waves this summer.

Retrofitting homes with pumps makes cooling possible.

These are simultaneously a public safety issue as well as a climate justice issue because low income people are more likely to live in homes which are not energy efficient.

As Seattle experiences more and more deadly heat waves to wildfire smoke and winter storms we need a plan

Thank you very much.

And please send the rest of your comments in.

John, followed by Davalina Bongari.

Hi, good morning, Chair Mosqueda and Council Members.

My name is John Grant.

I'm the Chief Strategy Officer for the Low-Income Housing Institute.

I'm here to testify in support of reinstating the Jumpstart Spending Plan for more affordable housing and also in support of Council Member Herbold's proposal to improve conditions at the Camp Second Chance Tiny House Village.

Of those, there are going to be a number of budget amendments put in front of the council today to make some equity improvements at the tiny house villages, and the Camp Second Chance is one of the most important ones.

This will add a sewer line to the site for about $80,000, as well as add a hygiene trailer to replace porta-potties.

Camp Second Chance is one of the older villages, and we need to make investments to make sure that we have high-quality standards at each of our shelter locations.

So I urge you all to please vote yes on the budget proposal by Council Member Herbold to improve conditions at Camp Second Chance.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much.

And we have Jennifer, you are still on our list here.

So Jennifer Hawk, you are welcome to unmute at any point.

We'll come back to you.

Patience Malaba, we'll come back to you next.

I see you dialed in.

Davalina Bangari is our next speaker though.

Davalina?

Just star six to unmute yourself.

Okay.

Debolina, we'll keep you on the line here.

Patience, please go ahead.

I see you unmuted.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Good morning.

I am Patience Malaba with the Housing Development Consortium.

I'm calling to speak in support of Council Member Mosqueda's amendment that will align Jump Start Fund expenditures with the Jump Start Spend Plan.

and fund policies and ensure that the ongoing Jumpstart investments in affordable housing are protected by reinstating $50 million of Jumpstart funding to affordable housing this year.

Jumpstart is a predictable and reliable funding source that we know will bring $235 million next year, and two-thirds of that should be for affordable housing.

And as you know, housing providers need to be able to depend on this fund and know that the investments are reliable and predictable.

And reinstating the funding is really a step in the right direction of ensuring that reliability and sustainability.

And we want to thank you for championing that work and look forward to continue to partnering with you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

And Devalina followed by Mimi Santos.

Devalina just star six to unmute.

Hi.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm a policy analyst.

I'm reaching out to ask you to support the Green New Deal priorities in the 2022 budget including the $30 million for transitioning homes off of oil heat, $380,000 for indigenous led sustainability projects and $100,000 for community climate resilience planning as laid out in the solidarity budget.

Specifically on oil heat, Seattle has an estimated 15,000 homes which use oil heat.

Converting these homes to clean electricity would mean cutting Seattle's climate pollution from buildings by 16 to 18 percent.

Oil heat has been proven to worsen indoor air quality, and especially with the high cost of transition of $18,000 per household.

It is a cost burden for low-income households, especially for low-income communities in South Seattle, who are already burdened with high exposure to pollution due to their proximity to the port and the industrial zones.

We urge you to allocate the $30 million towards this program and make use of this opportunity to tackle Seattle's climate pollution in a just and equitable way.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

For folks tracking along at home, we are up to 20 speakers.

We did say we would go to 10.08, so we will try to get through the next eight speakers here.

The next person is Mimi Santos, followed by Lucy Vera.

Good morning, Mimi.

Hi, my name is Mimi Santos, and I am part of El Centro de las Razas Afterschool Program.

I am here in support of the budget amendment to reallocate resources to deal for culturally responsive afterschool programming for middle school and high school students.

It is such a privilege to be part of this program which creates a safe space for youth of color.

Our Latinx youth feel empowered heard and invigorated to achieve whatever they dream.

The work extends beyond the students and academic support and really creates a community and a place where once in the program whatever we need we have a place to go and people we can reach out to.

The work El Centro de las Razas after school program does is so important and like I encourage you all to vote yes.

to be able to make sure that this work continues because it is so important and impactful to our students and our youth.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And Lisi followed by Makaila Hurst.

Good morning Lisi.

Just star-6 to unmute.

And as you're hitting star-6 let's tee up Makaila.

Lisi star-6 to unmute.

There we go.

Please go ahead Lisi and then Makaila you'll be next.

Oh, hello, this is Michaela.

Okay, Michaela, one sec, okay?

Thanks so much for holding.

Lizzie, please go ahead.

Hello, buenos dias.

Mi nombre es Lizzie.

Me estoy llamando para un voto de sí.

Yo estoy de acuerdo con la ayuda del programa Después de Escuelas del Centro de la Raza.

Ha sido de mucha ayuda para mi niña.

De los programas que ofrece el centro de la raza.

Ha sido mucha ayuda para la familia hispana.

Durante esta pandemia no han ayudado mucho.

Entonces yo estoy a favor que a favor de un voto que donen que donen para el programa.

Gracias.

Gracias, y voy a traducir.

Good morning, my name is Lissy.

I'm calling and asking for a yes vote in support of the school at El Centro de la Raza.

Her daughter has had the benefit of going there, and this is a program that supports all of the Latino community.

This has been very influential, especially during the pandemic, very important.

And calling, asking for your support, for you to vote in support of El Centro.

Gracias por llamar.

Micaela, thank you for waiting.

Please go ahead.

Oh shoot.

Sorry Mikayla.

There we go.

Gotcha.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Hi.

I'm Mikayla Herz and I am here today asking the council to re-continue funding for El Centro de la Raza.

I am the after-school program assistant and I'm working through AmeriCorps and I've seen firsthand how the program not only nurtures and cultivates the students in not only academics but in their dreams and aspirations, and also very much through cultural and social issues that need to be addressed and taught to our youth.

It also is very important for us to continue helping their families in whatever ways we can, and hope to have the council vote yes on the budget.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Alexis Fay, followed by Matt Hutchins.

Good morning, Alexis.

Alexa, excuse me.

Thank you.

Hi my name's Alexa.

I'm a nurse and resident of District 4. I'm testifying in support of the solidarity budget that would divest funds from SPD and ensure true public and environmental health and safety.

The solidarity budget allocation of $100,000 for climate resilience hubs would greatly benefit both my patients and the greater Seattle community.

The city needs to expand the number of clean air and cooling centers so that every Seattle resident is within a 15-minute walk or bus ride of this life-saving infrastructure.

Climate change is already here and we need a solidarity but solidarity budgets more comprehensive Green New Deal demands including $13 million for transitioning low-income households off gas and $380,000 for indigenous-led sustainability projects to promote the safety of all Seattle communities.

Furthermore fully funding climate solutions will save money in the long run by addressing preventable diseases caused by pollution before they happen as well as creating keeping people safe and healthy when climate disasters strike.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And Matt, followed by Lisa Rivera-Smith.

Good morning, Matt.

And just for the viewing public, we are going to try to get through the next two minutes and have Dennis Solis and Matt Remley.

And we will try to see if we can get any more.

OK.

I don't think we are going to be able to, though.

So please go ahead, Matt.

Thanks for waiting.

Hi.

This slate of amendments makes me happy.

There are lots of high-impact programs that really deserve funding.

I want to highlight a few.

For STCI, Amendment 1, streamlining permitting, is just good government.

Three, bringing online a new daycare is prohibitively complex, and facilitators would help.

Four, tackling design review, it's a process that seems broken, takes more than two years, can be capricious, and doesn't have a great track record of inclusion or great outcomes.

For OPCD amendments 1 2 and 3 add resources to our comp planning process and we need more outreach more education more accessible communication if we're to have it be a meaningful public event.

And 7 and 9 EDI and the Longhouse are the kinds of reparative investments we must make.

And then finally amendment 3 for the OSE in 2021 we don't need to extract refine and transport fossils just to collect foliage.

Happy autumn.

Thank you very much.

Lisa followed by David Ha excuse me David Hines is not present.

Lisa followed by Dennis Salis.

Good morning council members.

My name is Lisa Rivera-Smith and I serve on the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors.

I am here this morning to seek your support for the proposed amendment submitted by Council Member Peterson and co-sponsored by Council Members Gonzalez-Morales and Strauss for $500,000 to improve Seattle Public Schools bus riding technology which our district desperately needs.

Did you know that in this tech hub of a city and this day and age we are still using paper bus routes to direct our hundreds of bus drivers as they stretch out across the city each weekday morning and afternoon.

With your generous grant we could put GPS riding software and tablets on each bus which would have direct access to all metrics surrounding our transportation logistics.

This would allow families to do things they cannot do right now like track their students' bus with anticipated pick up and drop off times to see when and where they get on and off the bus and offer bus drivers point by point directions and allow route updates to be instantly updated to reduce the current, the failures, the service failures we currently suffer from because we use paper routes.

I know I'm a little out of time here, but there's so much more I want to share with you.

You can expect a phone call or email from me in the coming days, council members, so we can continue this conversation and get your support for this amendment.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

And we will get the last speaker in here, Dennis Salis, followed by Matt Remley.

And folks, we're going to have to call it at that for today.

That consists of 30 speakers.

Apologies for those who dialed in.

We will have public testimony tomorrow and hope that you do send us your public testimony in writing this morning.

Good morning, Dennis.

Good morning.

My name is Dennis Sills and I work for Plymouth Housing.

Thank you for considering prioritizing affordable housing in this proposed budget.

We support $758,000 for the Office of Housing for Workforce and encourage additional workforce investments.

We support increasing operations and service funds distributed by OH with three projects coming online in the next year.

The $89.5 million in new investments in housing capital relies on $50 million from coronavirus recovery funds.

We encourage council to find a permanent funding source for affordable housing development like Jumpstart Funding.

And we thank council for adopting a plan to use a majority of Jumpstart Funds for affordable housing.

Plymouth also supports the Addressing Homelessness Plan through the HSD.

That includes 104 million for King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

We encourage future KCRHA contracts include cost of living adjustment.

Lastly, we sent a letter in July to Mayor Durkin and the Council for a million dollars in...

Thank you very much.

And Matt Remley will be our last speaker today.

Good morning, Matt.

Matt, you are still on mute.

Star six, unmute.

Matt, you are still on mute.

Okay, and one more time.

Thank you, everybody, for dialing in.

Hi, Matt, go ahead.

I apologize for that.

Good morning, council members, and thank you for the opportunity to weigh in my support for Green New Deal investments and the amendments for the budget.

In particular, I want to express my support for the funding for oil heat transition, co-sponsored by Council Members Sadwan, Pedersen, and Morales, as well as the funds for Indigenous-led sustainability projects, co-sponsored by Herbold Morales, as well as the Community Climate Resiliency Plan co-sponsored by Gonzalez, Morales and Juarez.

And I just want to express that this is the real opportunity for Seattle to live up to its commitment in the Green New Deal resolution it passed.

And I look forward to the passage of these amendments.

Thank you and have a good day.

Thank you all for dialing in today.

We did have a chance to hear from 30 speakers today.

We're going to move on to items on our agenda and appreciate all of the work that you all have done to dial in today.

Please send your comments to seattleatcouncil.gov if you were not able to speak today.

And again, tomorrow morning, public comment opens up at 730 a.m.

for sign up and we will have the first 30 minutes dedicated to public comment as well.

Agenda item one, introduction of proposed budget amendments overview.

Thank you very much.

And good morning, Director Handy.

Thanks for all of the work you and your team have done.

Really appreciate being able to have you on the line here this morning to get us kicked off for our overview.

I also have some comments that I'd like to offer, and perhaps I will offer those after you provide a brief opening from the central staff's perspective, and then I will give you the chair's comments.

Please go ahead, Esther.

Director Handy.

Thank you, the chair.

Good morning, Esther Handy, central staff director.

Welcome to the first of three days of discussion on proposed council budget actions to amend the 2022 proposed budget.

As a reminder, this is the third phase of your deliberation.

In the first step, executive staff presented their proposed budget, and you received input from the public on public comment and in an evening public hearing.

Our second step was issue identification.

Our central staff team presented nearly 200 pages of analysis on this proposed budget over three days, identifying issues and options for your consideration.

And since our last discussion, you all have submitted proposed changes to the budget.

Our team has drafted those in amendment form, which you will be discussing today.

During issue ID, we asked you to consider several key questions which you are responding to in these proposed budget actions.

The first was, do you agree with the way that the jumpstart policies and priorities have been met in this proposed budget?

And largely what we heard from council members was no.

That the intent behind the policy was to provide a committed source of revenue to one, provide continuity of services during the pandemic.

And two, make large new investments in four key strategies.

Affordable housing acquisition, development and services, an investment to sustain the equitable development initiative, to advance a Green New Deal framework, and to spur economic revitalization.

So we will start discussion this morning with the chair's proposed omnibus amendment to restore jumpstart funding to these four programs in 2022 and in an ongoing way.

Second, we asked you to reflect on the sustainability of this budget, noting that absent new funding sources or deep cuts to some programs, many general fund support programs could not be sustained in 2023 or beyond.

And so to prioritize, we asked you to reflect on where is there a cohesive policy strategy to address the most pressing issues the city's faced.

I'll mention just a couple themes that have emerged in these 200 proposed budget amendments you have crafted that will weave through discussion over the next few days.

The first is that affordable housing and anti-displacement strategies continue to be core.

The second is that homelessness services are being really closely analyzed as we transfer city resources to the regional authority, making good on the city's commitment to taking a regional approach.

The third, achieving community safety through alternatives to policing is on everyone's minds as you ask how to scale these programs more quickly and determine if we have the right programs on the table.

Fourth, many of you have proposed expansions of behavioral and mental health resources to meet the urgent and current needs of our community.

And we expect robust discussion on those programs on Thursday.

And finally, planning parks and infrastructure are a focus as you ask, are we adequately investing in our transportation infrastructure today?

And do we have appropriate resources to gauge our city in the planning projects ahead, like the major comprehensive plan update to build a livable and equitable city?

So as you discuss the many proposals this week, I invite you to reflect on how individual budget actions move the needle on these key issues you have identified as we work towards a 2022 budget, that can have a transformative impact in our communities.

I'll hand it to Allie Panucci, Policy and Budget Manager, to orient you to the process for discussing proposed budget amendments.

Chair, would you like Allie to do that before we turn to you?

Great.

Allie, if you could just talk through the details.

Great.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair Mosqueda, council members.

I'm Allie Panucci of your council central staff.

If you could move on to the next slide.

As Director Handy noted, we're on step three of the budget process and just under four weeks away from when you'll have taken final action on the 2022 budget.

Next slide, please.

