Seattle City Council Briefing 3/3/2025

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is March 3rd, 2025, and the council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.03.

I will note that council members Strauss and Solomon are excused today.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council member Salka?

Here.

Council member Solomon?

Council member Strauss?

Council member Hollingsworth?

Here.

Council member Kettle?

Here.

Council member Moore?

Present.

Council member Rink?

Present.

Council Member Rivera.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

There are seven present, or six present.

Thank you.

If there is no objection, the minutes of February 10th, 2025 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

Okay, we have one proclamation today from Councilmember Rink, a weekly presentation from OIR state legislative team, and an executive session.

On tomorrow's City Council meeting agenda, there are five items on the introduction and referral calendar, the weekly bill payment ordinance, Resolution 32165, which makes some revisions to the statements of legislative intent that were part of the budget that were adopted last fall.

A memo describing those changes will be forthcoming.

We also have the appointment of Kirsten Grove as director of FAS, which will be before the Select Budget Committee meeting tomorrow as well.

I actually believe that the Select Budget Committee is on the 5th.

So that would be Wednesday.

Council Bill 120946, lifting a budget proviso on funding from the transportation levy.

And Council Bill 120945, which deals with an alley vacation on First Hill.

So that is the introduction and referral calendar.

The consent calendar includes the weekly bill payment ordinance and 12 appointments.

Three to the Human Rights Commission.

five to the LGBTQ Commission, three to the Disability Commission, and one to the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

And Council will vote on two pieces of legislation from committee.

Council Bill 120943, relating to an extension of the Multifamily Housing Property Tax Exemption Program, and Resolution 32164, giving Parks and Recreation authority to seek and accept grants from the State Recreation and Conservation Office.

All right, so that's coming up.

Moving on to today's presentation.

Let's see, I will note that Director Hashemi is not able to join us today.

So I will let, I believe who is going to be in her place is that okay so i will let anna johnson kick us off please go ahead council president yes go ahead just oh i missed your call yes i'm here right and you were here before the meeting and then you had to step out and we called the roll okay thank you public note that council member rivera is present go ahead please

Good afternoon, counsel.

I'll start us off today as Director Hashemi is out sick.

My name is Anna Johnson.

I'm the State Legislative Affairs Director in OIR.

So today is the 50th day of the legislative session.

This year we have a 105-day session, so we're almost halfway through.

Last Friday was a major cutoff, the fiscal committee cutoff for the House of Origin.

So bills that had a fiscal note had to be moved out of either the transportation, appropriations, ways and means, or finance committees by Friday end of day.

And so that leads us into this week, which legislators are going to be on the floor or in caucus all day, sometimes into the evening and night.

working on legislation to move it off of the floor in the original chamber it was introduced.

And then we are looking at the next cutoff of March 12th.

So by that time, all the bills that were in the original chambers have to be voted off the floor and move over to the opposite chamber by that deadline.

There are bills that are necessary to implement the budget or NTIB that are not subject to this cutoff calendar.

So be aware that a lot of the revenue legislation and other bills that are NTIB will come up later in the legislative session.

So in today's briefing, we're going to first start by going over an update on our priorities based on our legislative agenda we passed in December.

And then we'll also do a recap of the last week and then talk a little bit about what to expect in this week.

So starting with our city priorities in terms of public safety, I'm excited to share that a lot of them are still alive.

So starting with Senate Bill 5098, this is a bill that restricts weapons in certain locations, including city parks, community centers, and public buildings.

This bill made it out of the fiscal committee last week, and it is in Senate rules.

house bill 1112 this bill allows seattle municipal court to allow our pro tem judges to live with outside the live outside the city if necessary this bill actually passed off the house floor a while ago so it's awaiting its first committee hearing in the opposite chamber um house bill 1228 this bill was allowing toxicology testing by certified or accredited labs this bill unfortunately did not make it out of the policy committee about two weeks ago so this one is stalled out for this session although I know there is conversations ongoing with between the city and the executive branch of the state to reconcile some of the problems that this bill was hoping to address Amy Nunez, Senate bill 5060 this bill is a bill that establishes 100 million dollar grant program for law enforcement and co response this bill is ready for floor action it's in Senate rules.

Amy Nunez, House bill 2015 this bill also deals with public safety funding, including direct appropriation to cities, as well as a sales tax.

OPTION FOR COUNTIES AND CITIES FOR PUBLIC SAFETY PURPOSES.

THIS BILL IS IN HOUSE RULES.

WE'RE TRACKING THIS ONE.

IT'S NOT IN ITS PERFECT FORM RIGHT NOW IN TERMS OF BEING MEETING ALL THE PRIORITIES THAT SEATTLE NEEDS, BUT IT'S ONE OF THE KIND OF MAIN DRIVERS THAT ARE STILL EXISTING AT THIS POINT DURING SESSION THAT'S DEALING WITH PUBLIC SAFETY FUNDING.

House Bill 1428, this bill was establishing an increase in the criminal justice assistance account.

This is an account that goes from the state to cities and counties for criminal justice purposes.

It was increasing that account.

That bill did not move forward after the fiscal committee.

Senate Bill 5052, this bill was establishing clarifications around the youth access to counsel program and allowing law enforcement to question or interview juveniles who are victims or witnesses of crimes.

This bill is in Senate rules, also ready for floor action.

Senate Bill 5595, this bill establishes a legal standard for shared streets and also allows lower speed limits on these streets.

This bill already passed the Senate and is in the House, ready for its first policy hearing.

House Bill 1816, this bill is about civilian staffed crisis response teams.

This bill is in House rules, also ready for floor action.

And then House Bill 1423, establishing vehicle noise camera pilots.

This bill was voted out of the House Transportation Committee last week, so it's in House rules now, ready for floor action as well.

Good afternoon.

Starting with a few bills on mental health in schools.

The first three bills on your list all deal with student mental health and did not advance due to budget considerations and the budget crisis that the state is in as they all took significant funding.

House Bill 1515 modernizes outdoor dining and special event alcohol regulations and that bill continues to move forward.

House Bill 1733 relates to relocation expenses for businesses impacted by agency displacements such as sound transit link extension.

It continues to move forward as well.

And then 1503 and 1516. relate to condo liability reform and those bills continue to move forward and then lastly hospital 1774 allows wash dot to lease their unused surplus land for less than fair market value to community groups and public agencies and that bill is also moving forward in the House.

Some of our climate and environment bills are also moving forward, so House Bill 1150 and Senate Bill 5284. These are the recycling reform legislation creating an EPR program for paper and packaging.

Both the Senate and the House versions are still moving.

And so those are in the rules committees.

