Seattle City Council Briefing 1242022

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Today is January 24th.

It's two o'clock and this meeting will come to order.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Nelson.

Present.

Peterson.

Present.

Sawant.

Present.

Strauss.

Present.

Herbold.

Here.

Lewis.

Present.

Morales.

Council President Oras.

Here.

Seven present.

So will we loop back to Council Member Morales?

Is that what we'll do, Madam Clerk?

Correct.

Just announce when she joins the meeting.

Okay, thank you.

So we'll move to approval of the minutes.

There's no objection.

The minutes of January 10th will be adopted.

January 10th, 2022 will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are adopted.

I'll go to the President's Report.

So today, on today's agenda, we'll be hearing from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

You should have received their memo this morning or last night outlining the 10 topic areas that will be addressed during this year's legislative session.

And we will welcome Gail Tarlington, who will introduce her team.

After that, we'll go to the individual council member briefings.

And then after that, we will go into executive session.

Those of you, when you do your council briefings, can you remember, before you hand your presentation over, to make sure that you ask your colleagues if they have any questions or concerns on your presentation that you've just shared with us.

Before we get started, I have a few updates.

Starting first with the council work plan.

Our goal is to adopt the council's 2022 committee work program at council meeting on February 22nd.

A solid draft of the work program for each committee is due by February 4th.

Central staff needs to assemble the entire work plan and have it reviewed by our law department.

There also needs to be time to circulate it and publish it in advance, so your timeliness is appreciated.

If there are any projects or policies you would like included in the work plan that fall outside of the committee you chair, please work with and check with the council member who is chair of that particular committee with oversight of that topic.

So again, I'm really emphasizing more of a team approach, a more collaborative approach in our committees that we're more of a team and giving each council member an opportunity within that committee to kind of have a balanced voice and some structure and some collaborative process to moving forward issues.

Regarding the legislative branch telework policy, our community is continuing to face COVID-19 and its variants.

It remains unclear when a safe return to office can be established.

Therefore, I'm extending until further notice the directive within the legislative department to work remotely.

The legislative department will continue the telework stipend to eligible employees.

Please continue to code your timesheets accordingly.

A memo to this effect will be sent out today.

I think it'll be sent out before close of business if it hasn't already been sent.

Next, we have, there are no proclamations or letters to sign today.

I believe Councilor Verstappen will have something for us next week on Monday, January 31st.

So with that, I'd like to welcome our new Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, Gail Charlington.

Gayle has kindly agreed to keep the overview brief, but I still want you guys to have time for questions because I know we just got the memo with the 10 topic issues today.

We plan to have brief weekly updates from OIR every Monday from February 7th to March 7th, as well as a follow-up report after the end of this year's short 60-day session on March 12th.

So, Gayle, are you here?

No?

Is it just going to be you, Elsa?

I'm going to take it over here.

Thank you, Council President Juarez and members of the council.

We really appreciate the time to brief you on the legislative session.

Oh, I see Gail has popped on.

Do you want to say a word of introduction here, Gail?

Why don't I go ahead and she can maybe lead the end of it.

There she is.

She's on.

Sorry about that.

Good afternoon.

Council President Juarez, committee members, it is a pleasure to be here today.

I am Gail Tarleton, Interim Director of Intergovernmental Relations for our great city.

And today we're going to have Elsa and Hannah give you a short update on the fast-moving train that's known as the legislative session in Olympia.

And so I want to just thank all of you for your help in testifying, in supporting, in contacting us as well as members of the legislature as these bills come up for hearings and considered for executive session.

So Elsa, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Director Tarleton, and thank you all for your time.

It's been a busy first two weeks of the legislative session.

As you're probably aware, it's full committee hearings the first several weeks of session, and we only have one and a half about weeks before policy cutoff.

So bills must be moved out of their policy committee by that date, otherwise they're typically considered dead for the session.

I'm going to provide an update on some of the bills that we are watching this session.

In some of the categories, Hana will also cover a few of our topic areas.

So let me just start first with the budget.

We heard the governor's budget in the first week of the legislative session and the city of Seattle testified in support of his his funding for the rapid acquisition of affordable housing and shelter.

The governor proposed about $500 million in funding for that area, and we're very supportive of increased funding for affordable housing.

We also testified in support of funding for utility arrearages for customers who are behind on their payments, including those who are low income or people with extended long balances.

So we'll continue to support funding requests in those two areas and as well as funding for the operation and maintenance of affordable housing.

We know housing is a high priority for the city of Seattle and we'll continue to support that.

We also, moving down to the next category in your packet, have been following climate legislation that the governor has proposed, including HB 1767 around targeted electrification.

and HB 1770, which is building reach codes.

The first bill clarifies authority for consumer owned utilities like Seattle City Light to provide rate payer funded incentives to help people switch to efficient electric equipment.

The second authorizes local governments to adopt a progressive residential energy code.

We already have something similar for our commercial buildings and this would allow us to do it for residential buildings.

So we'll continue to support these policies as they move through.

The first has already moved out of its original committee and will continue to be supportive of that.

Next, I'm going to talk about some of the housing policy that's been proposed in the legislature.

You know, in addition to the governor's investments in the rapid acquisition of affordable housing, the governor has also proposed legislation around missing middle housing.

Beyond the governor's request legislation, there's also been a number of other bills dropped in this area, HB1981 and HB2020.

We are following the development of this policy area and providing suggestions on how that legislation might be improved and better meet the needs of the city of Seattle.

So we will continue to keep you updated as those bills move out of committee.

Hey, Elsa, let me ask you a quick question.

Would you prefer that you guys get through your press or Gail, however you want to do this, that you get to your presentation and then have our colleagues ask questions or can they just use the hand raising feature?

I'd rather we wait till the end to let you all get through it.

And then I'm not scanning the screen for a little hand coming up.

So Councilor Peterson, I know he's itching to jump on something quickly.

No.

OK, so why don't we ask questions at the end?

Great.

That's great.

Thank you, Council President.

The next area I'll talk about is around policing and public safety.

First of all, thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for testifying in support of Representative Rio's catalytic converter bill.

We know that's a high priority for you, and we'll be continuing to connect with the bill sponsor on how the bill might be improved for the City of Seattle.

Um, you know, we've also connected with Councilmember Lewis's office about, um, retail theft and we'll be following up on that legislation.

Um, another big area that will be covered, um, that the legislature is considering this year is around follow-up legislation to 2021's use of force bill HB 1310. We are following the various proposals around that follow-up legislation.

There's a number of bills that have been dropped on that topic.

One that concerns something many people have been worried about is Representative Jesse Johnson's bill, HB 1035. One of the concerns that many people have had is around behavioral health interventions, and this bill addresses many of those concerns.