Over the next three days, we'll present about 200 amendments that are organized thematically as outlined on the screen.

We're looking forward to hearing from all of you about these amendments as we get ready for the next step in the process, which is developing the balancing package.

And so I look forward to you seeing or hearing from all of my colleagues on central staff as they walk you through the amendments in these categories.

Next step, please.

I mean, next slide, please.

The balancing package is the next step in the process.

The balancing package will be published on November 10th in advance of the second public hearing, evening public hearing that is scheduled during this budget process, and then will be presented in more detail to the committee on November 12th.

Over the next two weeks, following discussions of budget amendments this week, we'll be working with the budget chair who will be coordinating with all of you to determine what budget amendments will be included in the balancing package.

In some cases, amendments may be modified or combined for inclusion in the package as we develop a proposal that reflects the priorities identified by all of you through these budget amendments.

Unless there are questions about the process, I am ready to hand it back to the chair.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to add a little bit to the process as well, and then we'll see if there's other questions from council colleagues.

First, I want to thank Director Handy for your opening remarks, for the framing that you've offered for today as we consider the amendments in front of us.

I think that the council has shown a lot of interest in similar priorities and greatly appreciate the work that central staff has done and the work that the committee members here today have done to submit various amendments.

We know that there is shared values, shared priorities, and that this budget is a moral document.

I am very hopeful that as we consider the amendments in front of us and go through the process over the next three to four weeks, we will have the opportunity to truly reflect a budget that is reflective of the council's priorities and thus the community's priorities.

So thank you for lifting up those categories, Director Handy.

I do have a few additional comments that I'll add to this, but really just want to thank you and Patty Worgen, Tom Mikesell, your entire team at the central staff for all the work that you've done in getting us to this point and for providing us with robust details and understanding behind each of these amendments.

And colleagues, this is the first of three days.

It's going to be long days.

We will have a recess from 1 to 2 p.m.

each day, and I will do my best to adjourn us by 5 p.m.

We will absolutely have the opportunity to hear more about your proposed budgets, but I'll outline a few comments here so that you know the time frame in which we need to work within.

I do want to note for the record, Councilmember Herbold has joined us a while back.

Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for being with us here today.

And Councilmember Juarez, happy anniversary to you.

Colleagues, thanks for submitting your budgets on time.

There were nearly...

Thank you.

I'm telling you, marriage, it's a hell of a drug.

I got it in.

Thank you for submitting your budget amendments on time.

Colleague, you know that there was nearly 200 amendments all told that we will be considering this week.

I hope that you were able to set aside some time yesterday to review the amendments that are under consideration for today.

I hope you will also set aside some time later this evening or throughout the afternoon, maybe in our break, to review the amendments that we will consider tomorrow and the same thing for Thursday.

It is really great work that our council colleagues have done along with central staff to submit the amendments in front of us today.

And thank you for all the work that you've done, central staff, to provide the necessary and factual description of the proposed budget actions for our deliberations today.

As you saw from my memo yesterday, if you have additional information that you would like to provide about your budget proposals, that is either more persuasive or dissuasive in nature, you are welcome to share those with the full committee here.

This is a request that you send information that is an addendum in advance of our meeting.

Thank you very much to the council members who submitted, who sent around additional information that they will then be able to point to in their conversations today before 5 p.m.

the night before so that folks have a chance to sit with it in the evening.

You are not required to share additional information, but if you do decide to do so, thank you for putting it into one PDF so that it's all in one place so that our offices can categorize those and keep them on hand for review as we consider the various amendments over the next few weeks.

These will become part of the legislative record after the committee that they are presented in, so please note that we do have a lot to cover in the next three days.

I will be keeping track of the time for each of the allotted amendments.

There are about three minutes that, if you average it out, three minutes each for each of the amendments.

That includes allowing central staff to provide a short overview, the prime sponsor to provide any additional information, and that allows for time for council members to ask a few questions.

Obviously, there's a handful of amendments that won't require a lot of discussion or questions, so we will continue to track the clock, but I am going to try to keep us on time, so if you see me come off of mute and ask you to please wrap it up, it is so that we can make sure that we stay on track.

Again, if we were to average each amendment, we'd have about three minutes each, so please do provide short remarks, and I will do my best to do the same as well after I get through these opening comments.

We have also received a number of budget amendment requests that were not submitted on time, meaning that they didn't come in via email before noon on Monday or did not meet the co-sponsorship requirements.

to be considered with the official process, but given the amount of walk-ons that we have interest in, we will be able to allow for those to be considered by doing what we did this morning.

I will make a motion to amend the agenda to consider those amendments.

Amendments that are being drafted by central staff for walk-on will be sent to you before 5 p.m.

the day before, so that will fulfill the commitment of the committee rule that it requires distribution before 5 p.m.

on the preceding business day.

a reminder to folks that those additional amendments we will be hearing at the end of each of the allotted category by department.

Thank you again to central staff for your work on those walk-on amendments as well for our consideration today.

For example, we will have three walk-on amendments and we're going to make sure that we include those in our time allotment that we are giving to each of these sections.

Finally, colleagues, I want to just note at the top of our discussion here, given the large number of amendments, again, nearly 200 amendments this year in total, to both streamline our discussion and the process, I am asking council colleagues to limit the number of new co-sponsorship requests that you may have.

You do not have to add your name to indicate support.

The number of co-sponsors on an amendment does not impact the likelihood an amendment will be considered for the balancing package.

Just like with the co-sponsorship request for the amendments that were submitted for the CBAs, showing co-sponsorship does not also equal a vote later, so I want to make sure that folks don't feel like they have to raise their hand and add their name to an amendment at this point.

I'm very much interested in the discussion and any questions that will help inform our conversation, but please do not feel like you need to add your name to every amendment.

and for the viewing public, if you don't hear a council member add their name to an item, it is not an indication of non-support.

I absolutely want to hear about all of the 200 amendments, and I want us to be very, very limited and judicious in putting your hand up if you want to add your name.

for the record to an amendment.

Please be selective in doing so.

Thank you in advance for exercising that restraint.

And if there is interest in additional co-sponsorship, of course, I will note it for the record.

But thank you very much for your willingness to be conservative in that aspect just for process sake this year.

Appreciate it.

Finally, just a note, revenue forecast is also coming on November 3rd, so we don't expect a large swing one way or the other, but we will all, as a collective, including me, receive that information together for the first time on November 3rd.

That may give us an opportunity for having future discussions about how to address any news that we receive on November 3rd.

I want to thank Council President Gonzalez, who's been working on this along with my office and the team as well.

We are going to keep ourselves to the same requirement that we get the information as soon as other council members do as well.

Now, colleagues, we have a tight agenda today and also have shared a lot of information about process before we get into the amendments.

All right, let's do it.

1025, Madam Clerk, will you please read item number two into the record?

Agenda item two, finance general for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

At this time, I'm going to turn it over to central staff.

Central staff will provide a screen for us, as you see here.

This is a summary table.

At the beginning of each of our sections on the agenda, you will see a summary table with the effect statement noted through the title.

The sponsor will be noted, the co-sponsors that have submitted their names to make our discussion today possible will also be noted, and then we'll turn it over to the prime sponsor for a very short comment.

I am going to be up first, so I'm going to have to lead by example here, and I will do my best.

This is a large amendment, though.

It is an omnibus amendment, so please allow me a little bit of grace as the chair here, since it is so large and very foundational to how we set up our budget going forward.

Allie, anything else?

Please take it away.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

We will start with amendment FG1A1.

And as Chair Mosqueda noted in sort of estimating the amount of time we had for amendment, we did assume more time for this one as it has more than 64 transactions and makes a lot of moves.

And we want to make sure it's clear to everyone what is going on with this amendment.

So with that, I am going to ask for this one, if we could jump to page eight of the packet, that is the attachment to the amendment.

This amendment sponsored by councilmember, excuse me, Chair Mosqueda, and co-sponsored by councilmembers Lewis and Council President Gonzalez, would align the Jumpstart Fund expenditures with Jumpstart Fund policies that were passed by the council in July 2021 that codified as a fund the spending plan that had been previously adopted in Resolution 31957. It would also align community-led investments with one-time resources.

This ensures that ongoing Jumpstart investments in affordable housing, economic revitalization, Green New Deal, and the Equitable Development Initiative are protected as ongoing investments as anticipated in the fund policies and will eliminate the need to amend the policies, the Jumpstart policies, in order to implement the 2022 budget.

This amendment also adjusts the amounts in the 2022 proposed budget for the equitable communities task force recommendations, participatory budgeting and community safety investments previously authorized by the council.

This includes the community safety capacity building RFP and the funds to support the community safety initiative.

This will ensure that there's at least $70 million to spend in these areas in 2022 and frees up about $40 million of general fund to support other council priorities.

I'll just note here that the next amendment, FG2A1 complements this budget action.

It expresses council's intent to work with the executive to identify a new ongoing funding source for the community-led proposals in 2023 and beyond.

And if we could jump to the top of page nine, table one, The first action in this amendment is to reallocate about $60.5 million of one-time federal coronavirus local fiscal recovery act funds, that I'll refer to as CLFR funds moving forward, to revenue replacement in the general fund.

These funds will ensure that city programs and services needed for COVID response and recovery efforts are maintained in 2022, and that jumpstart funds are allocated as intended.

This also shifts the fund source for the child care stabilization grants and the expanded capital investments in affordable housing production, preservation and services from the Clifford Fund to the Jumpstart Fund.

We can move to the next table two at the bottom of page nine.

The next step is to adjust the amount of funding for the community-led investments that I described previously.

In looking at this table, you can see that when combined with the unspent dollars that were appropriated in 2021, this resulted in more than $70 million of funds available to spend in 2022 in these areas.

It also revises the proposed budget to make these one-time investments rather than ongoing until the council And the next year's mayor able to identify funds to support these investments in an ongoing nature.

And if you could move to the next.

table at the top of page or midway through the next page.

So the combination of steps one and two that I described is what allows for the freeing up of resources for other council priorities and allows us to make adjustments to the proposed budget to make expenditures for 2022 consistent with the jumpstart fund policies.

So this table outlines how this amendment would modify proposed expenditures from the jumpstart fund.

The second column that's labeled ORD 126393 outlines what we would expect to see in the budget if it was aligned exactly with the jumpstart fund policies as passed by the council.

The column highlighted in green is what is in the proposed budget as transmitted by the mayor, and then the column with the blue heading proposed amendment outlines what transactions would occur in this amendment to realign spending with the spend plan policies.

So there are multiple steps and many transactions.

I want to thank my colleague, Tom Mikesell, who co-authored this amendment with me and was critical in getting all the pieces together.

And with that, I'll pause for any questions.

I'm going to make a few comments and you can ask questions of central staff and myself.

I will be brief.

Thank you for pointing to page 8. a spend plan that was not only discussed transparently but was provided with a signature and is, excuse me, and was allowed to go into law.

This is a way for us to ensure stability and transparency in our investments from Jump Start in housing, economic recovery, Green New Deal investments, and equitable communities initiative.

Based on the Jump Start spend plan for the fund policies, in 2022 and after that the city has a very firm commitment to continuing to invest in these priorities by percentage category.

This year We anticipated that of the amount coming in, for the investment dollars going to those priorities, about $149 million should be going to the Jump Start spend plan.

Again, this should have included $97 million going to affordable housing.

Instead, the mayor's proposed budget allocated $44 million from Jump Start and backfilled $50 million using one-time federal funds.

It was supposed to include $23 million going to economic revitalization.

Instead, about 13% was diverted, excuse me, 13 million was diverted to other priorities.

And 14 million for each of the, for Green New Deal investments and 14 million for equitable development were our commitments.

In total, we want to make sure that we are correcting for the approximately $62 million that would have been diverted from these jumpstart priorities to other areas outside of the priorities.

Those other priorities may be very important as well.

So we have identified a one-time fund source in many cases using federal dollars to allow for these investments to continue to go forward.

We are not making a choice in this amendment here about whether or not something gets cut.

We are making sure that everything that has been included in the proposed budget here is being funded.

We are simply swapping the fund source and making sure that we are maintaining our commitments as outlined in the spend plan.

Specifically, I want to note the importance of this for affordable housing investments.

We codified making sure that there was a known amount, nearly $100 million this year was supposed to go into affordable housing.

Why?

Because there's tremendous need.

We also know that there was a hundred projects that applied for the strategic acquisition fund that was made available from the Mercer Megabox sale.

We know that there's tremendous need and we are going to be also partnering We are looking at ways to increase the number of projects that have submitted requests for this year as well.

And providing stable funding We need to have predictable known sources especially in affordable housing to be able to allow for building to start now.

and housing, all have been prioritized so that we don't see reductions in those amounts.

we are very interested in correcting those revenue streams.

And then along with this will come the next amendment, which is a slide to commit to working to identify additional revenue streams, especially for things like the equitable communities initiative and a future alternatives to public safety grants.

Obviously, there could be multiple revenue streams, and we'll talk about that slide in just a minute here.

we're going to be working with community to identify additional future revenue.

Let's at this point correct the revenue streams so we don't see a reduction in the services we committed to nor consequences in terms of less funding now and in base budgets in future years.

I just have a few questions to understand the amendment in terms of numbers.

And so if you don't mind, Allie and Sharon, I'll just go ahead and ask all of them and then I'll let you all respond.

So when the budget amendment says that it restores the payroll expense tax for Green New Deal and affordable housing, Am I right that what that means is it restores it to the reduced level suggested by Council Member Mosqueda's ordinance over this past summer, you know, just given the economic crisis and everything.

And if it was restored to the original spending plan that was passed by the council when the council passed the budget, It would have required much more funding for housing and Green New Deal.

So that's one question.

Am I right about that?

And then, am I right that this budget amendment does not substantially increase funding for housing and Green New Deal?

That is, if it does make changes, then My right in understanding that it does so by a small amount.

And instead that this budget amendment primarily swaps around the sources of funding.

And I think Jeremy's going to address this partially, but I just want to go ahead and ask that.

But that it does the swapping, but it does not have a substantive impact on the amount of affordable housing or green new deal programs that the city can fund, that's another question.

And then the third is when this budget amendment says, quote, adjust the amount of funding for the community safety investments and other things in a manner that when combined with the unspent 2021 carry forward results in more than $70 million of total investment in these areas, that what that actually, am I right that what that actually means that this amendment is cutting the funding allocated in 2022 for the ECI, the Equitable Communities Initiative, participatory budgeting, and community safety investments.

And the amendment talks about recognizing carry forward.

Am I correct in my understanding that that means that the funding that the Black Lives Matter movement won last year for this year has largely not been spent.