House Bill 1253. This bill is expands the ability of consumer owned utilities to enter joint use agreements for transmission, power generation, battery storage.

This bill also is passed the House already and is in the Senate ready for its first hearing.

House Bill 1409 is a bill that improves the clean fuels program.

This bill will help Seattle City Light FAS, SDOT, and SPU, who are credit generators in the Clean Fuels Program, be able to access hopefully increased transportation electrification funding.

This bill is in-house rules.

House Bill 1334 revises the property tax cap up to 3% tied to inflation, providing more flexible local options for our property tax.

This bill is in-house finance.

This one is likely not as necessary to implement the budget.

That's why it's still in its original committee.

A FEW BILLS ON CHILD CARE ARE MOVING FORWARD, SO SENATE BILL 55-09, SENATE BILL 55-00 RELATED TO CHILD CARE SITING AND CHILD CARE RATES ARE MOVING FORWARD.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE CHILD CARE WORKFORCE BOARD, BOTH THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE VERSION, DID NOT MAKE IT OUT OF THE FISCAL COMMITTEES LAST WEEK.

We are seeing both the House and Senate version of the Early Learning Facilities Grant and Loan Program Improvement Bill, so House Bill 1314 and Senate Bill 5297 move forward.

And then a bill that's modifying childcare worker qualifications, House Bill 1648 is moving forward.

Unfortunately, the free school meals bill, House Bill 1404, as well as the Senate free school meals bill did not advance through the fiscal cutoff due to likely the increased cost to the state.

However, there are a number of huge K through 12 funding bills that are moving forward in order to help the operations and special education costs that many of our school districts are facing throughout the state.

I will move to kind of what happened this past week, but I'll start with some budget updates this past week.

Governor Ferguson released his budget reduction proposal where he asked earlier in the year, he asked every state agency to come back with about 6% budget cuts to each department.

And so he proposed additional $4 billion in cuts, which adds on to the $3 billion proposed by Governor Inslee's budget.

The cuts include consolidating agency management roles, cutting administrative positions, limiting equipment purchases, and reducing travel expenses.

I'll also note that the K-12 and public safety departments were not cut at all in his special proposal.

Both House and Senate now will and can use that proposal as they write their by annual budgets that should be coming out near the end of this month.

So budget and revenue bills that took some action last week.

I'll start with House Bill 1870, which is a King County priority that creates it allows for new property tax to fund public health clinics.

And Senate Bill 5775, which relates to an existing public safety sales tax and makes that councilmanic authority gives a councilmanic authority and also changes get some more flexibility for how the revenue can be used.

And Senate Bill 5770, which creates a primary residence property tax exemption for folks for their primary residences, it is contingent on a constitutional amendment.

Some climate and environment bills that had action last week, some of these will be familiar from our priority list.

Both the House and Senate recycling reform priorities were moved through the fiscal committees, as I mentioned.

Same with the Clean Fuels Bill update.

But I'll also note House Bill 1515. This bill is creating parameters of how to deal and dispose of electric vehicle batteries.

This bill is a priority for the city, and we signed in pro.

I think in homelessness bills that are still moving forward, I'll start with House Bill 1696, which modifies the existing Covenant Home Ownership Program.

This bill would increase the AMI for eligibility from 100% of AMI to 120% of AMI for this program and also makes some loans forgivable completely.

And House Bill 1491 relates to transit-oriented development, which creates density requirements around public transit.

And then House Bill 1867, which gives counties and cities an option for a real estate excise tax that would fund affordable housing.

Labor and Commerce, House Bill 1622 and Senate Bill 5422, both are moving.

These bills would allow collective bargaining related to uses of artificial intelligence for public agencies.

And both bills are moving in their respective chambers.

And Senate Bill 5206, which changes cannabis retailer advertising rules and regulations and also gives local governments more authority to regulate cannabis retail advertising and trade names, also is moving forward.

Per Public Safety and Criminal Justice, Senate Bill 5098 had action in the Transportation Committee, as I mentioned.

Senate Bill 5746 establishes a work group for electric vehicle charging property crime.

The city signed in pro on this bill.

Senate Bill 5362 helped address victims of Crime Act funding cliffs that we are expected to see due to changes at the federal level.

We signed in pro to this bill.

Unfortunately, both the Senate Bill 5746 and Senate Bill 5362, both of those did not make it through the fiscal cutoff last week.

Transportation bills, I'll flag House Bill 1043, which extends the commute trip reduction tax credit, which is a tax credit that the city utilizes and benefits from.

And then Senate Bill 5716, which extends the existing unlawful transit transit conduct crime into ferries as well, is also moving forward.

So for this upcoming week, it will be all for all day floor action.

So the Senate House will be voting on bills the entire week and we'll caucusing will be caucusing on those bills as well.

There'll be no committees.

Bills have until March 12th to move out of their respective chambers to the other chamber to stay alive.

And with that, happy to answer any questions.

Not seeing any hands up right now.

Excuse me, I'll talk into the mic.

Feel free to raise your hands, folks.

I'm not seeing anybody now.

I had a question on the public safety sales tax.

Can you please explain that one a little bit more?

I think it was on, oh yeah, HB 2015, public safety funding.

Yeah, HB 2015 does a few things and they're essentially intertwined with one another.

So this bill allows an additional sales tax 0.1% for criminal justice purposes.

And if either cities or counties take advantage of that additional sales tax, then it opens them up to a grant program for law enforcement.

recruitment and retention, and then also opens it up to supplemental funding from the state to help with criminal justice purposes.

I think we are appreciative of kind of the structure and consideration of all three of those options to help adjust our public safety challenges.

But there's some mechanics in the bill that are a little tricky for us in order to access the state funding.

So we're working on improving the bill as it moves forward.

Thank you.

Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Madam Council President.

Thank you, Ana and Samir, for your update this week.

Great, as always.

And thank you also for sharing with me and my office the latest version of the noise enforcement camera bill that's currently being considered and did not die on the vine.

Can you just talk a little bit about that bill at a high level in terms of what are the key sort of changes in the current version of the bill versus the bill that was originally brought forward at the beginning of session?

Yes, absolutely.

So the bill did change a little bit in the fiscal committee.

So the bill that was originally introduced this session was authorizing the use of these cameras in any jurisdiction that had interest.

But the bill that moved out of the transportation committee was narrowed to only apply as a pilot in cities that are 2,000 people or higher.