So we'll continue to provide you all with updates on HB 1035 and the other legislation in this area.

Another area around public safety is gun responsibility legislation.

The legislature is considering bills on a number of topics, including a ban on high capacity magazines, as well as a bill that would close the background check loophole for ghost guns, or you know, guns that you get the instructions for and can print yourself.

And the city of Seattle is following those quite closely.

Finally, Senator Kuderer has filed a bill which would re-establish local authority to regulate open carry in certain public places and events.

There's a number of bills sort of on this topic this year, and we're in strong support of Senator Cooter's proposal as a way for our city to best address what works for us in that re-establishment of local authority.

The final topic I'll touch on today is transportation.

It's been an ongoing issue in front of the legislature.

Transportation chairs Senator Lias and Representative Fye have been working together on a transportation revenue package.

We're continuing to support that work and follow up on what the city of Seattle hopes to see in that package.

We are also following a few policy bills.

SB 5707 would extend the city of Seattle's automated traffic enforcement pilot for two years.

As many of you are likely aware, the city was unable to install our traffic cameras until this year because of impacts of COVID.

And we would like to have some additional time to collect data to be better able to provide the legislature with a good update on what the actual traffic patterns were like in the city.

As many of you have also indicated your interest in Senator Peterson's RTA Additive Revenue Bill, which would allow voters to accelerate investments in segments of regional light rail, sound transit.

So we've supported that legislation and will continue to follow it and provide updates for you all.

That's it for me on those topics, so I think we'll have Hannah go and then get questions from you all.

Thanks, Elsa.

Hannah Smith, Government Affairs Program Coordinator in OIR.

I'll be covering education, healthcare, and safety net bills, and I'll keep it brief, running through all those.

So, starting in education, on page 3, we're supporting a lot of bills, including 1687, expanding college-round scholarship, which we saw last year.

1659, which expands the Washington College Grant Program by modifying some of the eligibility thresholds.

And then several bills in the food access space through schools, including 1833, which has a single electronic option for school meals.

That bill requires OSPI to develop in every district to offer a simple, multilingual, online, statewide application for free or reduced meals.

So we're excited to support some of those.

Moving on to health care and safety net on page four.

House Bill 1688 addresses balance billing and would protect consumers from charges for out of network health care services.

It does that by aligning the state law to the Federal No Surprises Act and addresses coverage for treatment for emergency conditions.

The House version is scheduled for executive action tomorrow.

and the Senate bill has already received a hearing.

In the anti-poverty safety net space, we're watching bills that would provide a guaranteed income, provide monthly diaper benefit, which I know is of interest to some council members, and other anti-poverty safety net programs.

And finally, moving to labor and civil rights on page six.

We're supporting several bills that strengthen worker protections and increase voting access.

But I did want to mention the work being done on long-term care, since I know that's of interest to a lot of folks.

The House passed HB 1732 in response to concerns raised about Washington Cares, the state's long-term care insurance plan that was funded by payroll tax.

The bill will delay implementation by 18 months and expand eligibility.

This was a really important issue heading into this session for legislators to address concerns related to Washington CARES that was identified as a top priority for both legislators and Governor Inslee.

So that bill will now be considered in the Senate.

Those are the bills I wanted to highlight for you all, so I'm happy to turn it over to Elsa to answer any of your questions.

So with that, colleagues, is there any questions that anyone has?

I see Council Member Morales.

Did Council Member Peterson have a question first?

I don't want to know.

OK.

No, I was just putting you on the spot.

Go ahead.

Fine.

Thank you, everybody.

Welcome.

Ms. Tarleton, good to see you.

I have a question.

Well, I'm excited about all the housing bills, especially the middle middle and the missing middle and the housing benefits district and the exemption.

Looking forward to seeing how far those go and would be happy to offer my support if.

The time comes for hearing from council members.

I don't see the fertility bill on the tracker.

So we had been working on HB 1730, Senate Bill 5647, and would love to make sure that that is part of what we are looking at, making sure that we are providing greater support to folks who are dealing with fertility treatment at the state.

So if we could add that.

And also just want to express my particular interest in Representative Berry's Basic Income Trust.

We will be working at the city on a kind of a national scan of how these programs are working across the country right now and very eager to see if there's a way for us to work with the state to start moving in that direction at some point.

had a short conversation with Representative Berry about that, but do want to express my interest in following that throughout the session.

Thank you, Council Member.

We'll be happy to add a 1730 to the tracker, and we'll continue to update you on Representative Berry's bill.

Thank you.

I see we have Councilor Herbold.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Really appreciate your help last week getting me ready and prepared to testify in the catalytic converter bill and do hope to continue to follow that as it moves through and to actually ensure that it is a solution or at least a pathway to a solution that will benefit Seattle folks.

One thing I wanted to flag, and it may already be on your radar, is the proposed House Bill 2037 regarding police officers' use of force.

This bill has, I think, has implications on use of force in a number of different areas.

I'm hearing concern around the lower standard of proof for use of force in a particular area, and that's specifically authorizing law enforcement to use physical force to prevent someone from fleeing during an investigative detention, otherwise known as a Terry stop.

I've heard concerns about this bill.

It was introduced less than a week ago, and I believe it has a hearing tomorrow morning.

It expands an officer's authority and discretion to use force, particularly for low-level offenses, and I've heard concerns that it could be a step backwards for accountability.

and has impacts on jurisdictions like ours that have a lot of disproportionality in the use of Terry stops, racial disproportionality in the use of Terry stops.

And when I say a step backwards, I don't mean just a step backwards to sort of correct perceived problems created in the last legislative session around use of force, but even a step further back.

There's some concern that when comparing this proposed policy to our own SPD use of force policies, that we might be actually creating an even lower burden of proof for use of force in Terry stops.

I want to flag that with a concern within the context of a very recent sort of relook at existing data from SPD.

The Center for Policing Equity studied use of force from 2014 to 2019. found significant racial disparities, specifically that black residents in our city are five to six times as likely to have force use compared to the citywide population.

And when you're looking at per capita rates for Terry stops, there's 70 per 1,000 residents during 2015 through 2019 for Native Americans, 43 per 1,000 black residents, and eight per 1,000 for white people.

So, just want to, again, flag my concern in this area, and also want to mention my strong and enthusiastic support for the gun control measures and my willingness in particular to the local control measure for open carry in public facilities would welcome the opportunity to signal my, and I believe the council, because this is one of the items in our state legislative agendas, strong support for this measure.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member.

Appreciate that flag for our team.

Thank you.

We have Council Member Lewis.

And after that, we have Council Member Nelson.

