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Good afternoon.

Today is March 30th, 2026. The council briefing meeting will come to order.

The time is 2.03 p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Rink.

Present.

Councilmember Rivera.

Present.

Councilmember Saka.

Councilmember Strauss.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Juarez.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Lin.

Here.

And Council President Hollingsworth.

Here.

A present.

If there's no objection, the minutes of March 23rd, 2026 will be adopted.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are adopted.

And for the record, my apologies, please.

Councilmember Saka is excused for the council briefing today.

Now onto the president's report.

We have 18 items on the introduction and referral calendar.

I won't read every single one, colleagues, but there's a good amount.

Tomorrow at full council, we're going to have the protection, protecting surveillance data ordinance that is coming to full council and also the immigration status increase as well for two votes.

We have a ton of signing of proclamations today.

So, three proclamations for discussion.

The first one we're gonna begin with Councilmember Rink proclaiming March 31st, 2026 to be International Transgender Day of Visibility.

Councilmember Rink, please lead the discussion.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues.

Annually, March 31st marks International Transgender Day of Visibility, where we celebrate transgender, gender non-binary, and two-spirit people by recognizing their societal accomplishments and contributions and also raising awareness about the discrimination faced by the transgender community worldwide.

This year feels especially important to recognize trans visibility as transgender people in the United States are facing increased attacks to their rights, dignity, and ability to live free of hate and discrimination.

And I'd uplift that.

Just recently, our neighboring state, Idaho, just passed some of the most discriminatory anti-trans legislation related to bathroom use.

In fact, in adding to this, scholars from the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security released a third red flag alert for the United States warning that the nation is in the early to middle stages of a genocidal process against transgender Americans.

This is directly related to hostile federal and state legislation aimed at denying trans identity by restricting and eliminating gender-affirming health care, legal identification documents, public bathroom access, and participation in sports and athletics.

Due to this, we are seeing an influx of trans people coming here to Seattle, seeking asylum from hostile jurisdictions.

So this proclamation, which we'll present tomorrow during our full council meeting, is a reminder to our local community that we see what's happening, and we're going to have the back of our transgender community.

And tomorrow, we'll also have some notable community speakers joining us as well to accept the proclamation.

And with that, that concludes my report, and I hope you'll sign on.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rink.

Colleagues, are there any questions for Councilmember Rink?

I do have, actually, a comment.

Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you.

Sorry, Chair.

I did see the proclamation.

I didn't see any...

Normally, when we do proclamations, we're really highlighting some voices in our community who are doing great work in the various, you know, topics and areas that we're doing.

I didn't notice that here.

It seemed very more...

less kind of noting the great voices in the community that are doing work.

And I know there are a lot of folks in our trans community doing really amazing work in the city.

So will you be amending the proclamation to include that, or was there a reason not to?

highlight that in this proclamation.

It just seemed a little different than the usual proclamations that we see around here.

Yeah, in the development of this...

I don't need to recognize you all, go ahead.

largely resembles the proclamation that we did last year as a baseline, but this proclamation was also reviewed by our LGBTQ commission and then a number of trans rights organizations.

So this is the one that we've gotten council member input on as well.

I know it was distributed to offices, but also community member input as well.

Thank you.

I just saw it on Friday and I didn't get a chance to follow up with you directly.

But again, wanting to know, we have really great voices in this space, in our city, and always like to highlight our community members that are doing really great work at the city, including in our trans community.

So would have loved to have seen some of those voices highlighted, but just wanted to add that.

Yeah, certainly.

And we'll be hearing from them tomorrow.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

And are there any further discussions regarding this?

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera, Councilmember Rink for the discussion.

And now, will the clerk please call the roll so we can find out who would like to sign the proclamation?

Councilmember Rink?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Yes.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Aye.

And Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Eight signatures will be affixed.

Awesome, thank you.

Now moving on, we're gonna move on to the second proclamation.

Council Member Strauss has a proclamation recognizing my favorite day, April 20th, to be Lois Morgenson Day.

Thank you, colleagues.

Lois Morgenson has a birthday every year, of course, just like all of us.

Isn't that right?

I mean, if we're sitting here, we do.

So with Lois, she has been, for a number of years, she was getting closer and closer to being 100. And we went back and forth with having the full council sponsoring a proclamation or just myself, or sometimes it was just myself and the mayor.

Her 100th was absolutely the biggest.

Her 101st, it was just myself and the mayor that signed.

She's turning 102 this year.

We'd like everyone to sign.

And I'd also like to invite all of you to her birthday party if you'd like to stop in for a couple minutes.

It's something that I think would be worth putting a quorum of potential, you know, a potential quorum if enough people want to come because she's not just a 102-year-old.

person.

She was the matriarch of the Ballard Elks Lodge for many years.

She was the secretary.

She was a Rosie the Riveter.

She is somebody that worked for the school district for many, many years.

She is just a ball of energy.

