Parks, Public Utilities and Technology Committee 52224

Oh, we are ready.

Sorry, I didn't see that Seattle Channel had got us going.

Good afternoon, everyone.

It is May 22nd, 2024. This is the meeting of Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology.

The committee will now come to order.

It is 2.02 p.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, and I am the chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Councilmember Strauss?

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Three council members are present.

Thank you.

We have quorum.

I'd also like to note for the record that Council Member Strauss is excused today.

On the agenda, we have Council Bill 120790. It's an ordinance authorizing our phenomenal Seattle Public Utilities.

You all should add phenomenal to your name.

Phenomenal Seattle Public Utilities to execute an interlocal agreement with King County regarding residual, I can't read today, I didn't bring my glasses, waste disposal.

We will now consider the agenda.

If there are no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objections, the agenda is adopted.

With that, we're gonna open up the hybrid public, hybrid in-person comment period.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

We have two in-person speakers signed up and there are no remote speakers.

Okay, perfect.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

Please read the instructions for the public comment period.

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

I will call on speakers by name in the order in which they are registered, both on the council's website or from the sign-up sheet available here in council chambers.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

There are only in-person speakers today.

If you have not registered to speak but you would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period.

Just go to the council's website or by signing up on the sign-up sheet near the public comment microphone.

The online link is listed on today's agenda.

When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

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

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person.

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

The first speaker for in-person public comment is Alex Zimmerman.

Thank you.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

I'm president of Stand Up America.

My lovely Consul Joy, I make favor for you.

I don't use the word Nazi because you don't like Nazi.

So I use the word Ku Klux Klan.

Or how you can explain?

So for the last 15 years, the black community disappeared.

This is a special technology.

What is people come here?

And for my understanding is many black consul for last 15 years.

We have a mayor right now.

For my understanding, he looks like a black man to me.

I don't know about this too much.

I am a Jew, belong to minority too.

So, My question right now is very simple.

When Black Council is involved in this business for a long time, how is this possible so you don't stop and disappear Black community?

How is this possible?

For who are you working?

For Amazon?

For democratic mafia?

A democratic junta and bandita?

I'm totally confused.

They elect Harrell, who for the last two and a half years never had one Q&A.

Is this a minority man who doesn't like freedom of speech, doesn't like talking to people?

Seventh floor, close, and he has four policemen.

who secure him.

Pause the timer.

Mr. Zimmerman, can you stay on subject for something about the...

I stay on an object.

You're talking about black community.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's technology.

Please continue.

You're absolutely right.

I stay in this.

This is special technology that has moved people out from Seattle.

It cannot be from God.

is came from technology what is made console hair for last 10, 15 years.

That's exactly what is you supposed to be doing, a technology.

And technology can be different.

This kind, this kind, this kind.

So stand up, Seattle freaking idiot.

Make Seattle great again.

Thank you very much for your time.

So just for the record, agenda items, even though this is the Technology Committee, we, Seattle Public Utilities Committee, and for the record, the Nazi salute is a form of abusive language.

So I just want that for the record.

Next public comment.

Point of order.

I appreciate you calling that out.

People might be wondering why I haven't attempted recently to...

to interrupt and then warn, et cetera, and go through the process of exclusion, et cetera.

And the fact is that it's very difficult to follow all the steps.

But I just want to say that I remain offended about this abuse of language, which does constitute disruptive behavior.

So thank you very much for noting it.

And I'm not really sure how to go forward.

Thank you, Council President.

No, I appreciate that.

I know we all experience it at our meetings, and I just wanted that to be for the record.

Next, and also like to note, Council Member Rivera has joined us.

Thank you so much.

She is in attendance today in the house.

Okay, next person.

Our second and last in-person speaker is Carolyn Malone.

Thank you, Ms. Malone.

You were...

And your timer will begin once you start.

Thank you.

I'm Carolyn Malone.

My issue is ongoing with Seattle Police and my housing issue, which are mental abuse, physical abuse, and elder abuse.