Thank you so much, Madam President.

I just want to jump in real briefly here and ask on the progress of Senator Wynne's SEPA exemption bill for homeless shelter construction that's been kicking around the legislation for the last three years.

I had heard from Senator Wynne that there was potentially going to be some movement on that bill.

and that there were some critical senators that had come around to it and were supporting it now.

I just really want to flag that if something can come out of the 68th session that can really help the city to confront the homelessness crisis, it's passing that bill.

The SIPA process considerably slowed down, building the tiny house villages that ultimately were able to shelter the people living at Ballard Commons Park.

I think I've said before in this session, in these sessions, The difference between doing Ballard Commons Park in December and doing it in August was basically SEPA.

So if we can figure out a way to just not have that hurdle anymore, it can help us make progress on a lot of these other areas.

I know that Council Member Strauss and Mayor Harrell are very eager to work with the rest of us on Woodland Park, for example.

And the path to that goes through expanding capacity.

The path through that goes through building things.

That means that SEPA is going to continue to be a roadblock to do that with urgency.

So, you know, if we want to do Woodland Park sometime this winter, early spring versus in the fall, we have to pass this bill and there's no way around that.

So I just wanted to flag that too, given that it sounds like there could be some momentum this session and just see where you're hearing about where that stands.

Thank you, Council Member.

I really appreciate that.

We have seen some positive movement.

The bill has been pulled from rules in the Senate, which means it's available for a vote on the floor.

So that was a really encouraging step that we've seen this past couple of weeks in the Senate.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis and Elsa.

Council Member Nelson.

Thank you very much.

For, well, Elsa and Gail and Hannah, thank you so much for this.

I'm wondering if House Bill 1015 is on your radar.

It's something that I'm just becoming versed in, and it passed the House last week, 97-0, and it's before the Senate now, and I think Mullett's committee.

But anyway, this would, it's called the Washington Equitable Access to Credit Act, and it was moving last year, and it's back now.

Essentially what it does is it creates a program to fund grants through the Department of Commerce to certain community development financial institutions to provide grants, well to provide loans and also technical assistance to small businesses in economically distressed areas and also home buyers.

So it's within the purview of the CBFI to to make those loans.

And a specific portion of this fund, I believe it's, I think it's 16 million that is federal funds, but 65% is designated to native CDFIs.

And so anyway, I'll stop talking now and ask if you're tracking this.

It is something that I think is great because when we talk about access to capital for small businesses, this is a tool.

So.

Thank you, Council Member.

I don't actually think that we have this one on our list, so I'm very happy to add that to our tracker and to make sure we're following it as it moves through the Senate.

Yeah, it'll be in business financial services and trade.

Yep.

Thanks.

So with that, are there any other questions for our OIR team and Gail and Ms. Tarlington, Tarleton.

Let me just say this.

Councilor Morales brought up the bill.

I'm glad we had a chance to talk offline, Gail and team, on House Bill 71782, the middle housing one.

And as you know, my concerns and what I'm hoping that is successful is House Bill 1880, the housing benefit district in relationship to light rail, particularly, well, district five.

So north end Roosevelt, Northgate, one 30th and heading on up to Linwood.

And so that's, this is something that we're really happy about.

And I know that we're going to talk about what cities are eligible and what that looks like.

I'm guessing that there's gonna be a lot of work done on this bill, it's not going to look the same in two weeks.

Is that fair to say, Elsa?

You're looking at me like I'm crazy.

No, not looking at you like you're crazy.

I think that's likely, yes.

OK, good.

So if we can be helpful on that, I will not be able to provide public comment for you tomorrow morning on this.

But somewhere down the line, if it's not at 8 in the morning, I will be available.

Is there anything else?

Oh, yeah.

Someone said Council President.

Was that you?

I said thank you, Council President.

Oh, you did.

Oh, you said thank you.

OK.

And Council President, I would like to also just not only thank all of you when you want to testify, but to also remember, Elsa and team will coordinate if you'd rather send a letter with pro, with concerns, with other, with context, with some issues that you may be considering inside your committees.

That helps chairs of committees and the members of the committee know what the context is of how bills will actually be implemented in our cities.

So always remember that there are multiple ways to communicate and we will help you facilitate that.

Gail, as a former state rep, I'm going to ask you, do you really read those letters?

I do.

And as a matter of fact, those letters are referred to in our caucus deliberations.

I know some of them I've seen you guys have read.

Very much in the committee caucus discussions.

They always come up.

OK, well, I will do that then.

Anything from any of my colleagues for our OIR team and welcoming Gail Tarleton to our lovely city family.

Thank you so much, Madam President.

OK, so before we, are we going to go to executive session first?

We are.

Are we going to executive session first, Madam Chair or Madam Clerk?

no council president you'll do the preview of the council agenda items first and then the executive session okay i had two separate printouts here where it said two two separate things okay so we'll go ahead then and go through our preview of city council um your guys's presentations for the um for the record um it's in alphabetical order and let's see this week's the the lineup here is starting with council member nelson peterson Sawant, Strauss, Herbert, Lewis, Council Member Morales, and then myself.

Council Member Mosqueda has been excused for today and tomorrow.

So with that, Council Member Nelson, please.

Hello, everybody.

So my committee, the Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee meeting is on Wednesday morning at 9.30.

We have three pieces of legislation.

all from City Light, and one is an ordinance basically accepting sole ownership of a fiber cable that we've been sharing with UW.

It's about 10 miles long.

They don't need the capacity, so that is formalizing us taking over the full capacity.

And then we've got another ordinance renewing an interlocal agreement with the Kalispell Tribe to support the Kalispell Tribe Career Training Center.

This is the second five-year, well, it's the first renewal of five years.

Anyway, it would provide $215,000 over the course of five years, so it's about 40,000 each year, for workforce development.

And this is a way that we can support the development of skilled workforce on the tribe and in the community.

around our property up there, the dam up there.

And then that's the boundary hydroelectric facility.

And then finally, we've got a resolution signaling our, well, affirming City Light's first clean energy implementation plan.

This is the first plan that's now required under the Clean Energy – the Washington State Clean Energy Act, which was passed a couple years ago.

And so therefore, they have this first plan, and all of the documents are linked to the agenda online right now.

Thanks.

Is this where I talk about other things that are – that we've done?

Okay, great.

I won't, lots of meetings, but basically I just wanted to flag that we went to, we were able, my staff and I were able to visit what's the old Rebar now called The Comeback in Soto.

So Rebar changed ownership and one of the longtime managers and bartenders, Floyd Lovelady, is now the owner and worked with the BIA to to find a location in Soto.