Then every year we have the 17th of May parade, Norwegian Constitution Day, and she rides in one of the cars in the Streets of Ballard cheer Lois, Lois, Lois.

And so that's why I'm bringing it forward for everyone's signature today.

Yep, for today.

And if you would like to join us for her birthday party, I'd love to quorum a meeting there.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Are there any discussions on the table Awesome.

102 is amazing.

Such a blessing.

Will the clerk please call the roll to see who would like to sign the proclamation for Lois Morgenson Day?

Councilmember Rank?

Yes.

Councilmember Rivera?

Aye.

Councilmember Strauss?

Aye.

Councilmember Foster?

Yes.

Councilmember Juarez?

Aye.

Councilmember Kettle?

Aye.

Councilmember Lin?

Yes.

Council President Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Eight signatures will be affixed.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

And moving on, the last proclamation of the day for signature will be for Council Central staff prepared a proclamation recognizing April 1st to be Ben Noble Day.

Colleagues, I won't talk about Ben Noble because we're gonna wait until we recognize him this week.

So just wanted to highlight there.

And we're actually gonna move to where I asked you all for signatures tomorrow because Council Member Saka is not present.

And so I think all of us having that signature on there tomorrow, that's okay with everyone, awesome.

Just looking left and right eyeballs, yes, thank you.

So anyways, that will come tomorrow.

We're going to now move on to the agenda items and we're going to now begin our discussion of preview of city council actions and council and regional committees.

And just a heads up colleagues, we do have an executive session and there are some council members that might have hard stops and everything.

So just wanted to highlight that as we are going through and wanting to hear everything about your day.

and your entire calendar and what you ate for breakfast and everything.

But if we could, just a kind ask, if we could just keep it to our committees and our regional committees and maybe one or two things extra, that would be ideal.

Thank you, Collin.

That's just my ask today.

You don't have to do it, but that's my ask.

Council Member Foster, we'll start with you.

Thank you so much, Council President.

For breakfast this morning...

I skipped breakfast, actually.

Thank you.

No, in all seriousness, thank you so much.

We had a fantastic presentation in the Housing Arts and Civil Rights Committee last week.

We were pleased to be joined by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and their partners for discussion on how they structured the Washington State Covenant Home Ownership Program.

And the timing, not on purpose, came the day after HUD announced an investigation into that program.

Colleagues, it's an important program.

The way that it is structured is to have an approach that takes race into account and to lending for homeownership as a way to make up for previous harms done by the Washington state government.

We were excited to learn more about how they structured that program and to see if there are critical takeaways for us at the City of Seattle.

We were also joined by our three commissions that sit in the Office of Civil Rights, the Women's Commission, the LGBTQ Commission, and the Disability Commission for a presentation on their work plans.

Each of them are looking for opportunities to continue to engage with council members and so you may receive invites from those commissions to join them at upcoming meetings.

And just a reminder that they are all here as a resource for us, as I know those are all communities that we all care about.

I will just share my one update, which is that I had a great time hosting students from Summit Sierra High School.

I know they got to meet Councilmember Rivera in the hallway.

Thank you for stopping to chat with them.

That was really kind.

Folks know that they're here on a fellowship program with our city attorney, and I was just so pleased to chat with them and take questions.

And they were in council with us again last Tuesday, so that was really fantastic.

So that is my brief update.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just briefly, coming up this week in the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, we're going to have a public hearing on the stadium district repeal ordinance, and then we are also going to have a presentation by some of our shelter providers.

not directly on the mayor's proposal.

It's not directly on the legislation, but essentially it's laying the groundwork for that.

So I encourage folks to join if you have time and if you have questions.

It should be a nice, robust discussion.

It'll be both the mayor's office and a number of the providers that'll be able to present and respond to questions.

And then just want to encourage folks to continue to engage with your respective communities on the upcoming centers and corridors.

Just a reminder, April 6th, we're going to have a morning session, virtual session, and then in the afternoon, we'll have the in-person.

Certainly starting to get some interest, and I know that OPCD is ready to support if you want to do a community engagement.

I think that's been happening in various communities, but just encourage you to continue to do so.

And that's all I got.

We should be like timing everybody.

Okay.

Pressure's on.

Okay, colleagues, tomorrow at full council, we'll be voting on Council Bill 121179, surveillance data legislation that passed out of Public Safety Committee.

Unanimously, again, colleagues, this bill would change the specifications in which we would instill a 60-day pause on data collection for CCTV and ALPR systems.

looking forward to voting on this, as well as Councilmember Lin's bill tomorrow to better strengthen our city's policies relating to immigration.

And also want to uplift, since now I have my list handy in front of me for tomorrow's proclamation, we will be joined by the following folks from organizations Jessa Davis from the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, who's one of our co-chairs.

Jaylen Scott from Lavender Rights Project, the executive director.

Rose, who is a local trans advocate.