So then it is being carried forward to next year.

And this budget amendment is cutting next year's funding for those community investments and basically explaining it by saying that there is money left over from 2021, is that correct?

And how much in total does this amendment cut from those three sources of BLM community funds if it does that?

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swan.

I think I noted down all the questions, but please let me know if I've missed anything.

So to your first question about whether or not the amendment would align the jumpstart spending with the jumpstart fund ordinance that was passed in 2021 or the original spending plan.

Current law would allow for up to $85 million of jumpstart fund to support the base general fund expenditures in 2021 and beyond.

So this amendment does, in fact, the spending with current law and not the previously adopted spending plans that have since been amended through adoption of the jumpstart fund policies.

So they are a less amount.

I would just note that absent that support from the jumpstart fund to backfill general fund revenues, the council would be looking at about $80 million of cuts to base services.

So that was why you all made that decision, I believe, to allow for that expenditure, but in making what this amendment does do is say that unlike the proposed budget, it won't allow that use and dependence on the general fund in an ongoing basis.

As general fund revenues start to rebound, assuming that they do, the amount of jump start that can be used to serve to support base services would be reduced.

So you are correct that much of this amendment is aligning the spending with the policies and isn't significant changes right now in the amount of spending in the categories like affordable housing and Green New Deal.

In the affordable housing category, the amendment doesn't increase the amount for investments in housing by about $8 million, and it's a very minor adjustment to the Green New Deal.

But again, importantly, what it signals is that on an ongoing basis, those amounts shouldn't be reduced in future years' proposed budgets and should, in fact, increase significantly as general fund revenues rebound.

In terms of how we're talking about the community-led investments, last year the council passed a budget that included one-time funding for the equitable communities initiative task force recommendations for participatory budgeting and for some of the community-led investments.

The proposed budget would add the same amount in 2022 by relying on a larger proportion of the jumpstart funds.

So it's relying on a revenue source that wasn't intended for those specific purposes in several cases and would continue to rely on that in an ongoing nature.

And my understanding is that the intent was for the participatory budgeting investment area, as an example, there was 30 million appropriated in 2021. about $27.2 million is still remaining in finance general that is awaiting the process pieces being set up so that those decisions could be made.

An additional $30 million was added to the, is in the proposed budget for that use.

The reason this amendment is looking at sort of acknowledging the carry forward is that Next year, that could result in almost $60 million being available for the participatory budgeting process, and it could be a big spending cliff if there is not an identified ongoing revenue source.

And so this allows for freeing up of other resources, but it is reducing the amount in the proposed budget and acknowledging the carry forward to ensure that the same amount of dollars, you know, $30 million in 2022 is available, but acknowledges that underspend.

And then in terms of how much from each bucket, if we could scroll back to page nine of the bottom of page nine of the packet.

That table summarizes the 2022 appropriations.

So in the blue columns, let's see, the green is what was proposed.

The blue, the first 2022 appropriation is what this amendment would appropriate in 2022. The middle column is the funds that will not be spent in 2021. and then the total amount available for 2022. And I'll just acknowledge that on the community safety line, that's inclusive of $3 million that the council approved to increase the amount of funding available for the community safety capacity building RFP in the mid-year supplemental budget.

That has not been spent, and our understanding is that that will not be spent or contracted for in 2022, or excuse me, in 2021. And I think I covered all the questions.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Council Member Swann.

And we'll talk a little bit more about the Equitable Communities Initiative, PB investments here in the next amendment as well.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to you.

Okay.

Allie, I want to thank you.

Thank you very much to you and Tom and the central staff team.

Hey, Tom, I see you on the screen here.

Thanks for all of the work that you've done to help align Jump Start priorities with Jump Start investments, even the revised spend plan that the council passed into law earlier this year to create the siloed fund and maintain the investment we've done on this plan and we will continue to see the revenue increase because we know there's an increase in the level of companies who are We have seen a remarkable increase in the number of employees in this sector.

We continue to see a growth in the tech industry specifically and the number of start-ups that our city is home to has only grown especially in the wake of COVID.

We are seeing a decrease in the number of affordable housing that we have allowed for as an offset to avoid austerity budgeting and to really make sure that we kept government services whole in times of crises.

We will continue to see that go down.

The full percentages, for example, 62% going into affordable housing will continue to grow even though that percentage remains constant year-over-year.

If there's no questions on this omnibus amendment, I will move on to number two here, Allie.

Thank you.

So FG2A1 is a statement of legislative intent sponsored by Chair Mosqueda and also co-sponsored by Councilmember Lewis and Council President Gonzalez.

And I'll just note that this was one request that we've broken into two amendments.

This statement of legislative intent would or does express the council's intent to work with the mayor to identify a new ongoing revenue source to support the equitable community initiative, the participatory budgeting program, and the community safety investments previously authorized by council.

in 2023 and beyond.

And as I noted previously, this complements FG1A1 by, there are a number of changes in that amendment that changes the investments in those areas and makes them one-time rather than ongoing.

But this is confirming council's intent to work next year to ensure that investments in these areas are continued in future years.

Thank you very much.

So as the prime sponsor on this, I'll speak to it very briefly.

I'm also interested in continuing to work on this language to make sure that it reflects what the participatory budgeting request has also suggested, which is a task force to come up with recommendations for various revenue streams in the future.

Obviously, there's a continued desire to make sure that investments in alternatives to public safety do continue to come from a reduction in traditional policing.

In addition to that, there is a call for additional revenue and progressive revenue at that to come in.

So, A, we want to make sure that we're pulling together a task force, that we continue to identify strategies to identify progressive revenue sources.

and that could also include reductions to existing services that are going towards traditional policing.

B, we also want to make sure that we are continuing our commitment to keep these investments at $30 million for participatory budgeting, $30 million for equitable communities initiative task force recommendations, maintaining the investments that we have committed to the human services department.

community capacity safety grants, which was $10 million, and we added $3 million from our underspend from SPD, bringing that to $13 million.

I want to maintain that in 2022. And we also have $4 million, as we've talked about before, that was not in the mayor's proposed budget for gun violence and youth diversion programs.

That total of $77 million would be maintained in the 2022 budget, again, shrewing up any spend that happened in 2021. to reflect the full $30, $30, and then $17 million investment so that each of those categories have the amounts that we have committed to in 2021, recognizing that many of the task force members were able to get some of those dollars out the door, about $16 million.

We know they are ramping up their work.

in early 2022, so we want to make sure that they have the full $30 million as well.

This is a statement of legislative intent that I think dovetails with many areas of the budget, but specifically wanting to make sure that after this year, there is not a cliff.

That is the biggest concern with the proposal that we've received from the mayor's budget, that there would be an actual cliff at the end of 2022, where either half of the projects or half of the funding would end up going away, and we want to create stability and true investments to the tune that we had committed to.

before.

So that's what this statement of legislative intent does.

Councilman Morales, I see your hand first.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

I do want to acknowledge you and thank you for including this slide.

We know, as you said, that our Black and Brown neighbors have been clear that they want to see a meaningful shift in the way we allocate resources in the city so that we can fund more upstream investments.

And investments, part of that conversation, part of that strategy is for things like participatory budgeting to be funded from a shift away.

a permanent allocation away from SPD.

So as you said, that process is still in development.

We'll get a chance to see next year how the $30 million in investments can support efforts to build up alternatives to community safety.

So I'm looking forward to that process.

And it is my intent that this participatory planning participatory budget process does remain an ongoing effort in the city to allow for community-driven priorities and to share access to power and to resources with our neighbors.

So I appreciate the slide being in here and I look forward to working with the chair and with the mayor and the task force to identify how we will begin to baseline projects, investments like this in the future.

Thank you very much.

Any additional comments or questions?

All right, seeing none.

I appreciate all of your work on this.

Let's keep going, number three here.

Hi, this is Karina Bull with Council Central staff, and the next council budget action is FG3A1.

It is sponsored by Council Member Morales and also Council Member Herbold and Gonzalez.

It would add $620,000 to multiple funds and finance general reserves to fund a Juneteenth holiday that is being proposed as separate legislation, also sponsored by Councilmember Morales, that would be considered by the Governance and Education Committee in mid-December.

Councilmember Morales, any additional comments?

No, just as a reminder, this is acknowledging the day that we commemorate that enslaved persons in Texas were informed about their emancipation, about the Emancipation Proclamation two years after the end of the Civil War.

And as Karina Bull said, would provide support for this to become a paid city holiday.

We know it's already a federal, state, and county holiday, and also provide a parking holiday on

June 19. Thank you very much.

Thank you for bringing this forward.

Really appreciate your work on this.

Not seeing any additional questions.

Let's move on.

OK I think the next one is for Greg Dawes.

I. We'll go ahead and read it in.

The next one is FG4A1.

This amendment would add $50,000 to finance general reserves for harbor buoys and signage.

This is sponsored by Council Member Morales and co-sponsored by Council Member Strauss and Morris.

Any additional comments?

Okay.

Please go ahead customer.

All right.

Yes.

Thank you, colleagues.

I just wanted to, sorry, my notes are.

My notes are getting lost.

Okay, so as Allie mentioned, this would provide additional larger buoys and rule signage in Andrews Bay.

And with this amendment, the intent is that parks and the police department work together with members of the boating community to develop a plan for implementing the buoys and the signage to improve water safety and to report back to the Public Assets and Native Committee.

next spring.

Colleagues, I shared a lot of information over the summer about issues that we're having with violations of the noise ordinance in Andrews Bay, but more importantly with issues of water safety.

The south end of Andrews Bay includes the Seward Park swim beach and we lost our lifeguard on duty hours this summer.

And so it really, it's a place where there's lots of kids who are swimming, hundreds of people anchor their boats in the bay over the weekends.

We've got lots of people who recreate on paddle boards and kayaks.

So it's just really important that we provide greater signals to the boating community that they have to observe water safety rules.

So after discussion with the Recreational Boating Association, we agreed that safety could be improved with visible buoys that include improved signage about knot speed, about no wake zones, as well as information about the noise ordinance.

So that is the proposal that we allow for better signage so that boaters who are coming into the bay are aware of the different rules that apply to them, so that the swimmers and other folks who are not in a boat in the bay have greater safety in the area.

Any additional comments?

Okay, I'm not hearing anything.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

Let's move on.

Are we ready for the next section of our agenda here?

Council Member Mosqueda, there's one more in FG section.

Oh, sorry.

Please go ahead, Brian.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council Members.

Brian, good night.

Council Central staff.

So the final item in the FG category is FG 5A1.

This council budget action would add $2 million of one-time general fund to finance general reserves for the creation of four permanent public toilets in areas of the city with the highest concentration of neighbors living unhoused.

The item requests that the executive form an interdepartmental team to work on implementation and that a status report be provided to the council's Select Committee on Homelessness Strategies and Investments, or its successor committee, by June 1st of 2022. The primary sponsor for this item is Councilmember Morales, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Strauss and Lewis.

Let's go ahead and come somewhere else.

Anything else there?

Yeah, I just.

It's clear that we need public toilets in this city.

We've been talking about this for a long time.

We had a whole campaign about it a few years ago.

This proposal really is intended to support the neighbors who are experiencing homelessness, but also families who are walking around downtown, gig economy workers who need a place to use the restroom as they're delivering food and whatnot, bus drivers, tourists, anyone who needs access.

And what I do want to say is that the proposal includes not just the infrastructure, the plumbing, and the actual facility itself, but staffing as well.

What we know from the way these programs have worked in other cities is that they are most successful when it includes good paying jobs for people to supply and clean and keep the the restrooms staffed.

So, um, that is the intent here.

Um, we know that over half of the people living unhoused in King County are people of color.

We know that over half, almost 60% of workers in the gig economy are people of color.

Um, and we know that, uh, you know, the ability to access a restroom is something we all need, but we really need to consider who is being disproportionately impacted by this lack of access.

So I'm eager to begin this conversation.

as an annual investment, we can talk about that later, but I do think it's important that as a city, we begin to build out this infrastructure, our public toilet infrastructure over time.

So I wanna start this year with a $2 million investment that ideally would get in the ground by the end of next year, so that we really can become the world-class city we want to be.

That means having world-class public toilets too.

We have a lot of work to do.

We have a lot of work to do.

We have a lot of work to do.

I would like to be added as a cosponsor of this amendment.

I just wanted to add myself as a cosponsor.

Before we move on to another category, Allie, I think I should just double check with you at the end of each section to make sure that there's no additional walk-on amendments.

If there's a walk-on amendment, you can help flag it for me before we move on.

Does that sound right?

Yes, that sounds great.

I will note it if there's a walk-on.

Okay, so seeing no additional walk-ons in this section, let's go ahead and move to the next section, Finance and Administrative Services.

Madam Clerk, can you read item number three into the record?

Agenda item three, Department of Finance and Administrative Services for briefing and discussion.

Wonderful, thank you very much.

Please go ahead.

and Gorman Council Central staff.

The first council budget amendment is FAS 1A1.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Strauss and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Herbold and Morales.

It would add $200,000 in one-time general fund to FAS for a consultant-led study of public safety staffing on city waterways.

The goal of this work would be a baseline for best staffing practices and recommendations that are both based on other cities' resourcing of this work.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Strauss, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Colleagues, as Anne Gorman just mentioned, this would add $200,000 to contract with an outside independent consultant to conduct the analysis of staffing and capacity needs to ensure public safety and just all types of safety on our waterways.

This study is needed to understand what our water-based safety needs are.

The question, what is the level of service we need on our waterways?

The answer to that question is currently unknown.

We have seen an increase in both recreation, paddle boarding, kayaking, folks who are renting these kayaks and paddle boards.

We've also seen an increase in boating, power boating, both small and large craft.

This is occurring both on Lake Washington, Lake Union, and out on the Puget Sound and Salmon Bay.

We've had two things occur in the last number of years.

We've had this increase in recreation.

And in this last year, we've had Harbor Patrol have about half of their staff go on long-term leave.

And Harbor Patrol has previously been the one, and Seattle Fire Department as well, been the two entities responding to these crises.

Last night, Seattle Fire Department responded to a potential kite surfer off of Alki, but the call was, There wasn't anyone to be saved.

There's a great tweet about it, if you want to take a look at it.

I digress.

And just to say that this study is important because we need to understand what the comparisons to other waterfront cities are with water staffing needs.

When I was in a North Seattle Industrial Association meeting this morning, it was reminded that even before Harbor Patrol had half of its staff go on long-term leave, we only had three vessels on all of our waterways.

The question came, is that even the right staffing?

Is that the right level of service?

These answers are unknown at this time.