There is a concerted effort and collusionary effort by Vanessa Dowell, who's the Division Director of Catholic Housing Services and Seattle Police.

And this person in particular, I don't know his name.

He lives in my building and he's a constant source of a problem for me.

I'm constantly threatened with implied and overt eviction notices.

And any effort I use to thwart and stop the harassment, the abuse is met with retaliation and more abuse.

Two hours ago, an influx of bedbugs were found on my mattress by a suspicious person in my apartment.

On Saturday, one of my two safe deposit boxes had a new lock inserted on it, attached to it.

I had to break my box open.

My phone, cell phone is really not usable because it's been reconfigured.

There is my number on it and then a larger number which minimizes my number.

So I can't get voicemails.

My door, apartment door was badly damaged not so long ago.

Five years I've been under police surveillance because they accused me of tax evasion, hoarding drugs, and none of that is true.

Because if it takes you to find out what I'm doing, which is nothing, everything I do is legal.

If it takes that long, you're poor cops and doing a poor job.

And besides, they are constantly in the news for violating the civil rights of individuals, innocent people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Malone.

I know that we've had this conversation before, and I appreciate you coming.

If I could just say one thing.

If, and I know this was about Seattle Police Department, if you could come to the public safety meeting to make those comments.

they fall under public safety, but I appreciate you coming here and expressing.

I don't want to take away your public comments or what you said, because I know it's incredibly important as well.

And you're also more than welcome to come to council meetings as well on Tuesdays.

Yes, ma'am.

I understand.

But thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any more additional people who have signed up?

No?

Awesome.

Okay, we'll now proceed with our items of business.

The public comment period is closed.

Clerk, will you please read agenda item number one into the record?

Agenda item number one is an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the general manager and chief executive officer for Seattle Public Utilities or designee to execute an interlocal agreement with King County to receive payments for the disposal of residual waste from material recovery facilities in the city of Seattle.

amending Ordinance 126955, which adopted the 2024 budget, changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels and from various funds in the budget, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts, all by a three-fourths vote of City Council.

This is for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Presenting today is Andrew Lee, the General Manager and CEO of Seattle Public Utilities, Sally Holzman from Seattle Public Utilities, and Brian Goodnight from Council Central Staff.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And thank you all for coming here today to do the presentation for us to understand the interlocal agreement between SPU and King County.

And I think, Brian, good night.

You're supposed to kick us off before SPU jumps into the presentation.

So I would like our phenomenal central staff to be recognized.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Good afternoon, council members.

I just wanted to note something upfront for the committee, which is a little unusual about this item, which is that this is essentially the second time that the council will be approving an interlocal, considering, sorry, approval of an interlocal agreement with King County for residual solid waste.

In April of last year, the council approved ordinance 126796 that approved an ILA that was substantively similar to this one before you today.

Prior to the King County Council adopting it, however, in November of last year, revisions to the agreement were made.

The revisions were collaboratively developed between both the King County Solid Waste Division and Seattle Public Utilities.

But because of the need for the parties to sign the same ILA, you know, the actual same text of the agreement, it has to come before the city council again today.

So, and the last thing I'll note is just that there is a staff memo on the agenda for today, which does include additional details and references and things.

So, and that's it.

And I'm happy to turn it over to SPU for their presentation.

Awesome.

Thank you, director.

Thank you, Chair Harlingsworth and members of the committee.

With me this afternoon are Jeff Fowler, the Deputy Director for SPU's Solid Waste Line of Business, and then also Sally Hulsman, our Solid Waste Contracts Manager.

We are here to request the committee's support for legislation that will settle a dispute between Seattle and King County around solid waste collected by the county but outside of Seattle, but processed in the city.

Under the Seattle Municipal Code, all of the garbage processed within the city limits is required to be sent to an SPU transfer station or Union Pacific's intermodal facility.

The agreement authorized by this proposed ordinance establishes a methodology and timing of payments between the parties.

And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Jeff Fowler to brief you on the legislation.