And so they've been operating several nights a week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

They're gonna have a grand opening on the February 11th.

And this is a hub on Capitol Hill.

And so I'm really glad that they're back and running and I think y'all should know about it.

They still need some interior walls, but it's great to see a small business and a new time small business owner on the verge of thriving in our city.

Yeah.

Do you want to see if there's any questions you have?

Oh yes, I forgot.

Are there any questions?

If not, great.

So I want to hand it off to your colleague.

I now pass it to Council Member Peterson.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President, colleagues.

On tomorrow afternoon's full City Council agenda, there are no items from our Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Our first meeting of 2022 for the Committee will be held on Tuesday, February 1st at 9.30 in the morning.

Our February 1st Committee will include an after-action report led by our Seattle Department of Transportation to assess the executive's response to the winter storms that hit our area between December 26 and January 4, as well as their ongoing response to the post-storm plague of potholes.

That concludes my report.

Any questions before we turn it over to Council Member Szilagyi?

Okay.

Council Member Herbold might have a question.

I just saw the hand.

I don't know if it was an old hand or not.

No, I am slow on the draw.

I'm so sorry.

Council Member Peterson, I appreciate you having an after-action report from SDOT.

When you sent out the email about it and suggesting the line of inquiry, almost sent you an email making a suggestion, but then didn't know whether or not it fit into the scope of what you were thinking.

Because it's more, it's not so much a response to the weather, but it's what happens after everything melts.

And my interest is in landslide mitigation.

couple years ago, the city, um, the council recognized that this the city was not doing nearly enough to support funding for landslide mitigation at a list of vulnerable areas throughout the city.

Um, that you know there was like 20 different areas that the the city had done a report on and come up with sort of what it would cost to do landslide mitigation at each of these locations so as a result of finding out that the city wasn't doing enough we um and and a landslide here in highland park um we added some more money to the item the And in subsequent years, the executive had more robustly funded this project.

There were some pretty significant landslides here in West Seattle, again, on Highland Park.

And just wondering, sort of post-weather, wondering whether or not that's a valid line of inquiry for your committee meeting or whether or not we should take it up at a different time.

Yes, I will ask SDOT to be ready to address that to the extent they can, they will.

And if not, we can hear it at a subsequent meeting.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Okay, we'll turn it over to Council Member Sawant.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I spoke during public comment last week at the Washington State Senate hearing in support of a bill to mandate that landlords give six months notice for rent increases greater than 3% to their tenants.

The Seattle City Council passed a bill from my office last year, as many of you will remember, to mandate the city's landlords to give six months notice on any rent increases.

There are no items on tomorrow's City Council agenda from the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee.

We held the first committee meeting of the year last Friday, where we heard a report from renters on their ongoing struggles to get their landlords to complete repairs, often crucially important repairs.

As the stranger reported from the committee, the stranger newspaper, local stranger newspaper committee reported from the committee.

Renters flocked to the committee to talk about the absolutely pervasive conditions that they're facing.

We heard from renters who have had no heat or hot water for literally months.

My office has requested data from the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections about how often the different enforcement tools they have access to to enforce housing codes are actually used.

And we will have that information presented to the committee when that information is available.

My intention is to determine, as I said at the committee, my intention is to determine where the enforcement of housing codes is falling short and prepare legislation to close those loopholes.

The renters who spoke also strongly supported a citywide rent control measure and asked what the city council will do for renters.

And the renters also notably did not accept council members shifting the issue to the state legislature.

It's important to know the state legislature has maintained the deeply unjust ban on rent control for 41 years, longer than many of the tenants who are facing these issues and need rent control have even been alive, and this has been through periods like the current one when the Democratic Party has had the power in the House, Senate, and in the governor's mansion.

We also discussed the demand from the climate movement urging financial institutions to end their backing of the fossil fuel industry and particularly its new fossil fuel infrastructure projects.

My office is sponsoring the legislation they have requested to give the Green New Deal Oversight Board the option to rate financial institutions that bid on City of Seattle projects based on those institutions' ties to the fossil fuel infrastructure.

If the Green New Deal Oversight Board chooses to rank bidders, the Finance and Administrative Services, according to this bill, if this bill is passed into law, would be instructed to give those rankings a weight of 20% of the decision of which bids should win the city contracts.

This legislation has been reviewed by the city attorney's office, and today it was sent to the clerk's office for introduction.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee is Friday, February 4th at 9.30 a.m.

As council members know, tomorrow's city council agenda includes the reconsideration of the legislation sponsored by Council Member Mosqueda that would end the $4 an hour hazard pay that grocery workers depend on during this public health emergency.

In December, this bill came to the city council for a vote on a day that I was out sick and scandalously all the eight other council members were present, all of them democrats voted to end the hazard pay for grocery workers, as I was explained numerous times in the past year, when the bill.

ending hazard pay almost came to a vote, and it happened several times last summer.

This is totally unacceptable.

Grocery workers have been risking their lives on poverty wages to make food available to all of society through this crisis.

I have repeatedly argued that the hazard pay should not only be maintained for grocery workers, but should be extended to all frontline workers.

To get a sense of how anti-worker, the Democratic Council members' ending of the grocery worker hazard pay was, we should consider the study released by the Economic Roundtable of grocery workers in Washington, California, and Colorado.

This survey shows that while Kroger's CEO made $22 million last year, most of the company's frontline workers, and these are UFCW members, faced homelessness, eviction, or hunger.

The study surveyed a staggering 10,000 workers and found that 14% of Kroger workers faced homelessness in the past year.

More than three quarters of the company's workers are also food insecure.

Real wages for Kroger workers have decreased in the past few years while executive profits have increased.

The original hazard pay ordinance passed by the City Council said that the hazard pay for the grocery workers should last as long as the COVID public health emergency lasted.

As long as there is an emergency, hazard pay is really the least that grocery workers should be getting.

The former mayor Durkin vetoed the end of the hazard pay after eight council members voted unanimously on that day to end the hazard pay.

But the mayor's veto was actually the only right thing to do, although we need to be clear that she had no choice but to do that because it came to her desk right when Omicron started sweeping the city.

No doubt council members have attempted and will continue to attempt to excuse their anti-worker vote in December by saying that they could not have predicted Omicron.

While it is true that Omicron could not have been precisely predicted, that is not the question at all.

The question is why were council members so eager to end the hazard pay for grocery workers, so eager that they could not even wait for the official state of emergency to end?

My allegiance is to the grocery workers not to the bosses at Kroger.

I will of course be voting to maintain the hazard pay and I urge all council members to reverse the unfortunate position you all took in December and vote to maintain hazard pay.