Gender Justice League, actually the executive director, Danny Aschini.

executive director Taffy Mayene-Johnson from Utopia Washington, Violet Kawaguchi from the Kawaguchi O'Connor Initiative, and then the Mutual Aid Network for Trans and Intersex Individuals in Seattle, also known as MANTIS, will be joined by Morgan May.

And then lastly, C.

Michael Wood from Traction.

I just wanted to read those organizations into the record because they're doing incredible work.

And if you haven't had the chance to connect with them yet, certainly encourage that.

On Friday, April 3rd, the Human Services, Labor, and Economic Development Committee will hear two items.

We'll have appointments to the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board and a briefing from the Domestic Worker Standards Board just discussing their body of work.

And then lastly, I wanted to briefly highlight to community events, primarily the Local Progress convening.

Over the weekend and a bit of last week, I had the opportunity to co-host a national housing convening alongside Local Progress.

This was a three-day convening in Seattle.

with over 80 local elected officials from across the country to discuss issues that we're facing in housing from underutilized land, affordability, renter protections, and more.

We had representation from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Berkeley, Denver, Oklahoma City, Portland, and a number of other cities.

And some of our local Washington electeds joined as well, such as folks from Burien and Port Angeles.

We were able to do some site visits as well to our local organizations and show off the amazing work that we're doing here in Seattle.

So a site visit to El Centro, as well as a walk through the CID alongside SCIPTA.

And so it was a really fantastic convening.

Had the opportunity to not just connect, but get some good learnings and have some really inspiring discussions with fellow electeds.

And last but certainly not least, had the opportunity to be one of what felt like tens of thousands of people to ride the Cross Lake Connection over the weekend.

Just an incredible, incredible achievement for our region, and just could not be more excited.

I know I probably went over.

I know your timing may count some number-wise, but I'll conclude my comments there.

Okay, thank you.

And no one needs to rush, by the way.

Are there any questions?

Okay, so are there any questions for Councilmember Ring?

Councilmember Ring held the record for most speakers for Women's Day, and I think you're gonna smash the record tomorrow, so I just wanted to highlight that, which is good.

All right, Councilmember...

Is there any questions for Councilmember Ring?

No?

All right, Councilmember Juarez.

No one's watching you.

You're watching yourself.

Thank you.

You just have to get this out.

So blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Last week, March 18th, we had the big City Light meeting.

And thank Council Member Kettle, I know he's paying attention, Council Member Rivera, Council Member Sacco, Council Member Strauss.

Final presentation.

And the reason why I want to put this on the record is because we are going to vote this Wednesday on a $4 billion gadget.

settlement deal.

There's been a lot of stuff in the press, and we want to make sure that we started with the facts.

We went through an eight-page PowerPoint, the background of the Skagit licenses, 15 parties involved, three tribes, five federal agencies, two state agencies, one local county, and four private party natural resource organizations.

The licensing timeline started, believe this, folks, I started this, or I was part of this, in 2018. Whew, so hopefully we'll vote it out of committee.

It'll go to full council, and after full council, if it passes in full council, it'll go to the mayor's desk.

$4 billion over 50 years.

We also were very honored to have, and I said this and I'll say it again, we had Amar tribal leaders here from Soxhuatl, Swinomish, and the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, as well as Jack Viander from Yakima.

So that's a big meeting we have.

So those of you on my committee, on our committee, be prepared on April 1st at 2 o'clock to do the final presentation and vote of the Skagit Hydroelectric Relicensing and Comprehensive Settlement Agreement to the tune of $4 billion.

And again, I'm having them focus again on what happens as the process as it leaves the city and it goes to the feds under FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

So that's where we're at on that.

Okay, moving on here.

Last week, wonderful opportunity.

I've known her for years.

She's doing a great job.

Michelle Finnegan, interim director at Seattle Parks and Rec.

We talked about working on the Lake City redevelopment, Madison Park Beach and Victory Heights preschool and operation and maintenance agreements.

the Aquarium Ocean Pavilion Ordinance and the Operation and Maintenance Amendment that's going to come, the lands and negotiations we're doing with DNR, that's Department of Natural Resources, and the operational updates related to Queen Anne Pool and the park renaming process.

And so that's all I got there.

Let's see.

Oh, big thing for me.

On Tuesday, me and Paul from my office, Policy Paul, you all know him, We attended the Agents of Transformation change inside the AI shift hosted by GeekWire.

I know you guys are shocked to hear this, me being a boomer, but I'm really intrigued with AI.

So we went to go to the GeekWire gig, and let me tell you, GeekWire Those are the people that are there.

Heard from industry experts on the growth of AI within organizations.

Experts expect AI to evolve more faster in the next six months than the last three years.

And of course, it wasn't really a discussion about ethics, but anyway, they were all concerned about some responsible AI.

And AI is evolving at such a fast rate that our, of course, policy is not keeping up.

As you know, this city council tracked about a dozen or so AI bills, and I think only two passed.

So there's a lot more to come after I leave, so I'm hoping whoever gets my committee after I go really pays attention, because this is going to move so fast with data centers.

