Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee Session II 102621

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am Teresa Mosqueda, chair of the Selected Budget Committee meeting.

This is session two of our council budget action and amendment discussions.

Today is October 26, 2021, and the time is 2 p.m.

Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll for the record?

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Gonzalez.

Present.

Juarez.

Here.

And Chair Mosqueda.

I do want to acknowledge Councilmember Morales.

Let me know that she was going to need to step aside for a moment.

She is excused for the afternoon session of our Select Budget Committee meeting.

I believe Councilmember Peterson is present.

Good afternoon.

We had just finished our conversation on Department of Early Education and Early Learning, and at this time we're going to go into item number 12 on our agenda to continue with arts, culture, and workforce development.

We're going to start with Arts 001. Madam Clerk, could you please read item number 12 into the record?

Agenda item 12, Office of Arts and Culture for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much, and I will hand it over to Asha.

Good to see you, Asha.

Good afternoon, Councilmembers and Chair Mosqueda.

This is Arts 1A1.

I just, oh, sorry, before I start this section, I would just note that there is a walk-on amendment that we'll discuss at the end of this section, so after we discuss Arts 4A1.

So right now we are discussing Arts 1A1.

It would add $250,000 of general fund to the Office of Arts and Culture to support a public light art festival in Southlake Union.

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

I'll turn it over to Councilmember Lewis.

Thank you, Asha.

So the Orialis Festival of Light Festival last occurred in South Lake Union in 2018. It's been tentatively planned to occur again on two occasions, both of which were delayed due to COVID considerations.

For those who are unfamiliar, it's a type of artistic light show that is projected on the side of the Mohai building, done in collaboration with Mohai Museum of History and Industry, as well as a lot of South Lake Union stakeholders.

community members.

And this arts festival in 2018 was a really big unexpected hit in terms of its magnitude.

Of course, it was anticipated that there would be large community interest as There have been for similar light festivals around the world, but it really brought a lot of people into the South Lake Union neighborhood and really helped to build an artistic identity for the neighborhood that's more associated with being a live-work space for the tech economy and was a really fruitful collaboration with MOHAI.

They're seeking supporting money here from us as well as from King County in order to make sure this festival can come back in a really big way in 2022 at this point.

And this is a good opportunity for us to provide some support to this effort, which does have a fair amount of nonprofit and private support as well to leverage it and make sure that this can occur again as a free and open to the public festival in the South Lake Union neighborhood in 2022.

Thank you very much.

Are there any additional comments or questions on this?

Okay, thanks so much.

Let's move on to number two from Arts.

Okay, this is Council Budget Action Arts 2A1.

It would add $3.5 million of general fund and three temporary positions to the Office of Arts and Culture to support public arts and cultural or creative industry programming.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Morales and co-sponsored by Councilmember Solent and Councilmember Lewis.

I just want to add additional context on this.

The CBA would allow for programming and production of cultural events in neighborhoods across the city similar to the welcome back weeks we had in downtown Seattle.

councilmembers who co-sponsored Councilmember Lewis and so on, and the goal of this CDA is to employ as many artists and creative industry workers as possible, centering BIPOC workers as they've been impacted especially hard, and to also draw in more people as patrons for local businesses, particularly in areas outside of the downtown core that have more BIPOC residents and BIPOC-owned businesses that continue to struggle during this pandemic.

Councilmember Lewis, please go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I really appreciate being able to come in here and support the Morales in this initiative.

We saw over last summer the incredible impact of our Welcome Back Week events that brought thousands of people into the city core to engage and community collaborations, to see live concerts, to just generally, you know, hang out and really bring some energy back to parts of the city that really had not seen very many people for a period of several months.

And the ability to really lean into that and sort of treat that experience almost as a pilot and be able to carve out a significant amount of money to continue those kinds of activations and spread them to additional neighborhoods around the city is really appealing and will be like a cornerstone of our recovery in terms of getting people to come out and do these community activities again after us all being pent up in our homes for such a long time.

So anything that we're putting towards that is not just for reinvigorating the cultural identity of the city, but really also to reinvigorate our commercial districts and small business districts as well.

I'm really excited to be supporting this.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it, Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you so much, Chair Mosqueda.

I just wanted to indicate my interest in being added as a co-sponsor.

Thank you very much, Council President Gonzalez.

Council President Gonzalez is adding her name to Arts 002. Thank you very much.

Additional comments?

Okay, let's move on to 003.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

This amendment does add $2 million to the Office of Arts and Culture to provide financial assistance to museums that were not eligible for federal aid during the coronavirus pandemic that is still occurring.

Small Business Administration's Shuttered Venue Operators Grants was primary emergency federal assistance for museums during COVID-19.

Many museums did not meet the requirements for SVOG, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant.

including requirements that museums include fixed seating, such as theaters do, to receive this funding.

An example in my district is the National Nordic Museum, a national museum that expected to receive about a million dollars in SFOG funding before realizing that they are not eligible because the museum has a ballroom with adjustable seating.

rather than a fixed theater.

So for many of you that have been there, there are chairs in the room, they're just not attached to the ground and that criteria makes them ineligible.

Upon realizing this, I also did an additional investigation to understand that Northwest African American Museum and Wing Luke Museum both did not receive shuttered venue operators funding And I can share a full list of Washington State's FOG recipients with any council members who are curious if their district was left out.

This $2 million would allow us as an entire city to support our vital museums that were left out of federal aid due to these arbitrary eligibility requirements.

Not here advocating for one museum over the other, just noting that these are the examples of this eligibility requirement.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate you explaining that.

I think grasping the concept of having our museums not be included because they don't have fixed seating was something that I learned about, too, when I visited the Nordic Museum.

So I appreciate you explaining to the viewing audience as well what that difference is.

Council President, please go ahead.

I also wanted to signal my interest in being added as a as a co-sponsor.

I do see this as to the Seattle rescue plan and our recognition in those efforts to allocate specific funding for our local arts organizations that were unable to, for example, access some of these federal dollars.

And so I do think that this is a very complimentary funding proposal to what we have done and prioritized as a city council in the past.

And I appreciate Council Member Strauss bringing this forward.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to Arts 003. Thank you very much.

Okay, let's move on to Arts 004.

Arts 4A1 would add $50,000 of general fund to the Office of Arts and Culture to fund restoration and repainting of a community mural at North 63rd Street under Aurora Avenue.

The primary sponsor is Council Member Strauss, and this action is co-sponsored by Council Members Morales and Peterson.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strunks.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll be brief.

On 63rd Street, between Finney Ridge and Green Lake, under Aurora Avenue, there is an underpass that had a mural put on it to stop graffiti from happening.

It was a beautiful community-led mural painted originally in 1997 by Michiko Tanaka.

It has been updated.

Community members have come around to coalesce around this.

And the public art has been very badly defaced over the past year.

which has been really painful for a number of community members who made it a reality.

And so this is a humble request for $50,000 in funding for the Office of Arts and Culture to restore and likely repaint the mural.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Any additional comments or questions?

I will add one.

Councilmember Strauss, thanks for bringing this forward.

I did have the chance to visit with folks at Urban Artworks recently.

And for folks who have had the chance to see the youth-focused art programs that are run out of that facility, they really emphasize how graffiti and art that we see throughout the streets in Seattle could be channeled in really healthy and productive ways to support young budding artists if we had something like a free wall.

I would love to talk more with you about how we maybe complement restoration of art that you're talking about in this location with maybe a free wall so that those who are interested in practicing art with using spray paint, that they have a safe place, a legal place to go to use that, and that we continue to try to foster support for youth to have creative outlets that are safe and legal.

And you never know, we're gonna get the next Banksy or Kaplan from, my friend's name is Kaplan from Hawaii, who's a wonderful artist now as well.

So you never know who we're gonna get out of these efforts.

Would you be interested in something like that?

Absolutely.

With the amount of graffiti abatement that we do in District 6, I would love to partner with you on that one.

Okay, we will continue to look into a free wall concept to pair with this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, let's move on to the walk-on amendment.

So this is Arts Walk-On 1, sponsored by Councilmember Morales, and it would add $5 million of general fund to the Office of Arts and Culture for the Cultural Space Agency Public Development Authority Land Acquisition Fund.

Thank you very much.

And on behalf of Councilmember Morales I'm offering these comments.

Last year we created the Cultural Space Agency Public Development Authority.

This is a real game changer to have a mission driven organization that can successfully navigate the world of commercial real estate on and commercial real estate on behalf of our cultural arts sector.

We know that cultural arts spaces are the heart of neighborhoods, and this public development authority can help preserve spaces and keep production performance in the city.

We created the agency, but we have not yet resourced it.

It's not entirely dependent on the city funds.

They have raised $2 million so far through a private investor and will continue building public-private partnerships.

With a recent round of Strategic Investment Fund awards, over 20 organizations who applied for the Cultural Space Agency as potential partners for the project Of those 20, only four organizations were awarded the SIF grant with the PDA as a partner, totaling $11.5 million in awarded funds to those organizations, not the PDA itself.

This amendment would provide a $5 million investment for seed funding to the PDA to build art space equitably.

It would allow the PDA to hold and preserve affordable cultural space, ensure site acquisition, ensuring investments are made under SIF, but also further the development process including construction and opening up of some of the projects.

Are there any additional comments or questions?

Okay, thank you very much Council Member Morales for walking us on today.

We'll continue to look at this item and thank you for that follow-up information that you provided the committee today.

Not seeing any additional comments and that was the last walk-on so we're going to move on to agenda item number 13. If we can have that read into the record please.

office of immigrant and refugee affairs for briefing and discussion.

Thank you so much.

There's only one item here, and this is the last one in this subcategory.

I see you on the screen, Amy Gore.

Good to see you.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda, Amy Gore, Council Central staff.

As you mentioned, there is one council budget action in item 13, which is OIRA 1A1.

This action would add $661,000 of general fund to the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs for the expanded legal defense network.

This action would increase city funding for the program from a proposed $827,000 in 2022 to $1.5 million.

The prime sponsor is Council President Gonzalez with Council Members Mosqueda and Morales as co-sponsors.

And I will now turn it over to Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you, Amy.

Please go ahead, Council President.

Great.

Well, just really quickly, this addition is one of my top priorities in this.

Budget process, it would be responsive to requests that we have received from legal service providers in who are currently working with our legal defense fund, including the Northwest immigrant rights project and kids in need of defense.

I am asking that the Council support an increase for the funding available to the Legal Defense Fund for three primary reasons.

The first is to acknowledge that there has been an increase in the cost of service delivery, that we have not actually increased the base funding for the Legal Defense Network since we first implemented it in 2016. And so this is an opportunity for us to acknowledge that there has been increased cost of service delivery and that we should scale up the investment accordingly.

The second reason is that in order for us to meet the needs of increased unaccompanied immigrant children arriving to our region, we need to provide them with urgent immigration legal assistance.

So just about half of unaccompanied children who arrive to Washington State arrive here in the Seattle King County area.

And these kids are unaccompanied, meaning that they're here by themselves, and most of them cannot afford attorneys.

And we know that unrepresented children, in other words, children who do not have legal representation in immigration court, are 97 times, that's 97 times, less likely to be granted relief by an immigration judge compared to those with an attorney.

So in other words, there are 97 times more likely to be deported from our country by virtue of not the merits of their case, but by virtue of the fact that they are unrepresented in immigration court.

The third reason is that the Biden administration has selected Seattle as one of 11 cities to expedite asylum seeking families through immigration court.

However, the Biden administration has not yet provided the resources to support those families.

and legal representation is one of the areas that has been identified as a major area of need for our asylum-seeking families that we expect to welcome here into the City of Seattle.

So I hope others will consider supporting this request and I do want to extend my deepest gratitude to Council Member Mosqueda and Morales for your co-sponsorship of this important opportunity to expand the legal defense network.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Are additional questions or comments?

I appreciate that you have brought this forward and also the flag that you raised about the potential for additional federal support at some point, needing to step in here as a city to invest early and to ensure that there's continuity in our services and that we're continuing to prioritize the most vulnerable.

This is very much in alignment with those values.

So thank you for bringing that forward.

Let's go ahead and wrap this section then.

I think that that concludes the section.

Is that right, Amy?

Are we ready to move to our final subcategory for the day?

Yes, we are ready to move on to the next agenda item.

Thank you for your work on this.

Madam Chair, excuse me, that'd be me.

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

Agenda item 14, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections for briefing and discussion.

Okay, colleagues, I just want to give you a quick time check.

We are still doing well on time.

I appreciate that you have limited your comments about the possible amendments that you are interested in prioritizing for the budget.

Thank you as well for being judicious in your co-sponsorship.

And if you do have questions, if you'd like to offer additional context, of course, please feel free to do that.

This is the opportunity for those questions to get aired so we fully understand the amendments in front of us.

And if you have any additional information given your purview or participation on committees or in community, of course, please feel free to share that.

But thank you for helping to keep us on time today.

Tomorrow and Thursday, we will have a little bit additional time, but I do think this has been very helpful in terms of our discussion so far in this final section here, planning.

community and workforce development.

There's a number of items that I think have important intersections, so look forward to our discussion the rest of this afternoon.

And we are on track to end by 5 p.m., so thank you for all of your work today.

I'll hand it over to central staff.

Thank you very much, Ketel, for being here with us.

Sure, thank you.

Chair Mosqueda, Keetle Freeman, Council of Central Staff.

I'll be walking through proposed amendments for the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, STCI.

There are 11 proposed amendments in three broad categories.

Permit process improvements, tree protection, and amendments related to STCI's function as a regulator of our residential landlords and also a provider of services to tenants.

So the first proposed amendment is STCI 1A1.

This amendment would add $150,000 in general fund to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections to contract with a consultant to conduct a comparative study of permit review times and processes for peer jurisdictions, both regionally and nationally.

The prime sponsor of this amendment is Council Member Strauss and Council Member Morales and Lorena Gonzalez, Council President Gonzalez, pardon me, are co-sponsors.