The city council has received emails since yesterday from over 250 working people demanding that the hazard pay be maintained and be extended for all frontline workers.

Thank you.

That was my report.

Do council members have any questions before I end the report from my office?

I'm not seeing any questions.

So that will end the report from my office and council member Strauss is next in the rotation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council president and colleagues.

Here in District 6, we did not have council briefing last week, so my report is regarding the last two weeks.

I was able to attend here in District 6. I was able to attend and present at the Green Lake Community Council meeting to discuss 2021 wins and give a preview of 2022, my policy goals for the year.

I do continue to hold operational and coordination meetings with community leaders, government entities, and non-government entities to make meaningful impacts and interventions to address homelessness in specific places in District 6. This includes our work at Woodland Park, which has already begun, and the timeline will be driven by shelter capacity.

This will take time, and we are going to address it as fast as possible.

If you would like to meet with me for status updates or for more information, please do sign up for my office hours.

In the last two weeks in District 6, I was also able to meet with Seattle City Light regarding reoccurring power outages occurring in District 6 and the Seattle Housing Authority to go over property management and capital infrastructure needs of a few properties in the district that were identified through some power outages.

And I just want to thank Seattle City Light and the Seattle Housing Authority for working quickly to address these issues.

Also in District 6, parallel to the pathway to permanence of street dining is my work on Ballard Avenue, which is being used as a model and pilot for forthcoming permanent regulations for street dining.

Ballard Avenue is both easy and difficult.

Easy because it is not a through street.

Market Street to 15th and the Ballard Bridge cuts it off.

Market Street on one side, 15th and the Ballard Bridge on the other side cuts it off.

It is hard because it's between commercial and industrial uses.

And it's a historic street with a historic district.

with diagonal streets.

We've broken the forthcoming changes into three timelines, short-term, which are six months to two years, interim, two years to five years, and long-term changes, which are five years and out.

Currently, we are working to implement the short-term changes in the next few months, and we are currently having weekly implementation meetings this month.

We have already met with the Ballard Alliance, the Farmer's Market, upcoming is the North Seattle Industrial Association and other stakeholders to discuss changes to be implemented in the next few months.

In the last few weeks, I was also able to meet with the Nordic Museum to follow up on the funding support for museums that were left out of the federal COVID-19 relief.

And thank you, colleagues, for funding the additional dollars to support both the African American Museum and the Nordic Museum.

We're also looking to see if there's other ones that we missed as well.

I was also able to meet with a few local brewing businesses about how to formalize a brewery district and what types of pedestrian safety improvements need to be made now on 14th, 9th, 11th, and some other streets in the area.

So this is going to be one of my areas of focus over this year, and I'm looking forward to getting to work on it.

During office hours, I was able to meet with four residents.

During office hours last week, two from West Woodland, And two from Ballard, we discussed a six-month vacancy rule for development, homelessness at Woodland Park, behavioral health resources for people in crisis, and how to make Seattle more bird safe because we are in a migratory pathway for birds.

And if you're out there right now, you can see some birds migrating from the north.

Last week, I also testified before the Washington State Transportation Committee in support of Senate Bill 5538, which could allow Seattle, along with other jurisdictions, to accelerate investments in segments of the regional light rail network, including West Seattle to Ballard Line, and the yet-to-be-designed ST4.

If we're going to be successful at bringing light rail to Crown Hill in the next construction cycle, we will need this bill, and thank you to sponsor Senator Jamie Peterson.

As Council President just waved, I also have the executive summary of the DEIS printed, which was the draft environmental impact statement came out early.

So we have more time to review official input.

You have the important opportunity to provide your input during this formal public comment period from January 28th, April 28th.

And we'll be sending out ways that you can share your input on this DEIS.

This week in District 6, I'm hosting office hours on Wednesday from 2 p.m.

to 7 p.m., attending the North Seattle Industrial Association meeting and meeting with Seattle Goodwill CEO and President Darrell Campbell regarding the Goodwill on 8th Avenue.

I'm also facilitating a meeting for District 6 businesses and restaurants to meet with the Seattle Police Department to discuss solutions and best practices as it comes to public safety issues.

We'll be joined by North Precinct Captain Grossman, Crime Prevention Coordinator Joe Ellenbaas, Acting Captain Long from the Coordinated Criminal Investigations, along with community leaders, business owners, and restaurant owners, this is an opportunity to come together to discuss what improvements we can collectively make to tackle the current issues impacting our businesses in District 6. Outside the District, this week I'm heavily involved with the Association of Washington City's work.

Today we had an audit committee.

Tomorrow we have a Board of Directors meeting.

And Thursday, we have City Action Day.

Also, last week, I was able to meet with Councilmember Mosqueda, the board president, secretary, and CEO of AWC regarding lobbying practices in Olympia.

This coming Wednesday, I'll also be meeting with SPD Chief Diaz, as I do so on a regular basis.

Colleagues, Land Use and Neighborhoods, or Land Use Committee, no longer Land Use and Neighborhoods.

The next Land Use Committee will be on February 9th, where we will be reviewing arborist licensing, floodplain extensions, and a quasi-judicial rezone of a property in the Northgate area.

As I mentioned about AWC, just as a reminder, colleagues, I am excused from full council tomorrow to attend my Association of Washington Cities duties as a member of their board of directors representing the city of Seattle.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report.

Do you have any questions?

Council President?

Councilmember Strauss, two things.

What's the update on your, I called it your fry bread bill, but your garage one, the food one.

We are working with OPCD to understand what notice they put out last year.

We are recognizing that there may have been duplicative work done.

The short and long of it is we are going to be making those regulations permanent.

and working with OPCD to understand if we need to do another emergency extension because they sent out the wrong draft or we're working out the details.

I'll follow up with you offline with the appropriate response, ma'am.

Great.

And then the second thing is, and I'm probably putting councilor Peterson on the spot.

Are you guys following the RTA additive revenue that Senate bill 5528 by representative Peterson on the regional transit authority area?

Are you tracking that in your district, or is Councilman Peterson working with us?

Yeah, Council President, I mistook.

When I mentioned that I testified to a bill, it is 5528. I said 5538 a moment ago.

So I was able to testify in Senate Transportation last week on it.

Right.

OK.

Councilman Peterson, anything to add?

I'm tracking it.

And it's on the Office of Intergovernmental Relations list.

Yeah, I know.

I'm asking if you've been, are you watching this?

Yeah, we're all watching it.

Oh, okay, well, with that, Council Member Strauss, you wanna end this up?

Yes, thank you, Council President, colleagues.

That is my report, and up next is Council Member Herbold.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

Let's see.

Starting off, there are no items on tomorrow's full council agenda from the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, though the Public Safety and Human Services Committee does have a meeting tomorrow morning at 9.30.

