Input: And good morning and welcome to a special meeting of the King County Council's committee of the Hall. We've scheduled this meeting to have a presentation on legislation transmitted by the county executive and sponsored here at the Council by council members McDermott, Cole Wells and Von Reich. Bauer relating to future distributions of the tourism promotion bucket. That's a 25% bucket of the hotel motel tax. We are going we have a number of folks, a lot of folks signed up for public comment today. And the order of business that we'll take is first to have staff report presented by our two central staff analysts who are doing the initial work on this. They will go over the legislation and then be available to answer questions by council members. I expect that will take depending on questioning. About 30 minutes could run, 40 minutes could be around a little less. Then we'll turn to our public comment item. And if I've got the sign up sheet and if you want to offer public comment, make sure you get over to the table here and get your name on the list and we'll call folks as they've signed up. And we will have to end the meeting at noon today. At some point here, I will also let you know about the other opportunity as well. Do it now for public comment. The next time this item will be heard in this committee will be on Wednesday, August 29th, Wednesday, August 29th at 9:30 a.m.. Here, that will be on the agenda for what we call discussion and possible action. Meaning if there is a five votes for or some alternative to advance, it could advance to the full council. If there's not, it will be heard on Wednesday, September 5th, at 9:30 a.m.. In this committee here, there will be opportunity for public comment at both of those meetings. In addition, we have an opportunity at the Fall County Council on the third Monday of every month for general public comment. And so there's an opportunity there and there will be an opportunity when this is before the Fall County Council, assuming that happens for public comment. So there's a number of additional opportunities for public comment here live. And of course, you can also write email and call your council members. So thank you for being here. With that, I'll ask the court to call the roll and will convene. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Belushi, Councilmember Dunn, Councilmember Gossett. Here. Councilmember Colwell there. Councilmember Lambert, Councilmember McDermott. Here. Councilmember of The Grove, Cathy Sanders. Councilmember one right here. Mr. Chair, here. Mr. Chair, you'll have a quorum. All right. Thank you very much. We'll turn now to a motion to approve our minutes. Councilmember Caldwell's, would you put those before us? The July 25th committee meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the approval of the minutes of July 25th. All in favor, say i ii i any post those are approved. Okay. We'll turn now to item five proposed motion 2018 0266 and asked Jeff Mumm and Andrew Kim, our central staff analysts who have been analyzing the legislation and related issues to come before us and make their presentations. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Thank you. For the record, Andrew Kim, the counsel central staff, the staff report for this item begins on page 19 of your agenda packet. However, I would begin my briefing with some background information actually starting on the top of page 20. In 2011, the Washington state legislature passed. I'm sorry, the Washington State Legislature amended RTW 67.2 8.18 to allow the county to allocate the county imposed 2% lodging or hotel and motel tax revenues that will become available in 2021 for the following at least 37 and a half percent for arts museums, for art museums, culture museums, heritage museums at least 37 and a half percent for nonprofit organizations or public housing authorities for affordable workforce housing within one half of a mile of a transportation transit station, or for services for homeless youth and the remainder for capital or operating programs to promote tourism and attract tourists to the county. In 2015, the Washington State Legislature again amended RTW 6728 180 to give the county the ability to issue either general obligation bonds or revenue bonds to help finance the affordable workforce housing allocation of the lodging tax revenues. The bill requires that debt service or revenue bonds pledged against these revenues can make up no more than half of the 37 and a half percent of lodging tax revenues. It's one of just two episodes from the rising taxes think center jeff man counsels. Just to emphasize on this revenue stream, this is a credit against the state sales tax. So if the county the county technically opposes it, but if the county were not to impose it, the funds, a taxpayer would not see a reduction in tax. The funds would wind up just going to the state and the county would not receive any funds. Thank you. And I may have missed it, but did you specify the actual source and rate and on which transactions this is imposed. That it's a 2% credit against the state sales tax on hotel stays in King County? Is that all hotel stays, Jeff, or are there certain sizes in terms of property? Yeah, I think there's a 60 room limit, but I have to get back to you place of it. Thanks, Jeff. Now, if I can direct the members to table one on page 25, that provides a good summary of the proposed motion in alignment with the with the state law. So on page 25, there's a table. Table one provides a comparison between the state law and proposed motion 2018 00266, which is before you today. The table also references past council actions taken by Council in lieu of the state legislation action and in anticipation of future lodging tax revenues. So I'll go through. So the first column of the table one provides the allocation guidelines as per the state law, which I just brief the members. And the second Collinwood specified the allocation as proposed by the current motion before you. So the proposed motion would state the county's intent to allocate the lodging tax revenues that will be available beginning January 1st, 2020 for the following. 137 and a half percent shall be transferred to Fort Culture to support art museums, culture museums, heritage museums, the arts and the performing arts. This okay, I'm hearing some folks having trouble hearing pull the microphones and I sometimes talk softly myself. So Andrew and Jeff, both of you, pull up those mikes real close and Mark, crank it up to 11. Make sure the second allocation would be 37 and a half percent shall be allocated to Department of Community and Human Services to support transit oriented development development, including projects that preserve or develop workforce housing and ongoing services or projects that support homeless youth. And the last allocation, 25%, shall be allocated for the following one building for culture, bond, debt service and of the remaining 60% remaining to the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium, Public Facilities, District for capital projects, and 3% of the remaining amount to the Kent Special Events Center Public Facilities District to support capital maintenance of the Acesso Show Wear Center. The proposed motion would also require the executive, in consultation with the Council, to develop a countywide strategic arts, heritage, historic preservation and Culture Plan. And the Strategic Plan is required to be sent to council by December 31st, 2019. Section C of the proposed motion would require the Council, the executive and the county visitor and tourism organizations to work in collaboration to set up a tourism promotion fund. And lastly, S.D., of the proposed motion request executive to develop and transmit legislation to support identified plan allocation as specified in the proposed motion related to the employment. Back to table one on the third column shows past Council actions related to this particular proposed motion related to the Affordable Workforce Housing allocation. In 2016, Council adopted a motion acknowledging the receipt of a transit oriented development bond allocation plan, which plans to issue $87 million of bonds revenue backed by lodging taxes for transit oriented development projects . The plan also specifies that remaining lodging tax proceeds not allocated for debt service payments would be available for annual funding awards for other TOD projects or transit oriented development projects. The 2017. Transit Oriented Development Annual report states that approximately 16.2 million have already been awarded or set aside as specified as specified by the allocation plan. And Andrew, if I can jump in on that, on the 16.2 million of the $84 million, does that include the $10 million allocated to the Northgate Project? The the the 16.2 million that's already been set aside is actually part of the all county allocation, the 30.2 So the 10 million for the Northgate Project has not been allocated. That would be on top of that. That's correct. All right. And members could jump in with questions as they're going along. Councilmember Gosset. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Were you reading from the ordinance or the state law and rise to this measure? So initially, Councilmember Garcia, I recited the provisions of the state law and then I so if you look at table one on page 25, the column one provides the provisions of the state law. And then I recited the allocations, specify the proposed motion on column two. And then now what I'm doing is I'm reciting some references to past council actions that you've taken in lieu of the the lodging tax revenues. And okay, then can you could you reiterate what just very briefly what the state said about how much money should or shall, I don't know what language they use, go to culture and how much would go to housing like for homeless? Oh, sure. So the state law states that at least 37.5% of the lodging tax revenues beginning they'll be collected starting January 1st, 2021 would go for arts and then at least 37 and a half percent would go to work for the federal housing. Okay. So my interpretation is that the other 25% could go to these two items if the legislative authority and the county king wanted it to. Yeah, that's correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Continuing on, Mr. Chair. And then lastly, related to the towards the MAP allocation, in 2015, the Council adopted a motion which established the Building for Culture Program to fund capital projects that supported arts, culture and heritage using the future lodging tax revenues. Various ordinances effectuated the motion to implement the program and issued $29 million of bonds for 102 capital projects. As council members are aware, the full council will take up proposed Ordinance 2018 0257 to reallocate $1.7 million and modify the adopted list of projects this afternoon. I would also like to note that the the allocation is specified in the proposed motion complies with the guidelines of the state law. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Mom. Thank you, Andrea. Now, I'd like to take the committee to page 22 of the staff report. And this is where I've done a draw down on the provisions of the PFG. This is the this is the end of the proposed motion. 60% of the of the tourism allocation would go to the public facility district starting in 2021. So in 1995, the state legislature authorized the county to impose three new council magic taxes to finance construction of what's now known as Safeco Field. It was a half a percent restaurant tax, 2% car rental tax, and a 0.017% sales and use tax, which was a credit against the state sales tax. So again, this is a situation where the taxpayer wouldn't see an increase, but normally state dollars are coming back to help build the facility. In October of 1995, the county enacted Ordinance 12,000 to oppose these taxes and then also to create the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facility District, which we had been calling the BFD . And and that it was the BFD was was formed to build and maintain and operate. They've got the party is governed by a seven member board, four of whom are appointed by the county and three of whom are appointed by the state. The county can then land associated with the ballpark's construction to the BFD issued 336 million in bonds to be repaid with the revenue stream stated above and the bonds repaid back in October of 2011. And those taxes expired with the bonds. The. Legislature also authorized the FDA to impose a 10% parking tax and a 5% admissions tax on ticketed events at Safeco. These taxes are still in effect and go to maintaining and operating the facility in as a part of the financing package, the Seattle Mariners pledged to contribute up to $45 million for the ballpark's design and construction , as well as they pledged to cover cost overruns associated with the ballpark's construction. The final costs for the ballpark amounted to 517 million, with the county and state contributing 372 million, and the Mariners contributed $145 million. The the Mariners entered into a 20 year lease, which expires at the end of this year. In 2015, the Mariners and the PFG began discussing new lease terms and hired BND venues and populous architects. This is a consulting firm to investigate future capital costs over a 20 year period. The consultant team issued its preliminary report in 2015 and updated it in May of this year and identified 385 and a half million dollars worth of necessary improvements to keep the ballpark in first class condition through 2021. The report also identified proposed upgrade improvements and these would enhance the ballpark's economic vitality through that same time period. The report did not include cost estimates with these upgrade improvements. In May of this year, the PFA adopted Resolution 18 004, which identified the $385 million in necessary improvements identified in the consultant's report, and also cited the Mariners estimate for upgrade improvements to cost an additional $160 million. No specific upgrade improvements were identified in this resolution. However, the Mariners have provided a list of potential upgrade improvements to council staff totaling $180 million, and have stated that this list represents a minimum of what they believe would be necessary. Upgrade improvements. The merits of also stated a council staff that expansion of the current parking facility may also be necessary in addition to the upgraded improvements . However, executive staff has confirmed to council staff that the proposed funds to the city would only be used to support major maintenance needs at the ballpark and would not be used for upgrade improvements. An attachment A of the staff report shows the list of proposed upgrade improvements. On May 23rd, 2018, the Mariners agreed to new lease terms in a term sheet for use of the ballpark from January 1st, 2019 through December 31st, 2043. However, no final lease has been executed. Attachment seven of the report includes a copy of these terms of this term sheet. So just to make thing boiled down, boil some things down for the council members. We included a chart on page 26 and the report to show a roll up of the funds proposed under the fund allocations proposed under the motion. And as you'll see that under this proposal a over the time period under lease and the motion, 476 million would be allocated to arts, culture and heritage at 476 million would be allocated for affordable workforce housing near transit. And we show and this is the council has already allocated some of these funds and then the remainder that's 25% would total 318 million, with 22 million going for a past debt service on the Building for Culture program between 177 180 million going to the PFA, 1.3 million going to show Showa center in Kent and then the remaining being is unallocated. And then just to sum up, I wanted to briefly just feature four for future actions by the Council on Friday, the executive transmitted to the Council staff into the Council and a proposed agreement between the city and the county to transmit the funds as proposed in the motion we received on Friday. So me all review is still ongoing on that. But the Mariners have indicated to council staff that that they won't be able to start lease negotiations with the BFD until that INTERLOCAL agreement is adopted by the county and the Council also will need to take if they approve. The motion also need to take take legislative action to to approve the funds for the show work center and then the executive which would need to transmit the two reports, the strategic reports regarding arts and heritage funding and tourism promotion to the Council. I believe the next I think the council chair at the of the committee chair at the beginning of the meeting stated that the committee will take this issue up again in on August 29th. And with that, that is our our staff report and we are happy to answer any questions. Okay. Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair, of a couple of questions. And thank you, Jeff, for the presentation. You noted that the parking and ticket tax revenue will go to support stadium upkeep. Do you have a sense of how much money that those public tax dollars will generate for the stadium over the duration? If there were 25 year lease. Approximately $175 million. That's it. And you mentioned the different categories of funding proposed in the consultant's report that were identified. There were some maintenance upgrades. And you characterized I don't know if these were your words, but there is 160 million in optional I'm calling them optional upgrades or the nice to haves separate from the necessary required maintenance and upkeep. And would there be anything preventing the 160 million that are being proposed in a financial plan for the optional upgrades from instead being spent on the necessary upkeep and maintenance? No. And last one more, if I might, Mr. Chair. That's. I don't. Know. Only have three. We have three. I'm sure that we have another hearing coming. That's the. You talked about the well, Andrew talked about what the state law says about spending or what have you talked about what the state law says about how we have to spend this hotel, motel money that at least 37.5% on arts and culture, at least 37.5% on housing and the remainder on tourism. I guess what is the bare minimum required by state law that we have to spend on housing? And how does that compare to this proposal? So as per state law, there isn't a bare minimum I'm sorry, as per state law, at least 37 and a half percent would be spent on affordable housing. So I guess that would be the bare minimum for affordable housing, at least 37 and a half percent for arts and culture. And based on the past council actions of for the building for a culture program, I would say that based on that motion and legal analysis still ongoing on this, but the funds dedicate it for the debt service payments are the Building for Culture program should be dedicated for the tourism portion of the lighting tax revenues. So to clarify, this proposal does spend the bare minimum required by state law on affordable housing. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember up and remove other questions or comments. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Andrew and Jeff. I just want to clarify that what we're talking about is if this proposal were to go through or some version of it, that some amount of funds would go to the public facilities district for use at a publicly owned stadium, not to the Mariners organization, which is the key tenant of the building. Yes, that's correct. Okay. So the public facilities district makes the determination in entering into contract with the Seattle Mariners and how it would be the funds would be expended. Is that accurate? Actually, I believe that. And I've only I've only been able to read the Interlocal agreement between the county and the PFA. And so in that agreement it specifies that the funds have to go to and upkeep. Big. Yeah, big maintenance. Yes. Yeah. Not for brewpubs or anything. Great. It says it can't it cannot go to those types of things. That's right. Thank you. And secondly, do you have any information about the revenue that comes in to the county that can be used for affordable housing and other projects because of the Safeco Field? I know there are other tenants besides the Mariners. Are there other other programs going on there? Concerts and all sorts of events at Safeco Field? You're looking at me quizzically, Jeff. So we have revenue coming to the county because. We know. The hotel motel. Oh, okay. Are you asking about hotel stays? That would happen because of events at Safeco Field that are not the Mariners. Yeah. Any money that is spent for people attending events. I can try to find that type of information for you. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Clarifying. Sure. Guzman broke the rules. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That last question confused me a little, I guess. Are the Mariners the sole tenant, and if somewhat other activities are taking place there? Don't the Mariners keep the revenue and the ticket and stadium taxes generated also go back in there? I mean, I guess it is the are the Mariners the sole tenant or are there multiple tenants? Yeah, the Mariners are the total tenant and then they and yeah. And then they I guess, I don't know, but the proper term means. But they sublease that tether to concerts and events and things. The ticket tax revenue for any of those events goes to the the D imposes that tax and so it goes to the top of the ticket tax revenue. Thank you. A few other questions or comments of staff. I have a couple of follow ups in your staff report. You indicate that the updated report you're talking about the body and populous architecture report, that the update report indicated 385 and a half million dollars worth of necessary improvements would be necessary to keep the ballpark in first class condition through 2041, where the county is not being asked to fund all of those, quote, necessary improvements with the hotel motel tax. Are we. No. The county is being asked for approximately 870, $790 million. So a significant portion, but not not the entire. And do you have any understanding of where that number came from? Why is it that. Number, that 385. 177, 290 million? It's my understanding that it's the me, the delta between what under the new lease, there are there's specified contributions from a team to a maintenance fund and then, you know, had to get back to you. But the short answer is it's sort of what the what the what the team believes it needs to make the upgrade improvements . It's the. It's what's left over in the budget. What the team's going to contribute to the the facility with the can contribute through its taxes and then to make all of the necessary improvements and then $160 million worth of upgrade improvements to keep the ballpark relevant through the terms of the lease. Well, the upgrade improvements here, the rationale is and there's $160 million of those to enhance the ballpark's economic vitality. Does that mean make more money? I can read from you that. I mean, I'm trying to understand we're talking about. I think it's to make. You know, to get 500 and some million dollars over the 25 years here. What is the purpose? We've got some purpose for basic maintenance and some purpose is for upgrade enhancements to enhance the ballpark's economic vitality. If I understand the base of the proposal, the Mariners will pay for the upgrade improvements. Based on your answers here earlier, those dollars could also be used otherwise to pay for the basic maintenance and necessary improvements if they weren't going for the upgrade improvements. So the consultant report on page 94 of the consultants report when they talk about the upgrade improvements and this is the consultant's words and for reasons maintaining or approving upon the patron experience, expanding or maintaining revenue streams, attracting new demographic groups to the facility, and maintaining Safeco as competitive position within the market. Okay. And is there any quantification of the additional revenues that those investments might generate. And have been provided. With respect to the timing of these dollars currently? What is the use of these proceeds? Where are they going to today? Right now, they're paying up bonds for CenturyLink. And are those bonds paid off? When are they expected to be paid off? 2021. When under the proposal, would these dollars be transmitted to the BFD if the Council were to approve this legislation? The revenue stream would become available for the tourism in 2021. So that's that's the soonest that the county could transmit to the update. I'm not remembering that the terms in the alagoas is precisely, I think, annual transfer, but I don't know the precise date. But it can't happen until 2021. All right. And so is there can you help me understand, is that just the expiration of the current lease that brings this issue before us today? It sounds like we're being asked to spend money today that we don't quite have yet coming in yet. Yeah. It's probably best answer by executive staff, by the proposals before us today. Okay. I think we do get I want to if she's here, I think Rachel Schmidt, the executive's chief of staff, was going to be present and members should have a chance to ask her questions. If she is. I don't. She's. Oh, she's here. Okay. There she is. Thank you for being here, Rachel. We might have a couple of questions for you. Are there a couple other questions, Jeff, if you might, or Andrew? Does every jurisdiction in King County collect this hotel motel tax and transmit it for disposition by the county council or other jurisdictions that keep it and spend it on other purposes? So the tax is imposed by the county and county wide. However, in the city of Bellevue, the city of Bellevue retains the tax that is collected in Bellevue and hotel motel stays. All right, Mr. Chair. Councilman Bell. The 2%. Not all of it. That's correct. The 2%. The county imposed tax. Thank you. And we're just talking about the 2% here. Or are we talking about something else? We are only talking about the county imposed 2%. I see. So I'm just trying to understand the mechanics of this. So hotel stays in the city of Bellevue would not contribute to this fund. That's correct. And what do they is that for maiden power? Is that what they use? As my understanding? Okay. All right, counsel. Sorry, Counselor McDermott. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Gentlemen, I'm interested in delineating the affordable workforce housing portion of the funds, the 37.5% or greater that would be dedicated to housing. Can you walk me through what has already been announced or invested from those funds and what remains and whether and I believe there's been an announcement from the executive about part of those. I can take that one. So on page, on top of page 22 provides a list of the allocations as the Council adopted in terms of the transit oriented development program. So that's the work we did a couple of years ago. That's correct. Okay. And and so that would allocate that would total approximately $87.87 million, which would be funded to fund those projects. And the revenues would pay the debt service for those bonds. The allocation plan also states that any portion, any remaining portion of the Affordable Workforce housing allocation would be used for annual funding awards for other types of transit oriented development, housing projects. So we've already bonded. We've already announced and bonded 87 million, the details of which are at the top of page 22. And then there's another 360 million available for annual awards or potentially to bond for a larger investment upfront. That's great. We haven't bonded yet, but but we're anticipating to start with the bonding process in 2021. And the remaining, as you said, would go to the annual funding awards. But you mentioned 60 million that you mentioned. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Could I. Do you mind if I follow up on that? The 360 million has over what time period? So that's if you go to table two, that that would be the time period from 2021 to 2023. So there isn't a there hasn't been a time specified in the total allocation plan. But if we're using the time frame, as we've provided through this analysis, it would it would total approximately 316. Okay. And I think I understood. Would you confirm for me with respect to the executive's announcement of another $100 million in bonding from the 37% for housing fund? Does that consume that entire revenue stream for this period of time, or would there be additional housing designated resources available. If it doesn't consume all of it? It consumes a bunch of it. I've done some initial work on it, but I don't know. I haven't compared notes with the executive on things like assumptions of interest rates and things like that, but it's a good chunk of it. We've spent we don't like we've announced all the allocations, in essence, it sounds like, on that. And there could be some right here. I think finding an additional $100 million would take up a significant chunk of that stream. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Coe Wells. Used to chair for either of you on page 25. Table number one and the first column number two. So the the allocation that could go in terms of a guideline of at least 37.5% for affordable housing, has some constraints to it. That's correct. Which are delineated in A, B and C. Hmm. Is there any provision under the statute that would allow some other type of funding or some other type of allocation? Or does it absolutely have to be one of those three categories? There's no other delineation, Councilmember. Those are the provisions as per state law as you read it. And could you just re go over number C here again? Because it's kind of convoluted. I'm trying to figure out what all could be possible within that category. Sure. So provision C was a provision that was amended by the Washington state legislature in the second round of amendments to that particular provision. So initially, the at least 37% was to be used for affordable housing. But Provision C allows that portion to be bonded using either general obligation bonds, which we wish the council members have already dedicated to do so through the bond allocation plan. And it also allows it to it also allows some of the revenues to repay any bonds related to projects authorized by the Community Preserve Preservation and Development Authority, which is another entity. If they were to propose a project that that those funds could be used to repay any bonds that they would have authorized. And there is a provision about housing, affordable housing or sustainable workplace opportunities near a community impacted by the construction or operation of tourism related facilities. So for that particular provision where it says community impacted by the construction or operation of tourism related facilities, that that particular provision is related to any project that would be authorized by the Community Preservation and Development Authority. So it's a bit independent of the Affordable Workforce housing provision that we generally know for that particular application. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Performance Councilmember Up the Grove. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This one is probably for Jeff. It's a two part question. Under the terms of the current lease, the one the Mariners are currently operating under, who's responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the field? The Mariners are responsible for day to day maintenance and upkeep and and also a lot of major maintenance. If there's some unanticipated expense that is associated with the design of the ballpark or something to that, then that the parties are responsible. The Mariners, I think in practice and I can get back to you. More details on this minor stand ins then in practice the Mariners have gone in there and fix would have ever had to get fixed right away and then are reimbursed by the by the PFA for those and the PFA uses its its funds, its ticket tax revenue and rent to reimburse for those types of expansions. And what do you what have you been able to discern from public sources about the any profit or revenue made by the team during the time the terms of the first lease? And also, what do we know about the growth and the value of that business? And I guess what I'm getting at is, is it possible for a business to be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep and still generate wealth? So I guess it's a two. It's a two. Do we do we know what what do we know about it? From the research we've done about the so the finances. And I think the region grantees are getting excited back there. Hold tight, let us do our work and we get to Austin. And I know we don't have access to the private financial records, but I know there's been some reporting about the growth in the value of the team and in the revenue generated by the business. Under the terms of the current lease, there's a profit sharing provision in it that if the Mariners have a profit in the year, they are to contribute 10% of the profit to the to the BFD. However, the lease also recognizes that the Mariners incurred a $200 million operating loss between 1995 and 1999, and so that every year when they do their profit sharing or when they report to the FDA their profits, they if they have a profit, they credit against the loss that they incurred. So over the over the last 20 years, according to the last profit sharing report in 2017, the Mariners have winnowed that $200 million loss down to a bit over $5 million. And the second part of your question on valuation, the team, I have no way to provide that information. There are a bunch of different news outlets from time to time provide that information. In 2016, a portion of the team, the team bought out one of the majority owners and I believe they bought about 40% stake at $600 million. So you can maybe come up with some sort of valuation. Somebody thought that that was worth $600 million. Thank you. Councilmember Von Bauer, then Councilmember Lambert, who's on the phone? Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just picking up on some of the concerns or questions from the previous speaker customer, Goss and I have had the privilege of being through this process before. And we understand that there's a lot to be said, not only for the major issues that many of the people in the audience are here to discuss. But also we recognize we have we're partners in this, and it's important to know about our partners in terms of who are getting into an agreement with. I think it's also important, Mr. Chair, to recognize that Major League. Attendance is the lowest in 15 years. Across the board. Attendance is down in Major League Baseball, and we're very fortunate that we have a winning team here that's been very successful. But we have to recognize that they're also facing some of the changes in today's economy. So looking at these figures, I don't want to be confused about the reality. And we're not operating in a vacuum here because the agreement we have here with the Mariners is not something separate from what's going on in Major League Baseball in. Particular, in sports in general. There's a lot of changes taking place. Flat screen TV is very attractive to a lot of people who are no longer attending. Games at all levels. And so it's very important to recognize that some of the dollars that we are talking about may not project forward. As much as they have been something out of the past. I also recognize that this is an opportunity for us to get some issues. Reviewed, and especially during this. Month that you've asked us to come up with. And I think it's important to see what's happening and other teams around the league. And Jeff and I hope that you have a chance to see what's happening with other negotiated contracts, how this contract stands in. More recent contracts around the league. Again, we've been through this process before. We almost watched this team. I don't want us to get into a nose to nose battle where we find ourselves faced with a potential loss of a major factor in this community, one of the best sporting events where families can still attend. And I'm hoping that we recognize that this is still a financial challenge for everybody across the board and that this is not a golden goose that's going to lay all the. Golden eggs for all our. Problems. We have to deal with a lot of problems as members of the King County. Council not too long ago without. And I guess about. Five years ago we had the anniversary of the time we said we'd end homelessness in ten years. And money does not answer all our problems. But hopefully today that will begin a serious discussion and our due diligence on the campgrounds process of this contract and recognize that we're working as partners in this with the mariners and not adversaries. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lambert. And then we'll move on to public comment pretty quickly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Interesting that parking fees are back again. That was the last item in the negotiations that did originally and in Olympia. So I think said he was here on the council. I was in Olympia when they were working on this before. So I would like to know more. And I remember earlier they were talking about the package. I'd like to hear more about that plan to vacate that amount. I'd also like to know what you believe is the condition of the building. We think that it's been well maintained as there have been some deferred maintenance. And my last question is, if we were to pay the bonds up early, how much could we save? And over again what the bond interest rate is that we are still paying. Thank you. Thank you. So some follow up information on the parking revenue and condition of the stadium. Maybe you could touch briefly on that, quote, applicable standard, end quote, in this column for here. And then the interest rate and potential for early pay off is what I heard. So that under the terms of the current lease, there's something called the applicable standard and we'll have more on the leases in the next briefing. But basically the team needs to keep Safeco up to a first class as a first class stadium compared to stadiums that were built between 1990 and 1999. And it's my understanding and I think the PFA and want to speak for them, but in conversations I had with them, they were very satisfied with the condition that the that the stadium has been it is in right now as far as paying off the bonds early, even if if the bonds were to be paid off early , the state law, I believe those funds wind up going to it like a youth sports facility, like a statewide youth sports facility program. So they're already spoken for. So paying them off and it's just we can't control the stream. We'd have to we'll have to get more get back to you on that one. But the funds are spoken for under statute from now through the foreseeable future. Thank you, Councilmember Kowalski. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Another question. With regard to the upgrades and maintenance needs that's identified by the Mariners or by the PFG, are those included in the lease requirements? Are they something that the Mariners, for example, are required to do to maintain the lease? I don't know if I'm asking. Yeah. They are required. They would be required to. The facility needs to be maintained and I'll have to get that direct the exact. I can't remember how specific the consultant's report is identified in the in the there's no new lease yet. But in the resolution adopting the term sheet for the new lease, it calls out the $385 million and presumes that those will be done. That has to be done. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? We do have a representative, vice president, general counsel for the mayors. Fred Rivera is here and is available, has made himself available. If members have questions, he's going to speak during the sign up time. But does any member have a question for the Mariners organization at this time? Exactly. Sure. And we have Rachel Smith here as well. I don't want to put them on the spot if there's no questions. So does any member have a question or would Rachel, do you have anything you'd like to offer on behalf of the executive ? No. Councilmember one right there. But I make sure I understood what you said. I want to make sure that we have an opportunity here from the public here. Yes. I also want to make sure that if anything were raised in the preliminary discussion by our staff, the Mariner Organization, to respond or clarify or add. To the fair, they have that opportunity. Okay. And I'm see a nod from Mr. Rivera. Now, come on up here, Fred. And the BFD, our public facilities district was invited. I don't believe they're here, but if there is a representative from the public facilities district, would you make yourself known? No. Okay. Thank you, Fred. Welcome. Go and introduce yourself. Thank you. Fred Rivera, executive vice president and general counsel. All right. You heard the dialog there. Is there anything you want to add to or clarify? Yeah, I want to I want to summarize the overall expenses over the next 25 years that we've determined and also addressed the upgrade capital improvements that will be required. First, the overall anticipated expenses over 25 years is $800 million. That includes $250 million for operation and maintenance, which the Mariners will pay 100% of. There's the capital upgrades that were referenced before, and this is necessary. These are not discretionary. This is not discretionary work that needs to be done under the applicable standard and the term sheet. For the next 25 years, the ballpark will be judged against the top one third of ballparks and Major League Baseball in order to keep it relevant. Those upgrades or those concepts at a minimum will need to be required. And so that estimated $180 million is the minimum for the upgrades to meet the applicable standard under the new lease. The last component is the necessary capital improvements. That's the $385 million for which the allocation would, would would go towards. And that's the only bucket of maintenance that this allocation would address. Thank you. Councilman up there. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for being here this morning. That's the question. That's part rhetorical, but it's an honest one. If you're to believe Forbes magazine and I don't that hasn't been independently analyzed that the their valuation of the team shows the value has increased by $1,000,000,000 over the last seven years. Given that, why couldn't the owners finance these upgrades rather than drain public resources that could be used for housing? Or I'll repeat what I just said, and that is the Mariners are paying for the upgrades. We're paying 100% of the upgrades we've negotiated for over a year with the public facility district that owns the stadium. We are the tenants. These are the terms that we negotiated. I think both parties think it's fair for members of that body are confirmed by by by the county. And these are the terms that overall we think represent a fair allocation of responsibility for a publicly owned asset. Other questions for Mr. Rivera. I'll say if they happen to listen or watch this. You mentioned that four members of the party are appointed and confirmed by this county. I'd like to hear from them. There they are. They are looking out and running the public entity for the public. And to be honest, Mr. Rivera, I don't I'd like to see a little bit more of them to make the case. And I haven't. Just to for two more questions, then we'll open up to public comment. Mr.. Jeff. Mr. Mom, you indicated it was a range hundred 65, $190 million with respect to hotel motel tax. Under this agreement, is there any cap or any limit or is it a percentage of the receipts? Yeah, under the end of the ordinance or I'm sorry, end of the motion. It's a percentage. It's 60% of the that the tourism of the funds that would be available for tourism for 60% of the 25% of the 99 estimate. So it could be higher if we keep growing and have more rooms and stays. There's no cap. There's no cap. And can you help me understand why? No. All right. Mr.. That's an open question that maybe something can help in like next month. Mr.. Garrett You've indicated that the Mariners do generate tourism visitors here to the region and hotel motel nights stays. Can you tell us a little bit about the studies that have been done in terms of the dollars of this hotel motel tax that the Mariners believe that they generate? A third party report. That was commissioned by both the PFO and the Mariners identified $3.8 billion in economic activity during the 25 year lease term. I believe it's 2.8 billion of that is right here in the county, including 3300 full time equivalent. Jobs per year. Inside and outside of the ballpark in the area, which you may be familiar with, Silver Cloud in Hoover, Bill Bar, those type of areas. And over the term of the lease, that'll generate $2.2 billion in wages, according to the third party report. And with respect to the hotel motel tax receipts, what is the study show that those are generated from Mariners days? I don't know. I'll have to get back to you. I don't know that it's specifically identified that portion. There's not a number of $50 million. I don't know, off the top of my head. Okay. Mr. Mom, have you seen anything on that? The consultant report. It says that the folks who come to Mariners games, 5% of them would need hotel stays. And I think that's 100,000 stays a year something that in that nature but I can get more information can. Be helpful because we're on our guard. Well, just a question relative to what I raised earlier, Mr. Rivera. You know, I've been reading the. Same Fortune magazine that my colleague has been reading, and it's pointed out that Major League attendance is down. Can you speak to that and some of the concerns? Because obviously that's a. Financial concern for the organization. It's a major concern across the league. The commissioner addressed that at the All-Star break just a couple of weeks ago. Attendance is significantly down and that's because people are watching games in a different way. They're not going to the game. They're watching it on devices when they come to the game. It's not necessarily a sit and watch experience. It's a social experience, a social gathering experience. There's one ballpark design in the works that will only have 24,000 seats in it, and the rest will be social space. And that will have a significant impact on revenue and the ability to operate a team and to operate the stadium. So it's a paramount concern in in Major League Baseball that we're keeping our eye on and will sure to impact us in the coming years. Again, as I pointed out earlier, Mr. Rivera, Guzman, Gossett and I were involved. With. Baseball brinkmanship when we were going to lose the. Team and we were had threats. And I personally was raising questions about the ability of the organization to meet the construction and the financial plan. And I was criticized very strongly by the then chairman of the Seattle Mariners. So I hope I have some credibility in raising the questions today to make sure, because I was ostracized and criticized and front page of the Seattle Times or raising questions along with my colleague, Councilmember Larry Phillips, Councilmember Cynthia Sullivan, and then Councilmember Ron Sims. And the four of us were. Lambasted because we dared raise questions. But we have to raise these questions because this process is so critical. The people behind you have a particular issue. We have to look at the broader issues. I think, again, that you have a venue that is family friendly. It is the last place where people can take their families and don't get hit by. Too many of our sports today are suits. Only people can afford to do it. They can write off the expenses. So I want to thank the Seattle. Mariners publicly. For providing that resource for so many families around the sound. We're going to go through a question period. I hope you can work with us, because I know there. Will be some hard questions for my colleagues, but in the end, I think the solution will be a a conversation that I think will bring about a resolution of some of the issues that we raised here today and we raised by some of the audience who I hope we can start hearing from. And I want to thank you and I thank the chair. I got to leave this anecdote because my my colleague, Larry, and I will understand, there's a previous county executive negotiated with the then president of the Seattle Mariners. His name is Tim. And Tim raised, you know, finished his his negotiations. And then he said, oh, by the way, then the council is going to to be involved. And the then president of the Mariners said, council, what's the council you're finding out about the council today? The council is is a process. And in our process of county government, we hope to be a deliberative process, one that's. Going to look at the long term. Not the short term. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you. And for one clarifying follow up, Councilmember Up the Grove, then we'll get the public come out, Councilman, for a. Well, no, thank you. I the I've heard this this fear that as people attend games less and watch TV more, it can have an impact. But didn't you don't you own the TV station that airs? The airs, the Mariners. We have an interest in those articles. I'm sure. You. Read mention how that's that's a dying business again folks folks are not watching and those in those ways and so the deliverable people are watching through what's called over-the-top methods of television. Exactly. And so that that is a that is a dying that is a dying business. And I would be happy to share with you a number of articles that mention that. Thank you. And Councilmember Cole to bring us home. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Speaking of homes, so let's see the signs around here, homes over home runs. I don't think anybody would deny that that is critical, that people have homes. And it's you know, we're in an enormous situation here in Seattle, King County, the state all over the country with regard to this. And rather than arguing over why that's the cause, we have to have more homes built and have homes affordable, which is what Claudia Bowdich, his task force that's working on. But for me, it doesn't have to be an either or a mutually exclusive situation. If we can have a sports team here, a safe field that is well maintained so we don't have roof tiles falling off as we did with the kingdom, but also have the revenue that's needed for building homes that are affordable. And I think we can find the right balance. And so at some point, I would really like to see some more numbers about what the revenue limit and what the revenue level is that we gain by having the Mariners play at this publicly owned facility that go. Into. Housing, human services and so forth, because I know that that is taking place. It's just where is the right balance? Maybe we have a lesser amount than is in this proposed ordinance, but we have to find that balance. So I don't know if you have any comment on that. I agree with you 100% on on the on those topics. I think we did try with the four years we negotiated the term sheet to come to the correct balance of of cost sharing of of those items. And I'm happy to try to provide, along with with staff, additional information beyond those I referenced in terms of economic generation so we can get that information to you. Thank you. And I should have said proposed motion not or in the thinking that. No, thank you very much. Thank you for being here, Fred. And thank you to our central staff for your work on this. You've now heard some of the questions, concerns from members and got some time before this next comes before the committee to work on that. I think I said in my opening remarks about opportunities for public comment that the general public comment is heard the third Monday of every county council meeting. And I made a mistake. It's the fourth Monday, so August 27th at 1:30 p.m.. The full King County Council takes public comment on any topic, and you're welcome there. This again will be in committee on Wednesday, the 29th at 9:30 a.m. Here is an opportunity to provide public comment, and then it'll either be in committee for one more hearing for comment or up to the full council. And whenever it's heard it full council, there's public comment opportunities. So I want to clarify those prior remarks. We will now open the public comment item on this agenda. I do have a number of folks lined up. We are going to set the clock on either podium at a minute, 30, you'll have a 32nd warning with the yellow light and we ask that you try and wrap up when you hit the red light. If you can do your comments in a minute, you're welcome to it'll give others a chance to comment. But we appreciate you all being here and I apologize for any mistakes in your names, as I call them. Sometimes the handwriting is a little tough to read, but I'll do my best. We'll start with and you can go to either podium and I'll call a few names ahead so you can get ready. Sarah Wamsley, then Michelle Thomas and Lisa Schwartz, and then Carla murray. And after Carla murray will be Eric Pettigrew. Go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, Counsel. Thank you for having us all here today and for the great discussion earlier. My name is Earl Wamsley and the policy manager excuse me for the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle King County. You know as well, we are a nonprofit membership organization for the affordable housing community here in King County with 165 members dedicated to the vision of safe, healthy and affordable homes for all. We've long considered counsel as a partner in achieving this vision. And in that spirit, I'm here to ask you to go and be bold and go beyond the lodging tax allocation before you, which allocates only the state mandated bare minimum for affordable housing. As you well know, King County is in the midst of an affordable housing shortage. Regional Affordable Housing Task Force, which many of you participate in. Thank you. Found that we need 157,000 more affordable homes right now and 244,000 by 2040. Everyone in this room knows that we won't get there by doing the bare minimum. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in response to our email outreach about this issue, we received an email from a King County employee who is currently living in a hotel asking how she can access the housing that would be generated from these funds. We haven't done enough until everyone in our in all of your districts has a safe, healthy, affordable home for all. So I ask that you please spend this money responsibly on needs and not needs to have. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm going to ask folks, I know that there's support for a number of positions that will slow us down. I want to give everyone a chance to be heard. Mr. Zimmerman, your first warning, you need to be seated or you can excuse yourself. No, it's my second warning. You won't get a third. Go ahead, ma'am. Hi, I'm Michelle Thomas with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. Here to ask you to oppose the executive's proposal and to instead allocate the maximum allowed by the state law to affordable housing from the lodging tax. There's a housing affordability crisis in King County. It is the issue of our time. You have the opportunity to allocate much needed capital dollars to affordable housing for people earning between 30 and 80% of the area median income. This includes people at risk of homelessness, as well as the many people in our region who work for retailers and office workers. We need to build more workforce housing. The private market isn't building it and isn't going to build it. In order to afford King County's rent for a one bedroom, a worker must earn at least $29.40 an hour for a two bedroom. It's $36.12 an hour. That's our minimum wage is only 1150, except for in Seattle, where some workers are now getting the $15 minimum wage. Given how far rents are out of reach in this region. Why would the county only do the minimum required for affordable housing? Your constituents are in desperately need of options. Roughly 43% of King County households are renters. Many are paying much more than 30% of their incomes to keep a roof over their heads. This makes them extremely vulnerable to homelessness if they lose one paycheck or if their hours are reduced by one by any amount in a one week period. Please stand up for King County's workforce and allocate the maximum allowed for affordable homes. This is your opportunity. Thank you, Michel. Think I've got Carla next. And then Eric Pettigrew and Lisa Schwartz. Meghan McGuire. Good morning. I I'm. Very lucky. Like I have to be a natural born Mr. Zimmerman. I know we'll be in recess. Been. Anyway. Thank you very much. Go ahead. Do I get a reset on the clock? You get a. Reset on the clock. I mean, we want to hear from you, Ms.. Murray. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Carla murray, and I'm the head of operations for Marriott International. I'm here to talk about visit Seattle. They drive both transient leisure travel business and group business to the city in the county. It runs national destination advertising, marketing and publicity campaigns that attract visitors to the county. And it books, meetings and conventions into the convention center and regional hotels throughout the year and for all future years. As a nonprofit economic development agency visit, Seattle must constantly work to ensure funding for its sales and marketing programs. National competition is fierce, and most of our key competitors outspend us. I want to make sure that you, the council, understands how fragile our industry is. We've enjoyed an upward economic cycle, but every hotelier in the county watches the economic forecast, and we worry about how quickly things can change, especially with all the new supply that's been built in the city, in the county. I also want to mention that when this tax was extended to other counties, it was specifically designated for tourism revenue. King is the only county with a special stadium district designation. When the 2008 state legislation was enacted, we were pleased that our county would finally be receiving some revenue over the year, in part because these funds have not been accessible to the industry. King County has been charging higher and higher taxes. So, Councilmember, it's vital we preserve this lodging tax revenue for our destination marketing organization. And let's make sure we have a win win for the industry and the Mariners. Thank you. Thank you. Eric Pettigrew and then Megan McGuire, Bob Simon, Eve Kopp. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And members of the Committee for the Record, my name is Eric Pettigrew and one of the state representatives for the 37th Legislative District. This microphones up below. Everything's relative, Mr. President. I am here actually in support of the proposal that is before you. And I know that I've also sent you all a letter before, so I'm not going to rehash that and the details in that. I just came to give you a couple of points of why I'm supporting this. One, Safeco Fields in my district. I'm very proud of that. Safeco and the Mariners have been an excellent, excellent partner in our district. They've been a contributor to not only the business, but to the community. Been actively involved in the cleanups and transportation and and a lot of community giving, which I'm very, very pleased about. But then, you know, just the other day, I had a chance to talk to a couple of folks who actually lived their dream, which was to visit every ballpark in the country. And when they came back, they came back and told me, once you put Wrigley aside, once you put Fenway aside and Dodger Stadium aside, that's my bias. Safeco was always in the top three, and that tells me that that's an attraction. It's a way to generate business and revenue to our state. This balance, this proposal is balanced and it's in the way, in the typical way that we prioritize in the state and at the city and at the county level, which is the majority of the money going towards the things that people need on the ground, as well as the organizations that support us and that generate revenue surge or support. Thank you very much, Representative Pettigrew. Okay, Megan McGuire, Bob Simon, Eve Cobb and Hilary Coleman. Good afternoon. Want to go first? My name is Megan McGuire. I'm vice president of sales and services at the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. The point I would like to make today during my testimony is that is essential to have a strategic and sound marketing plan to brand a destination and increase the number of tourism dollars spent in the local economy. I'd like to speak today about the five cities that we represent SeaTac, Tukwila, Des Moines, Berrien and Normandy Park. When you think of this destination known as Seattle Southside, you may not be aware of the tourism draws of the region. The region is home to the largest indoor shopping center