I don't know if you guys saw in the clips, we have three tribes now that have outlawed data centers in Indian country.

It is going to be a land grab for the 21st century.

And so I'm hoping you're all paying attention.

If not, you all got my number.

Give Auntie a call.

OK.

Done with that.

You don't need to know about that.

We're cool there.

Oh, this is a big one with my buddy over here, my sister.

We've been working with Dr. Duane Chappell and Dr. Ishmael Fajaro to discuss the FEP levy.

So not just focusing on pre-K and K-12 and the Promise.

That is the Ready to Launch program we're working on.

We started calling it the pride, and then we realized it would cause some confusion.

Now it's more black brilliance pride.

But the discussions about our HBCU and our predominantly black institution, educational promises and remedies, remedies, remember that, and a commitment to education for children in this community.

But more importantly, what we're excited about is meeting with and our communication with the mayor of Oakland, because Howard University is going to put an HBCU in Oakland.

It'll be the first of its kind, and they beat us to the punch, but we're right behind them.

So we're excited to discuss with them, as we've been working in the last two, three, four years about this, that maybe someday soon we will have a HBCU, PBI in the Pacific Northwest or the City of Seattle.

And I think it's a long time coming.

And tomorrow, I cannot beat your committee.

I'm really sorry.

Whose committee am I missing tomorrow?

Yours?

Whose?

Yours?

Is that?

Is it library?

Yeah, I'm missing the library.

I'm sorry, because I think I have an amendment.

I am co-sponsoring an amendment.

I can't be there.

I apologize, because I'm going to the 18th Annual Celebration of Affordable Housing at the Seattle Convention Center.

I'm going to be sitting with our friend and sister, Patience Malaba, who I've known for years.

It's been wonderful watching her just come up the ranks and do her thing.

Anyway, I will be with Patience tomorrow, so I'm going to miss your library thingy.

But I do have a thingy, my thingy.

We're good?

No votes tomorrow.

Yeah, you just helped me.

OK, great.

Yeah, and you've been doing a great job, by the way.

And trust me, not that you couldn't, but I was there for the first one.

And it's good to see how this stuff moves along.

Anyway, after that, then we have my committee on Wednesday.

Then we have the big party for Ben.

That's it.

And then we got, you guys, I need to see your brackets.

I think there are questions.

You wanted everyone to go fast so you could take their time.

I know that's what you wanted.

I want to know what people's brackets are because I'm thinking...

Okay, so we had Councilmember Foster followed by Councilmember Rank.

Councilmember Foster, go ahead.

I thought you had a question.

I was just messing with Auntie Council President Deborah Juarez.

No questions.

I get a few extra minutes because I'm older, okay?

We'll just go this way and then we'll jump to Bob.

Okay, he'll be last.

Councilmember Rank?

So I had a question about the GeekWire event, because I know we were chatting about it ahead of time.

About the what?

About the GeekWire event.

Yes.

I was really curious, because during PSRC Executive Board last week as well, we had Governor Greg Wharton presenting on economic development for the state, and we had a robust discussion about AI.

And I'm wondering if at all in the GeekWire event, there was discussion about energy and energy needs to supply.

Because that was the piece that I raised during PSRC Executive Board, and actually the need PSRC is a government-to-government relationship.

We need to actually have a government-to-government relationship and conversation with our tribal partners.

And that was something that I raised and was a part of the discussion.

So I'm wondering, was energy demand discussed at all during this GeekWire event?

I'm so glad you asked that.

I was trying to watch in the clock over here.

I'm glad you brought that up.

And I'm not trying to be critical, because I know that people are going to watch this and say, Councilmember Morris said A, B, or C.

But I'm just going to tell you the truth.

I was a bit disappointed that they did not focus more on, which I'm not surprised because it is GeekWire, on ethics and guardrails that we have unleashed with AI, something we have never seen.

It is the industrial revolution, it's the car, it's the computer all combined and then some.

No, there wasn't.

I did, I had a back and forth and I can't say that person's name, but they're really high up there from Amazon and Microsoft.

And I just said, people are worried about their jobs.

And I don't want medical advice from a bot.

And I don't think constituents elected a bot.

They don't want chat GPT.

They want a human being to pick up the phone.

So interesting exchange.

I'm one of those people where, I don't know about you guys, but when I go to the grocery store, I go to a human being.

I know.

I just, I know that sounds old fashioned, but I don't want these people to lose their jobs.

Interesting discussion because that place was packed.

And these are all the industry people, this is what I spoke about.

Return on investment.

cutting your emails down from 200 to 10, how many tokens they can spend.

But it's good to understand it from that perspective.

These are people from Silicon Valley, from New York, from New Mexico, from Seattle.

And it's going to be up to you folks, your generation, quite frankly, and my children and their children.

I don't know how we are going to legislate and reel in the power of AI and what it's not just going to do to the ethics, but data centers, how that's going to look.

Because that is the part that scares me.

And of course, the whole confidentiality, are you going to timestamp it and say, is this AI created?