And the pilot RISE UNTIL JUNE OF 2028 AND THIS WOULD BE OVERSAUD BY THE TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION AND THEN THOSE CITIES THAT ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE PILOT WOULD HAVE SOME REPORTING ELEMENTS BACK TO THE STATE ABOUT HOW THE PILOT WENT, THE TYPES OF LOCATIONS THAT THE PILOT WAS USED IN AND THE FOLKS THAT WERE I GUESS TICKETED OR CITATED BY THOSE CAMERAS SO JUST ESSENTIALLY establishing a pilot, implementing a sunset, as well as increasing reporting requirements to the state.

Got it.

No, thank you.

That's consistent with my read of the documentation you shared earlier as well.

So it sounds like it was converted it from a permit authorization to a pilot only where under which enforcement and penalties are still allowed.

It's just each jurisdiction that adopts it would have to, you know, have some ongoing reporting obligations and then it Rather than making it permanent, there's a definitive end date, at which point either reauthorization would need to happen for a certain period, or it would need to be made permanent.

Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct.

And this is a typical structure that actually we've seen with other camera enforcement legislation in previous sessions.

You all might recall a bill from last year that made permanent of some of the pilots that Seattle had for block the box and bus lane cameras.

So a similar decision would have to be made by the legislature when the sunset comes down for these cameras.

Got it.

Thank you.

And it's 2028. Is that right?

June 30th, 2028.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any further questions?

All right.

Well, I'll just, I'll ask another one.

Um, I'm really interested in affordable housing HB 1867. I'd like to know if, um, if there is any stipulation for any, um, uh, recovery based housing that is included in that bill.

And, uh, could you explain a little bit more about the REIT mechanism?

I'll have to look more into like what kind of housing, the affordable housing would be, but I know that the mechanism itself would be a, I think it's about a 0.5% additional REIT that a local government could impose.

And as the bill stands right now, the county would have the ability to go first and then if the county does not do it then the city uh but i do know there's conversations happening about how that relationship works and whether when the county if the county does go first um is whether there will be any revenue share with the city or not so some of those conversations are still being worked out but i can give you some more information about what essentially the revenue what kind of how affordable housing the revenue would be used for

Okay, thank you very much.

Council Member Moore.

Thank you, Council President.

Yeah, good afternoon, Anand Samir.

Thank you very much.

I wanted to ask you just a few questions about bills that have died.

The SB 5229, the opioid overdose civil commitment.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that bill?

Yeah, that bill would have amended the definition of gravely disabled, which is a criteria for Involuntary Treatment Act detention.

And so it would have allowed for someone who has had an opioid overdose reversed in the last two weeks and is deemed to be enabled to essentially take care of themselves to be detained under the ITA.

And it did not move forward out of the fiscal committee last week.

And is that different from Ricky's law?

Yeah, somewhat, because this ties it directly to an opioid overdose being reversed rather than the DCR's determination of whether that person is gravely disabled.

It essentially puts a pretty strict definition.

Okay, thank you.

And the missing persons, SHB 1736, was that the ebony alert?

I AM NOT AS FAMILIAR WITH THIS BILL, SO I CAN CERTAINLY GET BACK TO YOU ABOUT THAT SPECIFICALLY.

AND THIS ONE LOOKS LIKE IT DID NOT MOVE FORWARD OUT OF THE FISCAL COMMITTEE, BUT I CAN FOLLOW UP WITH MORE INFORMATION.

OKAY, THAT WOULD BE GREAT.

THANK YOU.

AND THEN MY LAST QUESTION, COUNSELOR PRESIDENT, IS THE WORKING FAMILIES TAX CREDIT THAT DIED?

THERE IS ONE WORKING FAMILIES TAX CREDIT STILL MOVING.

I BELIEVE THIS IS A BILL that allows that tax credit to be available for folks 18 and up.

But I would also, maybe there's a chance that it could be deemed an NTIB topic and could be involved in budget conversations, but there is one bill still moving, and I believe it's in your council bulletin under social programs and education from Senator Saldana, I believe.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm not seeing any other questions.

So thank you very, very much for your presentation today.

And we will see you next week, I believe, correct?

Just because there aren't committee meetings, we'll still need an update.

And I wish the director well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay, colleagues, moving on, that finishes our presentation.

Council Member Rink, you have a proclamation for signature today, proclaiming March 20th, 2025 to be Norwu's Day in Seattle.

Please correct my mispronunciation.

So Council Member Rink, go ahead and lead the discussion on the proclamation for any feedback before I request signatures.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Council President and colleagues.

Before you today is a proclamation that declares March 20th to be Nauru's Day in Seattle.

This is the celebration of the Persian New Year.

It's celebrated by over 300 million people around the world, and this is the fifth year that actually City of Seattle has hosted a community event at City Hall in the Bertha Knight's Landis Room, just celebrating this New Year celebration.

We'd like to be able to present this proclamation at the event, which will be happening this year on Sunday, March 23rd.

It would be a really fun time, certainly, and would encourage all of you to come out and celebrate alongside us.

Thank you.

Are there any questions, comments, et cetera, before we call roll?

All right, I am not seeing any.

Seeing there's no further discussion on the proclamation, will the clerk please call the roll to determine which council members would like their signatures affixed to the proclamation recognizing March 20th as Nau'u's day.

Council Member Sokka?

Aye.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Rank?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Seven signatures will be affixed.

Thank you very much.

Okay, now we're at the part of our agenda where we talk about what happened in our committees last week, what's upcoming, and anything else one would like to address.

And this week's roll call begins with Council Member Saka.

All right, Madam Council President.

So colleagues, we have a Transportation Committee meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 4th, 9.30 a.m.

Two important topics we're gonna discuss.

First and foremost, we're gonna hear the proposed, Estat's proposed 2025 levy delivery plan.

you may recall certainly our colleagues that sit on that committee that that was an agenda item uh that we were unfortunately unable to get to during our last transfer transportation committee meeting so it's number one on the agenda tomorrow Secondly, we're going to be learning more about how we can better achieve Vision Zero through a safe systems approach.

So, a Vision Zero slash safe systems briefing from our colleagues and partners at SDOT.

Really looking forward to that one.

So, it should be good.

All, as always, colleagues, all of you are welcome to attend, even if you don't happen to sit on the committee.

And then, Certainly in the community, been very active and engaged as always.

But last week I had a really exciting time with our youth and enjoyed engaging with many youth and students in my own district.

And first and foremost, it started with Councilmember Hollingsworth want to thank her for her partnership and organizing a day at City Hall sort of sort of day type of event engagement for students.

I think fifth graders from West Seattle Elementary in High Point in my district.

So.

That was a great event.

A day or two later, went to hang out with students of color and other students from Madison Middle School, spent some good quality time with them, amongst other things, to honor and celebrate Black History Month.