Thank you very much, Kittel.

Customer stress, anything to add to this?

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Ketel.

The next three amendments that I'm speaking to, there's another amendment before we get to the last of my three.

These are all focused around permit review times.

Whether you or somebody you know has applied for a permit within the city of Seattle, you may know that there's a a longer turnaround time than is desired.

And so we're taking a multifaceted approach to addressing permit review times.

The first and one of the one of the more important ones is having that external state external consultant certified to report on such things, provide us a report on outcomes from our permitting process, including how our permit review times compared to peer jurisdictions for various types and sizes of projects.

Currently, we hear from stakeholders ranging from large developers to neighbors looking to remodel that our permit process can be a burden that prevents needed housing units from coming online in a timely manner, or if a person is a single a one-time customer for a permit that they don't have their expectations met with the turnaround time.

So this consultant report will provide us a roadmap for making additional improvements to our permitting review time.

The next two, I will speak about a couple more specific items about permitting.

Thank you, Chair.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Any additional questions or comments on this item?

Okay, Council Member, I am not seeing any.

This is a slide, correct?

Yeah.

This is not a slide.

This is $150,000 for the third-party consultant report.

We have the slide as the third item, which is the design review report slide.

Okay, thank you so much for that correction.

I will correct my notes over here.

Let's move on, then, to STCI 002.

Okay.

STCI 2A1 would add position authority for permit reviewers or permit review locations that are outside of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, specifically to add position authority to SPU, Seattle City Lights, and the Fire Marshal's Office.

It would make a general fund appropriation to fund the review position at the Fire Marshal's Office.

and it would also request that the city budget office propose fee adjustments and if necessary the creation of enterprise funds to make those positions at FCL, FPU and the fire marshal's office fully fee supported.

This is sponsored by council member Strauss and co-sponsored by council members Morales and Gonzalez.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead council member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

And these three amendments are all part of trying to make our government work better for everyday people.

One thing that I would like to note and an appreciation to Ketel for the amount of walking back my initial request, which was going to be a much larger dollar figure and would have put different position authority at many different review desks.

We have narrowed that request down to just this.

As we discussed just earlier, we continue to hear concerns about how bottlenecks in our permitting system are causing costly delays to much needed housing.

making it challenging to get permits for anything from an ADU to a remodel.

After having a series of meetings to discuss the issues in our permitting system with stakeholders, department staff, and the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, it is clear to me that many of the bottlenecks are due to staffing shortages at permit desks outside of SDCI.

We when we look at the permitting system from an outside perspective, we think it's all SDCI.

And in reality, they have to then also get review desks to return permits from outside of their department, including the fire marshal's office, Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities.

One challenge that faces all three of these departments is the lack of contingent budget authority, meaning that if they see increased permits, permit levels that they would be able to hire more staff on a contingent basis.

When more permit applications come in, SDCI themselves has contingent budget authority and position authority to use increased fee revenue to bring on more staff scaling up alongside permit volumes.

While some of these other departments that review permits have the same contingent budget authority, many do not, leading to staffing shortages and permit backlogs today.

This budget amendment does several things.

First, it adds position authority to add permit reviewers in the fire marshal's office, Seattle Public Utilities, and Seattle City Light.

Second, it requests that the CBO make recommendations for any adjustments to fee schedules or fund structures that would be needed to actually fill the positions, the position authority in future years.

And finally, because the fire marshal's office has been identified as one of the bottlenecks currently exists, It was hard to necessarily determine all of all of the review desks if we were to add one staff member, which would it be?

The fire marshal's office has has risen to that level.

And I don't think that we should be waiting for future years to increase staffing capacity at the fire marshal's office because they do so much from investigating, you know, suspicious fires to providing certificates of occupancy for buildings to open.

And this one time funding will allow the fire marshal's office to fill the new position this year while we work to establish the necessary enterprise fund, these schedules and roadmap to faster permit turnaround times as part of the package of all three amendments.

That was a lot, Chair.

I will endeavor to be shorter in my future remarks.

Thank you.

That's okay.

Thank you very much, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any questions?

002, SDCI.

Okay, Council Member, thank you very much.

I appreciate that you noting that some of the delays that folks have been experiencing are also not just germane to the staffing needs at SDCI, and so it looks like you're trying to address multiple departments here and the ways in which these departments intersect.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Strauss, let's move on to SDCI 003.

So SDCI 3A1 would add about $164,000 in general fund support and one FTE strategic advisor two to the Seattle Department of Constructions and Inspections to facilitate permitting for childcare facilities.

This is similar to a small business facilitator position, which is proposed to be added in the 2022 budget.

the understanding that this position would work not only with private applicants, but also in conjunction with DEEL and the Human Services Department.

This moment is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and co-sponsored by Council Members Peterson and Strauss.

Thank you, Council President.

Please go ahead.

Sure, thank you so much.

So earlier this year, during a meeting of my governance and education committee, we heard from a large panel of child care providers who shared their experiences of the difficulties in navigating the city's permitting process.

For 1 provider, they shared that they had been waiting 295 days.

before seeing any sort of progress on their permit.

During those 295 days, they were paying rent on a space they were waiting to build out due to the need to relocate their childcare center.

And we just heard last week, actually, that they finally received their permit and will be able to start construction on updating the space to make it appropriate for childcare.

This is a provider that serves 600 families in Northeast Seattle, including healthcare workers at Seattle Children's Hospital.

And what we know is that this one story from this one provider is not unique.

These long delays seem to be a chronic issue within our permitting systems and really do appreciate Council Member Strauss lifting up the need to do more holistic, broader changes.

But in the interim, our child care providers really need this Position to be able to help them through the bureaucracy and through the red tape that exists and that it may that makes it difficult for them to get through the permitting process to stand up the much needed child care facilities that our families are working families need.

So, as a result of all of this work, it has become clear to me that there's a need to help these child care providers with this part of their operations.

and am advancing this particular amendment in the hopes that this will support the efforts to speed up access, development, and the opening of new childcare facilities in neighborhoods across the city.

Thank you, Council President.

Additional comments or questions?

So you see, Council President, you see this item may be dovetailing with the Council Member Straus' amendment that looks more broadly at the changes, and you're saying in the meantime, can we identify a few folks internal to STCI specific to child care?

Right.

So this would have to be folks who understand the child care permitting process, which is A whole its own body of complexity and and I think that this is again sort of an interim.

Meet the needs kind of a proposal while the work.

I think it is important to look at the broader reforms that could be necessary in our permitting review times.

Sometimes so while we are waiting for that work to be done, our child care providers are still being required to go it alone.

On the permitting process, and that is really slowing down the opportunity to open up these, these critically important parts of our infrastructure that is. so essential for our working families.

So the child care provider that I just gave an example, they waited basically the entirety of a year, almost a year, before being able to actually get to the permitting process.

And that's just too long.

And we heard clearly from them and from the agency that if they had someone in place who could actually be that connector and that facilitator, that that would certainly help those processes along.

Thank you, Council President.

Okay, appreciate it.

Council Member Sennett and Council Member Strauss.

Let's move on to STCI number four.

So STCI 4A1 is a statement of legislative intent.

It would request that the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections convene a stakeholder group to provide a report to the council on design review program outcomes.

That stakeholder group would conduct a racial equity toolkit analysis of the design review program and provide findings on a variety of different factors that are specified In the statement of legislative intent, the report will be due to the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee or its successor committee by the end of the second quarter in 2022.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

This is the third piece of that holistic look at permitting and I was honored to get to sign on Council President's amendment about childcare, the story that she just shared is a story that is being experienced by many people all across the city.

said it better than I ever could.

So thank you, Council President.

This statement of legislative intent is specifically about design review and creating a report about the process.

It requests SDCI convene a stakeholder group and prepare a report on outcomes from the design review program.

We hear from many constituents that the current design review program is often weaponized to slow development or lacks the teeth to make real impact it is intended to have.

So on one side, it's moving too slow.

On the other side, it doesn't have the tools it needs to make the impact it was designed for.

And so that's why this slide requests for an inclusive stakeholder group of community members, design professionals, housing advocates, and more It also requests a racial equity toolkit to be completed to analyze the equity impacts of design review.

And finally, the report should include recommendations for the city to make legislative and process changes to improve design review outcomes.

The goal here is to improve the process, and that's what we're trying to find out through this report.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Any additional questions?

Hearing none, let's go on to number five.

So moving on here to tree protection amendments, SDCI 5A1 would add approximately $270,000 and two FTE environmental analysts to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections to implement and enforce current and anticipated tree protection regulations.

One position would be added to the compliance side of SDCI.

Another would be added to the review side of SDCI.

This amendment is sponsored by Council Member Strauss and is co-sponsored by Council Members Peterson and Lewis.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Ketel.

And thank you, colleagues, for indulging me in all of this conversation.

We're currently in the section of the budget under the purview of my committee, which is why I have so many amendments.

So this amendment will add funding for two additional arborists at STCI who will be responsible for both enforcing the current tree regulations and reviewing permit applications to ensure tree preservation and compliance with the tree code.

These additional positions will double SDCI's current number of arborists, allowing them to more thoroughly review permit applications and more proactively protect our exceptional trees.

As we get closer to seeing the long-awaited tree protection ordinance proposal by the end of this year, providing SDCI with the additional resources up front will both strengthen our enforcement while we implement the long-term protections and will ensure that the department has the capacity that they need to enforce new tree protections when they are adopted.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Just a quick question for me.

Can you remind me what the anticipated date of passages or time frame for passage of that tree ordinance?

And given that the tree ordinance has still needs to pass our council, is it that these positions would be needed for the time frame after the passage or for the full year?

Thank you, Chair.

Councilmember Peterson, do you want to answer the timeline question?

I joke to a certain degree because Councilmember Peterson and I have been banging on the door to get the tree ordinance that we don't have a timeline for, quite frankly.

And so the tree ordinance, at best, will go out for SEPA by the end of this year, in which we will have a draft to be able to review.

So to answer your question, frankly, about when is the tree ordinance passing, it's a question that we don't know the answer to and has frustrated myself and I know Councilmember Peterson as well.

And so I worked with Councilmember Peterson on this amendment as well because the arborists are needed with or without the tree ordinance.

The arborists have the job of approving or denying permits for removing exceptional trees on private property that will be developed.

And then they also have the duty of enforcing and sending to the law department their analysis when trees are illegally cut, where the law department then establishes a fine that that property owner has to pay.

So the arborist plays a really important role in our city.

We don't have enough of them.

And just by adding two, we double the size of our SDCI arborists, arborist group.

Happy to say more if you'd like, but that, that's my general pitch on the arborist.

Okay.

And Council Member Peterson or Quito, I see you off mute.

Anything to add to that?

I have nothing to add.

Chair Mosqueda, the timing is uncertain about when the tree protection regulations will come.

It could be if SEPA is published before the end of the year, it could be at council by the end of the first quarter.

Okay, thank you very much.

Let's see.

I'm not seeing any additional questions on this.

We can move on to the next item if you'd like.

All right.

STCI 6A1 would impose a proviso on $865,000 worth of appropriations in STCI for updated fee protection regulations.

The proviso would be on the government policy safety and support budget summary level, which is where appropriations for code development work are made.

This is a proviso on approximately a third of the appropriations in that budget summary level.

The proviso would be lifted automatically with transmittal of tree protection regulations to the council.

Excuse me, please go ahead Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

And picking up on the theme discussed earlier, the purpose of this, it's really a conditional proviso to just to ensure that the executive complies with resolution 31902 by delivering an updated tree protection ordinance.

We're really hopeful that we'll receive this comprehensive tree protection ordinance this year, in which case the proviso would not even go into effect.

But just in case we don't receive it by the end of this calendar year, we know the executive administrations are changing.

This would just be a backup.

proviso to ensure that we ultimately receive it with the change that's happening with the executive administration soon.

Thank you.

Additional questions or comments?

Wonderful.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Peterson.

Okay, let's move on to SDCI 007.

Right, so the next set of amendments have to do with function as a regulator of.

A residential landlords and also a provider tenant services 7, a 1 would add 200000 dollars to the Seattle Department of construction and inspections for consultant support for a rental market study that analyzes the current market.

and how it has changed over time, and also looks at how ownership of rental units has changed in the city of Seattle over time.

This proposed amendment is sponsored by Councilmember Strauss and co-sponsored by Councilmember Morales.

Please go ahead, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

This council budget action would add, as Kito mentioned, $200,000 to SDCI for consultant support for a rental market study that analyzes the current market and how it's changed over time, including an analysis of how ownership of rental units has changed.

Our housing market is ever evolving.

With the amount of development that has occurred over the last decade, the influx of people moving to the city, and the housing regulations we've passed over the last several years, we need to better understand how the market has changed.

We've also heard from small landlords that they are leaving the market due to burdens and regulations.

We need the data to see if this is true and to inform our decisions around development and regulation.

We used to rely on the Dupree and Scott annual surveys to keep track of this rental housing information.

Unfortunately, they shut down in 2018. And so this council budget action is the way to replace that data source and provide us with better information to inform our decisions here at council and create good policy.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

And I want to welcome Council Member Morales back to the committee.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales, for being here.

are on SDCI 007. Just a quick question, as this relates to, does this relate to the earlier conversation we had about analyzing the short-term rental units that might be available on the market?

Can you remind me how these two may intersect?

They intersect by proximity.

I would say that we did not bring them together as a package.

Rather, it is both separate and important pieces of information.

OK, thanks.

And Ketel, anything else to add?

There are somewhat distinct bodies of work.

Something that is a short-term rental may or may not be a rental unit that's out there on the market more broadly, so it may not be subject to regulation under the city's Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance.

So I think that they actually get to sort of two different types of, two different questions and are potentially complementary depending on the outcomes of these budget actions next year.

Thank you very much.

Let's see.

Please go ahead, Councilmember Peterson.

I'd like to sign on as a co-sponsor to this.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Peterson.