On the agenda for tomorrow, we will be having a number of briefings.

The first is a briefing on the consent decree and update on the consent decree.

and efforts of the Consent Decree Monitor to work with the Community Police Commission on getting community input on the future of the Consent Decree.

hearing from Monitor Antonio Oftali on some planned outreach meetings, work that is happening with the Community Police Commission, and the development of some preliminary assessments in the areas of the consent decree.

We'll also be hearing from the Office of Intergovern...

I'm sorry, the Office of the Inspector General on their audit of the SPD's disciplinary system for SPD sworn personnel and their recommendations associated with that audit.

And we'll also be hearing from the Human Services Department on its 2022 notice of funding opportunities.

So a couple of additional briefings on areas within my committee.

Public Health has joined with hospitals and healthcare partners from across King County today in an urgent call to action to reduce pressure on hospitals so that they can provide essential care for those who need it.

Their plans are, as always, get vaccinated and get a booster, upgrade your mask, If available, use an N95, a KN95, a KF94, or a surgical mask.

Continued recommendations to avoid crowded indoor spaces.

Recommendations to save the emergency room for emergencies.

and recommendations to not delay routine health care visits and that folks talk to primary care providers about routine medical care to help avoid needing more advanced medical care in the future.

As we know, every household can order four free home health test kits from the federal government.

If you haven't already, you can do so at covidtest.gov.

And I think we've heard that the availability through the state access for free home test kits is at this stage at its max, but you could still get them at the federal site.

On the topic of a letter that I think many of us received on the 14th of January related to the King County Jail, just wanted to say a few words about that.

The King County Correctional Officers Guild and SEIU 925, which represents the Department of Public Defense sent a letter to leaders of both King County and city governments regarding staffing shortages and the outbreak of COVID-19 cases at the jail and that these things are exacerbating the staffing issue that is currently being experienced in the jail.

Last week, I met with stakeholders, both from DPD and the King County Correction Officers Guild.

I also requested information from the executive on what's called the ADP, the average daily population of Seattle misdemeanants in King County Jail.

Of 1,363 people held in King County Jail last week, 48 of those folks were on Seattle Municipal Court only charges.

But nevertheless, we need to make sure that that number stays low and that we aren't unnecessarily adding to Seattle's ADP.

I'm going to be meeting with the city attorney's office in the Seattle Municipal Court further about this issue.

I know that the Office of Civil Rights is also engaging with the mayor's office and community members.

And Asha Venkataraman is staffing this issue if you have any other questions.

I also want to address the significant copper wire theft issue in light of significant internet and phone outages due to the recent theft of copper wire at the Magnolia Bridge.

You may recall that we did a statement of legislative intent on this issue and received in 2021 a response from SPD.

on the purchases, their oversight of the purchases of copper wire at scrap metal recyclers.

The upshot is that there's a system in place to monitor the sales of copper wire to try and ensure that the copper wire that's being sold at recyclers is not copper wire that has been accessed through theft.

But I appreciate that SPD did That's a slide report on this issue.

We know that the city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars going out and replacing copper wire, sometimes having lights go out in areas where they just very recently replaced copper wire.

And so this slide was the result of many, many constituent issues, constituent emails and meetings with stakeholders such as Pacific Iron on how best to address the issue, but we still see that there's a need for more robust prevention measures to deter this theft.

And so basically in April, when we heard from SPD, they had identified the fact that they had assigned a detective to review the logs at the recyclers.

And that as of April, that due to staffing shortages, that they were unable to maintain this body of work.

In May, SPD reported that they would be able to continue doing this work.

And so I think it would be great if we worked together to follow up to confirm that SPD, even understanding their staffing crisis, is continuing to review the logs for scrap metal theft.

We know this is extremely difficult to track and the product is often taken outside of the city or the state to avoid detection.

Similar issue as we have the catalytic converters.

Updates from Human Services Department.

The Farm to Table program has just launched a new website, appropriately named farmtotable.org, and this invests funds from the city's sweetened beverage tax in organizations that sustainably grow foods from local farmers and provide them to local preschools.

The goal is to improve access to nourishing food and cultivate an equitable food system.

And participating preschools receive stipends to purchase local foods, educational opportunities for kids to learn about soil and plants and practice cooking, and assistance from Nourish for Life with meal planning and cooking skills.

You can visit farm2tableseattle.org to learn more.

and we'll be hearing a little bit more about this tomorrow also in committee.

As others have noted, the Sound Transit EIS was released early, and the 90-day formal comment period will begin on January 28th.

The draft EIS includes an analysis of options that were approved for inclusion by the Sound Transit Board.

And for West Seattle, just want to highlight the three segments in the analysis include the Duwamish Crossing, Delridge, which includes both the Delridge and Avalon stations, and the West Seattle Junction.

My newsletter and blog have a link to the Sound Transit documents.

On regional committee updates last week on Thursday, I attended my first Board of Health meeting, supported Council Member Morales as Vice Chair.

Congratulations, Council Member Morales, where we discussed the bike helmet law, which will be considered at the February meeting.

And also this week coming up, I'll be attending the Regional Law, Safety, and Justice Committee meeting and also the Link Steering Committee meeting.

The Link Steering Committee is a gun violence prevention effort and be happy to share information about the work of the Link Steering Committee with colleagues who might be interested in learning more about that important work.

And then lastly, just wanna announce that on Friday between 2 and 6 p.m.

I'll be hosting virtual office hours.

Again, for the four hours between 2 p.m.

and 6 p.m., we schedule appointments with constituents for a half-hour period of time and look forward to talking to District 1 constituents.

That's all I have.

Do any of my colleagues have questions or comments?

Councilmember Lewis?

Thank you so much Councilmember Herbold.

I really appreciate your update on metal theft.

It's been a big impact in the Interbay neighborhood and not just relating to the Magnolia Bridge, but the businesses up on Commodore Way as well and throughout that.

community and obviously has similar impacts in other predominantly industrial communities and in Soto and other parts of the city from what I've heard from council colleagues and I know this is a long-standing area of interest for you and for your committee and just appreciate the update and the follow-up on that and we'll certainly be able to relay that to interested parties in my district and appreciate your attention to those issues.

Thanks for saying so.

It's definitely a thorny one.

No amount of interest in the issue seems to be sufficient to solve the problem.

Seeing no additional questions, I believe, Council Member Lewis, I'm handing that off to you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Herbold.

Good afternoon, Council colleagues.