And we need to have a third party consultant, much like the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform just produced the study for us, better understanding how we need to transition our calls away from gun and badge responses.

We also needed a third party independent consultant to tell us what are our staffing needs on our waterways.

So that, because if we don't know what the benchmark is that we need to meet, we can't create a pathway to meet it.

Thank you, council.

Thank you, chair and colleagues.

Thank you.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

I want to thank Councilmember Strauss for bringing forward this action to continue some work that I believe Councilmember Strauss also led last year in the form of a slide, a statement of legislative intent.

That slide didn't quite get us the information I think that many of us are looking for, not just about what the needs are on our waterways, but who can best best do that work.

So really appreciate that we're giving it another shot with an outside consultant.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And thank you, Council Member Strauss, for bringing this proposal forward.

There's obviously a big maritime contingent in my district that's very concerned about the Harbor Patrol.

This is more for the viewing public and some of our Harbor Patrol stakeholders.

I just think it's evident as we have such a high rate of attrition in the Seattle Police Department and under no scenario could there be recruiting or retention to immediately replace all of that attrition and that ultimately Harbor Patrol staffing is going to To an extent be contingent on the the priority the department puts on refilling it I just really want to emphasize that this is also a very necessary action to see what can be done to change the staffing plan and To have a functional harbor patrol, I would just I don't feel like I'm speculating too much to say that in the near term, it likely won't be a high restaffing priority in terms of deployment decisions made by the department.

which makes this study very necessary to figure out how we can maintain those critical services in a different way and in a more adaptive way.

And this is the first step in that direction.

And just appreciate your leadership in bringing this forward and think that this is something we definitely need to be doing.

Wonderful, thank you very much, council members.

Okay, let's move on to the next item.

Hello, councilmembers.

This is Eric McConaughey, your council central staff, and I'm introducing FAS 2A1.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Strauss.

It would add $227,000 of general fund ongoing to FAS to add two FTEs, two positions to the Seattle Animal Shelter.

This is also sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Councilmember Lewis.

Any additional comments, Councilmember Strauss?

Thank you, Chair.

Briefly, this amendment would fund two positions at the Seattle Animal Shelter to better meet the needs of the shelter.

While the shelter is not in my district, that's in District 7, oftentimes people forget about the animal shelter because it is in a nondescript building in Interbay.

This building and this program serves the entire city.

The two positions, the first position is a behavioralist, which is an existing position.

Unfortunately, it is currently temporary and funded by grants and donations.

The importance of a behavioralist is that they work with the animals to improve behaviors.

They facilitate adoptions and work with adopters to ensure animals do not need to be returned to the shelter.

And by making this behavioralist position permanent, it'll help the animal shelter continue to being a leader in ensuring that dogs and all animals are able to change their behaviors rather than, unfortunately, need to be put down in some circumstances.

Seattle Animal Shelter is a leader in making sure that dogs and other animals don't have to be put down.

And that is because of behavioralists.

So this position would make sure that that position is permanent.

And if they are still able to have grants and donations, it would expand their ability to rehouse animals in a meaningful way.

The second position is for foster care manager.

This is a position which animal shelter has previously had but was unfortunately cut several years ago.

Currently volunteers are struggling to manage the We have volunteers managing our foster care system for the animals that are in the animal shelter.

They are struggling to do this and they are working with hundreds of foster parents.

The importance of this is that while the animal shelter is a leader, it is still reliant on having animals in confined spaces with other animals nearby and this can create behavioral issues that we were just talking about what the behavioral is.

And so by having foster homes to have these animals living in during their short time the animal shelter provides them a safer and more adjusted place to live.

So these two requests are connected, ensuring that animals stay adopted and ensuring that we're not relying on volunteers to keep these dogs in homes rather than keep them in the shelter during their time with us.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Any additional comments?

Okay, wonderful.

Let's move on to action number three.

The third action is FAS 3A1.

This would provide general fund spending in FAS for animal control officer patrols in city parks.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Herbold.

It is also co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Strauss.

This action would impose a proviso on this animal shelter budget summary level in finance and administrative services, and it would restrict $388,000 of general fund spending to be spent only on four Animal Control One officer positions dedicated to enforcing these and scoop laws in city parks.

That amount of $388,000 is generated from calculating the annual cost to support those positions.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Council Member Hurdle.

Please go ahead.

so much.

This is a topic that I hear from constituents who are seeking additional off-leash and loop law enforcement in city parks.

I think it works very well with the proposal from Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Strauss's proposal would add positions for animal control.

This does not impact that priority.

Instead, what it does, it takes a look at the existing positions that are unfilled There are a number of vacancies and FAS has noted the challenge that they've had in hiring new animal control officers in the last few years.

And so what this would do is this proviso would not add more positions because we felt that it would make sense to add more positions given the vacancies, but it would increase the number of existing positions that are dedicated to animal control in parks.

from two, right now there are only two for all of the parks in the city, to four.

And with the goal of, again, of additional monitoring of parks in the hopes that folks who have dogs will adhere to our off-leash laws and our scoop laws.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Thank you both.

Okay.

I'm not seeing any additional questions.

Moving on to FAS 004.

Council budget amendment FAS 4A1 is sponsored by Councilmember Lewis and co-sponsored by Councilmember Juarez and Councilmember Strauss.

It would request that the executive provide recommendations about and draft amendments to the city's short-term rental ordinance.

FAS is the department that administers that ordinance.

Currently, renters can only operate short-term rentals in a specific area of the downtown, and this amendment is based on the objective that all tenants in the city should be able to offer their primary residences for short-term rental use.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Lewis, anything to add?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So I would just say that there's been some interesting requests in the community about an area that was not envisioned in our original short-term rental ordinance, which was, what about a scenario where there is a tenant who does, for a short period of time, say three days, want to offer their primary residence where they are the resident tenant?

For some kind of opportunity where it could be listed on some kind of short term rental company.

You know, Airbnb, I guess, being the most famous 1, but there are other short term rentals that have this kind of model in their business model.

I think for obvious reasons, it was not envisioned initially in the original ordinance.

for the possibility of displacement of renters, for the possibility of taking space that should be rental stock and potentially turning it into a speculative investment.

I think it is a little bit different when you look at cities that have a model that have a resident-tenant requirement, where that is the primary residence of the tenant, and they're, for example, offering it as a short-term rental opportunity when they themselves are out of town.

Um, so I, I think there's ways to potentially explore and revisit this.

To see if it would potentially provide an opportunity for tenants to take advantage of some of these.

some of these laws that we have around short-term rentals, as long as it does not have a demonstrable negative impact on housing supply or a impact on increasing the cost of housing.

And that is really what this slide would get toward, is examining this question and seeing if it's time to update this requirement so that we're not, you know, locking so many of the people in the city out of being able to participate in this kind of economic activity, given that we are a majority renter city, and given that there are cities that are doing this currently, I think Denver and Atlanta are currently doing some variation of this.

So that is essentially what is being requested here, and I'm happy to answer any additional questions, or more accurately, I'm happy to direct additional questions to Anne.

So thank you.

Great.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Any additional comments or questions on this one?

Councilmember Juarez, please go ahead.

I'll be very brief.

You know that up, well, all through the city, but particularly I can speak to District 5, we are now 51% renters.

So we have a market there, and I think it's a really good idea that we have tenants working with landlords for economic opportunity, so we can avoid displacement and actually have a relationship that works well for short-term, that renters have the same access to the same economic activity.

As you know, people are obviously more transient, and the economic activity that would provide, at least I know for sure in District 5, with the onslaught of well over 3,000 more units coming online, not just market rate, condo, ownership, but rental units.

And so I think this is a great opportunity for us to explore what's there for us across this whole city.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Morales?

This might be a question for Anne.

I think what we're suggesting or what's been suggested is allowing tenants to basically sublet their units if they are gone, which I think is a cause for eviction.

So I just wanna get a little bit of clarity of what we're discussing here.

The amendment is specific that this proposed new use by tenants is only permissible when they have the permission of the unit's owner or property owner's representative.

There may be some owners who decide that they don't want to make this opportunity available to tenants, but for those who do, this amendment would allow something that is not currently permissible under the city ordinance.

any additional questions?

Okay.

Thank you very much, and thank you, colleagues, for your questions.

I don't see any additional questions, so let's move on to FAS 005.

Good morning, council members.

Asha Venkatraman with your council central staff.

FAS 5A1 is sponsored by Council Member Lewis and co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Morales.

It would add $360,000 of general fund to FAS to establish a victim compensation fund.

and provide for community-based organizational support.

The fund itself would be $100,000.

$50,000 is intended to go to an organization to conduct outreach to victims that have experienced financial loss and may be eligible for compensation from the fund, and $200,000 would go to a organization of community members to build out a longer-term restorative response to the criminal legal system, including how such a fund might be housed in the community.

And I'll pass it over to Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, Asha.

So this is sort of two things combined into one request.

So the first is simply put a victim compensation funds to fill a really critical hole that we currently have.

in our restorative system locally.

A cornerstone, as all of us here know who have been very involved in this, of restorative justice practices is to make victims whole as part of the process of community-based accountability.

Restorative justice does not ask victims to not seek some kind of redress for a harm that they've experienced.

And in the city of Seattle, where we have a local criminal legal system that revolves entirely around misdemeanors, there are many, many cases in a given year that involve some level of loss, typically for a small dollar amount.

Otherwise, it would not be a misdemeanor.

It would be in the King County Court's felony.

So $100,000 would go a long way toward being able to repair damage to property, cover minor expenses related to misdemeanor assault injury recovery, money for property damage like to a window, things that end up in a misdemeanor court.

uh, and is really, really critical, uh, because under the current system where you have, uh, an overwhelming majority of defendants in the Seattle Municipal Court who are completely indigent and likely to unfortunately remain indigent, um, for the pendency of resolving their case.

Restitution is typically ordered to be paid by that defendant, but as they are essentially judgment-proof, no one ends up getting paid because it is simply not possible for people to get compensation from completely indigent defendants.

This would provide a mechanism to make sure victims are whole.

I can speak from personal experience as a prosecutor that most victims in our municipal court just want to be made whole.

They don't necessarily want to come forward and litigate against a criminal defendant to seek a criminal sanction if there is a restorative alternative.

This makes restorative alternatives viable and allows us to continue to build into that kind of a system.

The last thing I would say to mention the second part of this, there are also massive inequities in our current system in the ability of defendants who have been the victim of a crime who you know, similarly are experiencing extreme poverty, have low trust of the existing system or are just difficult to find given the existing ways that we communicate with victims who are never even contacted to determine if they would like to seek compensation or if there is a way to reach them.

to even get that compensation in the first place.

So part of this would be capacity building for community-based organizations to be able to establish contact with the full scope of victims that interact with our municipal court through credible community-based organizations to make sure that people who are eligible to receive compensation under this fund are in a position where they can actually seek out and get that compensation where as under the current system, there's a very high rate of people just refusing to even communicate, to even seek compensation for a variety of reasons.

I would add that that organizational capacity building probably has lots of other tangential benefits that go beyond the compensation fund, just in building capacity in restorative justice-based organizations like Choose 180 and Community Passageways to name a couple of examples that the council is familiar with, in terms of building their ability to do system navigation and victim support beyond just delivering this compensation fund, which is why I think it's best articulated as sort of two requests.

So $100,000 for the compensation fund, and then another set of money in this proposal for broader capacity building for restorative justice programming.

So with that, I will turn it back over to the chair.

Thank you very much.

Council member herbal.

So much, I just want to add a couple of things.

These recommendations are, I think, very, very timely in that they are addressing what we're hearing from a couple of print of.

sets of experts who work in this area.

The city attorney's office has been participating since 2020 in the cities and counties for fine and justice work as part of The city attorney's office set up a compensation fund.

Similarly, the community task force on criminal legal system alignment had a series of Thank you, Councilmember Lewis for bringing this forward, but also thank you for making sure that the recommendation does incorporate the guidance from the community task force on criminal legal system alignment and is consistent with the principles of that task force.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the sponsor and co-sponsors for this smart policy addition to the budget.

I would like to add my name to the list.

Thank you.

Thank you, Matt.

Councilmember Strauss.

Councilmember Strauss is adding his name to FAS005.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

Okay.

Appreciate it.

Let's continue on.

Brian, I see you up there, FAS01, excuse me, FAS010.

Thank you very much.

Yes, so this should be the last item in the FAS category, FAS10A1.

This council budget action would add $80,000 of one-time general fund to FAS for connecting Camps Second Chance in West Seattle to the sewer system.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Herbold, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Morales and Lewis.

Council Member Roble, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

So this is one of three budget actions related to Camp Second Chance.

The three budget actions taken together would enable expansion of Camp Second Chance to include an additional 20 tiny houses and address some very long-standing issues as we heard during public comment today.

This particular item provides for a sewer connection.

The second item is a proviso under SPU.

It will proviso funds for Seattle Public Utilities for Hygiene Trailer Service.

And the third action will be a walk-on during the HSD discussion on Thursday related to funding for construction of 20 new units.

These three actions together would help address longstanding issues at the site.

Currently, the site is not connected to a sewer line.

So for more than five years, five years, Camp Second Chance has been at this location.

Villagers have had to use port-a-potties and have not had regular access to showers.

My office shared materials by email yesterday evening noting that tiny house villages provide outcomes that are associated with exits from tiny house villages into permanent housing at the rate of 47.4%.

And 6% have moved in, I'm sorry, 47.4% have moved into permanent housing and 6% have moved into transitional housing.

in 2020. And so consistent with the council's efforts to expand tiny house villages led by Councilmember Lewis, I'm looking at expanding an existing long-standing successful camp that has really brought our community together.

There's a lot of engagement and mutual aid by a network of religious facilities and volunteer organizations who have, over the last five years, come together to support Camp Second Chance in a variety of different ways, and looking forward to your support to expand that.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

There's a few hands.

Council Member Lewis, then Sawant, then Council President Gonzalez.

Council Member Lewis, please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I really appreciate all of these three measures that Council Member Herbold just foreshadowed for Camp Second Chance to be expanded.

Really a cornerstone of our effort around It Takes a Village to expand shelter capacity.

And I know that over the course of this last year and a half, this council has been really united in pursuing an aggressive strategy of shelter expansion.

that has not always hit with being embraced by other stakeholders external to the council.

But a key cornerstone of that strategy has been looking at opportunities, not just for the establishment of new villages, but if it's faster and takes care of siting considerations, which has been a barrier of siting new villages, enhancing and expanding existing villages where possible.

Camp Second Chance is a great opportunity to do that and also to make good on very long overdue promises to bring it up to the same quality of life that our other tiny house villages are experiencing.