Councilmember Peterson adding his name to SDCI 007. Thanks, Councilmember Peterson.

Okay, let's move on to 008.

All right, so 1 would add 152000 dollars.

I'm in general fund and 1 strategic advisor 1 to placement monitoring assessment and prevention.

The data collection this it's envisioned that the, this position would do data collection.

In house at potentially through a survey.

participants in the city's rental registration inspection ordinance, a survey of the rent rules provided by participants in that program.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Peterson and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Gonzalez.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

We did a statement of legislative intent last year, which is sort of leading to this request for one FTE, which would enable us to implement an in-house data gathering and monitoring system to track economic and physical displacement of lower income households.

Right now, there's a problematic lack of granularity of census tract data, and there's also an absence of detailed or shortage of detailed rental survey firms in the private sector.

Again, this was confirmed by the slide we did last year.

So this would enable in-house data, which a city of this size should have, I believe, data gathering would likely need to be accomplished by asking apartment owners to provide rent summaries so that we know nothing personally identifiable, but we know the unit size, whether it's how many bathrooms, how many bedrooms, the rent that's being charged.

And then over time, we can track whether there's been displacement, whether rent's been going up or down.

the naturally occurring affordable housing is one of the tougher things to track and this would enable us to do that.

Thank you Council Member Peterson.

Council Member Herbold.

I would like to add my name to this proposal as well.

This was a need that was also identified in a recent city audit by the office of, well, the audit was done by the city auditor but the need was identified by the office of housing.

The audit itself was on the city's notice of intent to sell ordinance.

Wonderful.

Let's keep moving.

All right.

FTCI 9A1 is a statement of legislative intent.

It would request that the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections convene the staff and stakeholder group to advise the city on regulatory and rental market challenges for small landlords.

Ideally, that group would identify whether changes to city regulations and market trends have disparate impact on small landlords.

A report from the stakeholder group would be due to the Finance and Housing Committee by July 5th, 2022. This is sponsored by Council Member Lewis and co-sponsored by Council Members Peterson and Strauss.

Wonderful.

Please go ahead, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Ketil, for queuing that up.

So, you know, the council rightly so over the course of the pandemic has passed a very large amount of tenant protection legislation, creating one of the more equitable environments in the country to be a renter.

And this is critical in a renter dominated city that we be centering policies that protect and expand the rights of renters.

But one thing that we have heard quite consistently throughout the process of creating those laws is the aggregating impact of creating new conditions that small landlords need to operate in.

I don't see this as an exercise of revising or changing those regulations that are essential or those rights that are fundamental to being a tenant.

But I do see this as an opportunity to figure out ways that we can create supports and assistance for compliance.

We know, for example, as mentioned, there was a recent paper from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies that looked at the impact, particularly of the pandemic, on small landlords.

and found that the pandemic has had an impact on supply of naturally affordable rentals.

And it notes the small landlords in particular have certain management practices that don't have the benefit that the corporate landlords have of massive compliance bureaucracies.

that can help to streamline and absorb the impact of some of these regulations.

This has particularly been noted to have an impact on the ability to access emergency rental assistance.

We've seen that even in our region of having a difficulty of getting massive amounts of rent assistance out the door and into the hands of tenants and landlords desperately in need of that kind of support.

This gives us an opportunity to make some space to convene and talk about how we can work through some of these implementation issues with SDCI and what kind of resource and support the city might be in a position to provide to assist with compliance.

I would add we do similar practices for employers with the Office of Labor Standards.

When employers are not compliant with city labor standards, seeking compliance is always the first step before seeking sanction.

this could be an opportunity to really look into ways we can do that and make sure that some of these valid concerns that have been raised by small landlords are something that can potentially be addressed by SDCI.

Thank you very much.

Are there any additional questions or comments?

Please go ahead, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Swan, I'm sorry, you are on mute still.

Sorry.

Thank you for letting me know.

I just at the outset, I wanted to say that if the If the idea is to allow small landlords to better understand the legal requirements or also opportunities in terms of rental assistance, compliance with current law, All of that, of course, is something that I would completely support, but it's not clear to me, especially from the public comment that we had today.

That and or from the language of the statement of legislative intent is that that that's what it will be limited to and I would be extremely concerned if there is any.

If it's not stated very clearly what the goal of this so-called stakeholder group is, and I'll be very honest, I don't actually believe that that will be the goal of the actual, you know, what the actual stakeholder group, if it was set up, would do.

Provide a platform to landlord for opposing any progress on renters rights mean in truth.

If a landlord, small or big, does not gouge their tenants, if they support renters rights, which includes rent control meaning rent increase.

being legal, but no more than the inflation rate, then why do landlords need such a platform?

Because the status quo, and I should repeat, it's the overwhelming status quo in every city around the nation, including Seattle, that the housing market is deeply skewed against renters.

My office is contacted by tenants from across the city almost on a daily basis who are exploited by mostly big landlord corporations.

And so just in terms of where the overwhelming priority of the city council should be, I just don't understand why we would do this.

It would, in my view, amplify the power and influence of Seattle landlords who already have a totally disproportionate power and influence.

We heard today in public comment Corey Brewer, who's a Windermere representative, managing over 1,000 rental housing units in Seattle, speaking in support of this so-called small landlord stakeholder group and asking to be part of it.

My office has met with Corey Brewer.

I know he will imply that we haven't, but we have.

We've met with him twice, once this year and once a couple of years ago.

The problem is not that we don't meet with them.

The problem is that we don't agree with their position.

It's unstated, but it is a position that they should get to gouge renters and that the city council And specifically my office should not fight for renters rights.

Remember that over the summer when renters were fighting for their rights, the Seattle Times published and my office brought forward as brought forward multiple legislation that I'm glad that the council has passed.

You know, with either unanimously or with overwhelming majority that is that has been very important, but during that time, the Seattle Times published two op eds from Corey Brewer and Corey Brewer is just an example he's just a more vocal opponent, but he represents the voice of corporate landlords.

The Seattle Times published two op-eds by him in opposition to renters' rights and published an editorial that quoted him, editorial against those renters' rights.

When was the last time the Seattle Times published op-eds from renters?

That's an example of the kind of platform they have.

Renters have needed to get organized to get any measure of justice in the for-profit housing market.

And renters have won some crucial victories this year and also since 2016 only because of that kind of organizing.

With thousands of renters priced out of their homes by rent increases that are on track to exceed 40% on average.

I mean, this is just mind boggling.

40% rent increases that are on track for this year.

And it is still illegal because of the state legislature to pass any form of rent control anywhere in Washington state.

It is just so crystal clear that landlords do not need even more influence and power.

Renters need more power.

And if small landlords are not gouging their tenants, and as I said before, I'm not sure what the purpose of this stakeholder group would be.

If it is merely to advise on compliance on existing, on current law, then we should say it and limit it to that.

But I don't believe that that's what the goal is, at least of the small landlords or the landlords who are supporting this.

Landlords have been vocally opposing eviction moratoriums.

And quite frankly, some who call themselves small landlords have also vocally opposed it.

But I don't agree.

Just because they're small doesn't mean that they get to exploit tenants.

And we are in a massive crisis.

And renters, working class renters, are some of the most affected people in this society.

And among those working class renters who are disproportionately most affected, it's Black families.

especially black single woman-led households.

So we are talking about the most vulnerable people who get caught up in this racket of evictions and other kinds of exploitation of renters.

And the op-eds in the Seattle Times demonstrate that even if this landlord stakeholder group were to be made up of genuinely small landlords, which I don't have any reason to believe, it will still be weaponized by big landlords and big business.

Ported on the front page of the Seattle Times to give sort of a sheen of legitimacy to the opposition to renters rights.

And as I said, quite frankly, no landlord has a right to gouge or exploit working class renters.

And I wanted to just share the share the city's action fund, thank them for the email that they sent.

This morning, which questions spending scarce resources and staff time on small landlords in a new roundtable.

And they just report them.

They say, we question doing a market study when what we need is a transparent rental registry so that everyone knows if the LLC they write their check to is really part of a larger company or not.

And I definitely support that.

Thank you.

And I will support this last slide.

OK, thank you very much, Councilmembers.

Councilmembers Silat.

Are there any additional comments or questions?

Okay, carrying on, let's move on to 010. All right, 10, a 1 would add approximately 1.5M dollars.

To and 1.5 FTE code compliance analysts.

for information technology startup costs, outreach, and ongoing staffing to implement ordinance 126541, the economic relocation assistance ordinance that passed in September.

This is sponsored by Councilmember Slont and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Peterson and Lewis.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Slont.

Thank you.

And I also thank the co-sponsors, Council Members Lewis and Peterson, for their support.

On September 27th, the Council unanimously passed the Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance Ordinance to protect renters facing economic evictions.

The legislation was passed on the same day that the mayor released her budget, so its administration could not be included in her budget, even if she had supported it, but she did not But as a matter of fact, the timing also did not work.

The SDCI, the Department of Construction and Inspections, has indicated that it will require over $1,200,000 in one-time funds to do the initial setup of the infrastructure to administer this program, particularly a user-friendly cell phone and computer online portal where renters can apply for relocation assistance.

This is very important in the law that was the legislation that was passed by the city council.

recently is good because, and this was done actually on the advisement of the SDCI, which was really appreciated, where the renters can get their compensation from the department.

They don't have to struggle with their landlord, and the landlords have to pay the DCI, and so the DCI has to do that kind of administration.

They've also indicated that they will require almost $200,000 in ongoing funding for staffing to actually process those relocation assistance applications.

This is consistent, as I said, with the fiscal note of the legislation when it was passed.

I believe that these administration funds are particularly important for this program because the legislation as I said, was written for SDCI specifically so that they are an intermediary in all relocation assistance payments.

SDCI collects the relocation fee from the landlord and pays the renter.

That avoids the renter being denied their rights by, again, the terrible power imbalance.

And anyone who has tried to get their security deposit back from their landlord knows about that power imbalance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any additional comments or questions?

Thank you.

I'm not hearing any.

Let's move to the last item in STCI 011.

STCI 11A1 would add half a million dollars in general fund to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections for tenant outreach, education, and other services.

In the past and as anticipated in the future, the funds are distributed through grants and contracts.

This is sponsored by Council Member Suat and co-sponsored by Council Members Morales and Peterson.

Thank you very much.

Thank you again to the co-sponsors.

carry out renter education, outreach, and organizing.

The Tenants Union, for example, is an integral part of the city's enforcement of renter rights laws.

Many council offices correctly recommend constituents call the Tenants Union when they call the council offices for help, and the SDCA also works with the Tenants Union to educate renters through their hotline.

The Housing Justice Project, of course, provides legal support And it's countless the number of times my office has been contacted by renters whom we have then referred to housing justice projects office hours, and again and again they were able to solve people's problems just having the ability to connect with.

somebody who's an experienced renters rights organizer, and ultimately in the case of the SJP, a trained attorney, makes all the difference in the housing stability for a working class family, especially families of color.

And as I mentioned during the council briefing yesterday, my office joined the tenants of Rainier Court last week.

This is a set of three buildings where nearly 500 tenants live, where many of them are seniors, many of them are immigrant and communities of color.

And that that the beginning of that struggle has only been possible because we've had also the tenants union and be Seattle with their with their with us to organize with the low income seniors and honestly in this is in response to a question that come in but Peterson had also asked me which I really appreciate it which is that.

Right now, most of the efforts that we need to continue funding are about existing law current law and helping tenants, make sure that landlords comply with current law and that's this so this is an example of that kind of thing.

where current law needs to be enforced.

The mayor's budget has allocated $605,000 to the SDCI to fund the right to counsel for renters facing eviction, but the Housing Justice Project believes that that may be as much as $400,000 too little, which means that either the SDCI will end up having to underfund the right to counsel or will have to cut funding to other organizations supporting renter education, which would then not work out because renters also need that kind of help in order to navigate the system, in order to deal with the problems that come up.

So this budget amendment will ensure that renters' education would not face cutbacks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Any additional questions?

Ketel, Denise, did you have anything else to add?

No.

OK.

Councilmember, Council President Gonzales, please go ahead.

Thanks so much.

I just wanted to add my name to this one as a sponsor, co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Council President Gonzales.

Council President Gonzales adding her name to STCI 11. Thank you.

Wonderful.

I think that that rounds out our STCI presentation, so let's move on to OPCD.

Madam Clerk, can you please read item 15 into the record?

Agenda item 15, Office of Planning and Community Development for briefing and discussion.

Chair Mosqueda.

Oh, so sorry.

Was that?

I thought we were talking about SDCA 10. Was it 11?

Let me double check with staff here.

I believe we were just on number 11, but we can add your name to number 10 if you prefer.

Oh, no, I wanted to add my name to both.

For some reason, I thought we were still on 10 based on the conversation.

I apologize.

I would like to have my name added to both SDCI 10 and SDCI 11. Thank you.

Let's do that.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to SDCI 10 and 11. And Council Member Herbold, would you like to go ahead and speak?

I'm so sorry.

On DCI, SDCI 10, I had let Councilmember Sawant's office know that I wanted to sponsor early on, but she had already collected her requisite number of sponsors, and so I would just like to be added now.

Thanks.

To SDCI number 10. Correct.

Okay.

Councilmember Herbold, Councilmember Herbold adding her name to SDCI number 10. I appreciate it.

It's starting to move fast through the end of SDCI there.

Okay, wonderful.

Keeping us on track here.

Now we are ready to move on to OPCD.

OPCD agenda item number 15 has already been read into the record, so let's start with OPCD number one.

Good afternoon.

Liz Schwitzen, Council Central staff.

OPCD 1A1 would add $620,000 of general fund to the Office of Planning and Community Development and $125,000 to the Department of Neighborhoods for the comprehensive plan update and an imposed proviso.

Sponsors, the primary sponsor is Council Member Strauss and co-sponsors are Chair Mosqueda and Council President Gonzalez.