We talked about the importance of resilience and how they can all eventually take my job one day.

I had a similar conversation ultimately for a broader group, all the students at West Seattle High School on Thursday or Friday last week.

It was really exciting.

I attended that school and I didn't personally attend it during school, but last week I went to the school and met with the leaders of the local black students union and presented them with a proclamation in my own personal capacity.

to recognize their dedication and commitment to uplifting Black history, culture, and voices in not only the school, but the broader West Seattle community.

Awesome time last week with youth, more exciting stuff ahead.

And although Black History Month is no longer, it is no longer officially Black History Month, just a reminder, you know, we don't need a special time or month to, we do need those times carved out, but even when it's not the official time, we can always honor and celebrate our collective history, in this case, Black history.

So that's all I have, colleagues, short and sweet.

which I think you'll appreciate, but I welcome any comments or questions if you have any.

Thank you very much.

Council member Solomon is not here nor is Strauss.

So council member Hollingsworth, you're up.

Thank you, council president.

And excuse me.

I also have, I do have notes from council member Strauss if it's okay if I read those.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Council member Strauss is currently at the sound transit CEO interviews and asked me to read his report.

and it's a good long one.

We have a select committee this Wednesday at 9.30.

It's a lot of detailed information.

We have a select committee, budget committee, this Wednesday, 9.30 a.m.

The committee will start with a very quick information item scheduled to last five minutes and no more questions.

than 10 minutes, introducing the mayor's nominee for director of finance and administrative services, Kristen Grove, who currently is the acting director of FAS.

Acting director Grove will be there.

However, the plan is to only introduce her nomination.

There will not be an extensive Q&A.

Acting Director Grove will return on March 19th meeting to the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee to do a full Q&A, which all council members are invited to attend.

Council Member Strauss's office has sent the draft list of questions to the second floor and emailed it last week.

If you'd like to add any questions to the appointment packet, please submit them to Council Member's office by the end of day Wednesday.

The committee then will discuss the vote on legislation to lift the transportation levy proviso that was placed on Estat's budget in November.

This proviso is different than most because it is the result of a transmitted budget last September, including a, in quote, current law budget meeting that the budget was written as if the transportation levy was not passed.

Lucky for Seattle, the transportation passed.

In January, SDOT offered meetings with each council member to discuss their 2025 transportation levy delivery plan, which they sent to council a month ago.

I believe just about all of you, Dan believes, council member Strauss, not I, but council member Strauss believes that all of you have chosen to have those briefings.

As council member Saka mentioned, SDOT will also be giving a briefing on the plan and the transportation committee on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, during the select committee, we will dive deeper into the plan, specifically Appendix A, which outlines each of the transportation levy projects anticipated in 2025. There will be information about the continuing accountability and oversight of transportation levy, specifically the new oversight committee, which is in process of being appointed.

After that, we will bring the transportation levy proviso lift for a vote and close out the meeting.

It is important that we use the tool of mega proviso to ensure the fall budget process wasn't avoided by the current law budget originally proposed and that once accountability work is done, we can move forward swiftly to release the proviso to ensure unintended consequences of delay are avoided.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Council Member Strauss' team.

External committees.

Council Member Strauss is currently at the CEO interview.

Final candidates are being interviewed and a final decision is planned for March 27th board meeting.

A system assessment report will be presented in the Rider Experience and Operations Committee this Thursday regarding the reliance and reliability issues of line one.

Sound Transit has had to shut down Line 1 several times, and this report digs into scope of the issues, the work that's already done, and sets a path to address remaining issues.

There will also be a big fix for these issues, and in the public, it is the first big step.

The Rider Experience and Operation Committee will also share updates regarding the Graham Street infill station designs that are a product for the community engagement.

That was from August 2024 to February 2025. Councilmember Strauss has these reports and happy to share with you all directly if you need that information.

Councilmember Strauss has also had office hours last week and has them again this week in District 6 at his favorite Ballard Library.

Good to the order.

Thank you, colleagues.

This is his report and he's gonna hand it off to me.

Council Member Hollingsworth, if I can go and if that's okay.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you, Council President.

Sorry, I know that was a weird transition from that, from me not reading, but you all know what I'm saying.

I just transitioned to myself.

Okay.

The parks, utilities, technology meeting will be Wednesday, March 26th, 2 p.m.

March 12th meeting has been canceled and we'll have more information regarding our agenda for March 26th.

Upcoming legislation tomorrow is the resolution for parks.

We'll see grant funding from the Washington State Recreation...

I'm sorry, it's Monday.

Conservation Office.

Also wanted to update everyone on the comprehensive plan.

We're finalizing those dates with obviously central staff and council president and all the people that have their hands in the comprehensive plan.

So we'll have more information regarding this week and guidance as we've had meetings with our legal teams and just trying to navigate this as best as possible.

Next, I have a Regional Water Quality Committee with Council Member Kettle.

That is this Wednesday, March 5th.

Looking forward to that.

Also, thank you, Council Member Saka.

It was great to host West Seattle Elementary.

My connection with them was my best friend is one of their teachers.

I did not know they were from West Seattle until that morning, so I really appreciate Councilmember Saka making some time for the elementary school of the fifth graders in his district and just being so gracious with this time.

We really enjoyed that class.

Last but not least, a couple highlights I wanted to highlight.

Last week, attended Seattle Arboretum Foundation fundraiser, which was great.

I really, it's a, I think the Auburn is the best park that we have in the city.

No knock on other parks.

It's just really nice.

So if you all have time, come on out.

Also had a great time at the United Negro College Fund dinner to celebrate the colleges that give kids scholarships to our city.

Also appreciate joining Council President Nelson there at that dinner as well.

Just a side note, I have four people in my family who got their educational start at HBCUs, how important that is.

Also, shout out to our Seattle Fire Department graduation class.

I joined Councilmember Strauss and the mayor for the class of 120. It's class of 120, and they were phenomenal recruits, and it was really great to see really people sacrificing just what they wanna give for the city, and I can't begin to tell you all we're in really, really great hands.

Last but not least, congrats to all of the winners at the 90th Annual Sports Star of the Year Awards, especially to my idol growing up, Mr. Fred Couples.

He got the Lifetime Achievement Award.

There were a ton of people there.

He's a hometown kid, 15 PGA Tours, but the best one was from 1992, where he got his masters, and we all put on that green jacket with him.

Thank you.

I will like to pass it off to Council Member Kettle.

Any questions?

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Just for me, our next Public Safety Committee meeting will be on the 11th of March, and we'll be looking at our care department and the alternative response, or community CRTs, in addition, as we're learning down in Olympia from the update that we were getting earlier from OIR.