And I really appreciate this opportunity in this budget cycle to make good on all of those commitments and really provide more capacity for our overall tiny house system while to make sure camp second chance remains a great place to live in shelter while transitioning to housing.

I would like to request to be added as a co-sponsor to this amendment as well.

I remember when Camp Second Chance was established, when a community member took bolt cutters to unlock the gate on this unused city property to allow for an unpermitted encampment, initially only consisting of tents.

And then Mayor Ed Murray tightened to sweep this encampment and my office and other organizations, advocacy organizations visited with the residents who had established a democratic community to support each other.

My office then joined them in demanding the mayor not sweep this encampment.

And now it has tiny houses.

It has a long history of helping our homeless neighbors get back on their feet.

And I strongly support providing basic utilities to this highly successful tiny house village, which is a good example for the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Swann.

Council Member Swann adding her name to FAS010.

Council Member Swann, thank you.

And thanks for that historical context as well.

Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

I just wanted to also request to be added.

As a co-sponsor, I appreciate Council Member Herbold lifting this up.

We've all had a lot of conversations about tiny home villages and their ongoing viability as part of the spectrum of interventions that we offer individuals who are in need of safer housing options as we work to scale up Those permanent supportive housing options and transitional housing options and One of the things that we continue to hear is making sure that we are improving the conditions at the tiny house villages.

And I think that this is a key way for us to continue to improve the conditions while we stay focused and not lose focus on those midterm and long-term strategies that are going to be necessary that ensure we are connecting people to their forever home.

appreciate an opportunity to signal support on this one as well.

Thank you, Chair.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Council President González, Council President González adding her name to FAS010.

Thank you very much.

I do have a question.

Perhaps for the sponsor or for central staff, perhaps for Consumers Lewis and Gonzalez who are part of the Regional Homeless Authority Oversight Board on all of the items related to tiny houses, for example, do we have?

I'm going to turn it over to councilmember Lewis.

All right, I'll go first to give you some cover, Jeff, and then you fill in if what I've said isn't sufficient here.

But I would say, Madam Chair, to speak specifically to this, where we are expanding an existing village.

I think this squares perfectly fine within the architecture of the assets we are handing over to the regional homelessness authority, because this is not, strictly speaking, expanding the number of villages, but rather expanding an existing one.

So I feel pretty confident stating that.

In terms of broader system expansion, I know that the Regional Homelessness Authority would like to build up and then assess the entire system, envisioning the six new villages that this council has funded and that are anticipated to be stood up.

three of those villages are opening this fall, and three additional villages will be stood up in response to an RFQ that the authority is issuing, and that's expected to happen in the first quarter of 2022. So some of that might have been incorrect, so I'll hand it over to Jeff, but that is my current understanding of where things stand.

But I would say that in terms of this coming in, this Camp Second Chance considerations coming in in addition to that, I would imagine that would be fine because we're expanding an existing village.

Jeff, anything to add?

A few things for the record.

Jeff Sims, Council Central staff.

Council Member Lewis, I don't think you said anything that was incorrect there.

I just would add a couple of different additional points.

First, to your direct question, Madam Chair, we don't have direct assurances that an addition earmarked for a specific village to enhance certain things going on at it would be I will note, however, that the lived experience coalition has issued statements that would seem to align with these types of improvements being made at camp second chance and the regional authority on homelessness is very focused on centering the voices of people with lived experience.

for the continued expansion of tiny home villages and the forthcoming issuance of an RFP by the Regional Authority on Homelessness, all envisioned levels of service along the lines of actually having plumbed toilets, not porta-potties, things along those lines.

So they would be the type of facilities that people that experience homelessness currently would be willing to utilize.

So this seems in line with other statements that have been made on the quality of services that the authority is interested in ensuring are provided at any of our shelter locations, though these types of ads that would be earmarked to a certain location have not directly been addressed.

Very helpful.

Thank you all very much.

And that is good news, I think, for other various amendments that we'll be considering as well.

in the next three days.

All right.

I believe we are at the end of FAS.

Are we ready to move to item number four?

Great.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item number four into the record?

Agenda item four, legislative department for briefing and discussion.

We're full.

Thank you very much.

And good morning again, Director Handy.

Thank you, Esther Handy.

Council Central staff, this is Action Ledge 1A.

budget action to add $600,000 in general fund support to the legislative department.

It is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and co-sponsored by Council Members Peterson and Mosqueda.

Specifically, this action would fund two existing positions in the central staff division that were vacant and unfunded in 2021. It would restore funding to the city clerk's office for an administrative role and several job reclassifications, provide funding to address pay equity for council staff, We are hoping that this budget will be used to restore funding to the council consulting budget and finally be used to prepare the council chambers for hybrid in-person and virtual meetings when mandated telework ends.

5% budget reductions that were necessary due to the pandemic-related economic conditions.

So the additional funds proposed in this council budget action are necessary to partially restore the cuts that the legislative department realized in 2021 and is also necessary to address additional needs in the department's department-wide budget.

So there are multiple vacant positions in different divisions within the department that were left unfilled for extended periods of time to accommodate the 5% budget reduction that we imposed in 2021. And with the city's recent economic recovery and the stabilization of our revenue projections, the legislative department has filled or plans to fill all of these vacant positions.

The restored funding would also provide the council with a more substantial consultant budget after significant reductions to that line item in 2020 and 2021. And lastly, this council budget action would allow for new and additional spending in a couple of critical categories.

The first would be technology upgrades to the council chambers to allow for a hybrid in-person and virtual meetings, as well as an increase to council member office budgets to address pay equity issues that have continued for the last five to six years.

So the need for increased office budget dates back to, again, 2015, when a fourth full-time equivalent was added to each council member's staff, but only funded with 50% of the necessary funds for that additional FTE.

So the impact of this action was that the typical legislative aid wage is well below comparable salaries in similar institutions, particularly as it relates to the King County Council legislative aid function and role.

So this council budget action would create slightly more pay equity for those particular positions within our respective council member offices.

And that is what is represented by the entirety of this particular proposed amendment.

I do want to thank Chair Mosqueda and Council Member Peterson for their co-sponsorship of this proposed amendment to the mayor's budget and would appreciate others' support should they be inclined.

Thank you so much.

Sure.

Thank you very much, Council President.

I do want to thank you for your work, Council President, for making sure that we were addressing this parity and equity need.

I want to thank Cody Reiter as well for his work on this within your office.

The Department of Legislative Staff have been working very hard, as you noted, especially during COVID, to make sure that we're maintaining strong communication and services with residents, workers, and all those who are seeking access to provide feedback and engage with the Council.

I think that this goes a long way to make sure that we are fully staffed and that we're working towards a more equitable, working towards more equitable pay across the department.

And I know that we are going to continue to do work and do more to address the legislative aids and parity investments there.

I'm happy that the mayor's proposed budget brings a legislative pay up to four pockets, but we need to make sure that with medium households, We have an incredibly diverse staff and we know we want to make sure that we're investing equitably in our staff and lead as an employer as well.

So I think this is a really important step forward and appreciate the opportunity to partner with you.

I see three hands.

I believe Councilmember Morales, so sorry, I believe I saw Councilmember Peterson pop in first.

He just didn't have his hand up.

So I think I'll do Peterson, Morales, and then Herbold.

Please go ahead, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and thank you, Council President Gonzalez, for being the lead sponsor on this.

I know several of us had similar ideas about how to bolster the legislative department.

I'm very happy to support this amendment.

It benefits the entire city government when the legislative department, the legislative branch is appropriately staffed and that we're supporting our workers here.

There are only 100 or so legislative department employees while there are 12,000 in the executive branch.

And so we should not be shy about supporting our legislative department so that we provide the best service to our constituents and the city government and policymaking as a whole.

So proud to co-sponsor this with you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Council Member Morales.

Yeah, I'm interested in co-sponsoring too.

Thank you.

Councilmember Morales.

Councilmember Morales adding her name to allege 001. Councilmember Herbold.

Thank you.

I'd also like to be added.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Council President, excuse me, Vice Chair Herbold.

Vice Chair Herbold adding her name to allege 001. Councilmembers, any additional comments?

Okay.

Thank you very much for your work on this.

And we will move on to the next section.

We're looking at agenda item number five.

Madam Clerk, could you please read that into the record?

Agenda item five, mayor's office for briefing and discussion.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

And please go ahead.

Hi, Yolanda.

Hello.

Good morning, Yolanda Ho, Council Central staff.

For the mayor's office, we have MO1A1 sponsored by Council Member Peterson.

and co-sponsored by Council Member Sawant and Council Member Stratz.

This is a statement of legislative intent that would request that the mayor's office, urban forestry interdepartmental team and the urban forestry commission submit to the council recommendations for creating an independent chief arborist position to oversee the city's management of trees with an initial focus on the preservation of exceptional trees.

this response would be due to the land use and neighborhoods committee or successor committee by April 8, 2022. Thank you very much.

Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Thank you, colleagues.

I know we all want to do more to adapt to the crisis of climate change, and a key part of that resiliency is conserving what we can of the environmental infrastructure of our urban trees, because trees provide numerous environmental and health benefits.

Currently, the management of our city trees is scattered across several departments, but there's no unifying leader who advocates for the tree infrastructure internally.

cities like Dallas, Charlotte, and others have chief arborists.

Most cities have a lead city arborist who serves as the chief internal advocate for the urban tree canopy.

The council members, this is merely a statement of legislative intent to have the mayor's office consult all the relevant departments and return to council with a proposal to create the position of chief arborist.

The position could include a rapid review of removal of exceptional trees, which are typically the largest trees that provide Seattle with the most environmental and health benefits for our residents.

During the recent heat waves, the cooling benefits of trees were reinforced, and the disparate negative impacts of tree removals were laid bare.

So I believe it's time for Seattle to have a chief arborist.

Thank you.

Council Member, do you mind repeating the cities that had a chief arborist as well that you noted?

A lot of cities just call them the lead city arborist.

Those that call them chief arborists, Dallas, Charlotte, are just a couple that come to mind.

When I was in Oakland, California, they had that position as well.

I'm going to turn it over to councilmember Gonzalez.

Thanks, Chair Mosqueda.

I did see that Lisa K.

came off of mute, so I'm not sure if she had something else to add.

OK.

Thanks for that question, Chair Mosqueda.

I was going to ask that question as well.

Appreciate the response.

I haven't had an opportunity to read the specific language in the slide, but Council Member Peterson, can you talk about whether your slide includes any language related to racial equity in this particular position or analysis of sort of the underlying suite of potential recommendations that could be generated by this position?

I would expect that they would be required to do that, that that would just be part of the creation of a position.

But happy to add that language if it's not there already.

Yeah, I think that because the arguments around climate change are being made to support the creation of a chief arborist position.

then I think it would be imperative that any kind of effort be driven by the city's environmental justice goals and that there would be a strong racial equity lens imposed upon any creation of a new position and or defining of functions and priorities related to the body of work that would ostensibly be assigned to a chief arborist should that position be formed.

I totally agree.

We would absolutely want that.

In fact, we see the racial, the negative racial disparities actually with the removal of trees.

And we want those health benefits and those environmental benefits to be where they haven't been in the past.

So I would welcome that.

I'm happy to hear about what the process is.

I know central staff is listening.

I fully support that clarity.

I'm not sure if that's the right way to put it.

I think the central staff is taking notes as am I.

As we craft the proposed package including conversations like this is going to be formative for the language that ends up in that draft budget for the council's consideration.

I, for example, am noting that you two are saying very similar things on this item, and we will absolutely work with you.

And I see Central Staff nodding as well.

Anything to add to that sort of process question, Allie?

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I would just note, to make sure it is clear, we will update and modify the amendments that will be part of the balancing package.

But if there are items that don't end up in a balancing package and are not brought back for further amendment, we will not be updating these documents.

I'm not seeing any additional comments.

Let's move on to item 6.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm Lisa Kaye.

I would just note before I move on to this particular item that Tom Mikesell will have one walk-on CBA on the retirement system to discuss immediately after this item before we move to the next section on utilities.

So moving to this particular item, Council Budget Action AUD 1A1 would add $562,000 to fund three auditors and two temporary halftime research and evaluation assistants to increase the Office of City Auditor's capacity to meet its expanding workload.

The CBA is sponsored by Council Member Lewis with co-sponsors, Council Members Herbold and Peterson.

So with that, I will turn it over to Council Member Lewis.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Lisa.

So, you know, I really sort of look at this almost in a similar vein to our capacity building in the legislative department itself.

The office of the city auditor is such a critical resource for the oversight function of this council.

that really I think we should take this opportunity in this budget cycle to protect and enhance the ability of our auditor to really drive accountability in the delivery of executive services at the City of Seattle.

I think that we've seen over the last couple of years a lot of really big conflicts in the public and disagreements in the public between the council and the executive over how executive services are delivered.

the efficacy of executive services and addressing really big systemic issues like homelessness, transportation funding priorities, just to keep going down the list.

And one of the biggest tools that we have as a legislative department is working with the city auditor, who is also a legislative branch official, which is not always made completely clear in the public, but the auditor is an independent official appointed by this council without executive input.

and our ability to get exceptionally high-quality, award-winning analysis and assessment from a great auditing team that has helped this council look into bridge funding.

We have a pending audit on sidewalk repair that is going to come out, audits on all sorts of really big priorities that have come down related to public safety investments, related to homelessness policy, related to the navigation team, which have been validating of long held council priorities and really shown that there are more efficacious practices that we can be pursuing as a city and that we can empirically prove it by bringing forward this critical work from the Office of the City Auditor.

earlier this year, my office went to the auditor's office to explore what capacity enhancement could look like.

And this is a proposal that the auditor's office has said would allow them to add considerably more ability to conduct council-requested audits audits requested from members of the public, follow-up on auditing recommendations that have been made but have not been fully realized.

And this is essentially the high-water mark of what could be assumed in one budget cycle in one year.

I think that this could considerably enhance our critical responsibility under the charter to maintain oversight of executive departments and also to to drive more effective service delivery practices, as is our role as a city council in close partnership.

And it'll allow us to pursue more of those kinds of initiatives than what we are currently outfitted to do.

It would also bring us closer to parity with some of our peer governments.

King County government, for example, invests a lot more in their auditor's office than we do in the city of Seattle.

And I think that has led to King County developing a reputation for being an effective and well-run government.

And I would like us to be in a position where our municipality is second to nobody and being able to go to the public and say, we have effective feedback loops.

We believe in effective and efficacious services.

And I think that this proposal gets us closer to that and really helps us be in a position where we're really meeting that charter obligation for oversight.