This would provide a total of $750,000 between 2021 and 2022 for the Environmental Impact Statement for the next major update to the comprehensive plan.

$300,000 for outreach and $125,000 for historic preservation studies.

It would also impose a proviso that requires OPCD to study alternatives such as changes to neighborhood residential or single-family areas, studying 15-minute neighborhoods and studying other displacement tools as alternatives for the city's strategy for accommodating growth over the next 20 years.

and it requires OPCD to return to council after the scoping process to talk about what they've decided to study.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

And I understand this one's a little bit more lengthy too, so please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

And luckily, I've only got three more amendments to talk to today.

I'll endeavor to be short, but this one's kind of a longer one.

Making sure I am at the right one.

Yep.

So this amendment adds the $745,000 to OPCD to increase resources for the comprehensive plan major update community outreach process, and for the development of an environmental impact statement.

Councilmember Herbold and I joined Brian Callahan at the Seattle Channel for Inside Out.

The question was asked about changes to the major update and what's going to happen.

And what is going to happen is there's going to be a large amount of outreach, research, and analysis for us to be able to make informed decisions for this major update.

And this amendment is what is going to get us there.

So $200,000 will go to expanding the outreach and engagement effort around this major update for a total budget of $350,000, which is slightly higher than the budget for this last major updates engagement effort.

$125,000 would fund work updating the historic resources inventory, a necessary piece of the work that is currently not funded.

And $420,000 would increase the total budget for the environmental impact statement to $750,000, which was the cost for the citywide mandatory housing affordability, EIS, which is the closest comparison that we have.

This amendment will also reimpose an existing proviso on a portion of the EIS funds to require OPCD to study growth alternatives that allows for greater density in neighborhood residential areas, and to study alternatives that could include strategies to minimize displacements of low-income and BIPOC communities.

This next major update, which will conclude in spring of 2024, is the most important opportunity we have had in a decade to shape the future growth of Seattle.

It will be our chance to critically evaluate our current model of concentrating growth in urban villages and to consider what level of growth our neighborhood residential areas should take on.

It is crucial that we provide OPCB with the adequate resources to meaningfully engage with all communities across Seattle to inform the major update and to rigorously study the environmental impacts of the changes we consider.

Additionally, this funding will make sure that there's not misinformation in our communities.

I spoke to somebody just this week who was concerned that changing the name to neighborhood residential would mean that there would be higher heights and larger density allowed in neighborhood residential zones.

And I had to reaffirm them that my perspective at most would be to have duplexes, triplexes, micro stores and garages and community shops in our neighborhood so that we can have a 15-minute walkable community and get everything we need.

And without the funding that's contained within this amendment, I fear that we won't have the information available to us to research, analyze, and engage with our community to best understand how we should and to best inform our decisions during this major update.

Thank you, Chair.

That is our report.

Thank you very much.

Additional comments or questions on this item?

I will also just spend a quick second saying thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you for the work that you've done on this amendment here today.

I think that this is an important next step in our efforts to ensure that the upcoming major comprehensive plan.

truly addresses displacement and exclusionary zoning.

It's that both and approach that we've constantly been talking about.

We need actionable policies that are rooted in community identified strategies, and we can only get that if we have equitable and authentic community engagement.

As you noted, in 2019, the 2020 adopted budget that the council passed helped lay the groundwork for the comprehensive plan updates that can help lead to undoing these exclusionary zoning legacies that are still plaguing our system and address displacement.

By making sure that we're requiring the racial equity toolkit analysis that we received in your committee, Council Member Strauss, to be applied in our development of policies for the 2023 comprehensive plan, that then could pass in 2024. But those conversations, as the Racial Equity Toolkit noted, need to be grounded in the conversations that we began this year through the Racial Equity Toolkit so that we're bringing community expertise and experience to the table.

So that we are continuing authentic engagement and looking at the data data analysis that has already begun to be analyzed by community members and pairing those quantitative reports with qualitative summaries from community about how we can improve.

housing diversity and address the environmental impacts of additional growth and development in our community through a racial equity lens.

So I really appreciate the inclusion here because we don't want to have a situation where we've gone through this racial equity toolkit, have in-depth conversations and focus groups that have, by the way, been really made possible through the important work of OPCD, through Puget Sound SAGE, through PolicyLink.

They have begun a wonderful engagement that has helped lead to that racial equity toolkit analysis.

And we cannot drop the ball on our community engagement now.

Now is the time for us to be doubling down in terms of our investments.

And as you noted, if we were to move forward with the amount of investments in the budget alone, we would actually be reducing in real dollars, in today's dollars, the amount of money that we're putting into conversations with community.

And that is where it does not align with our values to have policy changes informed by those most affected by the changes.

So I look forward to engaging with you on this larger body of work in 2022 for community engagement to develop the policies in 2023 so that we can have a true comprehensive plan update in 2024. Any additional comments?

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Let's continue.

Number two.

OPCD 2A1 would add $162,000 and one FTE Strategic Advisor 1 to OPCD for the comprehensive plan public education effort.

The sponsor is Council President Gonzales with Council Members Morales and Strauss as co-sponsors.

The difference between this one and the previous council budget action is that this would add staff to OPCD.

The other is for consultant support for the comprehensive plan effort.

Council President, please go ahead.

It'd be okay if I address both items two and three together.

So if that's all right with you, Madam Chair, if Lish could talk to item number three as well, I can go ahead and take care of them both at one time.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

And Ketel was the sponsor.

Hi, Ketel.

I see you on the line here.

I can speak to OPCD 3A1.

OPCD 3A1 would add approximately $130,000 in general fund and one term limited strategic advisor, one position to OPCD for comprehensive plan implementation.

This position could work on implementing regulations that could be considered concurrently with comprehensive plan amendment adoption in 2024, the position would sunset in 2024. This is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and co-sponsored by council members Morales and Strauss.

Thank you so much for indulging my request to just take care of both of these at one time.

So as we know, as Councilmember Strauss just described, this is very important work that is underway for our next major comprehensive plan, and the next two years will be a rather large lift for us as a collective city family.

In order to achieve the goals as outlined in the 2024 update to the city's comprehensive plan that will continue to drive the city's policymaking around how and where we will see growth across the city.

So these two items are directly related to that comprehensive plan body of work that will be undertaken by OPCD.

Amendment OPCD-002 would provide OPCD additional term limited support to help more communities understand the work that is underway.

A recent survey by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce indicated that approximately two-thirds of respondents support greater density across the city.

but we know that we still have much engagement to do to help more communities and neighbors understand what the comprehensive plan really means to them.

We also know that individuals engage with the city on these issues in very different ways.

While some folks have time to go to stakeholder meetings or to call in for stakeholder meetings, there are others who simply do not have the time to do that.

And so this public education strategic advisor position would be focused on making sure that we are targeting information in public education about the comprehensive plan work towards those populations who are unable to participate in the ordinary ways through the ordinary systems that the city usually deploys in this area.

So this public education effort is really important to make sure that we are able to reach a more robust set of neighbors and community members as we work towards educating folks about this complex, dense set of land use policy that impacts all of us.

Amendment OPCD 003 supports good governance, frankly, in our built environment.

My office has been hearing from many diverse stakeholders that our land use and building codes continue to be very cumbersome and cause significant delays to meet our housing and child care needs.

We talked a little bit about that in a previous agenda item.

And this position would add capacity to OPCD for review and examination of our land use and building codes.

and design review codes to allow us to identify recommendations to streamline, update, and modernize our land use and building codes for concurrent action with our next comprehensive plan update.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council President, for your description of 002 and 003. Colleagues, are there any questions or comments on these two?

Please go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

I actually don't have comments.

I'm co-sponsoring both of these, but I missed my opportunity to ask to get co-sponsor on number one.

So I'd like to do that if possible.

No problem, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Council Member Morales is adding her name as a co-sponsor to OPCD 001. Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I appreciate the specific scope that you've outlined for these two additional amendments.

I do also see a lot of similarity with 001, which I know you're a co-sponsor of as well.

And I'm wondering throughout the next week or so here if we continue to think about how these three intersect.

I think what you've outlined is what should be successful outreach and engagement, and we want to make sure that the outreach and engagement is also targeted those who are most often left out.

I look forward to continuing to learn more about these three items and how they intersect and appreciate all of the attention on the need for authentic community engagement and the actual staffing to go with it.

Any additional comments on these two?

Okay.

Let's go ahead and move on to 004, OPCD.

OPCD 4A1 adds $300,000 of general fund to OPCD for regional growth centers planning.

It's sponsored by Council Member Strauss with Council Member Lewis and Council President Gonzalez as co-sponsors.

Together with money already in the 2022 proposed budget, there would be a total of $450,000 for this planning effort for six centers across the city.

Thank you very much.

And Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

The city is required by 2025 to update our sub-area plans for our six regionally designated urban growth centers, which include downtown Seattle, First Hill and Capitol Hill, Southlake Union, Northgate, the University District, and Uptown, formerly known as Lower Queen Anne.

These areas are designated to receive a disproportionate share of growth in our region, and over the past five years, 50% of Seattle's housing growth and 75% of our job growth have occurred in these areas.

This amendment increases the budget for our sub-area planning and our regional growth centers by $300,000, bringing it to a total of $450,000, as was identified in central staff's issue identification memo.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Any additional comments or questions on 004?

Okay, thank you very much.

Let's move on to 005.

OPCD 5A1 is a statement of legislative intent that requests that OPCD report on options for Stone Avenue North between North 115th Street and North 125th Street.

sponsored by Council Member Juarez with Council Members Peterson and Strauss as co-sponsors.

Council Member Juarez, please go ahead.

Thank you.

So, let's see here.

So Stoney Avenue North is located adjacent to Aurora and is also close to both the Halcyon and Bellaby mobile home parks.

As you all know with Council Member Sawant's help we've been working on this since probably winter of 2018. So the folks living at these mobile home parks have expressed their interest as well as the neighbors in transforming the plot of land currently owned by SPU and SDOT into an amenity of the surrounding community such as a park, a playground, a bike trail, or a pedestrian walking trail.

We want to continue our efforts to beautify and protect manufactured mobile home parks within our city.

SDOT was awarded 1.5 million dollars, a grant from WSDOT's pedestrian and bicycle program in 2021 to complete the Aurora Avenue North planning and design study for the corridor between Roy Street and North 145th.

So that's a pretty long stretch there.

This funding supplements 500,000 in local match for a total project of budget of 2 million.

And the study will be finished in 2023, as I'm sure council member, Oh, I forgot.

I was going to say Louis, but I just was thinking Dan.

And Louis is a person.

This is what happens when you can become an elder.

Okay.

Anyway, you all know what's going on in Aurora.

Okay.

It's been going on a long time.

We finally got money from the state.

We got money from the city.

The study will get done.

We have all these improvements and we got the rapid ride on there and we're just trying to get people down Aurora.

in other modes besides cars.

And so this slide asks OPCD to incorporate this plot of land into the study of Aurora to identify potential public uses of this land that could activate the space and provide an amenity for nearby residents.

Our office has received assurances from OPCD that this would be a welcome addition to their work.

I don't, I, who are the two council members that supported me on this one?

You have Alex, Council Member Peterson and Council Member Strauss.

Oh, okay.

So it's Council Member Strauss.

Sorry, I forgot your name.

I wanted to thank you because we've been working on this Aurora project and it's just, it's just been going on for so long.

So anyway, that's what we're doing folks.

So thank you.

Well, thank you Council Member Juarez.

And, um, appreciate all of the work you have been putting into this year.

Over a year, are there any additional comments or questions?

Okay, seeing none, let's move on to OPCD 006.

All right, OPCD 6A1 would add $380,000 of general fund to OPCD for Duwamish sustainability projects.

sponsor is Council Member Morales, Council Members Herbold and Swann are co-sponsors.

The proposed budget includes FTE and OPCD to support the Duwamish Valley Program and this amendment would be managed by that new staff person.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Thanks, Lish.

As Lish said, this amendment would support indigenous-led clean energy projects that were not included in the Duwamish Valley Action Plan, like the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, to help meet the environmental justice and equitable development goals for the Duwamish Valley, goals that are part of the city's equity and environment agenda.

Some examples include supporting rooftop top solar installation water filtration systems to support those in the industrialized river valley access clean water.

And as Lish mentioned, the funding could be supported in part, work could be supported in part by the new Duwamish Valley Program coordinator position at City.

Thank you Council Member Morales.

I do have a question.

If the The council budget amendment document says the Duwamish longhouse project was not included in the Duwamish valley action plan, but this project would serve the same goals as the environmental justice and equitable development of the Duwamish valley.

Do you know any more history about why the longhouse wasn't included to begin with?

And if that's a question for central staff, we can follow up.

Yeah, it looked like you might be saying something.

Yeah, I think it's timing.

The Duwamish Valley Action Plan was published in, I think, 2018, so we're three years later and new ideas have arisen.

Thank you very much.

Okay, I'm not seeing any additional questions on that.

Council Member, thank you.

Let's move on to the next one, OPCD number seven.

All right.

OPCD 7A1 adds $11 million of general fund, one FTE strategic advisor, one FTE planning and development specialist, senior position to OPCD for the equitable development initiative.

It's sponsored by council member Morales with council members Herbold and council president Gonzalez as co-sponsors.

The effect of this amendment would be to provide a total of $30 million for equitable development grants in 2022, with all staff paid for through the general fund.

Thank you.

Councilman Morales, please go ahead.

Thank you, Lish.

So EDI, although I love me some EDI, has proven to be a powerful tool for the city to invest in community-driven development strategies that reduce racial disparities.

Last year, the EDI team managed to get out almost $10 million out the door to 21 organizations for different projects in the city.

But they received applications that totaled over $50 million.

So this amendment would expand EDI to 30 million to allow the program to have even more success on the city's anti-displacement strategies, responding to new economic opportunities, improving educational outcomes, and other forms of community development in neighborhoods that have historically been targeted by systemic and institutional racism.