Thank you, Andrew, and good afternoon, council members.

As Andrew briefed you, we are presenting on a proposed interlocal agreement between the city and King County related to the disposal of waste that is generated at recycling facilities in Seattle.

This agreement was passed by the city council in 2023. However, following this, the county needed to make minor changes to the agreement, which requires repassage.

The purpose today is to secure council approval of the ordinance authorizing SPU to enter into the interlocal agreement with King County with the minor changes that the county, the agreement has been passed by the King County Council.

The city and the county send recyclables to material recovery facilities located in Seattle.

These facilities are often referred to as MRFs.

The two main facilities are owned by Recology and Republic Services.

A small portion of the material sent to these facilities ends up as waste because it is not recyclable.

This material is known as residuals or contaminants as shown in red in the image on the right.

The MRF must pay to dispose of this material and therefore it results in revenue for the jurisdiction that disposes of it.

In 2018, King County directed these facilities to send the residual associated with the recyclables collected in King County to the King County landfill as directed by their code.

The city reached out to the county to discuss this because the city believes the residuals are created in Seattle as part of the sorting process and should go to the city's disposal system, and we are bound by our code to dispose of them in Seattle.

The city and the county work collaboratively to try and resolve this issue of where the residuals should ultimately be disposed.

At the beginning of these discussions, the city and the county agreed to split the portion of residuals associated with the county 50-50 until the issue could be resolved.

Through multiple discussions, the city and county were unable to agree and the city initiated a lawsuit with the knowledge of the county to obtain a declaratory judgment from King County Superior Court.

Following the filing, the city and the county came together again to continue discussions of a possible agreement that would satisfy both parties.

The agreement that has been worked out is the interlocal agreement before you today.

The recycling facility pays the city of Seattle $146 per ton to dispose of the residuals.

The city then in turn pays $68 per ton to handle and transport those residuals by rail and dispose of them at the landfill.

The net $79 per ton supports SPU solid waste programs and administration.

The agreement would pay King County $30 of the $79 per ton for their portion of the residuals.

In turn, 100% of the residuals from the county will be processed through the City of Seattle disposal system, which is twice as much as we are receiving under the current agreement.

Although the revenue for the King County portion is lower per ton, the additional tonnage results in an overall projected net revenue increase of approximately $100,000 per year for the city.

As I mentioned, the ILA was passed by the City Council in 2023. King County made edits to the ILA prior to passing it at the end of 2023. The edits consisted of minor wording edits and clarification of how the payments are calculated, adding a calculation graphic that was inserted into the ILA.

We are here today to ask for repassage of the ILA.

Are there any questions?

Colleagues, I open it up to you if anyone has any questions so far.

Councilmember Kettle, looks like you have a question.

Chair Hollingsworth, thank you.

First, I wanted to say thank you to Mr. Goodnight for your memo.

I do have it here, reviewing it.

And thank you for the briefing.

And a little bit separate from the topic, One of the things that over the years I've come away with is the idea of dirty recycling.

This is the reason why China is not taking our recycling anymore.

So I was a little bit surprised that the residuals, the contaminants, were, at least in this depiction, as small as it is.

Is this an accurate...

What is the level of contaminants relative to the...

Basically, I'm just looking to speak to this nice graphic because it's contrary to what you hear in the news, you know, the whole issue with China rejecting because too much of it was contaminated and so forth.

And so I was just curious on that.

If you can, if you can.

Yeah, absolutely.

I don't know if the graphic is completely representative, but residuals are in the 9 to 10 percent range on average of what comes out the back end.

Some facilities better than others, but, The technology is always improving to reduce the amount of residuals as time goes on.

We're fortunate we have a lot of local companies in the area, including Canada, that do take our materials.

But yeah, I would say, to answer your question, on average, it's in that 9% to 10%, 12% range.

on average.

I appreciate that.

As one who cleans his recyclables at home, I try to do my part to ensure that we don't have contaminated recycling.

So thank you.

Awesome.

Is there any other questions?

