Good morning, everyone.
The May 24th, 2023 meeting of the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee will come to order.
It is 9.34 a.m.
I'm Sarah Nelson, chair of the committee.
Council President Juarez has asked to be excused today.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Sawant?
Council Member Strauss?
Present.
Council Member Herbold?
Here.
Chair Nelson?
Present.
three present, one excused, one absent.
All right, we've got two items on today's agenda, both relating to Seattle City Light, a distribution easement ordinance and a platted easement ordinance, which I'll describe further in a few minutes.
For now, let's proceed to approval of the agenda.
Seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
With that, we'll move into public comment on items listed on the agenda.
I will save everything else I usually say because there's nobody in chambers to provide public comment and we're not seeing anyone online.
Is that still the case?
That is correct.
Okay.
I officially opened public comment and I am now closing public comment for today.
All right, let's see.
So will the clerk please read items one and two into the record.
Attend to item number one, council bill 120576, an ordinance relating to the city of Seattle accepting easements, each granting to the city of Seattle an easement for overhead or underground electrical distribution rights upon, under, and across real property in King County, Washington, placing said easements under the jurisdiction of the city-wide department and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
Agenda Item Number Two, Council Bill 120577, an ordinance relating to the City of Seattle accepting easements for overhead or underground electrical distribution rights upon, under, and across real property in King County, Washington, placing said easements under the jurisdiction of the City Light Department and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
Briefing, discussion, and possible vote.
Thank you very much.
We will be taking these two pieces of legislation together.
So under our city charter, city council must pass an ordinance allowing the city to acquire these easements on private property in order to provide utility service to customers.
And I described both of these pieces of legislation in more detail during Monday's council briefings.
So I'll be quick right here.
My hope is that we will be able to pass these pieces of legislation out of committee today because they're fairly pro forma.
and I see that the presenters are at the table.
Will you please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation?
Good morning.
Thank you for having us this morning, Council Chair or Committee Chair.
We appreciate the opportunity.
Just so you know, I am recovering from a concussion, so hence the slips of tongue.
So I'm not going to say very much this morning.
This is a housekeeping item that we bring forth every year.
And actually, my team just told me that they think that this is actually the first item I ever brought forward as a general manager almost five years ago.
So that's kind of fun, isn't it?
Indeed.
And this may be my last.
So anyway, with that, I'm going to turn things over to Eric and then to Greg, who will be doing our presentation today.
Just very briefly, I'm Eric McConaghy.
I'm the Council Central staff.
and I'm Craig Sanswich, manager for City Light Real Estate Services.
Good morning.
Thank you for having us.
I appreciate your time this morning.
We can head into our presentation here.
This is pretty brief.
It's administrative work at its highest level for us.
Starting with our distributed easements, this ordinance captures the easements we've acquired over the last two years through COVID from 2020 to 2022. And these easements are necessary for city lights distribution system whenever our infrastructure and facilities cross private property.
We have an example up there on the simple example on the lower left that shows a utility line crossing a private parcel to serve another property.
In that case, that's where we get an easement for that.
And so that's what these represent.
Another example on the lower right there is a more commercial switch gear and a transformer to serve a parcel, let's say on the north for that one, where it crosses another private property.
And so in those situations where a property is being either redeveloped or service connections are changing, we work with our engineers to figure out the most efficient way to get those lines to the served property and in easement.
when needed is required, and that's what this ordinance represents.
Thank you.
Well, I have a question.
Yeah.
So the distribution easement ordinance does specifically relate to electrical service, but does SPU have a similar easement for when they have to run?
They do.
They have a similar process.
mirroring City Light and SPU, we both get easements to provide service lines across private properties that serve the property.
The county's wastewater system is not on private property, it's in the road, so that wouldn't count, but is that correct?
Well, the major infrastructure, just like our major transmission lines are within our own right of way or within other street right of way, when anytime they dip into private property, that's when an easement's required.
Okay.
And can you explain a little bit how the second council bill is different for the Yeah, the plan ordinance.
Great question.
So the first one is the distribution easements and these are individual easements across private properties.
The second one are what are called platted easements and so anytime a property is divided or subdivided for redevelopment, oftentimes we see a residential lot being split up for townhomes or other you know, split into more lots.
That would be a plat easement, where we have an easement on the face of the plat to give us the rights to serve all the properties on that lot.
Okay.
And since we're dealing with both at the same time, the information about that is on the...
Yeah.
In fact, if we go to the next slide, we can look at our plat at easement, which we have 851 for the last two years.
And again, they provide the same rights for our crews and service to make sure we have safe and reliable electricity to all our customers.
Thank you.
Anything else?
Any questions?
Great.
I will open the field up for questions from my colleagues.
Well, I will I don't see any other questions.
I do have a question about the fact that you did this a couple of years ago.
So basically, is it is there any do you have a schedule for when you bring these before council?
Yeah, the schedule is supposed to be every year through COVID.
We went from analog to digital.
transition.
So there were a lot of discrepancies in some of the data and how we reconcile that.
And so we're finally getting caught up.
This gets us caught up.
So the goal is next spring, every spring, we try to bring these to council to capture last year's and reconcile last year's actions.
Got it.
Thank you very much.
All right, I have no further questions and I will going once twice.
I don't see any further questions from my colleagues.
So, with that, I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120576 and Council Bill 120577. Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of the council bills.
And will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation that Council Bill 120576 and 120577 pass.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Chair Nelson.
Aye.
Three in favor, zero opposed.
Thank you very much.
The motion carries and committee recommendation that Council Bill 120576 and 120577 pass will be forwarded to the City Council for final consideration on May 30th.
All right, this concludes the agenda for the May 24th meeting of the Economic Development Technology and City Light Committee.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 at 9.30 in the morning.
And if there is no further business, checking to see, there is no further business.
It is now 9.43 and this meeting is adjourned.
Thank you, everyone.