So with that, I will turn it back over to the chair.

Thank you very much, Council Member Lewis.

Any additional questions?

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Just wanting to note that I rely on the auditor's reports for our policymaking, and it's so critically important to understand if the policies that we are creating are meeting the mark in which they are intended.

I just want to thank the sponsor for bringing this amendment forward and would like to add my name.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss is adding his name to AUD001.

Council Member Strauss.

Council President Gonzales, please go ahead.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda.

I want to thank Councilmember Lewis for bringing forward this additional item.

I did want to just signal, I'm not going to advocate against this particular amendment, but I do just want to put a few things into the record for for you, Madam Chair, to consider as you are evaluating this request.

We will continue to, in my office as the Chair of the Governance and Education Committee and the Council President, we will continue to have conversations with the sponsor of this item as well as with Auditor Jones on the sort of practicalities of implementation of this particular request.

I do want to note that the distinction here is The next item on the agenda is one of whether we want to grow the city auditor's office in addition to addressing some of the budget reductions that they experienced last year.

it to get to its baseline capacity that pre-existed the COVID-related budget reductions.

Our city auditor office was one of the only departments actually citywide that actually realized some budget impacts as a result of that reduction last year.

And so I am pleased that the mayor's proposed budget included a restoration of the city auditor's budget to allow for it to get back to its baseline capacity.

This proposal, however, what it is proposing is an expansion of the capacity from the baseline.

And I would like to have an opportunity to have a conversation with the sponsor and with City Auditor Jones on whether the proposed increase in capacity as proposed here is one that can be operationalized and realized in terms of scale of the proposal.

and whether or not there would be other revenue neutral ways to address the capacity concerns that have been put on the table via this amendment by Councilmember Lewis, including prioritization of other parts of the auditor's work plan, proposed work plan, which does get presented to the City Council for input and consideration that might allow for those capacity issues to be addressed in a revenue neutral manner and reserve general fund dollars for other potential council priorities.

So I did just want to note those early thoughts from my perspective for the record and for the benefit of the budget chair, who I know has a lot of difficult and challenging decisions to make in rebalancing and proposing a new balanced budget.

Thank you, Chair.

I think that's a great point.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council President for that context as well.

Appreciate it.

Councilmember Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

I definitely support this amendment.

I do think we need to grow the city auditor's office.

One of the reasons is that there is a growing body of work such as the surveillance ordinance.

There are things that the auditor has to review.

will have to get an annual review from the auditor.

That body of work is growing.

And we've seen some very successful audits lately.

The Seattle City Light audit that was done for Council Member Mosqueda, and then the bridge audit that was done as well, received national recognition.

And so I think it'll be beneficial to have the city auditor have that additional bandwidth.

I think it is important to look at the capacity issue.

I think several of us have thought of things we need to look further into requiring an audit but we are told there wasn't the capacity so if there is a way to address the capacity issue, that would be the ultimate goal.

It does seem like it will take additional FTEs to do that which I support.

for retirement systems here.

That's R-E-T slash walk-on slash one.

And that would be me who's bringing it forward.

So please go ahead, Tom.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning, members of the committee.

Tom Iksa with your central staff.

Before turning over to Lisa, who will cover ITD on the published agenda, I will discuss this walk-on amendment, which would add $248,000 from the retirement fund to the Seattle City Employees Retirement System, or CSRS, for two retirement member services positions.

At the October 14th meeting, the CSRS Board of Administration approved adding these two positions to deal with workload issues in the member services function of CSRS.

The City Budget Office has indicated that the year-end supplemental legislation that's proposed during this process would add the two positions.

This walk-on amendment would add the funding authority for the 2022 budget.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And as folks know, as part of the role of being budget chair, I also share the Seattle City Employees Retirement Systems Board.

I was not present at the last board meeting, but there was a vote at the board meeting to request the ability to add these two pockets.

Again, as Tom has noted, This is funding that comes from within the Seattle City Employees Retirement System's allotments already, so it has no impact on the general fund.

I also have heard from members of Protech 17 who represent members within CSRS that they are supportive of making sure that there's sufficient staff to address the growing needs and capacity within CSRS.

CSRS has a new pension administration system in 2019. The goal has been able been to make sure that we're keeping current with service requests while working through the backlog of requests.

Again, we're trying to maintain our level of services that we've had over the last few years and make sure that we're making headway on the backlog and turnaround times.

As you all know, across this country and in various departments here within our city, we've seen an increase in retirement service requests, so we want to make sure that we're providing employees and future retirees with high I appreciate your consideration of this walk-on and the second position would allow the two administrative assistant retirement specialists both currently working out of class to return to their normal duties.

I appreciate all the work that service members and frontline staff have been doing in this time to provide high-quality service to our retirees and current employees.

Any additional comments or questions?

Okay, thank you.

I will also note that this is something that Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

Okay, I think we're ready to move on to the next item on our agenda here.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item number seven into the record?

Agenda item seven, Seattle Information Technology Department for briefing and discussion.

Okay, this is the beginning, colleagues, of our second subcategory.

We are lumping a number of departments into a general category of utilities.

Could not function as a city without these multiple types of utilities being provided to our city.

So thank you for your work on this.

Please go ahead and let's talk about digital navigators.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Lisa Kaye again from Central Staff.

I would note that this utility section will cover, as you said, information technology, the public utilities, and City Light.

I'd also note that after I discuss the three ITD discussions or CBAs that are published in the agenda, Eric McConnachie will have a walk-on to present for ITD.

So moving to the first published item, ITD-1A1 would add $697,000 to the IT department for a digital navigators program.

The digital navigators would be community members with cultural competence and technical knowledge.

We'd help residents use computers, the internet, and applications to seek jobs, education, health care, and other services.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Peterson and co-sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and Councilmember Juarez.

And I will turn it over to Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, colleagues, and thank you, Lisa Kay, for that introduction.

Colleagues, in 2020, we unanimously approved the Internet for All Resolution to accelerate our pursuit of universal access to and adoption of affordable, reliable Internet services.

And the digital divide was laid bare during COVID as residents struggled to have sufficient online access to jobs, education, health care, and other vital services.

But the budget proposal from the executive needs more for digital equity.

So I have four amendments that together would enable us to honor our resolution and push ahead with Internet for All, consider it as a four-legged stool needed to support Internet for All.

The first is this amendment, a digital navigator program to help those new to the Internet, including immigrant families, seniors, low-income residents, others who benefit from technical assistance, The second is maintaining the recent increase in the technology matching fund for local nonprofits.

We'll get to that later.

There'll be Wi-Fi hotspots that we can add for libraries.

That's in the library discussion we'll have later.

And just a basic requirement for more accountability and transparency in the budget documents so that we can track the progress of Internet for All.

This particular budget amendment, ITD001A001, creates the digital navigator program to help those who need technical assistance to access and use the internet for jobs, education, health care, and other vital services.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Are there any additional comments or questions?

I had one comment, excuse me, one question, Council Member Peterson, and perhaps you're welcome to defer to central staff.

We did do some work last year that you noted in this document to increase digital navigators.

Can you confirm for me how this is different or how this would be additive to what we did last year and whether or not we have any intel on the central staff side about whether those dollars truly went out as we had directed in the wake of COVID?

As I understand it, we were, because of the one-time federal money, we were able to look at the technology matching fund and expand the number of organizations that received funding.

I think 55 applicants, but they had only funded 15. So we were able to fund an additional 14, I believe, of those applicants.

And we do have an amendment for the technology matching fund.

Some of those nonprofits will provide similar types of assistance, but the digital navigator program is now a national best practice to provide technical assistance.

So it would really be standing up that program so that we can actually move the needle on internet for all instead of treading water.

Very helpful.

Thank you very much.

Lisa, anything to add?

I don't.

Okay, wonderful.

I'm not seeing additional hands.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Let's move on to item IT002.

Okay, thank you, Council Member.

Item ITD2A1 would add $300,000 to the Information Technology Department for the Technology Matching Fund.

The technology matching fund was started in 1997 to support community-driven solutions to achieving digital equity and provides competitive grants of up to $25,000 to qualifying organizations.

Grant recipients provide a match of cash or of in-kind service.

The 2022 proposed budget includes $320,000 for the fund.

And this is sponsored by Council Member Peterson and co-sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and Council Member Juarez.

Thank you very much.

successful program.

But traditionally, the number of applications far exceed the dollars available.

And so to increase access and adoption of internet services, we have to double down on this.

In fact, we did last fall.

Or, well, excuse me, we did earlier this year.

However, that's not going to extend into next year unless we do something about it.

So if we want to continue to provide the same level in 2022, we need to increase the funding for the technology matching fund so that it's steady.

As I mentioned, we had 55 applications earlier this year and were able to fund only 15. Then we doubled that to 30. So this would basically enable us to make sure we always have approximately 30 going forward that are funded so that we don't recede or backtrack on this when we're trying to to be able to get the last 10% of the city access and even a greater percent to adopt and use the Internet in a safe and effective manner.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

I'm not seeing additional hands so I will ask one more question about this.

I guess I need a little bit more clarification on how this item and the one we just spoke to are related.

The first question, the first question that I asked, it sounded like we needed to have this because we had so much of a need, but we can't fulfill that need for the digital navigators without the technical technology matching fund.

Is that correct?

Well, I know we want to do it all.

And so this is what we're trying to do with the Digital Navigator program is stand up that national best practice here to assist those who might have access, but they have not adopted the internet.

They might be immigrant families, seniors, low-income residents who who have access, could have access, but haven't gotten the service, don't know how to use it.

And so this digital navigator program is a trusted group of community members who are able to make that happen.

The technology matching fund is a much broader program addressing all sorts of digital divide problems.

And so it's left up to those groups to decide how to do it.

I see.

Lisa, anything to add to that?

I think Council Member Peterson mentioned it properly that digital navigators is one type of meeting the digital equity divide.

And that, in fact, some of the matching funds have been for grants that would do that sort of work.

But again, there were 55 applications, I think, and 15 of those were filled for the matching funds.

And so a lot of those other programs that were not funded because there wasn't enough money would do things other than the digital navigator type program.

Excellent, appreciate it.

Okay, Council Member Peterson, thank you so much.

I'm not seeing any additional questions on this one.

Let's move on to IDT 003.

Okay, this is ITD 3A1.

This is a statement of legislative intent asking for an expenditures report on Internet for All and digital equity in the 2022 adopted budget and all future proposed budgets.

This is sponsored by Council Member Peterson and co-sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and Council Member Juarez.

Excellent, thank you very much.

Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you.

And I know, colleagues, as we've searched through the budget document, finding programs and efforts that we all care about, the budget document is sometimes not set up to do that very well.

And so we were having to, even though we have the Internet for All resolution, we have an action plan, we have eight strategies to expand access and adoption of affordable, reliable internet service.

When you look at the budget, it's either absent or it's scattered in different places.

And so for increased transparency and accountability, this slide would request that the city budget office, before they adopt this budget document, that they bring it all together in one place, what they're doing for Internet for All and digital equity, and that when they propose the budget next year, they do the same, so that we can see the year-over-year investments.

Obviously, we can have Seattle IT and other departments come to our committees and give annual reports, but with this budget document that states our values, I think it's really important to bring it all together so that we can see whether we are doing enough fiscally to close the digital divide.

Are there any additional questions on this?

I got to ask, you haven't done anything like this in the past?

Well, we actually last year, we had to tell the executive to put Internet for All in the budget so that the public knew that we had passed it and that it was part of the ongoing budget.

So I know some of us were surprised when this proposed budget came forward.

There wasn't an Internet for All section anymore.

So we're simply saying, put it in there again, please, because this is important.

Great, thank you.

Allie, anything to add to that?

I see a pop on.

No, nothing to add.

Thank you.

OK.

And Lisa, anything to add?

No, I just wanted to remind you that there was one walk on ITD.

Oh, thank you for that reminder.

This would be Eric McConaghy.

Wonderful.

Just one second.

Hey, Eric, thanks for being here.

Hi.

So we have walk-on amendment, ITD walk-on slash one.

Please go ahead, Eric.

Yeah, and just for the record, I'm still Eric McConaghy.

I'm with the Council of Central Staff.

The effect of this amendment, this council budget action would add $1.3 million of general fund to the Seattle Information Technology Department, ITD, for cybersecurity enhancements.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Peterson.

And I'd like to take the moment now to note an inadvertent omission that another sponsor of this, a co-sponsor is Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you for your noting of that.

The total $1.3 million in general fund would be in two pieces, $850,000 for one-time spending in 2022 and $465,000 of ongoing spending beginning in 2022. Of the one-time spending in 2022, General Fund, $300,000 would affect one of the programs, excuse me, one of the CIP projects within ITD.

With that, I think I'll pass the mic.

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, and thank you, Eric, for that summary.

Council members, we know there have been multiple disruptive, invasive, and expensive cyber attacks throughout the United States in 2020 and 2021, reported widely in the news media.

And I think we all share the concern and want to make sure that all of our systems are protected.

The good news is we have a very strong Seattle Information Technology Department.

This will, this walk-on amendment, the reason it had to be walked on was simply because we were trying to, it took us longer than we had hoped to sort of piece together where all the pieces were in the proposed budget to see that some were already there and that some could benefit from enhancement.

So this amendment would enhance cybersecurity for the city of Seattle.

And it does it by moving forward in a more rapid fashion with some of the best practices, including multi-factor authentication, and helping our vendors with their, basically helping them with their cybersecurity as well, because there's a lot of financial risk and transactions.

We want to make sure that our vendors have what they need.

We're also making sure that we are monitoring the, types of incidents so that we can actually, what's common for other jurisdictions and large corporations is to hire companies to sort of test the system from the outside to find out whether there are any weaknesses.

We don't know of any weaknesses right now.

We just want to step up our game because we know that those who are doing the cyber attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

So this helps us to accelerate that.

And we also have with Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities, we have an extra responsibility to make sure electricity is not interrupted, clean water delivery is not interrupted.

And so, you know, we don't want to look back on 2021 and think we could have done something more for cybersecurity.

We want to do everything we can, and that's what this amendment is trying to do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, because this was a walk-on amendment, if you haven't had the chance to read it in depth, now is a good time to ask the council member who is prime sponsor or central staff any additional questions you might have.

Okay.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson, for offering this as an amendment.

I know colleagues will be taking a look, and if they have follow-up questions, we'll be getting back in touch with you or Eric McConaughey, as I will as well.

Thank you very much.

Let's move on to agenda item number eight.

Madam Clerk, could you read agenda item number eight, please?

Agenda item eight, Seattle Public Utilities for briefing and discussion.