And as Lish mentioned, it also adds This amendment would add two FTEs to the team to support the growing work of that division.

We know that they also have a new equitable development advisory board and have a huge demand for the work that they're doing.

So this helps expand their capacity.

Thank you.

Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

Well, I'm a co-sponsor on this one, but I actually missed my opportunity to request to be added as a sponsor to OPCD 006. And I'd like to request for that to occur.

Sorry about that.

Thank you, Council President Gonzalez.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to OPCD 006. Council Member Swat, please go ahead.

I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor to OPCD 007. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Sawant adding her name to OPCD 007. Council Member Morales or also for central staff, a question on OPCD 007 related to equitable development initiative investments.

I'm just curious about the overlap or maybe the we're going to be making in the next couple of years.

And that's in connection to all of the work that we want to do with investments from jump start specific to equitable development initiative.

Can you talk a little bit more about how this would dovetail or what the intersect is there with the upcoming investments that we would then be making in equitable development initiative.

Yeah, this is well, this would be added to the 14 million to get us to 30 million.

And as I said, it was it's really a question of being able to expand the capacity of the staff there as well as be able to make additional investments because we have.

So many projects where folks are, you know, missing the access to capital that they need right now to finish to make a project pencil or to be able to preserve access to community space to small business space.

you know, any of the number of things that we hear from our constituents, that ground floor construction is really kind of the missing piece, the financing for that.

And so this is really just an effort to expand the capacity of the neighborhood organizations that community-based organizations that are doing these sorts of development projects to get the capital for the ground floor construction or to get the pre-development funds or the capacity building funds that they need to get their project to that level, to that place where it's ready for financing.

Thank you for that.

And Ali, did you have anything you were hoping to add?

I was just going to note that if general fund revenues rebound in future years, that the total size of the investment from Jumpstart and Equitable Development Initiative would be somewhere in the range of $22 million.

So this is sort of a little, if you added this to what's allocated in the proposed budget, this is a little bit more of that.

So it would be like a jumpstart on those investments, for lack of a better word.

we are not seeing any additional comments.

I'm not seeing any additional comments.

Just noting that this would be pushing it further towards the ultimate goal assuming our economy recovers and general fund revenues come back.

Thank you very much for that reminder.

So this is the final OPCD item.

OPCD 8A1 would add $2 million of general fund to OPCD for North Seattle College Longhouse project.

It's a partnership between the Chief Seattle Club North Seattle North Seattle College and Bellwether Housing and the project has received $750,000 through the EDI program.

This would bring them closer to their total goals.

Council Member Juarez is the sponsor, with Council Member Sawant and Lewis as co-sponsors.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, Lish.

And thank you, Council Member Sawant and Council Member Lewis for being co-sponsors.

As Lish just shared, the Chief Seattle Club and Bellwether Housing, we've been working on this project for almost a year, have formed a partnership to develop 200 units of low-income housing, low-income affordable housing, and a longhouse on the North Seattle College campus.

The Longhouse would serve as a center of cultural, educational, and employment activities for the residents, North Seattle College students, and the broader Native American community, not just in the South, but also in the North.

It would be located adjacent to the 200 units of affordable housing and within walking distance of the new Northgate light rail station and employment opportunities at Northgate and the new Kraken Community Iceplex.

Building the Longhouse is going to enhance and continue our march towards building an indigenous footprint in North Seattle.

As Liz shared, the equitable development initiative allocated 700,000 towards this project in its 2021 funding cycle.

So these funds would increase the city support for the Longhouse to a total of 2.7.

I want to add just a couple of side notes, and I think Council Member Morales touched on this as well.

The issue of the Longhouse, I think it's one thing when we do these land acknowledgments, but for me, this is really where the rubber hits the road when you actually do something.

And Longhouses are different than community centers, and they started with Evergreen State College.

University of Washington has a Longhouse, the Duwamish Longhouse.

A big thank you to our former director, Sam Sapa, who I had met with many times in the OPCD planning, working towards and using indigenous architectural and land use planning models to activate areas, provide common cultural space and a footprint that honors and acknowledges the Salish people or the indigenous people who are here.

And a Longhouse is different than a community center.

It isn't just a place for gathering on the UW, they call it the house of knowledge, but it is a house and a place for not only building community, but for teaching, for healing.

And it is that cultural component that goes beyond what I could, I can probably not really actually express, but it can't be a part of another physical building because on its own terms, it would be a separate building.

for a longhouse.

So it's more than an amenity to those 200 units that we're hoping to build on the campus and more than an amenity to the other 244 units that we hope to build across the bridge when the mayor worked with myself and Seattle Housing Authority to buy the eight acres of the low-income housing there.

To double the capacity and the people living there can come back.

So, the bottom floor would be for hopefully the, and I'll talk about this later, the indigenous footprint, hopefully, a performing arts center and childcare and then dedicate a 3rd to low income affordable housing and the other 3 quarters to market rate.

So.

We are trying to have this petri dish, if you will, of this building of community, of density, of mobility, of walkability.

But more importantly, at least for me, before I leave this job, to have that Indigenous footprint front and center that's visible.

So when you come on the North Seattle campus, when you come up in the North End, you can actually say there is an Indigenous presence here in brick and mortar.

and community and language.

And to me, that is hopefully one of my legacies.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

It's Juarez.

That was just, I'm paying things back for Council Member Strauss there.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, yeah.

How's that for cover?

I will happily be mistaken for Council Member Morales because I'm probably 20 years older than her, so thank you.

Well, you are welcome, and my apologies as well on the wrong name.

Council Member Juarez, thank you very much.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

For everything that Council Member Juarez just said, I would like to add my name as co-sponsor to this amendment.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Council Member Strauss.

Council Member Strauss is adding his name to OPCD 008. Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Okay.

All right.

We're doing good here.

I appreciate the conversation and I believe that brings us to Department of Neighborhoods.

So before we read that into the record, just confirming, Lish, anything else from you on this?

Uh, no, thanks.

Okay.

Thanks for your time today.

Um, and colleagues, we are pretty much on time, so we're going to do this.

We're going to get done by five.

Thank you for all of the conversation and also your.

Thank you very much.

We are getting the gist of what you are proposing and also there has been some good dialogue.

Thanks for the questions and the back and forth.

Department of Neighborhoods 1A1 would add a million dollars of general fund to DON to support planning for the Chinatown International District.

Sponsor is Council Member Morales with Straus and Council President Gonzalez is co-sponsors.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the work Council Member Morales.

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I think I need to give just a little bit of background for context here.

For a year or two now, a group calling itself the Chinatown International Development Vision Group has been meeting.

It includes SCIPTA, Interim, the Wing Luke Museum, the CID, BIA, and several other groups who, as you may know, don't always agree on how things should go down in the CID.

But they have been working together with a neutral third party, who's actually the Denise Louie Child Care Center is serving as kind of a neutral fiscal agent for them, as they work through together how to develop a framework for what kind of planning should happen in the CID, how they're going to make decisions and work together, especially given that there are so many different planning processes underway or about to be underway in the neighborhood.

Maritime industrial land, the sound transit station, there's a lot going on.

So all that to say they've been working together.

They have developed a framework for decision-making and community building to develop a full-fledged neighborhood plan that they want to present to OPCD for incorporation inclusion in the city's neighborhood planning.

So, they've been meeting, but they want to complete this work over the next 18 months.

And so they're asking for funding to complete the plan.

The idea is for deal and contract.

contract with a consultant or consultants to get community input over seven issue areas that this group has identified.

For example, business and economic strength, housing, human services, transportation.

The funding itself would cover consultant expenses like coordinating meetings, meeting with each of these area leads, data collection, training the staff on decision making, writing, editing, et cetera.

It would also cover direct expenses for all of the community meetings that you can imagine would be involved in something like this.

And those expenses would include translation support for focus groups, childcare, food, advertising, meeting supplies, et cetera.

So that is the intent here.

I should say that the idea is to fund this over 15 or 18 months.

And so the ask would be for 800,000 in 2022 and 200,000 for the next year.

So as we're having this conversation, we can just keep that in mind that we can split this up a little bit and still meet the needs that the community is asking for.

Thank you for flagging that, Council Member Morales.

Are there any additional comments or questions on this item?

Okay, thank you very much.

Let's move on to 002, Department of Neighborhoods.

DON2A1 would request that the Department of Neighborhoods provide recommendations on opportunities for a more equitable economy and community wealth building.

This is a statement of legislative intent.

The sponsor is Councilmember Morales, with Councilmember Strauss and Council President Gonzalez as co-sponsors.

Wonderful.

Welcome back, Karina.

Thank you.

The proposed 2022 budget

And so this statement of legislative intent really just requests that the department use some of that funding to coordinate with other departments on the various community wealth building efforts that we have in the city.

And the idea would be here to direct deal and to work with a consultant.

or an expert in inclusive economies and inclusive growth, and also in cross-sector strategic planning to really look at how the city, how the programs that we have already can best support strategies that reduce the racial wealth gap and that increase generational wealth.

the city.

And so just to sort of coordinate, use some of that funding to get an outside expert who can help coordinate and assess the work that the city is doing already.

So there's already a number of wealth building projects and programs in our city departments.

You're interested in coordinating that through one single entity and having greater Thank you for that clarification.

Okay.

Additional comments or questions?

All right.

Let's move on to DON003.

Hi, Karina Bull with Central Staff, DON3A1.

This council budget action would provide those $750,000 general fund and Department of Neighborhoods to develop a guaranteed basic income program with the goal of implementing the program in 2022. The budget amendment is sponsored by Council President Gonzalez and is also sponsored by Council Members Morales and Straus.

Thank you very much.

Council President, please go ahead.

Well, maybe I can offer you, Chair Mosqueda, a dose of energy through this Zoom screen.

I am really excited about D.O.N. 003, which would provide us the first steps in being able to develop and implement a guaranteed basic income program at the City of Seattle.

You know, I was really inspired by what we have been seeing the Biden administration do, specifically through the child tax credit, which is a form of a basic income program.

And some of the early research findings by the Brookings Institute shows that monthly income programs like these can really make a huge difference in decreasing things like child poverty and can also be a tool for increasing family social mobility in the long term.

And so we have an opportunity to here at the City of Seattle, where we have also utilized our one-time federal dollars by implementing direct cash assistance programs, we have an opportunity to identify ways that we can continue those kinds of investments that will work towards creating greater financial stability for those who need it the most and combat deep-seated systemic issues like poverty that impact many within our communities.

So I am excited to have an opportunity to advance this particular effort so that we can look at the long-term planning that will be needed to implement a guaranteed basic income program moving forward.

Again, building on our already proven success, I think, through our direct cash assistance programs included in the Seattle Rescue Plan and also what we are seeing as success stories through Biden's child tax credit program and also what we are seeing as success to the south of us with our neighbors in San Francisco who have implemented a guaranteed basic income program specifically for individuals who are unhoused at about, I think, $500 a month.

And that program is already showing much promise in terms of creating economic stability within the unhoused population and creating an additional opportunity for those individuals to stabilize.

So I am really excited about this opportunity and hope to be able to earn your all support and appreciate the support of my co-sponsors.

Thank you very much Council President.

Thank you for the energy and enthusiasm for this amendment and I'm not seeing any additional questions.

Thanks for the motivation.

I'm going to go ahead and add my name as a co-sponsor to this item and we are going to plow through to the next one.

Please go ahead.

Hi, Yolanda, is that you?

Oh, excuse me.

We are all done with that section.

So thank you, Karina.

Anything else on this section?

No, that is all just moving on to the Office of Sustainability.

Yep.

Okay, wonderful.

So again, Council Member Mosqueda, I'm adding myself to DON003.

Let's move on to the next item of business in today's agenda.

Madam Clerk, can you please read item number 17 into the record?

Thank you for being here.

This would add $100,000 of general fund one time to the Office of Sustainability and Environment to support development of a plan to establish resilience hubs throughout Seattle.

These hubs would be designed to provide air conditioning and clean air during extreme heat and wildfire smoke events.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Council President.

Thank you so much.

So, colleagues, for the low, low price of $100,000, we can begin advancing meaningful change for building community climate resilience through adoption of this particular amendment.

This is an item that is prioritized in the solidary budget that we've been hearing about, and I am really honored to have an opportunity to sponsor this on behalf of community.

We are, as Yolanda mentioned in her remarks, seeing the impact of climate charged weather via extreme heat or wildfire smoke.

And so this funding supports outreach to conduct a vulnerability assessment to better understand the needs of vulnerable individuals.

To get to a cooling center or smoke shelter when those extreme weather incidents occur.

The 2nd, part of this item would conduct a survey of existing city facilities that could be activated.

So that no resident anywhere in the city would be more than 15 minutes away from an extreme weather shelter.

and it would also assess what energy needs these facilities have and if there are opportunities for the City of Seattle to retrofit those publicly owned facilities for green energy infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Excited about this as well.

Are there any additional comments or questions on 001?

I think that's all I have to say.

≫ Wonderful.

Councilmember Herbold, please go ahead.

≫ I just want to add that we have recently in the office of emergency management's all hazards mitigation plan, the resolution adopting the different but similar or perhaps related action here.

And so, I think they are in the development of the next all hazards mitigation plan looking at doing some of this work as it relates to climate specifically around extreme heat events.

So, just flagging that this might be something that would benefit from some collaboration with the Office of Emergency Management.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, I'm not seeing any additional hands.

Let's go ahead and go on to OSC number two.

I would like to introduce the OSC 2A1.

This would impose a proviso on payroll expense tax funding in OSC designated for youth leadership, workforce training and capacity building in the Duwamish Valley to We are committed to working with all of our partners to

Thank you so much.

So as described, the proposal for this funding is intended to be ongoing.

The proviso itself is one time as funding for program transfers from the Human Services Department to OSC.

The Human Services Department previously had funded the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps for a number of their youth engagement programs focusing on environmental justice and job skills.

It's been in operation since 2014. Again, the funding has historically been through HSD.