For this week, normally we'd have a Southlake Union Community Council meeting on Tuesday, but that was just not long ago canceled.

We have the Regional Water Quality Committee on Wednesday, always enjoy that, along with the Queen Anne Community Council meeting, where we'll be discussing the comprehensive plan.

That will be on Wednesday at 7 o'clock at the Aegis at David Rogers Park, the Queen Anne Bowl.

Thursday, speaking of Com Plan, Thursday I'll be meeting Disability Rights Washington on the Com Plan.

And then Friday, I should note that the grand reopening of the YWCA, which is going to be an important event that day.

I wanted to...

I think I wasn't quick enough with my...

putting my hand up on Zoom.

But I just wanted to note on Narwoos that the sister city with Tashkent, our relationship with Tashkent, Uzbekistan, they also support and celebrate Narwoos as an Uzbek Central Asian holiday in addition to Persian.

And it's gonna be held on 12th of April from one to five at the Shoreline Community Council.

I went last year, it was a great event.

in this year, too, and I just wanted to highlight just to put a little extra.

I wasn't quick enough on Zoom.

The one last thing I wanted to do, Council President, was last week I was going to do this because I read the proclamation when we had our city rally for Ukraine, and I read the proclamation and gave some additional remarks.

I just wanted to read the proclamation really quick.

And it reads, whereas the 24th of February marks the third anniversary of Russia's unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine, and whereas Russia has committed and continues to commit horrendous violations of human rights against the Ukrainian people by attacking civilian populations, committing torture, as well as intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, residential apartment buildings, and whereas Executive Order 22 tack 4 issued March 2022 directed actions to support the Ukrainian community in various ways, including the provision of assistance for immigrants and refugees resettling in Seattle, among others.

And whereas mayors from across King County came together to co-host the mayor's concert for Ukraine and refugees worldwide, featuring the Seattle Symphony and local Ukrainian artists aimed at raising money to help Ukrainians in Europe and refugees in Seattle King County.

And whereas Mayor Harrell has met with mayors from across Ukraine to show our city's commitment to support Ukrainian freedom and democracy, and whereas residents and businesses across Seattle and our region have taken a wide range of measures to demonstrate support for the Ukrainian people through financial and other creative means, And whereas the city of Seattle stands in solidarity with our Ukrainian neighbors, Ukrainian migrants displaced by the Our hearts break for the innocent lives lost and irreparably harmed by the senseless military invasion, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms the Russian government's unprovoked aggression.

And whereas the city of Seattle is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive city and is committed to taking all available steps to assist our Ukrainian friends and neighbors, the city urges all citizens of Seattle to stand in support of the Ukrainian people and their struggle to preserve their democracy.

So therefore, I, Bruce Hay, Harold, mayor of Seattle, do hereby proclaim February 24th, 2025 to be the day of solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

It was a great honor for me to read that at the rally at Seattle Center, and I think it's important for, I know this is a mayoral proclamation as opposed to a council or a joint, but I think it's important to read that here from the dais of the city council to make that point noted and show that support to our Ukrainian neighbors.

Thank you, council president.

Thank you.

And I'll note that pretty much I don't remember exactly which week it was or how soon after the invasion happened.

We still have a Ukrainian flag hanging in city hall lobby.

And so just a note that that is a visual reminder every day about the conflict, ongoing conflict.

Thank you very much for making it front and center today as well.

Thank you.

Council Member Moore.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Let's see.

So on tomorrow's full City Council agenda, there are 13 items from the Housing and Human Services Committee.

The first 12 items are commission appointments on the consent calendar.

We're trying to move them along quickly.

As well as Council Bill 120943 extends the sunset date for the current MFTE program.

This program was set to sunset on March 31st.

2025, end of this month.

And Council Bill 120943 extends that sunset date to be September 10th, 2025. This gives the Office of Housing ample time to reflect on feedback from stakeholders and the final commissioned MFTE evaluation report from the UW Professor Greg Colburn.

The committee voted unanimously to extend the MFTE 6 through September of this year with the understanding that we are looking forward to moving the new MFTE Program 7 forward this fall.

It's anticipated that legislation will be coming down sometime in June for the committee's consideration, careful consideration in July.

We are moving this issue forward.

Just wanted to reassure everybody about that.

The next meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, March 12th.

Let's see.

I don't normally go into a lot of what I've done in the past week, but I did want to touch on a few things that I think are worth highlighting.

I did have office hours on Thursday and then office hours on Saturday.

As part of the office hours on Thursday, I had quite a number of people wanting to talk about the comprehensive plan and additionally neighborhood centers.

And then I also had another constituent come who wanted to also talk about the comp plan from a different perspective and also the need for affordable housing.

And we've sort of been engaged in an interesting discussion.

Out of that discussion, I have now arranged for a meeting with Michael Ellison, who is a local architect.

He's talked a lot about social housing development, utilizes the European model, and is also working with another architect who's pursuing sort of a stacked flats model project in Spokane.

So I'm really excited to have this meeting with them in the end of this week to learn more about how perhaps we can transfer that model over here through our comp plan when we finally get to the comp plan.

That said, I also had the great pleasure of meeting with the city council president for the Vienna City Council.

They have 100 council members, so imagine how much back and forth there is with that.

But also, because Vienna is a model for social housing, they have stated that Housing is a human right.

And they pioneered the social housing model.

So it was a very interesting discussion.

One thing of note is that they spend 450 million euros, 450 million euros every year on maintaining building and maintaining social housing.

So they have made a significant monetary commitment, which I think speaks to the need for such a significant commitment.

And of the two million people who live in Vienna proper, a quarter of them live in social housing.

and 25% of your income is subsidized at 25% of income.

So it's obviously Council Member Morales talked a lot about social housing, but it's interesting to meet with City Council President directly and learn more about that directly.

Let's see, the other thing that I wanted to talk about is that this week, this week I will be taking a walk along Aurora Avenue and 107th.

We continue to experience brazen gun violence along Aurora.

The gun violence is directly and intimately related to the sex trafficking that's occurring along Aurora.

We've seen a proliferation of actually people being commercially sexually exploited.

I have had ongoing meetings with leadership at SPD about how to approach this in a cohesive and systemic way.

Also continuing to work with HSD to get service providers up and running to be able to really be able to provide a diversion and social service help to the individuals we're seeing out there but the purpose of this walk is to look at utilizing street design and street closure as another tool to addressing public safety concerns so just want to continue to make the community aware that Aurora continues to struggle.

We just had shots fired again last night in front of Lowe's and other places.