We are going to take a recess in about 43 minutes, so thank you for your work today to get us through these amendments, understand them, have some discussion, and also be cautious about the time restraints that we have.

Okay, thank you, council members.

The first item in Seattle Public Utilities is SPU 1A1.

This council budget action would add $175,000 of general fund to Seattle Public Utilities, also known as SPU, to provide additional cleanup services for things like garbage, sharps, and graffiti in the Chinatown International District.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Morales, and it is co-sponsored by Council Member Lewis and Council President Gonzalez.

Council Member Morales, anything to add?

Hi everyone.

Sorry.

Yes.

Briefly, the intent here is to provide some more support to the Chinatown International District.

That is the area of town with the densest restaurant district actually in the state, the largest amount of low-income business and property owners.

as well as the largest concentration of low income residents in the city.

We do have the city's clear alley program, which provides safer alleys and provides for trash pickup.

But the way that it's structured right now, it creates an undue financial burden on the businesses and residents in the CID.

Businesses and residents are expected to pay a monthly fee for cleanup.

for trash pickup, plus $7 to $8 per 30-gallon bag of waste that they're disposing, plus service fees for compost and recycling.

When we're talking about the high volume of restaurant service in the neighborhood, the high concentration of low-income business owners and property owners and residents, programs like this really don't offer the kind of incentives that are affordable to folks in that neighborhood.

They simply can't afford it.

The business improvement area in the neighborhood does provide some support, but again, because of the economic status of the neighborhood, the BIA isn't really able to generate the kind of revenue that they need to keep pace with the support for trash pickup that the neighborhood needs.

And so we are requesting or submitting this amendment to provide additional cleanup service.

The request was for $350,000 over a two-year period.

And so we're submitting the amendment for half of that amount for the first year.

I want to thank Council Member Juarez for already indicating that she would like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Council Member Juarez, adding her name to SPU-001.

Thank you.

Any additional comments?

Okay, I guess I have a question.

This is always a risky to ask question that I should probably know the answer to on live television here, but can you remind me how this pairs with our BIA investments?

If there's similar BIAs that are trying to do similar cleanup in other areas of our city, how do we, you know, leverage that investment from the BIAs that are taxing themselves and where does sort of the opportunity come in to try to both bring private investment along with public investment up together at the same time?

Well, I'll take a stab at it and Brian might be able to provide more information.

But as you know, the BIA supplements, it is not intended to be the resource for regular trash pickup.

And so for this program, they are able to support some pickup here.

But because this, you know, we have The different business improvement areas across the city have widely different revenue and bottom lines and vary tremendously in how they are able to support their different business neighborhood business districts.

And it is just the case for the Chinatown International District that though there exists a BIA, their annual revenues are relatively small compared to the downtown Seattle Association, for example, and so they do provide some support, but it is not, they're just not able to provide the kind of support that's needed in order to keep pace with the trash pickup that is needed in this neighborhood, particularly given, you know, the high amount of food waste and trash that is generated by the restaurants.

Great, thank you for that clarification.

Council Member Swamp, please go ahead.

Just wanted to add, it goes one second.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Sawant.

Councilmember Sawant adding her name to SPU-001.

Appreciate it.

Okay, let's move on.

The next item in here is SPU-002.

Thank you.

Yes, SPU-2A1.

So this council budget action would impose a proviso on SPU that restricts $100,000 of SPU's general fund appropriations in the 2022 budget to ensure that Second Chance in West Seattle is provided regular service by one of SPU's mobile hygiene trailers.

The primary sponsor for this item is Councilmember Herbold, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Lewis.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Herbold, please go ahead.

So much.

This is the second of three budget actions related to Camp Second Chance, as mentioned earlier, and it's connected to the item that we discussed This funding would reserve resources to ensure that the mobile hygiene trailer that SPU is purchasing or that access to the mobile hygiene trailer will be available at the site in recognition that our understanding from SPU that its mobile hygiene trailer will be intended to rotate among locations.

this merely ensures that Camp Second Chance is one of those locations.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Swan, I believe your hand is a carryover.

Okay, great.

Or did you have something?

I just wanted to add my name as co-sponsor.

I spoke about Camp Second Chance previously and won't repeat those points, but I would just like to add my name.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Sawant.

Councilmember Sawant adding her name to SPU-002.

Quick question for central staff.

Appreciate the incredible neighborhood support specifically for Camp Second Chance.

I think that that's a great example of the type of support we see from neighbors when tiny homes and sanctioned encampments are allowed to be successful and have the support of services needed.

And thank you for the attention on this.

with the 21 hygiene stations and two hygiene trailers that are to be funded in the baseline budget.

Can you remind us overall, central staff, how many of our section encampments are going to be able to receive additional support and where there may still be a gap in services that we are trying to shore up?

I think specifically, you know, for Camp Second Chance, we want to make sure that there is the ongoing services at these centers.

How many other locations are intended to be served in there.

There are folks who are going to be left out of the existing baseline investment in the proposed budget.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

I can try to follow up with more information.

I'll tell you what I do know, which is a little bit of what Council Member Herbold already said.

So there are two hygiene trailers.

One of them is currently at a static location at King Street Station and is intended to continue as a static location either there or on Roy Street.

The second trailer that SPU has purchased currently has been serving the University Heights neighborhood seven days a week.

The intent is for it to serve three to four sites on a rotational basis.

So it is a mobile hygiene center, or sorry, hygiene trailer.

And as Council Member Herbold said, so this action would request that Camp Second Chance be one of those three or four sites.

I don't have information, sorry, about how many total sites there are.

So I couldn't tell you how many of the grand total is being served.

Okay, thank you very much, Brian.

Look forward to more information about that when you get the chance.

Council President, please go ahead.

I just wanted to add my name as a sponsor.

Thank you, Chair.

Excellent.

Council President Gonzalez.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to the SPU-002.

Excellent.

Let's move on.

SPU-003.

Okay, thank you.

SPU 3A1.

This council budget action would add $1.4 million of general fund to SPU to provide additional wastewater and cleanup services for recreational vehicles, or RVs.

The item indicates that SPU would have the ability to direct this funding across three RV services, the RV wastewater program, purple bag distribution at RV sites, and additional trash pickup services for RVs, which are known as geocleans.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Sawant, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Morales and Lewis.

Wonderful, thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Council Member Swatt.

Thank you.

This is one of the two budget amendments my office has proposed to provide services for people who are forced to live in their vehicles, which means half of the unhoused people in Seattle.

And this budget amendment would increase funding for Seattle Public Utilities for garbage collection and sewer pump outs because the current programs are not nearly sufficient to serve all the RVs and other vehicles that people are now relying on for shelter in Seattle in the We want to make sure that we are in the context of not only the recent pandemic and economic crisis, but the ongoing and ever-exacerbating housing affordability crisis.

This would improve the lives of residents by providing access to the basic sanitation services that those of us who are housed take for granted.

And it also would improve the across their neighborhood.

And in fact, in my in our district in district three, just and I've spoken to council members and our briefings before just blocks from where my family lives.

We see many of our unhoused neighbors being forced to live in RVs.

And we've spoken to the residents of the vehicles and also housed residents.

And it's clear that even though there may be disagreements on other aspects of the homelessness crisis, this is something that they are in strong agreement of that as long as there are people who are being forced to live in their vehicles because of the housing affordability crisis, because of the overall crisis of inequality.

we should have these basic services provided to our vehicular residents.

And as I mentioned, this is one of the two budget amendments regarding services for vehicular residents.

The other, which will be discussed tomorrow, establishes three safe parking lots if adopted.

And these two budget amendments would add up to $6 million to support vehicular residents, which is something that has been brought forward by not only the People's Budget campaign for this year, but also the Solidarity Budget and by Real Change.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Sawant, just reiterating a point that you have made and central staff has made, half of our unsheltered population in the city lives in vehicles.

So I want to make sure folks sit with that information because that includes kiddos and families as well as individuals.

All right.

I'm not seeing additional comments or questions.

Thank you, Councilmember Sawant, for your work on this.

Let's move on to 004, SPU 004.

Thank you.

So this is the last item for SPU.

As you said, SPU 4A1.

This is a statement of legislative intent that would request that SPU, in coordination with the Seattle Department of Transportation, perform an assessment of potential drainage options for Finney Avenue North between North 125th Street and North 130th Street.

This item requests that SPU provide a report to the Council's Transportation and Utilities Committee or its successor committee by June 1st of 2022 The primary sponsor for this item is Councilmember Juarez, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Peterson and Strauss.

Thank you.

Councilmember Juarez, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Speaking as Queen of the North for Districts 4, 5, and 6, Let me tell you what this has been.

This issue with community members approaching my office has been going on well before I was elected in 2016. Concerning the flooding that occurs on the street, resulting in flooding in basements and risky behavior for children walking to a Broadview Thompson nearby in Bitter Lake Community Center.

This street, like many in District 5 and up north, have no sidewalks and children frequently walk in the middle of the road to avoid puddles that form on the borders.

So we see this a lot up in the north end with lack of sidewalks.

So what we're seeing is we want our children, our neighbors to be able to safely walk.

in their neighborhood without the fear of getting hit by a car, which as you know, D5 has the highest pedestrian rate of deaths.

So again, this is a perennial safety issue that has been going on forever that affects obviously disabled folks, elders, and as you would say, Council President Chair and Madam Chair, kiddos.

And so we would like this slide to request that SPU and SDOT come together to create an action plan for moving forward to provide us with options and work with the stakeholders to communicate the results of the assessment.

I should say, though, and thank you, SPU and SDOT, that they have always been great ongoing work outside of the budget cycle process.

But I think we're finally gaining some momentum, if you will, some mass here to actually getting more targeted areas that are more high traffic.

And as you know, those are around light rail stations that will be around schools that will be around community centers, grocery stores.

And so that's what we're asking for here.

So that's all I got for you.

Thank you.

Well, that is great.

Thank you very much, Council Member Juarez.

Is there any additional comments or questions?

Okay, I'm not seeing any, I believe that concludes the SPU section.

Did I hear that correctly?

Thank you very much to our team.

Let's move on to the last item in this category that is utilities, Seattle City Light.

Please go ahead, Eric.

Hi, this is Eric McConaughey, Council of Central Staff.

This next item is City Light 1A1.

Oh, excuse me.

I need to ask.

I missed a step.

That's my mistake.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item number nine into the record?

Oh, I apologize.

Agenda item nine, Seattle City Light for briefing and discussion.

Excellent.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please go ahead, Eric.

Thank you.

This is a CL1A1, and this council budget action would add $160,000 of general fund to Seattle City Light to support the installation of streetlights along Northwest 48th Street between 8th Avenue Northwest and 6th Avenue Northwest and along the alleys north and south of Northwest 48th Street.

The source for this ad is general fund because street lighting is a general government function that can't be funded with revenues from city light rate payers.

Also, please note that the city, in an ongoing way, would pay for the costs of the electric power and maintenance of any new street lights constructed under this proposal.

This is sponsored by Council Member Strauss and with co-sponsors Morales and, excuse me, Council Member Morales and Council Member Lewis.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you chair Mosqueda and colleagues.

This request comes from my regularly scheduled district office hours where we had a request for increased lighting for safety measures in the alleyways.

This led to us doing a walking tour of the entire neighborhood to assess what areas would need additional lighting.

and through this process, I walked with Mike Haynes and Steven Crum of Seattle City Light and Amanda from my office in the dark.

I took them up unimproved alleyways, up hills, through the dark.

I just want to thank everyone for going on that walk with me.

What we found is, and colleagues, I try to refrain from the long old history of Ballard being its own city and how Fremont was developed.

What we have here is two different plats that were developed and a street does not have any streetlights in the Fremont area.

And so what as Eric noted for the record is that we can't use ratepayer funds to put streetlights on the street It's a very long block.

It is well, it has a good tree canopy.

And so there's very little light.

When we did our walking tour as city employees, we had to use our flashlights just to navigate the street.

And so that is why I am bringing this amendment here, because we need to have The general fund dollars pay for this improvement so that ratepayer dollars, I guess, I won't jump to ratepayer dollars but that we will also then be spending our general fund dollars on the electrical activation of these lights.

We have the neighbors have coalesced around this and have done extensive outreach to everyone on the block, and there is wide consensus that this is a desired improvement that they would like to see.

So thank you to the neighbors of 48th Street and thank you colleagues for considering this request.

Thank you very much Council Member Strauss.

Any additional comments or questions?

I'm going to turn it over to councilmember Peterson.

and have a better understanding of if there's similar efforts that are going on within your committees and you have other ideas that you want to share that may correlate, please feel free to do that, as well as questions are helpful for this deliberative process.

So don't be shy.

And Council Member Strauss, please go ahead again.

Thank you, chair.

Just wanted to add some additional context.

This is a residential area in an industrial zone.

And so there are added public safety issues because of being adjacent to an industrial zone.

And I just also want to thank City Light for doing what they could.

For the quick wins, there are a number of streetlights out on 8th Avenue.

There are a number of places that City Light could add streetlights themselves.

this request to bring streetlights to a street that does not have them, and requires a flashlight to navigate in the dark, needs our support here today.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Strauss.

Okay, let's go ahead and move on then.

I believe that concludes our City Lights section, and if there's no other walk-on amendments for this subcategory, we'll move on to subcategory 3, Arts.

education, and culture.

Madam Clerk, could you please read item number 10 into the record?

Agenda item 10, Seattle Public Library for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Lisa.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

SBA 1A1 would add $99,000 to the Seattle Public Library to purchase additional hotspot devices for checkout by library patrons and or to maintain existing hotspot devices.

Just some background, the hotspots provide users a wireless connection to the Internet for up to 15 devices.

In 2020, the library's 675 devices were checked out nearly 8,000 times.

The library also provides 325 hotspots to community partners.

This council budget action is sponsored by Councilmember Peterson and co-sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and Councilmember Juarez.

Thank you very much.

Go ahead, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

This harkens back to the Internet for All additions that we have, where we talked about the digital navigators, the technology matching fund, and improving the transparency and accountability in the budget.

This is the addition of the hotspots that are one of the most efficient ways to increase instant access to high-quality Internet.

So I think central staff summed it up very well.

I'm going to go ahead and close the meeting.

Any additional comments or questions on this?

Thank you so much.

We do know that this has been a need that has been expressed before.

I know Councilmember Juarez when she was sharing the library levy discussions, we heard a tremendous need from folks who are living in vehicles and shelters about the way that these hotspots provide a connection to jobs, health care, and other services.

Thank you.

This is the second and last of the Public Library Council budget actions.