That was from back, dating back to 2018. This provides, is to ensure that the Youth Corps continues to be funded by the city in this sort of larger bucket of funds that OSC proposes to focus around the the programs within the Duwamish, the environmental programs within the Duwamish Valley.

There's a larger number of dollars that they have told us that they intend to spend.

They told us that they do intend to fund the Youth Corps.

This is just to ensure that they receive an adequate amount of funding when the executive is ready to make that decision.

The other piece I think that's important to remember that is that the Duwamish Valley is home to 5,600 people, of which 42% are immigrants, 37% are Latinx, and 63% are people of color.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold, for your work on this.

I did want to ask from central staff, when When reviewing this, I had a question about the title here.

I want to make sure that I fully understood that when we, if we're successful at applying amendment number one from the finance general discussion that we had this morning, and we correct the revenue sources, is that, is this revenue source also I think that was the intent that I had understood from the sponsor that it was not that this item specifically should be tied to jumpstart, but it was amending the mayor's proposed budget that came down.

So perhaps just a clarifying question, it looks like from the sponsor here, your intent is to really make sure that the funds go to this investment versus where the dollars come from.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Wonderful.

Anything else from central staff?

Okay, great.

Well, we will work with you then council member herbal just to make sure that I'm clear on that as well.

So I just want to make sure that was clear for the record and appreciate your work on this amendment.

Let's go on to 003.

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Thank you very much and Councilmember Peterson with Councilmember Juarez and Strauss appreciate your sponsorship with this.

Please go ahead Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you Chair Mosqueda.

I'd like to first thank the dozens of constituents who have already sent emails to the City Council in support of this effort.

uh...

to stroke gas engines are terrible noise in particular polluters and the trend across the country is that start to phase those outs and or ban them completely over time uh...

state of california just uh...

passed a law on this The technology for quieter, cleaner, electric-powered leaf blowers has improved a lot since previous city council considered this idea years ago.

So this is just a statement of legislative intent to have the executive come back to us with a plan to phase them out.

This could include a buyback or exchange program to help those who need to have those for the services they provide.

they would be electric.

They would be replacing with clean electric.

And obviously the parks department is a big user of these, so this would be something that they would have to work out a plan to phase out as well.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Any additional comments or questions on this one?

I know there's a lot of excitement and a lot of interest in helping to move in this direction, and I have also appreciate I think that is important that we continue to move towards reducing pollution in all senses of the word, both in terms of the air we breathe and the noise.

Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

Yeah, I was just going to signal that I'd like to, I'd like to not just signal, but I'd like to say that I would like to be added as a sponsor to OSC 003. I do appreciate Councilmember Peterson bringing this issue forward.

I remember two or three years ago we were talking about the potential of doing this body of work and unfortunately it did not advance.

I do think that it is important for the city to to look at how we phase out gas-powered leaf blowers across the city as part and parcel of our climate action plan and to reduce our carbon emissions produced by fossil fuels, it would be critical to phase out our reliance on the gas-powered leaf blowers.

So I appreciate Councilmember Peterson's leadership in this area.

Thank you very much, Council President Gonzales, adding her name to OSE003.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, let's move on to, oh, DO1.

We've reached the end of that category.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you very much for your work on that.

Madam Clerk, let's go ahead and read into the record item number 18, second to last item, folks.

We're gonna make it on time.

Thank you for the energy you are giving me.

We're gonna get through this.

agenda item 18, office of economic development for briefing and discussion.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, this is the largest list of amendments to be considered.

And then I think we have one under office of labor standards for consideration.

So please, please go ahead and walk us through this.

Yolanda, you are still with us.

So, office of economic development, 001.

All right, and so Patty, you wanna switch to OED?

All right, so we're all in alignment here.

So, all right, OED 1A1, sponsored by Council Member Morales, co-sponsored by Council Members Herbold and Lewis.

This would add $150,000 general fund one time to OED for an organization that provides career-connected learning and employment opportunities for youth in the creative sector, such as the Northwest Folklife.

And we just note that the city may be funding this organization for a total of up to $150,000 next year, but that is not guaranteed at this point.

I just want to make sure I understand that last line that you just said.

Yolanda, can you repeat what you said?

Sure, yeah.

So I would just note that the, so it's jointly funded between the Office of Arts and Culture and Office of Economic Development.

So Office of Arts and Culture has confirmed $50,000 from their budget will go to this organization and Office of Economic Development is still kind of I just wanted to flag that for you all.

How is it at this point in developing the draft budget that a department is still in the process of developing what the 2022 deployment looks like?

We've received the proposed budget from the mayor's office, which they have, I believe, six to eight months that they draft together.

So remind me how that happens.

Well, if you can, if not, that's OK.

We can solve it.

I'm not seeing detailed operations.

But I will note that when I had inquired with the Office of Economic Development specifically regarding this contract, they had initially indicated that they were funding them at $50,000 in 2021, but had recently decided to increase that amount to $100,000 for 2021. That is the information I was given and that they would potentially fund this organization again at $100,000.

But you do raise a good point in that there does appear to be some fluidity in what is happening currently.

Okay.

Well, I appreciate you offering clarification.

Thank you.

We'll follow up with you on that.

the process concerns that are raised for me at this time in the budget deliberations process.

But let's go ahead and turn it to Council Member Morales to give us a little bit more context on to what these dollars do provide.

Sure.

Thank you.

Well, as Yolanda mentioned, this would provide support for organizations like Northwest Folklife.

It serves as an employer intermediary connecting young people who are 16 to 26 years of age with paid internships in the local creative industries.

These offer entry-level, career-connected learning opportunities to expose young people to media, marketing, tech, film, music, as well as performing arts-related work.

So the same way that we have workforce development opportunities for youth and maritime industrial and construction trades.

We are looking to make sure that we continue to support the creative industries as part of our workforce development strategy.

So I appreciate the question, Chair Mosqueda, and definitely want to follow up to make sure that we are, that we know how we will be funding and at what level for the other departments already.

Thank you very much Councilmember Morales.

Just a quick question I think for you as the sponsor, can you talk a little bit about how this item had any influence from or input from our friends at the Arts Commission?

Yeah, so this is part of the work that we are trying to do with the Arts Commission is, you know, we be back on track and supporting the connection to creative industries is an important part of that.

And so we want to make sure that we are providing this opportunity for young people as part of their workforce development strategy.

So yeah, this is part of the strategy to really sort of add back in to the work OED is doing, the connections along the way in the creative industry sector.

Great, okay, thank you very much.

Any additional questions or comments on this one?

Okay, and Yolanda, I appreciate the follow-up conversations to come.

Thank you for the context on this.

Let's move on to OED002.

All right, OED 2A1.

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

This would add $250,000 general fund one time to OED to fund a consultant that would evaluate the city's investments in workforce development and create a strategic plan in collaboration with the city's regional workforce development partners.

This would also impose a proviso on the funding for the division director and creative industry manager positions until the plan is submitted to the council.

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

So, colleagues, I've mentioned a few times throughout this budget process that there's Uh...

many different ways in which the city is engaging in workforce development.

And that given the different departments, I think it's important that we take some time to evaluate how as a city we are really engaging in this work.

So this would allow us to do kind of, you know, assess the landscape, look at how the city is at our current workforce development investments, to really understand how we can coordinate those efforts better into a holistic strategy.

And I will say, supporting that strategic planning process is intended to help us work with our regional partners, which our conversations with lots of folks outside of the city, different stakeholders in this arena have indicated that there's a sense of frustration that the city isn't working with our regional partners as well as we could.

One example of the ways in which we are doing that is the fact that, as we mentioned, as I've mentioned before, for the last couple of years, the line of business in OED around film and music and creative industries, a lot of that work has been done by the Arts Commission, by the folks who have been working on developing the Cultural Space PDA, for example.

This work is all aligned, and the fact that There's been a lot of shuffling of positions has created a lot of concern.

And so until we have this strategy in place, until we have an assessment of what the best way is to move forward, I am requesting that we provide the two positions that are in that line of business right now.

And then when the next director is hired, in the department, you know, there will be an opportunity for that director to make a decision about how to move forward with those positions and with the work that has been done in the last couple of years around workforce development in the department.

Excellent, thank you.

This definitely echoes some of the things that I've been hearing as well from our friends in labor about the need to have more alignment between the work that we do and the state's workforce development council, our region's workforce development council.

So thank you.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thanks.

I would just like to add my name as a sponsor.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

Council Member Herbold's adding her name to OEB-002.

Thank you very much.

Let's move on.

Okay.

OED 3A1 was sponsored by Council Member Lewis, co-sponsored by Council Members Juarez and Strauss.

This would add 2.5 million general fund one time to OED to fund efforts to attract large conventions to the Washington State Convention Center.

These efforts would be led by an organization that promotes leisure tourism to Seattle nationally and internationally, such as Visit Seattle.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Lewis, please go ahead.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair, for giving an opportunity to jump in on this priority.

So, you know, we're about to have a big new convention center here in the city of Seattle, and a big component of that is going to be making sure we're getting the word out to attract large conventions to come and take advantage of this new amenity in the city.

The Visit Seattle BIA, and I'm not sure how familiar members of the public are, but Visit Seattle is a type of business improvement area which can only apparently use the money they collect for leisure travel.

So there is a loophole where they're not currently able to use the money that's collected through an assessment on hotel revenue to attract conventioneers, which is a different type of advertising and promotion campaign.

In the long term, it might be good to revise the charter of that BIA if there is interest in that from the members to expand what is permissible.

But in the meantime, we are going to be in a position where the timeline for attracting conventions is going to be getting more real and there will be a need for some potential resource to come in and augment those efforts.

So this is an opportunity here as a council to make a big investment up front to make sure that the city and region are recovering by filling the new convention center.

Conventions, as all of us know, have a massive impact.

on the economic vitality of the city from attracting a large number of people into the city for the convention who in turn are eating out or going to restaurants or I'm going to bars or using cabs and ride shares and just generally spending a lot of money in our city.

So this is a way to make sure that we have a steady pipeline of attracting people to visit and to make sure that we are making the best use of our great new massive convention center that we'll be opening downtown in the near future.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Lewis.

Thanks for flagging this issue, and I look forward to, as you noted, looking at some of the longer-term ways that we can create greater stability for the investments and the ways that we attract folks to coming to our new convention center.

Council President Gonzalez, I'll turn to you, and then I have one question for Central Center.

Great.

I appreciate hearing a little bit more detail about this item from the sponsor.

Thanks, Councilmember Lewis, for bringing it forward as the great representative of District 7. I, you know, I am mindful of the fact that this convention center, the expansion of which is receiving public funds, is, you know, this project is really important to the vitality of downtown.

In sort of a broad sense, but I also want to acknowledge that the number of jobs, especially union represented jobs that will benefit from having a healthy amount of conventions coming to the city of Seattle.

And I can tell from Visit Seattle's website that There's already an uptick in the number of conventions starting to come to Seattle, and if there are things that we can do to bolster and support that, I would certainly be interested in any short-term investments that are needed in order to sort of give the convention center, an opportunity to get off on the right foot.

Again, I think this is a good economic development opportunity, but also a good opportunity to get many of our hospitality workers back to work.

If there are more conventions, there is going to be more work and more opportunity for people to return to work in a safe manner.

So I see this as a potential win-win opportunity for both the worker side and the convention side of the equation and would like to go ahead and add my name to OED003 as a result.

Thank you, Council President.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to OED003.

You know, one of the things that I'm reminded of when I hear about this need in the community is our conversation as a council with community members, including folks who are employers and workers in the downtown core, as we thought about the impact that COVID could have.

on our community in the early months of the pandemic last year, we passed Jump Start, and included in that was funding for economic resilience, which we creatively wrote with input from folks who were thinking about just this.

How can we recruit more conventions and conferences and, you know, worker training opportunities and incubator discussions for our next entrepreneurs?

How can we recruit them to come to Seattle and enjoy our city and also be of the economic engine as we seek to build our way out of this recession.

And so, Ali, I see you on the screen here.

I'm hoping that you can remind me how, what the language was from Jumpstart's economic resilience section, because we had anticipated, we wrote into law that the mayor's office was supposed to send us a implementation plan and a roadmap for utilizing the economic resilience component of Jumpstart funds.

That report was not submitted by July as we anticipated.

But I do think there's a lot of overlap in some of the items that the council has noted for interest today, some of the items that we've seen in the proposed budget.

And I think this item could dovetail nicely with that economic resilience section.

Could you remind me if there's overlap there?

Thank you.

Chair Mosqueda.

So the economic revitalization sort of category within the jumpstart spending plan speaks specifically to this type of investment.

It calls for 15% of the proceeds to be used to support local business.

and tourism to spur the local economic recovery and to provide economic stability for the city's workforce.

There's a lot more detail in the spend plan that goes into those types of investments and supporting the workforce and that type of thing.

And one of the specific asks is that there was at least $650,000 set aside to work with an organization with expertise in developing a plan specifically to act as a catalyst to launch programs and services that will help launch these types of programs and services.

And so that funding amount is included in the amendment you sponsored, FG001, that we discussed just this morning, but it feels like a while ago, to do that work in 2022. And then I'll also note that That amendment in sort of reallocating funds and making some adjustments does leave some of that, some funding in the economic revitalization category for you and your colleagues to make decisions on how to How to allocate as one time investments in, in 2022. And so over the coming weeks, we'll be having conversations about which of these is consistent with the spending plan and where they're, you know, funds available.

It adds up, all of these ads would add to more than what's available in the Jump Start Fund.

But there are some resources available.

And like I said, that $650,000 to develop the plan would be spent and happened in 2022.

Thank you for that reminder, Allie.

And Council Member Lewis, I'll look forward to following up with you on that overlap that Allie just noted as well.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

Thank you.

I understood the sponsor to say that the BIA charter prohibits the BIA revenues to be used for marketing and promoting conventions, and that that charter could be changed if the members, the rate payers of the BIA initiated it.