So first off, we had a great committee meeting last week, the first meeting of the new Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, where we received a long update from our partners at the Regional Homelessness Authority, as well as from the mayor's office, including an appearance from Mayor Harrell himself, and I appreciate Mayor Harrell's generosity in making himself available and joining us to talk about that critical issue, which obviously the mayor's office in their transition has spent a significant amount of time in gearing up a response to.

So I look forward to continuing those check-ins and those meetings with those stakeholders as we hear more about how they're gelling together some of the efforts to respond to the homelessness crisis and appreciate The questions from committee members and some of the exchanges that we had in that committee.

The committee also took on a little bit of council business.

We heard and voted on Council Bill 120258, which will be on the full council agenda tomorrow afternoon.

This bill deals with a land swap for some land in the Georgetown neighborhood for the Seattle Public Libraries.

It's going to be used to store and house a variety of maintenance and storage needs that the library has.

It comes in at no overall additional costs to the department and we can have a bigger conversation about that bill tomorrow.

It did pass unanimously out of the committee with five council members voting in favor and none voting against.

And I look forward to considering that bill tomorrow for final passage to give the Seattle Library the final stamp of approval they need for that legislation.

A couple of updates on the offices that fall under the Public Assets Committee.

As some council members have already noted in their social media and in their updates to constituents, Seattle Public Libraries is operating on reduced hours currently, reflecting the very real impact of the surge of the latest COVID variants in terms of having a higher proportion than usual of city employees out on sick leave.

This is going to result, unfortunately, here in hopefully what will be the short term in two to four branches being closed most days of the week as the libraries strive to distribute personnel hours to maintain as much coverage of the system as possible to maintain service.

There is not currently an anticipated end date for this schedule, but hopefully as personnel start returning back to normal levels, as the latest variant abates, we'll be able to revisit this and I'll be able to provide updates that all of our libraries are going to be going back to more reliable service.

So I just want to give a shout out of support to our Seattle Public Library system as it goes through this really difficult phase.

Certainly no one wants to go back in the direction of reduced service hours and reduced essential services from the city.

But as we're seeing across a lot of our departments, it is necessitating some level of adapting and the Seattle libraries will be no exception.

Clean City Initiative.

We have the final numbers from 2021 on this council's longstanding priority of funding and supporting the Clean City Initiative.

As council colleagues may recall, Clean City Initiative was initially funded for the first time in the fall of 2020. For 2021, we did put additional supplemental resources in the Clean City Initiative to try to keep up with the demand that we see in our communities all the time of needing to provide supplemental cleaning and sanitation services given the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

and the impact that that has had on our traditional ability to keep our streets clean.

The final data is quite stunning in terms of the impact that the Clean City Initiative has had.

As we know from now Council President Juarez's frequent updates last year and briefing on the metrics of the Clean City Initiative in terms of the work they were doing.

The Clean City Initiative was able to remove 4,456,232 pounds of trash over the course of 2021. This includes 116,406 discarded hypodermic needles.

This is distributed across 2,362 different service locations.

really appreciate the work of the Clean City team.

And as we've seen that despite these efforts, there do remain numerous corners of the city in need of supplemental cleaning services.

And I look forward in this new position to working with the Clean City Initiative on how we can best deploy those services to meet that need.

Finally, I do want to recognize, as we heard this morning, Senator Reuben Carlisle, who represents my legislative district, the 36th legislative district, has announced to the Senate Democratic Caucus in a meeting today that he is not going to seek re-election.

I want to just take a moment to recognize and just comment on Senator Carlisle's service as a partner to the city and a partner to the 36th Legislative District.

There will be plenty of opportunities to do that as he gets towards actual retirement.

I mean, he will still be in office until the close of business of 2022. But given this announcement and that we will certainly be seeing Senator Carlisle ending a career in public service that began rather, I would hope, transitioning to a new role in public service, but ending his career in the state legislature, a career that began in the state House in 2009. Just wanted to speak to my appreciation for Senator Carlisle.

as a partner in representing a district with significant overlap, his accessibility as a member of the city council and being able to discuss issues of state importance with him, his leadership on transportation, his leadership in this last session on groundbreaking with national implications, climate legislation on cap and trade, and really appreciate his service and partnership.

look forward to continuing to find ways that we can recognize that leadership throughout this year, but do want to take this opportunity, given that news, to wish Senator Carlisle well and continue to work with him this session as he makes that transition.

So with that, colleagues, I'm happy to open it up for any questions on my report before I hand it to the next person in line.

Seeing no questions from colleagues, I am happy to pass it on to Council Member Morales.

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Thank you, Councilmember Lewis.

Let's see.

Let's start with my committee.

The first meeting of the Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights, and Culture Committee will take place this Friday, the 28th at 930. I have three new departments in my committee, and so we're going to hear from them first.

We will have Arts and Deal preview their work for 2022. Nope, that is not correct.

Sorry, everyone.

We're gonna be hearing from OIRA, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, and that will be a look back at the things that they accomplished in 2021. We will be hearing from Deal, and we will be hearing from Department of Neighborhoods.

Devin, if that's not correct, please let me know.

Sorry, I hope I had my notes correct.

Okay, department updates.

I have met with all of the departments, though, in committee.

So we met with the Department of Early Learning, Education Early Learning.

three council appointments and three mayoral appointments that are open.

And so we will be hearing from them probably in the next first couple of months of this year.

I'm very excited about the funding that was released for the Black Girls and Trans Youth Program that we put funding into the budget for the last two years.

It's very exciting that the funding has been announced and I'm already hearing from some of the organizations who are very excited about the mentorship programs that they're getting started.

So I want to say congratulations again to all of them.

I also met with the Department of Arts and Culture, the Office of Arts and Culture, and wanted to make folks aware of the City Artists Program, which supports individual artists in the creation of new work.

There is a funding opportunity right now, and this program supports Seattle-based curators and artists.

It supports the research, development, and presentation of their work.

The application is open to dancers, choreographers, musicians, and composers, or theater makers, including playwrights.

If you're interested, there will be a workshop on Monday, February 7th at 11 a.m.

You can check the Office of Arts and Culture website for details on how to register for that.

And the deadline is April 27th.

And I want to make sure folks are aware of this because as you probably saw this weekend, colleagues, there was an article about the impacts of the pandemic on arts and culture in the city, in the state, but in particular here in Seattle, arts and culture is a driver both of our economy, but also of our social well-being in the city and in our communities.

So, the article was about a report written by Arts Fund, which made several recommendations, including the need to focus on equity by actively eliminating funding barriers, engaging youth and families, and learning from and better serving our disability communities.

So throughout the year, we want to make sure that we are highlighting for artists in the community funding opportunities that we do have in the city.

And then as we hear about state funding, maybe we will have some federal funding to be talking about at some point.