We've already seen that one site where they're using it for pornography and children, all these kind of issues that I didn't expect them to have all that, but I expected some of that, none.

But again, it's GeekWire, it's a business perspective, so it's good to understand how it works before you start saying, what kind of policies do you want to craft?

Because as we know, it always takes society a bit to catch up with technology.

That's just how the world works.

So that's what it was.

And I have the material, some of the material if you want to see it.

I would love to see them.

Yeah.

So there.

Thank you.

Good question.

Is there anything else from my colleagues?

Oh, go ahead.

I was just going to briefly say, I know you're out tomorrow during library levy, so I just wanted to say thank you for your partnership on the amendment for expanding resources that are going to go towards Play and Learn and also some of the ESOL programs.

I know we want to make sure there's money in there to get those programs up north.

So since you won't be here for me to say thank you tomorrow, thank you, Council Member Lawrence.

I am going to prepare some speaking points because I can't, but I just want to say this.

I want to thank you for spotting that and getting back to me.

And this is what I'm really liking about this council, and I like every council.

is that we're talking and we're saying, hey, this is going on in your district.

What do you think about this?

And I really appreciate the time you took to call me to come in my office and say, hey, what are you thinking about this?

This is what we're seeing.

And not just in my district, but citywide.

And really focusing in on the pre-K stuff.

That is so detrimental.

And after pre-K and all the way through and then post-secondary.

And let's just say this, education is equalizer.

That is what's going to make our day and make our world better.

Can I get an amen down there?

Amen.

A witness.

That's how it works.

That's what I'm talking about.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Eyes closed.

Mm-hmm.

Council Member Rivera?

That was a full-on mm-hmm.

Well, education is the key out of poverty.

period, full stop.

So thank you.

I did want to make a comment on, in addition to all the things that you raised, Council Member Juarez, there's the environmental impacts of these data centers that folks are, you know, it is part of the conversation.

And so wanted to add that to the bevy of other considerations.

And so thank you for attending that and lending your voice to that.

It's really important.

And you're right, as an older human, it's up to the younger humans to really you know, work on all these issues as all these advancements are being made.

So thank you.

All right, I guess I'll go next.

Let's see how quickly I can get through this.

I'll limit mine to, we have obviously our, we had our select library levy committee last week.

We heard from the mayor's office and central staff about the levy.

We also heard about levy capacity and how property taxes are determined.

We're going to have our second select committee tomorrow.

Thank you in advance for those of you that are able to attend.

We're going to be reviewing and discussing the amendments to the proposed levy, but not take votes.

We're just gonna be having conversations.

Then on Thursday, we're gonna have our public hearing related to the levy.

So I wanna thank you all and especially your staffs in advance who will be volunteering to do, to help out during that evening public hearing.

So all things levy this week as we need to put places, we need to vote to place this on the ballot in August.

Then I also wanted to highlight on Saturday I met met with the Seattle Youth Commission at their regular meeting.

It was such a pleasure to meet these students and hear about their priorities and goals for the city.

I spoke to the amazing Department of Neighborhood staff and to our own Tao Mattson, who is the coordinator for boards and commissions at the city.

I want to make sure that the city is ensuring that these kids are getting the guidance and support they need to be successful in their roles.

This is unlike an adult commission.

It takes more of a hands-on approach to ensure that these youth are understanding of city processes, and how does local government work, and what's the mayor's role, what's the city council's role, and so forth.

What's the role of the external partners, for instance, and how we create legislation and also manage for the budget.

So I'll be continuing to have conversations with TAO and the Department of Neighborhoods to ensure this is a commission that was on hiatus and restarted.

And I want to make sure that we have a good program for these youth so that they understand what their role as a commission are.

And I would love to see a project that they all work on together to culminate at the end of their two-year appointments.

That would be great.

So anyway.

I'm working through that.

And the reason why I'm taking an interest is because this commission sits in the LEND committee, and so it is something I very much care about.

And then lastly, I just want to raise an issue that we've all been hearing about, colleagues, for the last few weeks, and I know over the last two or three days we've heard about in the news as well, and that is the county's very serious and unfortunate issues with their human services contracts.

I know that the City of Seattle contracts with similar organizations.

We need to do our due diligence as well.

I know, Councilmember Rank, you were chair of the Human Services Committee, so I reached out to you this morning.

Thank you for letting me know today.

As you were walking in here, we can have a chat.

I had a cursory conversation with the interim director, Thackarel, which is the auditor, the interim auditor.

And she said that the county, as of today, has a new director of internal audit.

And as you probably have heard, they're also considering creating an office of inspector general.

I appreciate that King County Executive Garmai Zahele is taking this seriously, as is King County Council Member Rod Dombowski, who is My counterpart to my district folks on the county, I really appreciate all their work and their attention on this.

I know that a lot of the organizations are doing amazing work and we now have these issues that we need to really look at.

and it would be remiss if we didn't do our due diligence and look at our city processes as the county is doing theirs.