Council President?

So I've read the fiscal note and the central staff memo, and the latter starts with what happened in 2021 and then goes through what happened since then.

How was the waste?

How are the residuals?

How was the cost allocated before 2021?

Let's just say through 2019, the last normal year we know of.

And what was the, and where?

What were the locations, please?

Yeah, before King County asked them to send the residuals associated with the portion from King County back to the King County landfill, Seattle was managing 100% of the residuals.

And they were going through the Seattle system that goes on rail and goes down to the landfill in Oregon.

And who was, what was the, so were we paying for all of that?

There was no payment to King County.

That was all Seattle's revenue.

All Seattle's revenue, but were there costs to the city?

The same cost per ton of garbage to haul it away.

The same associated cost to get rid of the materials that we have now.

Okay.

And I might have missed this.

I was reading through everything.

How long would this contract last?

Is this until it comes up again?

The agreement is in place unless either party has the ability to terminate it at any time.

There's a number of days that you should give the other side kind of heads up that you're doing that, but...

I don't recall exactly, but it's, they, both sides have the ability to terminate it at any time.

Is there any reason why, like, King County would terminate it or we would?

Any forward?

Um, if cost, um, changed significantly and we couldn't agree to a price, maybe something like that.

I, I don't know.

Uh, I, yeah, I don't, I can't think of a reason why, why we would necessarily want to cancel it.

Yeah.

No worries.

No, that's good to know.

Thank you.

I have a follow-up on that.

Yeah.

So when is the contract with waste management, when does it expire?

I'm thinking about, thinking of costs.

What if their labor costs go up and then there is unforeseen additional cost to us?

Is the WM?

2028.

Yeah, 2028, I believe, is the WM disposal contract will be up.

Thank you.

That's good to know.

Colleagues, any additional questions?

No?

Council Member Rivera?

No.

Thank you.

Okay.

I don't want to put you on the spot.

Council Member Saka puts me on the spot all the time.

I got to get on him for that.

If you're listening, Saka.

Don't put me on the spot anymore.

Okay, so I now move that the committee recommends passage Council Bill 120790. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It is third, second, third, fourth.

It has moved and seconded to recommend passage of the bill.

Are there any comments after this?

Clerk, will you please call the roll to recommendation that the city pass Council Bill 120790.

Council Member Rivera.

Aye.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

The committee recommendation, the bill passes.

Amended will be sent to, excuse me, the bill passes as amended, and it will be sent to May 28, 2024, the council meeting.

Thank you, Seattle Public Utilities, for that.

I know I haven't gotten a chance to say this, and one, for the record, we're super lucky to have a really, really great public utilities department, and Directly, you've been phenomenal.

I know I throw that word around a lot, but you have been just like your integrity, your smartness, your thoughtfulness, and being able to walk us through everything.

So I just wanted to thank you.

I didn't have a chance to say that at the last meeting that we were at, but wanted to say that today.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

Can I add a thank you, Mr. Lee and Director Lee, for our trip to the West Point Treatment Plant.

Chair, don't forget about that.

I really appreciate the briefing there and you joining in on that.

It was a great orientation, great education.

in terms of what West Point does for us and what we as a community can do to help ourselves as it relates to the waste removal and the like, and then the other projects, like on the Ship Canal and so forth, in terms of the stormwater runoff and that.

Everything comes together at that point, and so I really appreciated the tour and the explanation and you joining in personally on that effort, so thank you very much.

After the tour, Bob went home and made sure that he took all his flushable wipes and threw them away.

He didn't flush them anymore.

Okay, thank you everyone.

With that, there's no further other items on the agenda today.

Do my colleagues have any more items of business today?

Seeing none, this concludes our May 22nd, 2024 meeting in record time.

I think I beat Council Member Rivera.

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, no, it's different.

So our next scheduled meeting will be on the website.

I don't know the exact date, but that will be at 2 p.m.

If there's no further business, this meeting is adjourned, hearing none.

This is 2-27, and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.