Want to make sure that we're sharing that information as well.

I'm not going to talk about the other departments, but we do have Office of Civil Rights, Department of Neighborhoods, Immigrant and Refugee Affairs as well.

And throughout the first quarter of this year, we will be hearing their work plans and start understanding better what to expect from those departments.

And I'm looking forward to it.

I will say, lastly, that we do have several interim directors in these departments in our committee.

And so part of our work in committee will be to start preparing for the the appointment processes for those folks but more on that later.

In terms of external committees, I did meet for the first time this year with the Board of Health.

And thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for nominating me as one of the vice chairs of the Board of Health.

I'm very excited to step into that role.

Two things of note.

One is that we are seeing a decrease in hepatitis A cases across the city.

You'll recall that as COVID hit, there was an increase that was very concerning.

But due to the early intervention, we stood up vaccine clinics and had community organizations step in really quickly and begin administering vaccines.

I'm happy to report that those cases are beginning to decrease.

However, we are seeing a Shigella outbreak, particularly among our unhoused population.

And this is a highly contagious disease.

Because it is an intestinal bacterial infection, we don't have a vaccine for Shigella.

So that's not something that we can do.

And in 2020, we had 206 cases.

In this January 24th, we already have 92 cases.

So there's a real concern that this outbreak will rapidly accelerate.

The best intervention is better sanitary conditions for folks.

You know, we've got some hand-washing stations finally coming online across the city.

I'm happy to have been able to put funding aside for that.

We got funding last year for two public restrooms that hopefully will get implemented soon, but we all know that as a city, we really need to start investing in our public bathroom infrastructure so that when outbreaks like this happen, it is easy for people to take care of themselves and to stop the spread of these communicable diseases.

This week, I have two new committees that I'll be attending.

I have my first FEPP-Levy Oversight Committee meeting on Thursday, and I also have my first meeting of the PSRC Executive Board.

Both of those will be on Thursday.

Moving to district reports, last week I was very excited to join Skate Like a Girl, our own Parks and Rec Department, and CHAMPS, which is a neighborhood organization in Rainier Beach, as well as many young people to discuss a skateboard park in the Rainier Beach neighborhood that would attract young people and really provide a safe gathering space.

The project includes a feasibility study, conceptual design, and cost estimate for a new skateboard park at the Rainier Beach Playfield.

The project is supported by the Neighborhood Matching Fund.

and really want to thank everybody for all the hard work that's gone into getting the project this far.

A new skateboard park at the Rainier Beach Playfield would be a great addition to the community center, to local sporting activities that are happening in the neighborhood.

And I will say that because we had such great turnout after I issued a challenge, I will be learning how to do a kickflip.

So I'll be working with skate like a girl to figure out how to do that.

And I will also have on a helmet and elbow pads.

Let's see.

I have reached out.

So we've been meeting, as everybody knows, with folks in the Mount Baker neighborhood for well over a year now.

One of the things that they're interested in is a tour of King's Hall, which is one of the buildings at the UW Laundry site.

We are working with the Office of Housing and FAS to schedule a tour of the site.

And the goal is really to talk about the viability of activating that space for temporary uses until the development of that project begins.

Since the property has been vacated, neighbors have really felt unsafe.

They've witnessed a notable increase in violence and break-ins to their apartment building.

And so there's a real need to activate space quickly so that there are more kind of eyes on the street and just more activity happening in the neighborhood.

So I'm looking forward to that.

When we met two weeks ago, we were presented with a community action plan that community members themselves had developed.

And so we will be working with them to see what the city can be working on advancing for them, council members, King County Council Member Zahilay has been part of these, Sound Transit has been part of these meetings as well, and so all of us are really trying to figure out how to make sure that that community is safe.

I should mention that Director Allie Barnes from the Office of Arts and Culture will also be participating in that tour because part of the goal is to figure out how to activate the space on a temporary basis for the purpose of helping folks in our creative sector.

And so she is excited also about joining us to see what we might be able to do there.

My staff will be meeting with members of the community who live along South Holly Street.

They're looking for help with street calming to make it safer for folks of all ages and abilities to navigate the neighborhood better.

We'll also be meeting with folks at the University of Washington to talk about their long-term vision for the educational facility that is part of the UW Laundry Project.

There's a lot of work to do there.

Part of the agreement was that there would be an educational an early learning education facility to help train workers in the early learning field.

And there was a directive, but not a lot of funding to go with that.

So we are helping them figure out how we navigate and make sure that there is adequate financial support so that they can deliver on what they've been asked to do at that site.

On Wednesday, my staff and I will take part in our regular Mount Baker community meeting to discuss the tour and other things that I mentioned earlier.

A few weeks ago, my staff met with members of the Chinatown International District community.

They were looking for ways to activate the space under I-5 at King Street and Jackson.

And this week, my staff will connect with more stakeholders.

There's a lot of surveying happening in the area.

There have been different studies done about ways to activate that space.

There's work groups that are already meeting.

And so we're just trying to make sure that we understand all the different components that are happening so that we can start to advance some of those ideas as well.

And finally, I want to welcome two new interns to the D2 crew, Katie Taylor and Catherine Cheng.

Both are students at the University of Washington.

They have come on board and are working closely with Imani Carey on my staff.

And I'm really excited to have them on board.

So I would say if you saw them around the hall, say hello.

But if you see them in the Zoom, say hello.

That is all I have this afternoon.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I believe I am next, so I'll just step in here.

So I will be brief.

Let's see.

Beginning with my committee, there are no items of the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee on tomorrow's full council agenda.

moving towards Native communities.

The City of Seattle is now accepting applications for the Indigenous Advisory Council, a nine-member commission of Indigenous representatives, including youth and elder positions.

The Indigenous Advisory Council will advise the Mayor, City Council, and City Departments on policies, budgets, programs, services, and projects directly affecting Indigenous populations, including American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian peoples.

The deadline to apply is Monday, February 28th at 5 p.m.

For more information, please visit the Department of Neighborhoods website at seattlegov slash neighborhoods.

In regards to Sound Transit, as you all know, I sit on the Sound Transit Board.

This week, I'll be attending two Transit Board meetings.

First is the Board of Directors meeting, and the second is the CEO Selection Committee meeting.

I have been serving on that committee as the nationwide search for the new next CEO of Sound Transit.

And I also want to thank Sound Transit Board Chair Keel.

He will be serving one more year and is leading the effort on the new CEO search.

That concludes my report.

So with that, don't go anywhere.

We are going to close out this portion of our agenda and we're going to move into an executive session.

So I will pause here to allow certain individuals to enter the Zoom room.

Madam Clerk.

Recording stopped.