I think this is really important.

It's not just a county thing for the county to look at.

So I will be looking forward to working with you all and the auditor and the mayor's office on what we need to do in terms of our city contracts and doing our due diligence on our end to make sure that all these dollars are going to all the folks that we're trying to help in the city because it's really important.

So and that is it.

and happy to take any questions.

There's more I did, but I feel like I've gone over my time.

Any questions for Councilmember Rivera?

No worries.

Councilmember Foster?

Thank you so much, Councilmember Rivera.

And I'm so glad to hear the update about the Youth Commission.

I know they came and testified at full council, and it's on my list to get to meet with them, so thank you for sharing that.

My question was actually just about libraries.

I know we're doing amendment introduction tomorrow, and I was trying to check my email.

Do we know when we're anticipated to vote on amendments?

I don't have the date here, but I believe it's the following week.

Okay.

Or it could be the following two.

I'll get you the date.

Sorry, I don't have the full schedule, but I know I sent it to you all the week before last.

Okay, I'll double check my email.

It's in your email.

I sent two actually with the calendar.

Perfect, thank you.

Yeah, of course.

Awesome, thank you, Councilmember.

Council Member Strauss, and we'll go to Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you.

I'll try to be brief, but I got a lot to say.

I'm sorry.

I know.

Coming from the Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee, we had a great 9.30 a.m.

meeting this morning regarding the shelter legislation.

Reminder, if you are not on the committee and you would like to sponsor an amendment, I'm happy to carry it forward for you.

The deadline for ideas is tomorrow with pencils down on Thursday.

If this is too fast of a process, please just say so.

We will slow down, but it will cascade some stuff that's going on in committee.

So we're moving quickly, and if it's too fast for anyone, just say so.

We will have votes next week on April 7th.

Reminder for anyone on the committee, we already have one absence, and so if there's another absence, we will be at quorum.

If we don't have quorum, we can't vote.

Just talking some of this through.

We will be voting on amendments.

We also have the grants ordinance as well as a presentation about the native communities and tribal governments work that OIR does.

So it's a packed agenda.

I will say my reflections from today's meeting is that There is a question being asked, do we spend money on number of shelter beds or money on fewer beds, higher quality of service?

And for me, from that conversation today, it is fewer beds that are higher quality and higher intensity of service.

Happy to talk to all of you more about the reflections that I've had from committee, and it's actually really great that this legislation is going through so many of our committees because it's giving us all really great awareness of the whole comprehensive issue.

So with that, again, amendments deadline tomorrow and on Thursday.

Next week is gonna be a very tight meeting and we need to have quorum.

For the library's levy, my apologies again for not being able to attend last week.

I was at a AWC executive meeting.

I did watch everything, and my test here is that I know that Bob Kettle's father said he was coming to the United States for what?

Education, education, education.

Lining it up there, Bob.

I do have four amendments that I've put forward.

I have not put a dollar figure to any of them because this process also moving quickly.

I wanted to make sure that we still had the ability to discuss these four issues.

I didn't know if any of you were running them.

Apologies if I'm like overlapping, but I just wanted to keep this conversation alive.

The four that I have are about ADA and elevator access.

I always get this wrong if it's circulation or collections.

It's one of those two words.

and then contracted outreach or ambassadors.

And I know Council Member Foster, we've had some really good discussion on this.

And then the last is Seattle Channel coverage of current programming from the library.

And so this is instead of putting the Seattle Channel award-winning Seattle Channel into the library system, we want to make sure that the existing programming that the library does is captured and distributable so that each of their programs has a wider reach.

And so those are my four amendments.

I'd love to chat with any and all of you.

And if you already have an amendment like mine, I don't need mine to go forward.

Just kind of saying it out there.

In AWC, we did have the executive committee meeting last week.

We did have a short legislative session after action review.

We have, in the past few years, been at odds with AWC's legislative priorities, the city of Seattle versus AWC.

We've spent a fair number of years trying to iron this wrinkle out.

This year it reared its head again, and there was not a way forward where we could all be on the same page.

It was quite unfortunate.

And so I noted that for the AWC executive board.

We did not have further discussion about it, but if any of you want to talk about how things have gone well and how things have not gone well, I would love to fill you in.

As always, don't forget about our June conference in Spokane.

It is the one place where you will get to see your peers of other municipalities in the same place, learning about the good tips, tricks, tools, and future.

I've learned quite a bit at these conferences, so I definitely recommend coming.

I'm getting there, Council Member Juarez.

Sound Transit, I'm just teasing you right back, that's all.

Okay, Sound Transit, we had a cross-lake connection this week.

It's not connecting Bellevue and Seattle.

It's connecting Redmond and Snohomish County.

This is a really big regional deal.

It's got the best views both across the lake, but if you take it all the way up to Linwood, you'll see a sneak peak view of the Olympic Mountains.

After this ride, we got off in Bellevue, we switched trains to come back in, and I immediately went to meet up with my folks to go walk in the No Kings Rally.