SPL 2-A-1 would add $1.7 million to one-time money to the public libraries to provide air conditioning as a climate adaptation measure in the Northeast and Southwest branch libraries.

The CBA would also impose a proviso so the funding could not be used for any other purpose.

This is sponsored by Council Member Peterson and co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Samant.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Colleagues, as part of our adapting to the reality and the crisis of climate change, we have to have these cooling centers throughout the city.

During the heat waves this past summer, there were a couple of libraries that, there were a few libraries that had to be shut down because they did not have air conditioning so they could not be libraries and they could also not be cooling centers.

And so there are, there is a plan, a capital improvement plan to upgrade, to seismically upgrade several of the older libraries and when they do that, air conditioning will be installed.

However, there are two libraries that are that are not part of that plan.

And one is in the southwest and one is in the northeast.

And so this would provide the funding to do that climate adaptation work to create those cooling centers so that there's not the geographic gap which existed this past summer.

thank Councilmember Peterson for bringing this forward and point to the fact during the summer's heat wave, Southwest District 1 was not very well served, not just because of the absence of a cooling system at this library, but because of our isolation associated with both our geographic distance from the location of many cooling centers through the city, but also the bridge being down.

Even when the bridge is up and functioning, it's a challenge for District 1 folks on the peninsula to access emergency shelter, whether or not you're talking about winter response in the wintertime or cooling centers in heat waves.

So really appreciate the attention to this need.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Council Member Herbold.

Any additional comments?

Okay, thank you very much.

Let's move on.

I'm looking at agenda item number 11. Madam Clerk, can you read it into the record for us?

Agenda item 11, Department of Education and Early Learning for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, we have about 15 minutes left, 18 minutes left.

Let's see how much we can get through.

I'd love to finish deal and get on to one more section if we can.

Please go ahead, central staff.

Thank you very much.

So the first item for the Department of Education and Early Learning or DEEL as it's known is DEEL 1A1.

This council budget action would add one million dollars of one-time general fund to DEEL for culturally responsive and identity affirming programming for Black girls and young women and Black queer and transgender youth.

This item would continue funding a body of work that was initially funded in last year's budget with one-time funds.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Morales and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Lewis.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead.

Customer Morales.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I do have several amendments that address the lack of access to opportunity that many of our young people face.

As you know, one of my priorities is to address the racial wealth gap, and that really begins with the kind of exposure that many black and brown young people get to things like mentoring and tutoring and leadership opportunities.

So as Brian mentioned before, We did fund DEEL last year to develop strategies for increasing their investment in black girls and queer and transgender youth.

The study they conducted was presented to council in June and really highlighted that black girls and trans youth are made invisible by many of our systems.

So this proposal seeks to fund additional organizations that are doing the work to provide safe space, for young people and to ensure that they are seen and heard and affirmed, and would increase access to this programming for the 2022-2023 school year.

Thank you very much.

Any additional questions or comments?

Okay, I'm not seeing any.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

Let's move on to item number 002.

Thank you.

Deal 2A1 is the next item, and this council budget action would add $2 million of general fund to deal for culturally responsive afterschool programming for middle and high school students with a priority for programs that support immigrant and refugee youth and provide in-language support.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Morales, and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Mosqueda.

Let's go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

I don't have much to add.

Thank you.

Except that this does address, as I was saying, the need for providing support, continued support, especially for after school programming.

I think we heard from lots of folks calling in from El Centro de la Raza who are talking about the need to be able to provide after-school mentorship, tutoring programs, and family support in language.

And so this amendment seeks to provide that support.

Thank you very much.

And Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

I just want to have my name added as a cosponsor to this item.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Council President Gonzalez.

Council President Gonzalez is adding her name to deal 002. I also want to thank Council Member Morales and having had the chance to see a cellar on Friday last week and hearing more about the impact of this potential reduction, really appreciate the opportunity to co-sponsor this as well.

We know that these services are not only providing essential care for our community and specifically our Latinx community, but also making it possible for people to be able to go to work and not worry about the safety of their kiddos, and especially in this time, we want to preserve these programs, not reduce them.

So thank you for bringing this forward.

Happy to be a co-sponsor on this.

Okay, let's move on.

Item number 003.

Thank you.

Deal 3A1, this council budget action would add $50,000 of one-time general fund to deal to cover the non-labor operating costs for opening toddler childcare classrooms, primarily serving parents attending college, college faculty, and the surrounding community.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Juarez, and it is co-sponsored by Council Member Morales and Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

So as you know, due to the challenges of COVID-19 and a transition to virtual learning, North Seattle College closed their child care center in March of 2020. We've been working closely with Dr. Crawford, the president of North Seattle College, to get a pre-K and child care, to get their pre-K and child care program back online.

So this funding aims to assist the college to reopen its child care facility.

This budget action would support the operating costs for two classrooms, providing 28 children high quality care and allowing their parents, students and employees of North Seattle College to continue to pursue higher education or teach as faculty members.

We have learned that 69% of families supported by this child care facility, which has been in existence for quite a while, are BIPOC and 51% speak English as a second language.

And it has gotten even more diverse as the college has grown.

Childcare, as you all understand, I'm sure and agree with, should not be a barrier to education or certainly not to employment.

Since the opening of the John Lewis Memorial Bridge and Northgate Link light rail, this is one of the most accessible childcare facilities in the city.

If you recall the John Lewis Bridge, it lands right, almost right next to the childcare facility, and that was by design.

Originally, the bridge was supposed to be at the south end of the campus, but we felt that the north end was better, would provide more access for people who could drop their children off at the childcare, those that either go to school or work there, or use the childcare to come over across the bridge to be employed at the Northgate Plaza or the Northgate area.

So anyway, we would love to see the school back up and running as soon as possible.

And I think I've shared this with you before.

We are, I think the approximation for those boarding at Northgate light rail is about 15,000 and we're still counting.

So hopefully this is what our very first step that we started talking about four or five years ago, besides transit oriented development or transit oriented housing, we have transit oriented child care.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

I just quickly want to thank you as well for the work that you've done over the years on the John Lewis Memorial Bridge.

I've only had a chance to vote on that bridge four times, but I know that you've worked on helping to get funding secured for that bridge throughout four mayors.

So thank you for the work there.

You know, you have taken it from what sounded like it was a dark tunnel that was not accessible.

And because of the work that you and council did to expand the vision there really actually made it an accessible, walkable and beautiful bridge dedicated to John Lewis.

So I just wanted to highlight that history and thank you for your work there.

I want to share, if you don't mind, Madam Chair, just briefly, this is the work of this council and the council before.

And like you said, four mayors, including yourself, Council President Gonzalez, have always been supportive of this bridge and widening it and making it more accessible for strollers and moms and wheelchairs and students.

And so, you know, as you all know, I I can't take credit, but a little, but it's mainly been the legislative body and the goodwill of the last four mayors that had made it clear that the city of Seattle would contribute through SDOT more money to make it a better bridge, a prettier bridge, a safer bridge, a more accessible bridge.

So my thanks and my hands up to my colleagues and to the last four mayors.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Appreciate your leadership on that.

We did it, so good to take a moment to recognize that hard work that went in over multiple years.

Let's continue on.

DL004.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

So the next item, yes, is DL4A1.

This council budget action would add $500,000 of one-time general fund to deal to assist Seattle Public Schools with improving bus riding technology, including the purchase of software and devices for each of the buses.

The primary sponsor for this item is Councilmember Peterson, and it is co-sponsored by Councilmember Morales and Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chairman Mosqueda.

Colleagues, this is a request from our School Traffic Safety Committee, which is comprised of school district staff, SDOT staff, and community leaders concerned with pedestrian safety.

It's also a request from several school board members, and it will be welcomed by Seattle Public Schools.

This amendment provides a one-time capital investment to enable Seattle Public Schools to address the school bus crisis by using technology.

to help bus drivers, parents, and the school district.

The technology includes routing transportation software and GPS tablets on each bus, but that would be owned by the school district.

This would make it much easier for bus drivers to staff and understand the revised routes that they have to get kids to where they need to go on time.

Currently directions are printed on paper and drivers on new routes have difficulty staying on time causing a cascade of late buses throughout the city and then parents are left wondering when their children will arrive.

These parents and students are our constituents too and this is a way that we can provide one-time funding to help Seattle Public Schools with an immediate need.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Peterson.

So I want to thank you and the members of the school board for the work you've done to identify this issue.

Last year, I know we continued to receive concerns and calls from school board members who were very concerned about the city's role in helping to provide cleanup, for example, and housing services for those who were unsheltered and on or near school property.

And that very much felt like it was the city's responsibility to be a better partner there.

And again, I think it's lamentable that we weren't a better partner in helping our school board members at that time.

On this question, I'm just wondering what the role of the school board is and or the role of OSPI and the state legislature to help provide the technology needed for these school buses.

It sounds like this is something different than using regular GPS tracking, perhaps on the smart device.

So can you tell me a little bit more about the role that the school board or the state legislature might have on this type of request?

Well, the school district, we're reading about this crisis right now in the paper, and I think that the school board's budgetary options and ability to raise funding is very limited, whereas we're in the middle of our budget process now.

We have multiple sources of funds.

There are multiple requests.

I mean, we have the Department of Education Early Learning, of course, to help support schools, public schools.

So this is just a one-time capital funding that we've been asked about to support.

Again, the school district would own this equipment.

But the problem right now is bus drivers are printing it out on paper, and it's what's contributing to the crisis.

Thank you very much.

I see Council Member Morales, then Council Member Strauss, then Council President Gonzalez.

Council Member Morales, please go ahead.

That was a mistake.

My apologies.

No problem.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

It just so happened I met with some of these folks yesterday during my District 6 office hours.

We've got a number of District 6 residents on the School Safety Commission here.

So just looking at my notes, I want to highlight a couple things that I heard yesterday, which is that, as we know, the state legislature provides a bucket of general funding for transportation.

That does not necessarily include McKinney-Vento requirements for transporting students who are experiencing homelessness or home instability to and from their schools.

As we know, if a student is enrolled at a school and moves to Linwood because of housing instability, the school district is still responsible for getting that student from Linwood to their Seattle Public School.

Granted, this is, and I told the group yesterday, this is squarely, you know, within the purview, the state legislature needs to fund this.

And as we know from the And luckily I'm blanking on the name of the lawsuit at this point, because we've gotten far enough away from it but you know we do know that the state is not funding the school district at the rate that it should be when I pushed back on the conversation last night.

I suggested that as the school district is restarting contract negotiations and RFPs for future carriers, that this proposal is included in that contract so that as technology changes, we don't need to come back to this conversation.

And it does seem that this is a need that is needed today because, again, you can't just take a phone and plug in the GPS route for the bus route on your phone because of the length and difficulty of navigating school buses through residential streets.

So the case was made to me even after I pushed back yesterday, and I support this as well.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Gonzalez?

Council President Gonzalez?

Thank you.

Just wanted to a little context here and perhaps some nuance.

I am listed as a co-sponsor of this item.

I do continue to support it.

I will say that I see this as a stopgap measure to the realities around the ongoing transportation difficulties related to how SPS meets the needs of transportation for those children in Seattle Public Schools who continue to rely on the busing system to get to and from school and class every single day.

I want to flag that in my conversations with Councilmember Peterson, when we talked about this particular item, I was very transparent in my concerns that I think that the way that SPS is continuing to managed transportation needs of students is unsustainable.

and that the city of Seattle should not be continuously put in the position of being the backfill or the safety net for addressing many of those systemic concerns.

Now, that being said, again, getting back to the need to address the realities of our constituents' ability to get to and from school.

They don't get to vote, but they're still our constituents, is really important.

And so I do think that Um, while we continue to work with our partners on the school board, while we continue to work with the administration over at the Seattle public schools on those long term.

Issues related to to to transportation in the school system.

I do think it's important to provide this technology as a way to create some greater efficiency within the bus system that will hopefully yield some positive results in being able to in the context of having less bus riders, drivers, to really sort of get more kids to and from schools.

And I know that all of us hear from parents within the public schools system talking about how buses sometimes just don't show up, sometimes they're an hour to two hours late.

And so I think that this technology investment could help create some efficiencies again while we as a good partner work with Seattle Public Schools on addressing the longer term structural issues that frankly have continued to worsen year after year after year.

And so I think it behooves us to build strong partnership there and to work we're going to continue to work towards a long-term solution.

So I just wanted to offer that up as the chair and other council members think about this particular potential investment.

Great.

Thank you very much, Council President.

I think that was a good example of sort of the dialogue, the questions, the back and forth that we'd love to hear on some of these amendments as we go forth.

We will take one more item here to close out deal, and then we will go to our recess, colleagues.

Thank you for the discussion.

Deal 005. Thank you.

So the last item, yes, for deal is 5A1.

This council budget action would add $450,000 of general fund to deal to supplement funding for a restorative justice pilot program in Seattle schools.

This item would continue funding a body of work that was initially funded in last year's budget and that has $550,000 of funding included in the 2022 proposed budget.

The primary sponsor for this item is Council Member Morales and it is co-sponsored by Council Members Strauss and Villis.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Well, as Brian said, we did fund this last year at $550,000 for a restorative justice pilot that is a partnership with Seattle Public Schools and with community-based organizations to really try to build out restorative practices in the infrastructure of schools to move away from punitive practices.

This year, I am hoping to expand the program with an allocation that would allow us to increase the number of schools and the number of organizations who can participate in the pilot so that as a city, we can learn from a few different environments and learn as much as possible about how to fund and how to implement these kinds of changes citywide.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

Any additional questions?

Council Member Morales, is this bringing to scale some of the existing services if we're already providing $550,000 from support from last year, or is it?

So this pilot allows, I think, to work with two schools, and the hope is that we would be able to start working with additional schools.

As I mentioned when we talked about this last year, there is a lot of practices in place in some schools, but what this really is getting at is how we change culture within the administration, within the staff.

So it isn't just about teaching the kids peacemaking circles.

It's about addressing some of the culture, particularly when we're talking about punitive discipline, that exists within the administration of the schools.

And so the hope is that we can expand that work into more than just one or two high schools in the area.

Thank you for the clarification.

I'm not seeing any additional questions on this.

Thank you for bringing this forward.

And Brian, thanks for everything on DEEL.

I think we're at the end of our deal presentation.

We have arts next, and we do have one walk-on amendment there.

So I'm going to go ahead and call us into recess.

We will come back again at 2 p.m.

When we come back, we will start with arts and finish out the rest of this section here before we move on to planning and community workforce development.

With that, if there's no objection, the committee will be in recess until 2 p.m.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

If there's no objection, we'll see you at 2 p.m.

Thanks, all.