We've had individuals engaged in commercial sexual exploitation just a few blocks away from our middle school.

It continues to remain a challenge.

and we are continuing to work on it.

So just to let people know about that.

And the other thing that I would note is last Friday I also had the opportunity to visit the Share Wheel Shelter, the women's only shelter up here on spring.

This is the only shelter that allows for people to walk in after 5 p.m.

And so they routinely have 25 to 30 mats on the floor every night.

They made an impassioned plea.

I think we had talked about this during budget that Mary's Place Day Center's shutting down.

Even if we'd been able to come up with money at that point, Mary's Place was not in a position to continue with the shelter.

But they have, excuse me, with the Day Center, but they have made an impassioned plea for us to find a way to open up a day center, because when their doors close during the day, many of the women, many of whom are struggling with disability, many of whom are elderly, are basically left to go to the library, which they have to try to navigate from First Hill down to to our main library here, and that's kind of the main resource that's available.

So there's a glaring need that I hope that we can address when we get to the supplemental budget.

And then lastly, I wanted to just note that the cuts that are happening at the federal level are directly affecting the people in my district.

North Seattle Helpline and Catholic Community Services both run a diaper program where they provide free diapers.

That money was all federally funded, has now been cut, so they are now no longer able to provide free diaper supplies.

So in my newsletter this last week, I did ask a call for people, volunteers to supply diapers if possible.

You know, what's happening in Washington is very much, and we will be talking about this end of the week, but it's really, it's having a granular effect on our communities.

This isn't about trying to scare people.

This is about making people aware of what is actually happening so that We are not just talking broad sweeps of ideas.

You know, it matters.

Government funding matters.

So, anyway, that's my soapbox.

The last thing I will say is I'd like to thank Council Member Solomon, who will be attending the Affordable Housing Committee on my behalf this week so that I may attend the Select Committee at the end of the week.

If there are no questions, I'll turn it over.

I have a question.

Oh, thank you.

This gets back to your comment on the MFTE program renewal extension.

Thank you very much for working with the executive to move up the deadline to September.

The original legislation was sent down with a deadline that was farther along, and I'm not going to go into why I think it's so important to renew this program and how it helps us meet our housing goals.

My question for you is, At the committee table, there was a question asked about some of the other improvements that the, not necessarily improvements, but some of the other changes that have been requested that will benefit both property owners and renters.

What will be included in that package or what are they thinking of?

And they indicated that they would send you some information about that.

So have they gotten that to you?

As far as I know, they have not, but I will follow up with that.

Or less burdensome to qualify.

Yeah, the administrative, yeah, all the paperwork that needs to be submitted to qualify and maintain that qualification.

Yes, thank you for reminding me.

I'll make sure to follow up and get that information to share.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Go ahead, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Week before last, I attended the Association of Washington Cities Lobby Days.

I now sit on the board of the Association of Washington Cities.

I was very appreciative to meet electeds from throughout the state.

It was an important opportunity to meet with our counterparts and mayors from small cities.

and cities slightly smaller than ours to share information.

I learned that smaller cities are also experiencing the same public safety concerns that we're experiencing, the same issues related to homelessness and a lack of affordable housing, as well as folks that need mental health services and addiction treatment services.

I look forward to continuing to collaborate with our peers and partners across the state.

While it was not great to learn that they're having issues too, it just goes to show you that these issues are widespread, they're not unique to Seattle, and so like I said, Very much appreciated meeting them and the partnership.

And I'm really looking forward to the continuing participation as part of the board of AWC.

We also heard from AG Nick Brown while we were there.

There's a number of lawsuits related to the federal actions by as well as the efforts of Governor Ferguson.

So like I said, really appreciate our partners at the state level.

Last week, I met with a representative from Governor Ferguson's office.

It was a meet and greet and really appreciate that he's engaging with us and having conversations about how we can partner together.

I also had my monthly check-in with Chief Barnes where we talked about about the situation at Magnuson Park and my continued request to have an emphasis activation at the park, similar to what we've had with Golden Gardens in the past.

I've also requested to have the SPD has two mobile precincts, and I've requested to have them on a rotating schedule.

The mobile precinct has been, for instance, in my district at Magnuson Park and also at Wedgwood.

You know, I know it's challenging.

We have low staffing numbers, and that impacts the ability to staff those mobile precincts.

And those mobile precincts are really important because when they're at a location, folks really feel, They feel safer.

They feel like, you know, it adds the ability to have SPD have an extra eye on the situation.

So I know how important they are, and I think having them a rotating schedule would let us know that they will be returning.

versus now where it's done as you know as they're able to but then there isn't that I would love for constituents to rely that it will be back so that's the point of my request and SPD's been very open to both requests and I've spoken to the mayor's office as well so I'm hoping that we'll have some movement in both those areas and I will keep you posted as I hear more um I also today met with, I had my regular check-in with Director Mohammed from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

We continue to be in close contact about the situation at the federal level.

They've done, I reported before, they've done training sessions both with city departments as well as external partners.

They had an online training session.

I reported last time there were about 1,000 folks that joined.

This time they're gonna have one in person in April.

So as I learn more, I will let you know more on that.

Let's see.

I know that we continue to get conflicting information.

I say conflicting because it seems like the administration one day will issue one thing, the next day it reneges and says something else.

There's a lot of chaos.

One thing that Director Muhammad and I talked about was the fact that, you know, despite all of this chaos, we at the local level are continuing to provide our services.

We're going to continue to do that.

And, you know, that is important to her.

It's important to me.

It's important to all of us.

So, you know, I feel very...

well, I feel very grateful that we're all aligned in that regard and that we're able to provide our services despite the chaos that might be happening at the federal level.

And I'll say that last week I had a meeting of the committee that I get to oversee the libraries education and neighborhoods committee.

And I was happy to hear that our libraries operation are not dependent on federal dollars.

They do get some grant funding.

And so I'm not, not to say it's not important, but it's also, it was a relief to me to find out that we're not going to be closing libraries because of the chaos is happening at the federal level.

And I think more information of that kind is helpful to our constituents.

So similarly, Director Muhammad and I were talking about the fact that whatever is happening, we are still delivering our services on the ground to our constituents.

And she's getting that word out to our immigrant partners in Seattle.

So that's what we've been engaged in and talking about.

And you'll hear from her on Thursday because she'll be coming here to give a similar update at the select committee.

I will be hosting district hours this week.

I will also be attending the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association and my staff will be attending the North Precinct Advisory Council.

I have staff attend when I can't attend that council every month.

It is really important to be sharing with our partners.

SPD also, the Captain Davison usually attends that meeting.