Where did that rally end?

It ended at Seattle Center.

Without a station at Seattle Center, we are missing the regional connection to a regional asset.

The newspaper showed pictures of people from suburban towns around Seattle participating in this rally.

And Sound Transit, if you're listening, I know you're not, if you're listening, I'm here to say that Seattle Center is a regional asset that deserves regional, the connection to it is a regional connection.

It's not just a Seattle connection.

We already have the bus.

I did hear a desire for Seattle City Council to share our perspectives with Sound Transit.

I'd love to talk with all of you about how we do that in a good way that we are putting everything forward.

Just grab me if you'd like.

Last but not least, District 6 and more office hour.

We did not have office hours last week, but we had office hours this week.

We had a town hall last week, which was really great, well attended.

And stemming from the youth commission conversation, one of the youth commissioners came and had office hours with me, and we've already connected her in with some of the work that we're doing in the district.

This year, both office hours and town halls, the interactions that I've had in those situations, have turned into actionable outcomes.

We've gotten cargo containers off the streets, making our streets safer, and it's turned into legislation that I'm excited to preview with you soon.

But these are really meaningful ways for me to get to engage with my neighbors.

So, office hours again this week and next.

Any questions, President Emeritus?

Thank you.

I got to clear something up because I'm having some confusion.

I think I talked to Council Member Foster about this.

So very briefly, last week I met with Nicole Valastro-Soper, Tracy Whitten, Allison Holcomb, SPD Assistant Chief Rob Brown, and North Precinct Captain George Davidson.

to talk about a public safety overlay in the shelter and the housing.

So my understanding, just let me reconcile this.

Council Member Foster has her committee Wednesday at 9.30, and there's no vote.

They're just doing a presentation, correct?

It is in Eddie Lynn's Land Use Committee, but I am...

Oh, I'm sorry, it's Eddie.

No, that's okay.

I'm the sponsor of the bill that is going through that committee, yes.

Okay.

So, but my amendments, and then you have yours on April 7th.

but of the three pieces of legislation, two are in your committee.

That's correct.

And then one is in yours.

So my amendments go to you, or you, and the deadline for that is, I thought, I mean, I gave you my answer Friday or Saturday,

So at this point, thank you for that question, Councilmember Juarez.

So on Wednesday of this week, we are having the mayor's office, we're having several providers in for a conversation on managing shelters, particularly focused on shelters that are serving more people.

The reason that I'm not answering your question with a deadline is because we do not have this legislation on the IRC yet.

So once we have that, I will follow up with you to provide you a deadline for amendments.

Perfect.

would also just clarify is, depending on the nature of your amendment, it may be on the legislation that I am shepherding, or it may be on the legislation that Councilmember Strauss has.

So as you know, he's got the budget and components in his committee.

Right.

I think that we came to a discussion, not three of us together in a smoke-filled back room, but basically that the public safety piece that I was looking at, I felt, based on discussions and watching the hearings, is that it would land better with you folks rather than in the public safety piece, which we've been discussing and discussed with Council President as well.

Besides, and thank you Mayor's Office for expanding the matrix from seven factors to 21, but I will still stand on the position that training your staff in de-escalation is not a public safety plan.

So I do have some words and some language that makes it a little bit more definitive, so I know it's landing in the right place.

Okay, great, perfect, thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

And Councilmember Strauss, it's still your floor.

Nothing else to share.

Awesome.

We will jump to Councilmember Kettle.

Hello.

Yes, I just before jumping in mind, I will say we're engaged on the public safety front for sure.

And this goes to Councilmember Juarez's note and remarks just here.

And it also goes behind our neighborhood engagement in mitigation plan process that we have in place right now with last year's budget process and, you know, through the Ledge Department.

And it's really important.

I was speaking to it this morning.

So yes, super important.

And with that transition, Public Safety Committee meeting, our next one won't be until the 21st of April, since I will be out of pocket on the 14th.

So in April, we'll have 21st, 28th.

for public safety.

And we'll be working public drug use and possession, and very importantly, alternative response.

And then separately, I just wanted to note just for everybody's essay in May, we will have a review of the Sentinel review on the Cal Anderson protests, and then separately, tied to that, but separate, part two would be having accountability partners at the committee.

So part one being the Cal Anderson, the SEER, and then secondly, I'll turn it over with our accountability partners.

really quickly this week, in an hour and 15 minutes less than that, Bell Street project, ribbon cutting's gonna happen, very important for Belltown, and really the east-west connections in our city, which, as everyone knows, we're very much a north-south oriented city, so these east-west connections are super important.

Tomorrow, meeting with OEM, OPA, SDOT, but most importantly, not most importantly, but the Downtown Community Council tomorrow night, in community.

Also, community complaint officer at KXP.

Unlike my colleague in District 6, I don't have an office like he does, so I bounce around everywhere to include last week in Magnolia at the Magnolia Library.

And then Thursday, Seattle Sports Commission which would be really important.