And so I'm just, I guess the question I have is, has that process begun and is the reason why we're proposing to fund it instead because that process has begun and we've somehow slowed it down?

I'm just concerned that if we provide the funding, then there's no incentive for the BIA to change the ordinance.

But if on the other hand, we are somehow blocking or slowing down the changing of the ordinance, I would see why we would want to consider this.

Yeah.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

That's a good question.

My understanding is, you know, and, you know, we have to go back and talk to Visit Seattle more specifically, but my recollection from talking to them is that they were not initially aware how restrictive the original charter of the BIA was in terms of what it could be spent on.

I don't think the original charter envisioned having a convention center of the size and scope of the one we're anticipated to have and sort of the scope and scale of convention we would be competitive for attracting.

I know there are also some conversations out there right now about the BIA being rechartered and addressing a bunch of other things associated with the BIA in terms of fee structure and other things.

So this could potentially be envisioned in that, but I don't think it's a 2021 timeline.

This is a one-time ask.

Because by the time the BIA is changed and fixed and everything else, I mean, as you're well aware, as the former chair of the relevant committee, I mean, these processes take a while when you're muddling through creating or rechartering BIAs.

So it's more about the time sensitivity of having the resources to be able to plan out and attract conventions projecting well into the future.

and have the resources to do that now.

And I don't think that is going to sync up with the current Visit Seattle rechartering conversations.

Councilmember Morales might know more about it than I, frankly, because being in the budget right now, obviously, any legislation like that has been put off.

This being a one-time ad does not give me concerns that it's gonna turn into a thing where we're expected to bail this out every year.

I guess that would be my, where I would kind of rest it.

And I can add that I have been in communication with the department on potentially some changes around Visit Seattle's, some legislation potentially coming to the council next year.

So, well, TBD, but it is certainly in something that Visit Seattle has been engaging with council members, I think even a few years ago, I recall.

I'm coming around and engaging with council members on potentially increasing their rate.

So I think that that has been something they're talking with the rate payers about and are preparing to do something about it.

And as Council Member Lewis noted, it will not happen this year.

Okay, thank you very much for the clarifying questions.

I appreciate the answers.

And we are going to move on.

Let's go on to OED004.

OED 0408, OED 4A1, sponsored by Council Member Juarez, co-sponsored by Council Members Morales and Strass.

This would add $50,000 of general fund one time to OED for a consultant to engage with businesses in Northgate about strategies to support business district cohesion and resilience in response to recent changes in the neighborhood, including the opening of the new light rail station.

Thank you, and Councilmember Juarez, please go ahead.

Thank you, and thank you, Councilmember Morales and Strauss for helping me co-sponsor this.

So, as you just shared, there are investments in the Northgate neighborhood, such as the John Lewis Memorial Bridge, the Northgate light rail, the redeveloped Northgate Mall, and the Kraken Community Iceplex will create great economic opportunities, but also challenges.

For example, the Kraken Iceplex is expected to bring in about 800,000 new annual visitors to the neighborhood.

So I would like OED to hire a consultant to approach neighborhood businesses and stakeholders to build cohesion and consider solutions for the challenges as well as ways to leverage the economic opportunity.

So we have done this in the past with OED and OPCD.

In particular, in the last six or seven years we've been working with OPCD in planning for our second light rail station on 130th that Sound Transit recently approved.

So this one-time investment would provide our office with a better understanding of where the business community stands and how the city can best assist the Northgate North area.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much Councilmember Juarez.

Are there any additional questions or comments?

I don't have any questions on this either, so we're going to go ahead and move on to the next one.

Okay, lady 5A1.

This is also sponsored by Councilmember Juarez and co-sponsored by Councilmembers Morales and Straus.

This would add $50,000 of general fund one time to OED to support efforts to connect new and emerging businesses with vacant commercial space in Lake City, with a particular focus on BIPOC-owned businesses.

This would fund efforts led by neighborhood business organizations such as Build Lake City Together.

Thank you.

So this is an interesting contrast up in District 5, the differences between Northgate and Lake City.

And even though we are asking for the support from OED, there's some really important distinctions.

I'll go through my prepared notes, but then I want to make a few short, brief comments.

So we already know, we've known for years already, Lake City, has a high area of displacement.

And the pandemic accelerated the number of businesses leaving the neighborhood, leaving empty storefronts in the main commercial strip.

However, there are small businesses operating via e-commerce or out of their homes that are interested in a brick and mortar location.

This investment would provide Build Lake City Together.

Chris Leverson has been a great partner for us in the Lake City neighborhood.

a nonprofit advocate for the neighborhood to recruit small BIPOC businesses to the community and negotiate affordable rents with property owners to bring back a thriving Lake City commercial core.

Now, Lake City is officially Highway 522. So we've had success in slowing down the traffic to get more businesses in there.

And as we were just starting to kind of lift off the pandemic occurred, of course, which, which hurt everybody.

So I had an opportunity, um, Sunday to meet with some of the small business owners and the build late seed together folks.

And they are actually out there talking with business owners, storefront owners, private, and, um, uh, to how we fill these storefronts.

Now that we've got traffic slowed down, now that we've got the restaurants that can do the streeteries, now that we have the tents up, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

And so we need to, again, build Lake City back together.

And so with that, I'm hoping that this one time, $50,000 to our friends at Build Lake City Together and other groups like it can bring that vitality back to Lake City.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

And are there any additional questions or comments?

Okay, Council Member Morales, I am going to flag for you.

I am going to do some additional work with your office, and I'd love to talk with Central Staff as well about that economic resilience component and how it could detail to investments in Lake City and Northgate.

I also...

I also know that as folks saw from our earlier conversation about the omnibus bill, we are very interested in making sure that the economic resilience section in future years has the blueprint that we had committed to in statute.

For lack of a blueprint being submitted to council this year, there are a number of one-time investments that we are considering for use for Jump Start Seattle funding that would allow for us to make some investments that are along the same values and priorities as our spend plan.

and then those one-time investments would help to sort of sustain this crisis as the consultant and the process with the executive and the council and community come together to identify that spend plan for economic resilience in 2023 and beyond.

So you'll be Hearing more, I think as we try to identify which categories of one-time investments that align with our economic resilience categories could potentially be funded this year, and I'm interested in learning more about these two to see if there's a nice nexus.

Excellent.

Okay.

Council Member Chavez, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Council Member Juarez, going back to our conversations around the bringing business home bill, will we have a fry bread Brick and Mortar in Lake City.

I know I might be getting ahead of myself with two amendments from now.

No, that's my next job.

So be on the lookout for Little Debbie's Fry Bread Hut on Lake City Way.

I'm looking forward to it.

Okay.

Now you made me hungry.

Let's get going.

Council members, we are on to OED number six.

to the next item.

OED 6A1.

This would add $300,000 of general fund one time to OED to support an organization that helps refugee and immigrant women use and expand on their artisanal

So this is actually, I'm sorry, this is a wonderful program, organization.

I know Council President Gonzalez has been out here to see this.

These are more than anchor tenants, valuable community partners, the economic opportunities for refugee and immigrant women, Since 2017, the Refugee Artisan Initiative has envisioned creating a welcoming global community that values and invests in refugee and immigrant women.

Located in Lake City, RAI has been a successful nonprofit You may have seen them recently the other day.

They're on King 5 and they're now ready to expand and they have just done phenomenal.

Believe it or not, they've been making masks.

They've had an opportunity to leverage this pandemic to actually employ more women.

to come in.

I think they started out with less than six people that were using sewing machines and they've just done really well.

So this one-time funding will allow for the RAI to hire, to expand and hire 34 additional women to bring their total to 58 artisans by the end of 2022. This would allow them to purchase new equipment and more space and basically that means more sewing machines and more space because now they're incredibly crowded but they're still churning out phenomenal products.

It's just been amazing.

Anyway, Washington has accepted over 1700 Afghan refugees recently in its organizations.

It's organizations that are AI that are integral in helping to ease the transition and help these women build community and support their families with livable wages.

Every one of these women, I'd say 99% of them, English is not their first language, but they do come with skills and they come with more than just sewing skills.

And so the fact that we can go from 6 to 34 to 58 is exciting.

And we owe a big thank you to Lake City, Build Lake City Together that has worked with RAI and Ming Ming and those folks.

So I'm hoping that I will have support on this project as well.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Council Member Juarez.

Any additional questions or comments on 006 for OED?

Thank you, Council Member Juarez, and thanks for the earlier conversation we had where you outlined the importance of this work and how this has truly come from the community request to have a location like this in the future.

Number 007. Okay, OED 7A1, sponsored by Council Member Juarez, co-sponsored by Council Members Peterson and Strass.

I just want to note that this is slightly revised from the published version, but this would request that OED engage with stakeholders to identify specific actions that could be taken to help establish a seasonal indigenous pharmacy or market in the north end of Seattle.

not a farmer's market, which was what was in the materials with the agenda.

The response is due to the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee or its successor committee on September 1st, 2022. Thank you.

This is interesting and if you can just give me a few minutes to kind of contextualize and put in kind of in place what's been going on nationally.

I want to just kind of tea at my colleagues to understand why.

It may sound a little off, but it's actually not.

So in Indian country, in tribal communities, food is good food, is good medicine.

So we believe that medicine is good food and healthy food.

So with the Seattle Indian Health Board in our office, we partnered with a vision of a sustainable marketplace where the tribes and Native entrepreneurs and business owners can provide traditional and contemporary healthy foods, beverages, healing products, textiles, and more.

This would also include traditional medicines and also tribal foods and all the other things that come from the tribes and their markets.

And there's potential for crossover with the produce prescription pilot program that's already taking place at the Seattle Indian Health Board.

And it's also taking place in the cities of Portland, Spokane, Oakland, Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Phoenix.

All have examples of indigenous markets slash, and I use the word pharmacy because that's the Western word, and traditionally I'm not sure what other word I can use besides the word pharmacy, but it's about food and healthy food.

So working with OED, this slide will provide my office with the action plan to move forward.

Our number one priority is finding the correct space and the right partners to carry out and facilitate the operations of the market.

And just this is where I want to kind of, this is based on the history and what I've known working in Indian country my whole life, is that I really want to capitalize on a movement which has been a long time coming and gaining momentum.

of tribal and urban Indian community clinics that have been integrating Western and Indigenous traditional healing models to foster community resiliency.

And Salina Health Board, as well as other Native tradition-based organizations, currently have a Native pharmacy.

And so what that means for today, what I'm asking, is that I hope Seattle, like the other six cities, and also the Minneapolis Native American Community Clinic, that we can expand with our Indigenous community on this type of Indigenous-based healing.

And we also saw the success of the Seattle Indian Health Board with their vaccinations.

So this is important and critical to expand the Indigenous footprint in the North Seattle and by light rail next to housing.

And it's needed because it's Native-led.

It's Native-led wellness organizations working to create options for Indigenous people and surrounding communities other than the federal government and Indian Health Services, which I have known my whole life, has historically been chronically underfunded due to fluctuating annual appropriations.

And that's just, that's just dumb.

That's just how it's always been.

I've never known it to be any different my whole life.

So our hope is to build a sustainable clinic, an indigenous market and pharmacy in collaboration with organizations like the Seattle Indian Health Board, United Indians, tribal governments with tribal treaty fishing fleets and markets, including the Lummi Nation, Macaw, Quinault, and Suquamish, which already have stabilized fish markets and supply chains.

And we can capitalize on that.

And I'm excited.

I've been talking to some tribal leaders about that.

And this is where I want to just be a little bit more critical is that there's an important distinction of these indigenous markets than our traditional farmers markets that we have now in the city of Seattle.

They're not the same.

And I don't believe that the current farmers market meets the needs of all community members.

and not just indigenous folks, but other people with different ethnic backgrounds that have different food and diet issues and needs that I think that we need to address.

And I know that we are addressing that.

I don't mean to be critical of all the farmers markets.

I'm just saying it would be nice to have something that's more tailored to what is indigenous, what's seasonal, and what we actually have here in the Pacific Northwest.

So I would hope that we have a market, an indigenous pharmacy, and to bring in and invite others to bring their goods to this particular market.

So in the end, I'm hoping that I have the support, that we support Native-led, Native-specific healthcare organizations in their efforts to offer traditional healing alongside Western medicine.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Council President Gonzalez.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

I just was raising my hand with a request to be added to this particular item.

Of course, my co-sponsorship of this item is contingent on Council Member Juarez making sure that this new fabulous market carries Tonka bars.

Absolutely.

I got a mainline there, girl.

I know those people.

Those are Buffalo bars, you guys, for those of you not in the know.

And now we know.

As we say, if you don't know, now you know.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez for the summary.

And thank you, Council President Gonzalez for adding her name.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to OED007.

Council Member Herbold, please go ahead.

I would like to add my sponsorship to this item in District 1 in South Delridge.

We have some new farmers markets representing the dietary needs of the East African community, and everybody in the neighborhood is flocking to them, and it's a real great addition, and really appreciate Councilmember Juarez for bringing this forward.

Thank you very much.

I'm seeing thumbs up from Council Member Juarez.

Thank you very much, colleagues.

We're going to go ahead and move on.

Council Member Herbold, just noting again for the record, Council Member Herbold, adding her name to OED 007.

Let's move on to 008. All right, OED 8A1, sponsored by Council Members Strauss, co-sponsored by Council Members Lewis and Morales.

This would add $164,000 of general fund and one FTE strategic advisor to, to OED for our farmer's market advisor position that would help support applicants for farmer's market permits through the permitting process and conduct a process improvement analysis.

Council Member Strauss, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you Councilmember Juarez for that last amendment.

I think this fits well together.

This amendment would add $164,000 for one FTE to Office of Economic Development to fund a strategic advisor focused on farmers markets.

This staff member would primarily work as the liaison between the city departments and our neighborhood farmers markets, including helping to navigate permitting, street use, and licensing issues that farmers markets may face with the city.

As we all know, farmers markets are special events, and so they oftentimes are subject to many different departments' guidelines, parameters, or restrictions.