Also, the King County Prosecutor's Office has a representative.

It's a really great way to share information with constituents in the district and on the north end in general.

because it's not just specific to the four, it also includes District 5 and District 6. I will be attending the PSRC Growth Management Policy Committee this meeting as well, I mean this week as well.

And last week I attended roll call at the North Precinct along with Assistant Chief Underwood, to thank officers there for all the hard work that they've been doing.

As you all probably read in the paper, there have been two more recent arrests related to crime, drug crime and gun crime, and related to the folks that were assaulted with a car by a juvenile that stole the car and then proceeded to hit folks with the car on University Avenue.

That juvenile has been arrested, they've been detained, there was a hearing on Friday and that hearing resulted in further detention of this juvenile.

So, you know, very much appreciate both SPD's quick response in that case and also appreciate that the King County prosecutor and the judge in this case have also been partners to really address that unfortunate situation But you know, it's really important that when these crimes happen that we are taking action.

And so I was really, and that has not been happening in this fashion.

And that's, you know, that's really important because, you know, Our juveniles need services to make sure that they are not committing crimes and also when they do, then we need to make sure that we are doing the necessary steps to make sure that we're keeping communities safe as well as that juvenile safe as well.

Because when these juveniles are let back on the street, then they have the opportunity to commit crime, which is not good for the community.

And it's not good for the juvenile.

That juvenile needs services.

They need something that they are not getting.

And so letting them back on the street is not helping them.

And so I'm glad to see that things are, you know, we're taking a...

a look at that and in the whole taking action to deal with these crimes on the ground.

And my heart really goes out to the families of the folks that were hurt last week, one of which was very, very hurt.

And so, you know, really want to say that as well.

It's unfortunate all the way around.

And I think there's more I can report on, but I'll leave it there, colleagues.

Unless you have any questions, I'll pass it along.

I do want to note that I was just going down the line and I should have asked Council Member Rink to speak before Council Member Rivera.

So please thank you for your grace and go ahead.

Yeah, no worries, thank you, thank you.

Starting us off with the committee that I chair, Sustainability City Light Arts and Culture.

I know we have a long awaited greenhouse gas emissions report that we were supposed to have this Friday, given the shakeups with some of the new exciting leadership changes with the Office of Sustainability.

now knowing that Director Farrell is now Deputy Mayor Farrell, we are going to be moving that briefing to instead be the following date, which I believe is the 23rd.

It's going to be the following date.

So we will, pardon me, the 21st.

So we will not be having committee this Friday, but instead we will be receiving that greenhouse gas emissions report on the 21st of March.

And just along the realm of just continuing on with some of the things going on with committee, I think it's important to note some of the things happening in Bonneville, particularly given the deep relationship between Bonneville and City Light.

Some may have seen the Seattle Times article from this morning, We, as at City Light, depend on Bonneville, the success of it.

A third of all the electricity in the Pacific Northwest comes from Bonneville Power Administration, but the Trump Administration has forced out hundreds of staff, some of those positions being mission critical.

Bonneville is self-funded.

It operates entirely on money raised from selling electricity, so unfortunately cutting these staff positions don't actually save the federal government a penny.

What this now means for us, and of course I'm working closely with CEO Lindell around any developments, but we could be looking at blackouts or rate increases.

Fingers crossed that some magic can happen in DC and we're not facing this kind of a dilemma, but this will be something colleagues we might need to work on this year so we can ensure that we have power serving our region.

To that end, I had the opportunity, of course, to join alongside many of my colleagues here in Olympia as a part of the AWC City Action Days.

Our office met with 21 state legislators representing nearly all of the Seattle delegation.

We even got some time with the Speaker of the House, as well as the House and Senate majority leaders, and got to attend some of the AWC City Action Days events.

And our office had some really important discussions related to the state budget challenges, as we know, There could be some really harmful cuts coming our way if we don't pursue some new revenue options.

And so really making sure in those discussions that we're signaling that we have our state legislators back as they have this enormously hard task of trying to problem solve this budget challenge and making sure that we have full continuation of services.

And I was invited to come testify before the House Transportation Committee asking them to support House Bill 1923. This is some really cool legislation related to mosquito fleets, so how we bring online more passenger ferries to serve our region.

And thinking about that, especially our role as city of Seattle, many folks coming, whether it be from Bainbridge Island or Des Moines, coming on up to either enjoy our city's nightlife or also be able to come up this way easily to go to doctor's appointments.

And so it's a really exciting bill when we think about our ability to better connect our region.

Our team has also been out and about, and we've had the opportunity to meet with the Filipino community of Seattle, do a number of neighborhood walks from Madrona and Queen Anne to down in the Stadium District, tour at Mary's Place, chat with the Beacon Business Alliance, and have some conversations as well with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, as well as the Indigenous Advisory Council.

and closed out last week by chatting with our friends up at North Seattle College, and then bringing together a transportation policy work group, including a number of our partners in the transportation space.

And then also wanted to uplift an amazing event last week, the FODEP Beautiful Neighborhood Community Kickoff, which really is a capstone of so much work that Friends for Little Saigon has been doing to try and really problem solve and identify the public safety challenges happening in Little Saigon.

And it was a really incredible event.

with specific partners from residents to service providers to government partners as well, all coming together to really look at what are all of the initiatives that have been proposed, what feels like priorities, and where do we go from here.

So it was just a really fantastic event and great to see so many folks turn out.

There was also a presence from the mayor's office as well.

Folks turn out to get really focused on problem solving about the public safety challenges there.

Really proud to share that note.

Our team also attended the Day of Remembrance event in the CID on February 19th.

This is the anniversary of the Executive Order 1066, which stripped thousands of Japanese American Seattleites of their rights, homes, and livelihoods.

And this event was organized by Suru for Solidarity and La Resistencia, which are two powerful local organizations really fighting to keep a dark chapter of our history from repeating.

It was a really powerful event and just a really urgent reminder of the dangers of racist government policy and the importance of our local resistance.

And with that, I'll move us to Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes.

We are having our first committee meeting this week, so Thursday, March 6th at 2 p.m.

During this meeting, we will have two roundtables comprised of community partners as well as city departments.

That first roundtable is going to be focused on LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights, and the second roundtable on immigration and labor rights and issues.

And to give you a flavor of some of the community organizations who will be joining us, we have the Lavender Rights Project, Pro-Choice Washington, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, Queer Power Alliance, Office of Immigrant Refugee Affairs, Office of Labor Standards, the Washington Immigrant and Solidarity Network, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, One America, Fair Work Center, Gay Straight Business Alliance, and the MLK Labor Council.