I'll follow up on that really briefly.

And then Friday, Seattle-Galway sister city trip coming up and really promoting what is now the 40th anniversary of our sister city relationship with Galway.

Super important, particularly in the areas of tech, maritime tech, and academics education.

And Councilmember Strauss, you're right.

Education, education, education.

Just piggybacking on my point about sports commission meeting coming up.

Great event last Thursday with Visit Seattle.

Not just on the Mariners and everything that's going on in terms of, you know, the tourist economy, you know, hospitality, restaurants, hotels, across the board.

but also related to FIFA World Cup.

A lot of work being done.

I really appreciate Visit Seattle working with the overlap in England, including the stick to football group, which really had a great segment on Seattle.

Conveniently sent to me by one of my cousins initially.

But yeah, we need to be working all these points and everything that we're doing really plays into each other.

So that's what's going on.

I'm trying to keep it short.

I don't want to go as long as Councilmember Strauss.

That's all.

Thanks.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Strauss said you have a whole city hall in your district.

Okay.

By the way, can I give a congratulation?

The only people from Queen Inn complain the most.

I just want to put that on the record.

Go ahead, Councilmember Kettle.

Can I congratulate Arizona on winning Council President?

And can I congratulate UConn for destroying everybody's brackets by taking out Duke?

There you go.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Is there any questions for Council Member Kettle?

I want to see people's brackets.

Okay, awesome.

There's no questions.

I'll be quick.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle, for that.

And I was only playing with you about Queen Anne.

We love Queen Anne, okay?

My grandfather was a teacher at Queen Anne High School, was the first black teacher at Queen Anne High School, taught mathematics.

Can you imagine teaching mathematics in the 50s?

In Queen Anne?

In Queen Anne.

Well, I have a land acknowledgement for Queen Anne.

Okay.

Just kidding.

All right.

Just kidding.

The next Governance and Utilities Committee will be on Thursday, April 9th at 9.30.

We have a presentation on food waste and prevention and extending food life.

SPU has a program where They contract with people to come pick up food at different grocery stores.

And so we're going to talk about different ways we can continue to extend the life of food.

We have three appointments, one from Seattle Ethics and Elections Committee, which is two by the mayor, one by us.

And then we have SPU Stormwater Code Update.

We'll be a little spicy, okay?

Talking about drainage and water, okay?

So just to highlight, y'all.

We had a Police Pension Board meeting last week, which was our quarterly meeting.

And two things I want to highlight.

Thank you to the students at TOPS at Seward.

I know myself and Councilmember Rink, I think, hosted the groups and we split it over two days.

And Councilmember Strauss and Councilmember Rivera for being so gracious with your time.

I stopped by other offices, so I know I'm thanking them because we caught them.

I know other people were in meetings, but just want to thank you all for just being gracious hosts with our kids.

And last but not least, I am incredibly excited to wear my college jersey today, okay?

So I just want to notice I still fit in it.

Arizona's going to the Final Four, bear down.

Last time we went and won a championship was 1997 with the great Lute Olsen, okay?

Great coach.

So anyways, I just wanted to highlight that, and that's why I'm wearing this jersey.

Thank you so much, y'all, dealing with me, and it's just exciting.

You only go to the final four every 20 years.

Yeah.

Any other comments that come before Council?

Councilmember Rivera?

Yes, April 8th is when we're taking votes on amendments and the legislation, so I wanted to get back to you on that.

But you do have the schedule, so you can look for the other stuff.

Awesome.

And if you're in Tucson and listening, everyone on council is rooting for Arizona, except for Councilmember Juarez is going for Michigan.

Yes, Michigan.

That's fine.

Are you going for Michigan, Councilmember Strauss?

I am.

Strauss, be careful where you answer, buddy.

Oh, Strauss.

Councilmember Strauss, are you...

No, in my time at AmeriCorps, I got the opportunity to work for the Toledo Parks Department.

Okay, what does that mean?

Is that an answer?

So if there's no further business to come before the Council.

Council President?

Yeah, Council Member Kettle.

I think I did this before, but just to make sure, I'll be missing, I'd like to be excused for the next two Council briefings.

Is there any objection to Council Member Kettle being excused for the next two Council briefings?

Yeah.

Seeing none, you're excused.

Thank you, my friend.

Thank you.

All right, awesome.

And I know you have an Arizona household there.

If there's no further business, we're going to move into the executive session.

Hearing no further business, we'll now move into the executive session.

Colleagues, as presiding officer, I'm announcing that the Seattle City Council will convene into the executive session.

The purpose of executive session is discuss pending potential and actual litigation.

The executive session is opportunity for council to discuss confidential legal matters with city attorneys as authorized by law.

If you're listening, do two hand claps.

Thank you.

A legal monitor from the city attorney's office is always present to ensure the council reserves questions for policy and open session.

I expect the executive session to be done by 3 o'clock.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

4 p.m.

Thank you.

We are now in executive session.