And so there has been a...

there has been difficulty in getting the appropriate response and guidance for the farmers markets across the city.

And then I would again, I would add to this amendment if I could, that this position should include and implement the recommendations from Council Member Juarez's recommendation.

recommendations to establishment of an indigenous farmers market.

The reason this FTE is not necessarily designed to either do one thing or not do another thing, it is so that there is one person in the city, in our city family, that when the farmers markets need help navigating our city bureaucracy, that there is one person dedicated to them so that they don't get passed around our city family.

This position would also help inform the long-term improvements in city processes to streamline farmers' market permitting as part of the statement of legislative intent that we passed last year.

Thank you, Chair.

Excellent.

Thank you very much Councilmember Strauss.

You know I meant to bring this up with you as the prime sponsor of the work that we had done last year on farmers markets and or talked to central staff about it but I have not had the chance to raise this.

I did want to let you know what I had the chance to visit with our friends in the University District, and I saw Council Member Peterson there with the ribbon cutting for Sound Transit's new station.

There was a lot of our friends from the farmers market who were in the audience as well, and they had mentioned to me of their frustration that the funding that we had provided last year wasn't fully implemented.

and concerns about how we had specifically identified additional support for farmers markets, but that they never received it.

I'm wondering if you or central staff have any more additional information on what that, if you want to remind us what that was, and if you have any intel on why those dollars didn't get deployed the way that council intended.

So what I can, Yolanda, do you want to jump in?

I was just going to say that there was a statement of legislative intent included in the adopted budget for this year regarding the farmer's market improvement process.

And that was not executed because OED cited capacity constraints.

And so focusing on getting the various economic recovery dollars out the door.

And so they earlier this year had informed Councilmember Strauss that they were not moving forward on that process improvement work.

The position itself had not been funded in the adopted budget.

This was proposed during last year's budget deliberations, but elected to not include this position.

So that's why it is being brought forth again this year for the council's consideration.

To shed a little bit more light on that, last year when we passed the Statement of Legislative Intent, this position was also put forward as a way to implement that work.

In conversations with OED's previous director, it was made known that a special events coordinator was what OED needed, and a farmer's market liaison was a secondary need.

I did make at that time a promise or an agreement if we had to fund one program or another, that funding the special events coordinator, as long as they completed this work.

And so that work did not get completed, which again, just, it demonstrates the issue that farmers markets are experiencing with this work, if I, as a council member, am also experiencing.

Thank you for that background.

Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

Thank you so much.

So I appreciate the question that the chair is asking and would appreciate getting more information about that.

And, you know, sort of nonetheless, I think there's this area is still an area of need.

And so just in the spirit of being supportive here and hoping that this item continues to receive some attention, I'd like to add my name as a co-sponsor.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to OED008.

Thank you.

Council Member Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Yes, I'd like to add my name as a co-sponsor too.

I've been through a similar experience putting in slides and then either they're not getting done or they're not sort of coming back with a response and have an idea on how to implement it.

So I support just cutting to the chase and implementing this.

Thank you.

Okay, wonderful.

So I appreciate that.

Councilmember Peterson, Councilmember Peterson adding his name to OED008.

I'm going to let central staff know I'd like to get through this next item, OED009.

And then before we move off of Office of Economic Development, if we could do a quick summary of how much of the ARPA funds, how much of the American Rescue Plan Act dollars that the Council has already allocated to Office of Economic Development have actually gone out the door.

I just was up here in West Seattle the other day in a wonderful small business that Council President and I know well, a small consignment store up on California Avenue.

and they are going to be merging with another business, and it really just breaks my heart when we have funding that could be out the door right now if it is still sitting on a desk waiting to be deployed.

So before we move off of OED and on to our last item, which will be mine, I would like to have a quick summary of how much has been spent if we have an update on those funds from the report we received about 10 days ago or so.

With that, Yolanda, can I ask you to read in OED009, and then we'll come back to that more macro question.

Sure.

OED9A1, sponsored by Councilmember Peterson, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Herbold and Strauss.

This would request that OED work with the Seattle Department of Transportation to develop a strategy for funding and distributing financial assistance to small businesses adversely impacted by city-led transportation projects.

would note that just to Councilmember Peterson's previous point, this was a statement of legislative intent that was adopted as part of this 2021 budget that OED again indicated lack of capacity to address.

So this is being brought back for your consideration and the response would be due to the Community Economic Development Committee or its successor committee on April 1st, 2022.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Peterson, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Mosqueda.

Yes, this is just bringing back a slide that was not implemented last year.

We've heard from lots of small businesses who can be impacted by construction projects that, you know, that we're excited about.

We're excited about updating our streets and sometimes those projects though do create issues with accessibility or the perception the store might be closed and causing financial impact.

So this is to have OED and SDOT work together to bring back a program where we could consider how best to assist those small businesses that might be negatively impacted by city-led projects.

Thank you Council Member Peterson.

Are there any additional questions or comments on this?

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

I know that we've all wanted to learn the lessons from when there was traffic impact and mitigation needs, especially in the south end around the creation of light rail.

And so we want to help to make sure that we're supporting our smallest businesses, especially BIPOC businesses in that example, that were not able to receive, I think, let me rephrase that.

Especially want to support BIPOC businesses who are disproportionately impacted by COVID in this moment.

Our smallest businesses overall disproportionately impacted, so this is an important element.

I appreciate you putting it forward.

With that, before we move off of this agenda item, we're still on agenda item number 18. If I could ask central staff if you do have any updates for us on generally how Office of Economic Development is doing, how much money they have received from us from the American Rescue Plan Act dollars through Seattle Rescue Plan funds, and how much of that has actually gone out the door.

I know this was a question that we had received a week or so ago and appreciate the work of Director Van Noble to try to get information from all of the departments on that question to get greater clarification.

But specifically in OED, that area really stood out to me when I was looking at how much money had been allocated versus how much had already been spent.

So since it relates to the amendments in front of us today, if you have any updates, that would be welcome.

Yeah, I'll start us off and Ali will jump in as needed.

You are correct that the council's report, was it earlier this month?

Feels like a long time ago, was, did not seem satisfying in terms of getting the dollars out the door.

I will just note that OED recently announced applications for the $4 million in small business grants is now open.

And the amounts there will be ranging, not just the $10,000, but there could be larger or smaller amounts, kind of more tailored towards business needs.

They have finally decided on an allocation for the direct allocations to neighborhood business organizations for a total 3.9 million.

And they recently closed the request for proposal for the neighborhood revitalization grants that was 1.2 million.

So they will be making a decision on those applications as well.

So those are kind of some things that are beginning to move.

Applications are obviously open, so those will not be going out the door.

Right away, of course, but in terms of some of the funding has been allocated or will shortly be out the door to these organizations.

Thank you.

Other.

Yeah, I would just note that.

Michelle Estrella, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT that the council authorized in the Seattle Rescue Plan to one, excuse me.

But as Yolanda noted, they have reported on a number of processes that are ongoing and money should be going out the door somewhat soon.

And they've also brought on some temporary staff to help with the grants and contract management and accounting issues.

And so hopefully that will help accelerate expedite, like getting those dollars out the door.

So, excuse me, $500,000 out of a total allocation of how much?

Excuse me, sorry, 20.3 million.

20.3 million has been allocated, yet only 500,000 is out the door.

Of that, another few million are potentially going to go out soon because some of those RFPs have come in.

I will look forward to hearing more from the department in terms of how we can expedite these We want to make sure that we give these awards to our smallest businesses and those who have been impacted by COVID so we don't see additional businesses sitting there shuddering or merging when there are dollars potentially available for them.

In our city departments we want to get those out to the community ASAP and I know our congressional partners do as well.

So I look forward to working with you and the community to make sure we have greater transparency and are tracking those dollars that we have All right, we are at our last item of business today.

Let's go ahead, Madam Clerk, let's read item number 19 into the record.

Office of Labor Standards for briefing and discussion.

Hello, Karina.

Thank you.

Carina Bull with central staff.

This council budget action is OLS 500A1.

It is sponsored by Councilmember Mosqueda, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Herbold and Lewis, and it would adopt a resolution requesting the Office of Labor Standards to develop a portable paid time off policy for domestic workers.

For context, the proposed budget includes $500,000 in one-time spending for the Office of Labor Standards to develop this kind of policy and also to work on implementing other recommendations to improve domestic workers' lives and working conditions.

And the actual resolution is still in draft mode and will be introduced in early to mid-November.

Thank you, Karina.

I am the sponsor of this, so I'll speak briefly to it.

I want to thank members of the Domestic Workers Standards Board and the Portable Benefits Coalition, who have been working very closely with Karina Bull, the Office of Labor Standards, and Lori Mejo in our office, who is a lead on the domestic workers implementation efforts.

As Karina noted, the mayor's proposed budget did include investment of $500,000 for the development of portable benefits policy, implementation of other domestic workers standard board recommendations, specifically around outreach and engagement, greater assistance for enforcement, and we had a presentation in our committee meeting I believe at least twice, I was going to say three times, but at least twice on those recommendations.

We as a council submitted a letter back to the Domestic Worker Standards Board appreciating and acknowledging many of the recommendations.

I want to thank Office of Labor Standards as well for their proactive action on a number of those recommendations that they were able to make part of their own work plan within the department.

and the work of Jasmine Moruaha, who has been really leading the effort within the department to do follow-up and engagement with the coalition and the standards board.

Part of the resolution would request Office of Labor Standards to collaborate with the community coalition to develop policy and to submit possible legislation to the council specific to portable benefits, as Karina noted.

This was one of the areas as colleagues that you'll remember when we passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights that many in the community had asked for consideration and for inclusion in the policy at the time, given the complexity of standing up basically another insurance system and an insurance system at a hyper-local level in the city of Seattle.

It was very, it would have taken a lot more time and it would have been a little bit more complex at the time to try to pass that as part of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

But what we committed to was taking recommendations from the Standards Board that would be providing ongoing recommendation and guidance to council on the policy improvements and tweaks and enhancements that they'd like to see.

This item, portable benefits, is clearly a priority for the Domestic Workers Standards Board and for the Portable Benefits Coalition.

And similar to the conversation that many within the community are having at the national level with other cities as well, they want to be part of the solution for how to craft the policy.

So the resolution envisions the Office of Labor Standards working hand-in-glove with a coalition made up of the hiring entities and domestic workers, as we did when we crafted the Domestic Worker Standards Board, to explicitly address portable benefits.

We are interested in this, I think, from an equity perspective, as this council knows, We have taken leadership stance to improve access to protected leave and offer paid leave for workers that have been explicitly excluded from federal labor protections and state labor protections.

I'm starting with the council who passed paid sick leave, and I believe Council President Gonzalez, you were a lead on that, along with Council Member Herbold.

Your efforts on the paid sick leave policy were groundbreaking.

We have then built upon those, especially in the wake of COVID, to make sure that we're offering paid leave to gig workers in the wake of the pandemic and to make the lift and Uber drivers, for example, able to access paid sick leave on going is something I'm incredibly proud of.

But this is a population that of workers who are often independent contractors have many employee hiring entities that they work with, and having a portable benefits system that would allow for a hiring entity to pay into an insurance system like a pay time off bank and allow for workers to be able to access that no matter what day it was and which individual employer or hiring entity that they were supposed to be at.

makes a lot of sense.

We don't want folks to be caring for elders, caring for kiddos, entering homes when they should stay home if they're sick.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is to respect the need for paid sick leave.

So this is an incredibly important concept.

We know that domestic workers I look forward to working with the coalition, the Portable Benefits Coalition, along with the Domestic Worker Standards Board, and again, thank the Office of Labor Standards for their leadership in coordinating these efforts throughout next year as they develop policy to make it sustainable.

and actionable so that people can have access to LEED.

Obviously, I cannot commit a future council to any specific action, but that is really intensive policy work that requires us to make sure that there is an entity, an entity staffed at OLS to provide additional support there.

And OLS has been a great partner in identifying the way to make sure that this is fully staffed and wants to work directly with the community.

members who want to be part of that table, and I have all of the faith that they will be able to come up with creative solutions to this really intricate challenge of providing affordable benefits for domestic workers.

So, much more to come as we craft the final pieces for that resolution that would accompany the budget here today, and wanted to just note my appreciation for the Mayor's Office and Office of Labor Standards for their work to include the half a million dollars specific for the recommendations to move forward on a number of fronts, portable benefit, policy development being just one of those.

Karina, anything to add to that or correct before I stop?

No, I see a question, but I have nothing to add.

Wonderful.

Council President Gonzalez, please go ahead.

No questions here.

I just wanted to add my name as a sponsor to OLS 500A.

And just thanks to you, Chair Mosqueda, for bringing this forward and allowing us to continue to move this important body of work forward on behalf of domestic workers.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Council President Gonzalez adding her name to OLS 500. Council Member Morales.

I am also interested in adding my name on this and really appreciate the work that's been happening.

I've also been thinking about this for a long time and struggling with how to basically set up a new system, as you were indicating, Chair, so appreciate that this work is underway and want the support.

Thank you very much, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Morales adding her name to OLS 500. Okay, colleagues.

Thank you, Karina, for getting us to the end of this presentation here.

It has been a marathon.

It is two minutes after 5 p.m., and I promised you I'd get done by five.

Allie is cheering us on, because I will take that as an on-time departure from our meeting here.

If there is no objection, today's meeting will be adjourned as we let me just make sure that I get the dates here and we will reconvene tomorrow October 27th at 9 30 a.m.

we will start with 30 minutes of public testimony we will talk about affordable housing and homelessness services livable and healthy communities and public safety alternatives to policing and All of the departments in each of those three categories are listed and already published on tomorrow's agenda.

Thanks to Patty for getting that information out and for all of central staff for your work in advance.

If there's no further questions, today's meeting is adjourned.

Have a wonderful night.

Thank you for all of your participation.

See you tomorrow morning at 9.30.

Thanks all.