So it's gonna be a packed house, a busy agenda, but folks are really energized about this work.

There is some broad agreement that now is time for us to be standing up for our neighbors.

And so really looking forward to convening these critical conversations, working with you all about future addendas too and topics of interest.

and making sure that we are doing the work to safeguard our communities at this time.

And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Go ahead, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Ring, can you talk a little bit about the 12th and Jackson and, you know, anything that you know, will you be bringing in?

What are the efforts there on the public safety side?

We're all grappling with public safety, as you know, and I'm wondering, you know, I know 12th and Jackson is also having the type of public safety issues and for longer even.

that Magnuson Park has had and so I'm wondering what efforts are underway to address public safety there.

Yeah, certainly.

Fantastic question.

And I'll talk a little bit about the exercise they had us go through.

And there was some presentations from SPD focused on environmental design and some of the measures that can be taken in terms of addressing environmental design.

I wish Council Member Solomon was here because I know this is one of his areas of expertise.

CEPTED.

CEPTED.

Thank you.

So we had a presentation on CEPTED.

We had a city auditor's office also had a presence there to bring forward a number of the recommendations they've brought forward in the past.

And with the task that was given to each of the tables, they had each table designated as like a stakeholder group.

So we had a business owners and property owners table, and then a residence table, a service providers table, and then government partners table.

And I know Council Member Solomon's staff were also present there as well and were participating.

And so each table was given the task of kind of, we were given a matrix of solutions that have been identified, whether direct from community or from auditor's reports or folks just working in the neighborhood, and given an exercise to essentially star, like put little stickies next to solutions that we wanted, that each stakeholder group wanted to pursue first.

And then each table was asked to identify short term goals and long term goals.

And so I haven't seen the full write up from Friends for Little Saigon about the outcome of that exercise, but that is our expectation in terms of the next step to be able to see what were the first initial like short-term goals and short-term actions to be taken and then long-term actions.

So this is a long-winded way of saying I don't have that handy, but that's one of the follow-ups there, and that was the exercise they put before the whole room.

And there was about attendance, I would say, of in between maybe 60 folks who were in attendance, so pretty sizable group.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I like gatherings like this with getting stakeholders all together and really focusing on what would really help.

And then I always think, I hope it comes to something.

It can't just be a discussion session.

It really does have to.

Once we see the results of those conversations, I would hope that we can start moving on some of them.

Yeah, certainly.

All right, not seeing any other folks to speak, and we do have an executive session, so I'll just go ahead here unless anybody does have, okay.

So last Thursday, the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee met and voted to recommend that the City Council approve Council Bill 120933, which would allow for residential uses in the Stadium District.

The bill is now before Council, and I expect a vote at the March 18th Council meeting I ask that if colleagues have any plans to propose amendments, you work with Lisch to make those available to other council members by Tuesday, March 11th, that is the date he gave us, so we have time to adequately consider them before voting the following week.

And as many of you are aware, an assertion was raised by the port that moving forward with the policy might have implications under the State Environmental Policy Act or the Growth Management Act.

I did ask the city attorney's office to review that assertion and get back to council with their analysis, obviously ahead of the council vote.

So that will be forthcoming.

The next meeting of the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee will be on Thursday, March 13th.

Brief update, I attended the 2025 State of Downtown last Tuesday, where I was joined by elected officials and lots of folks with direct, well, direct interest downtown, but that covers nonprofits and businesses and residents, et cetera.

It's always a very interesting gathering of people who listen to a discussion from the president and CEO, John Scholes, well, how's downtown doing?

And the takeaway is that downtown has made improvements in the past year or so, since the last event.

And he talked a bit about public safety, which is improving.

And I do have to say, I'll take the privilege of thanking my colleagues for the hard work that you've done last year, particularly Chair Public Safety Chair Kettle, to provide the legislative tools for our partners in the executive to help do their part to make downtown a safer place.

And we have heard that things are looking up down there.

So I do have to say, that thank you very much for your work last year.

And the council, well, the city renewed the MID, the BIA for downtowns, they were renewed, I think it was in 2023. And so we have, again, I will always thank the ambassadors with MID and DSA is the responsible party to oversee that work.

Thank you, ambassadors, for all your work downtown every single day, making it a welcoming, cleaner space.

So that's my plug for our partners downtown.

As C.N. Hollingsworth mentioned, I also attended the UNCF Gala.

Many thanks to Paula Sardinas and Tabor 100 President extraordinaire Ollie Garrett for the invitation to this special event and thank you also for helping be the go-between Councilmember Hollingsworth.

I have to say that was the third time that I have attended this event and not only is it so heartwarming and inspiring to see the youth on that stage knowing that they have received some assistance to attend, a life-changing opportunity of college, of course.

It is also one of the two organizations that put on a gala with dancing, and I recommend that anybody accept an invitation next year.

Okay, that was the second time of that day for me to see Ms. Garrett as I dropped in on the monthly breakfast that morning of Tabor 100 but left early.

before the discussion began to provide welcoming remarks at the CID's annual Lunar New Year Festival.

And then you've already mentioned the fun stuff that happened over the past week, but I also went to the Seattle Sports Star of the Year Awards where they honored notable athletes.

And I will say congratulations, Marshawn Lynch, for winning the Paul G. Allen Humanitarian Award.

his remarks on stage, what he is motivated by in his work were so...

moving and I would, he's giving back.

And that's what motivated a lot of his work, but anyway.

And then finally I'll note that last, my staff and I went on a tour of Pacific Science Center and that is a, it's an institution in the city and I am committed to doing what I can personally to help advance their needs for some infrastructure improvements.

Last thing I'll mention, I will be participating in a civic cocktail conversation on public safety hosted by the Seattle City Club this coming Thursday.

I'll be joined by Yvonne Underwood, deputy chief of SPD and Natalie Walton Anderson, chief public safety officer for the office of the mayor.

So thank you for having me and it should be a great conversation.

Would anybody like to ask any questions or remind me to say that I will also be attending the ribbon cutting for the YWCA on Friday as well?

Hearing none.

Let's move on.

If there's no further business, we'll move into executive session.

Hearing none, we'll now move into the executive session.

As presiding officer, I'm announcing that it will probably go until, let's see, 4.20, I believe.

4.05.

It's, they're estimating it'll take about 45 minutes.

If the executive session is to be extended beyond that time, I'll announce the extension and the expected duration.

And at the conclusion of this executive session, this meeting will end automatically.

The next regularly scheduled council briefing meeting is on March 10th, 2025 at 2 p.m.

All right, folks, it's 3.20 and the council is now in executive session.