in the Pacific Northwest, the largest grouping of car rentals in the state. The second largest grouping of hotels in the state. More than 100 full-service restaurants, the ninth busiest airport in the nation. Exciting entertainment options for families, miles of accessible coastline and world class sporting venues which host championship teams like the Seattle Seawolves Major League Rugby. These are just some of the many wonders of Seattle Southside that draws tourism to the area and precisely why it is important to fund local, regional destination marketing organizations like Seattle, Southside, RTA to represent, promote and spread the word toward the goal of economic development. We propose the Seattle Southside generates 5.3 million of state shared lodging tax. We propose 15% carve out a future tourism promotion allocation. Thank you. Thank you. And we have received your correspondence, Bob Simone, Hilary Coleman, Helen or Helene Benedict. As a King County resident for 38 years and marriage season ticket holder for 35 years, both at the Kingdom and Safeco Field. I'd just like to say that I also serve as Commissioner of Seattle Mariners RBI Club, and we are a Goodwill Ambassador, a group for the Mariners for Pacific for Baseball and the Pacific Northwest. We work with mariners players and broadcasters in their charitable endeavors. King County Executive Constitutes Proposal. Maintaining a public private partnership has allowed Safeco Field to field new after 19 years of use. The proposed partnership shows a very responsible stewardship and homeowners as homeowners. Many of us are aware that deferred maintenance can be a very costly approach. The kingdom roof collapse generated more in expenses than the construction of the building originally, and it also resulted in an unfortunate loss of life. So I think that the Constantine's approach is one to give great consideration to. I've been to Oakland, Alameda County Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium and Fenway Park. When they were allowed to deteriorate, it was a very unpleasant experience. Our organization has worked with many Mariners staffers, players and other employees, and their charitable efforts have helped many children with physical challenges, provided warm clothing for people that need them, and raised millions of dollars for homeless youth people. Professional baseball is a valuable resource benefiting the entire Pacific Northwest. And it's not always it's not always obvious, but it it it really is. And it would help if we could make Martin Luther King County able to sustain this ball park into the future. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. Epcot Pillar. Gary Coleman. Helene Benedict. Angela Ricci on inner urban. Maybe getting that. Wrong. You help my neighbor. Come right forward. I'm sorry. Yeah. Tell us who you are. Okay. My name's Lisa Schwartz, and I've been a business owner working with the statewide tourism industry in Washington for over 30 years. I was a vendor at the Washington State Office of Tourism for them in 2011 when the state legislature closed the tourism office, making it the only state in the country that did not have tourism funding and the and the ability to promote itself to travelers. It's my firm belief that that decision to close the tourism office was detrimental to the industry and to the economy of Washington state. Even now, with the new statewide tourism effort underway, the dollars allocated are so small at an embarrassingly low $1.5 million that even then they can only be allocated with a 2 to 1 match from the private sector. While our competitive states of Oregon has over $3 million to spend and California spends $121 million on tourism marketing. So I think you can see that it's pretty clear that the job of marketing and promoting our region to out-of-state visitors will continue to fall increasingly to our regional destination marketing organizations like the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. And visit Seattle, that is. Why it's imperative that more of these lodging tax dollars be directed towards destination marketing, because travel and tourism don't just happen. And without the work of these demos, millions of annual visitors wouldn't even think to consider this area as a travel destination. Thank you. Thank you. Listen, I'm sorry I jumped ahead there. Good for you. All right. Go ahead. Hi there. Eve Copp, Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center and Research Foundation. And I am on the foundation team and I'm here to speak about how wonderful, fantastic the Seattle Mariners have been as a corporate partner to us. The Mariners have supported Children's since its inception. It started by visiting hospitalized patients and lifting their spirits. And since then, the Mariners have helped to publicly amplify their support of Seattle Children's in the form of pieces, player voluntary involvement at fundraising events and visibility at the ballpark. We have a wishing well and a playfield there. They've also funded Seattle Mariners have also funded major clinical research and proper hermetic areas of the hospital, such as cystic fibrosis, cancer research, muscular dystrophy and uncompensated care. And for those who don't know, Seattle Children's gives about $170 million in uncompensated care to families who cannot afford the full cost of their medical bills. The Mariners serve on Corporate Leadership Council, which is comprised of top fundraising companies and organizations to Seattle Children's, and they also encourage their corporate partners to support Seattle Children's in their marketing plans and and philanthropic dollars. The Mariners provide countless experiences for families who need a break or who are underwater because of their loss, their kids hospitalization, whenever we ask. And they also provide packages for auction for bolstering our fundraising experiences. So thank you. Go Mariners. Thank you, Eve. Hilary Coleman. Helene Benedict. Andrea Ricci on inner urban Bob Twingo. I members of the council. My name is Hilary Coleman, and I have the honor of working with the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness. Many of you received my email last Friday with a letter from our executive director, which I'll pass out as well. But we are here today to really ask you to be part of team housing and support using public funding for housing as the maximum ability. I know the question was raised today of what whether our minimum versus maximum could be to go to public housing. And we really think that while we're in the situation of needing lots of housing in our area, we should be maximizing the potential use of these public funding dollars from the lodging tax. As has been shared, we need at least 150,000 homes that are affordable in this county, and that number is increasing steadily. We cannot delay, divert or drop the ball and any resources that will help make our region housing secure now and into the future. On our executive director, Alison Eisinger, who is serving on the one table and served as part of the Regional Housing Affordability Task Force and is reminding us that all the meetings that people are attending . There has been broad agreement that we must identify and secure new and dramatically increased resources to create more housing that is affordable because no single resource will be sufficient. No opportunity can be lost, including this one. And finally, we want to make sure that also, if possible, were planning either this or other funding sources to help homeless families and individual access homes that will be used for this funding. So thank you for your support. Thank you. Hilary Hello. My name is Andrea Rae and I am the President and CEO of the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce. Our chamber is a nonprofit business organization that has served the communities of Berrien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac and Iguala since 1988. Our mission is to create an economically vibrant region by advocating and building for awareness for local business. Our chamber is committed to expanding the collaborative culture in our area because we know the benefits of working alongside one another. It is in that same spirit of service and collaboration that I speak to you today and ask that you please modify the motion to include funding for regional destination marketing organizations, tourism matters and our community as neighbors to the ninth busiest airport in the nation and the second largest grouping of hotels in the state. We work together to attract overnight travelers. Over 4 million guests stayed in our hotels last year. Tourism is economic development, and we need these jobs in Southwest King County, where housing affordability threatens to push. Many of our residents out of King County and our poverty levels are double that of the county average in places. Please also remember how dependent we are in Southwest King County for the jobs the hospitality and tourism industry bring and work with us to leverage the support to continue those jobs and bring economic equity to our community. Thank you. Thank you, Andrea. Bob. Yeah, my name is Bob Twinkle. I'm a district administrator for Little League Baseball for District nine. I am also on the board of directors of Little League Baseball. My district is the east side, each side of King County. Each year the Mariners have all four Little League days. At Safeco Field, we bring in about 25,000 kids that get prayed around a field and the players are out there everything. And we have an outstanding time. The Mariners, they they provide grants for our much needed teams. They have they have donated $30,000 for us to build fields. They're always available to us any time we need anything. The Mariners are there to step up and help us out. They have camps. They have clinics. They're always there to give us advice if we need anything. They even come out and help us with our fields. If we're having trouble in our field, Bob Kristofferson will come out and help us show us how we can make our fields better. They're always there. We're very proud to be part of the minor organization. I'm pleased to see that the Mariners have agreed to terms of a new 25 year lease and will keep the team here in the ballpark until 2043. I hope I'm here and require the team to shoulder 2070 5% of the maintenance and capital improvements and upgrades needed to maintain the ballpark. I hope the County Council will vote to approve the Executive Council team's proposal. It strikes the right balance and will ensure we maintain a public a top condition for the next 25 years. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bob. And after are you Helena? Great. And after Helena, we've got Wendy Morgan, Sharon Lee, Sara. Sharon, Jonathan. T go ahead. Pull that microphone right down. It's movable. There you go. Thank you. Good morning. My name's Helena Benedict. I live in West Seattle. I'm a tenant counselor with the Tenants Union of Washington. Every day I answer phone calls from people whose rent has gone up, what they can afford, and they're terrified. They have nowhere to live in this county. I'm also honored and privileged to organize alongside the First Homeowners Association, a group of low income immigrant families who have been fighting so hard for two years to preserve their own community from displacement due to due to a hotel development. They're trying to save their 70 deeply affordable units, and no public agency has stepped up much to help them out. Our county has no plan for keeping folks in place when a building flips or when a mobile home park closes. What we have is simply not working. We also know that the low income housing tax credit, which is a de facto affordable housing program, helping lots of working families. Their rent ceilings have gone up in King and Snohomish counties beyond what a lot of folks can play can pay. We have heard that HUD likely plans to cut vouchers and other safety nets. We need new funding now. I think anyone who's ever balanced the budget, who's tried to pay your rent and feed your kids, knows that sometimes it is either or. Budgets are moral documents that indicate where your values and priorities buy. We're asking folks to please give the maximum for affordable housing and keep King County families in their homes. No amount of trickle down from stadium events or concerts will do well at the scale we need right now. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Hi. Many of you are old friends of mine, so it's nice to see you all again. I am pleased to be here today in support of the Seattle Southside RTA. Are you Wendy Morgan? I'm sorry, I am Wendy Morgan. All right. Thanks, Wendy. As many of you know, I am a former elected city councilwoman in the city of tequila. And I've spent over the last 20 plus years in SeaTac as a resident, and I've become very active in the community. Prior to my retirement as a Housing and Human Services professional, I specialized in Human Services funding and advocating for those who needed a hand up to build better lives for themselves and their families. Many of these people make up the bulk of those who work in the travel and tourism industry in and around the airport. They depend on the health of the hotels and restaurants in the Southside region of King County, critical to supporting the continuing growth of hotel stays dollars to local restaurants and other businesses. Is a planned professional approach to attracting tourists. So the my message and hope to you is that you can reconsider apportionment of the tourism dollars from a Seattle centered approach to be more equitable distribution, sustaining the healthy economy of cities directly south of Seattle. We need adequate funding to promote tourism. Thank you. Thank you, Wendy, Sharon Lee, then Sarah, then Jonathan, then Hilary Keys. Good morning. I'm Sharon Lee, director of Low Income Housing Institute. And because we're in King County, MLK, I have two quotes from Martin Luther King. The first, there is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it. Dr. King said this when he claimed a Nobel Peace Prize. The second quote is God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous, inordinate wealth while others live in abject, deadening poverty. So I think it's really important for the council, as you said, to weigh some balance. But I think it's very important to understand that the Mariners got a very, very favorable lease term. Public funds were built for the stadium and that the team is probably worth over $1,000,000,000. And as owners, they need to make an investment. And the investment could include financing their own amenities such as the Brew Pub Pub or the Diamond Club or other amenities. So I think that giving the house, given the housing crisis, you should seriously consider. Councilmember up the gross proposal to allocate at least 150 million more for affordable housing. Now homeless people do live in TOD housing. The moment you make $15 minimum wage, you are below the threshold for 30% homeless housing. And there are many homeless people who will also benefit as well as the working poor. Thank you. Thank you. Sharon. Sarah. Hi. Good morning. Today, Belsky and members of the Committee for the Record. My name is Sarah Charron. I represent a local 21, the largest private sector union in the state, with over 10,000 members who live and work in King County. First, here to voice serious concerns about giving any company a huge windfall when that company is quite profitable. To me, there are civic wants and there are civic needs. Addressing the affordable housing crisis is an immediate emergent need, while updating save, quote, feel is more of a want. In my book, the funds being competed for aren't eligible for use to directly address homelessness, but they could be used for affordable housing for low and middle income and workforce housing. The adage that people are just one paycheck away from homelessness is more accurate now than ever. My members are on the brink. Secondly, I would also like to share that several years ago, a group of workers attempted to unionize the Mariners team store. Their effort was unsuccessful, not in the least, because management held captive audience meetings. This isn't something we would expect from a local home team. As a council, you've been clear in your support for workers rights to organize. While many of the construction jobs and concession jobs are union and we support our brothers and sisters in those unions, this behavior is not acceptable. We urge you to reconsider. Jonathan Teed and Hilary Keyes, then Shannon Sharon and Sandra Lee. Hello. My name is Jonathan T Jonathan Thompson. And I just want you to spend as much as possible on the housing affordability crisis. I think it would be kind of sad if we were to upgrade the stadium and tourists had to step over homeless people to get into the stadium so they can enjoy their new amenities. So I feel even the tourism industry should feel like, well, if we're going to invite all these tourists into the state and we just see homeless people everywhere, isn't that going to affect tourism as well? So, you know, if nothing else, it may affect the tourism dollars and just our image as a county. So please find as much money as possible for affordable housing. Thank you. Hilary. Then Shannon. Sandra. Rebecca Brun. Hi, my name is Hilary Keys. I grew up in Seattle. I've been a teacher. I worked in food service, really active in the local arts community. I love the city. I have traveled the world in education and I gush about the city about how progressive and creative and caring the city is. Everyone that I have encountered, I have gushed about this city all around the world, and I recently moved back. And this crisis that we are facing is really not the way that the city has responded, has not aligned with how I have promoted the city throughout the world. I really urge you to be that progressive, creative, caring city that I have said by allocating money towards affordable housing, caring about the people of the city, rather than and rather than the business that can provide its own money towards these what they're requesting. So thank you. Good morning. My name is Shannon Sharon on behalf of the Seattle Hotel Association and the Washington Hospitality Association. My purpose today is to reinforce the very important long term vision that's going to be required to ensure that we can actively promote tourism and to be competitive against other destination. The hospitality industry is the largest private employer in Washington, employing thousands alone in this county. Tourism creates jobs. These jobs include entry level, second chance, professional and career and livable wages. We must engage in a very concerted strategic tourism promotion to ensure that we can inspire individuals to come here. There are many, many destinations that guests can consider in this very, very global world. Making sure that Seattle rings true to them and that we are being very considerate to all of our citizens here is very, very important. We must also not forget that an unoccupied room equals zero tax dollars to support and encourage these very, very important human services, as well as an industry that brings those valuable dollars. Investment in tourism promotion, supports employment, creates new jobs, and generates tax revenues to support needed King County services. We ask for your support today. Thank you, Sandra and Rebecca. Then Mona Lisa. Hi. My name is Sandra Lee and executive director of Woodinville Wine Country Association. And I'm here to comment on the motion proposing the allocation of future lodging tax dollars. Woodinville is a burgeoning visitor destination and a gateway for Washington wine. We have over 2 million visitors a year, which includes more than 500,000 travelers nationally. Internationally, we are home to 118 wineries in King County, 12 microbreweries, ciders, and 30 restaurants and eateries, where sales growth for many of our boutique wineries has increased 20% or more per quarter. As we've grown, we've added districts year round events, packages, tours and other visitor programing and features. We depend on King County's tourism and its incremental growth to support the businesses now and in the future. Our relationship with our county's destination marketing organizations. Visit Seattle, visit Bellevue, Port of Seattle, etc. allows us to market the county as a whole and to create partnerships and marketing opportunities that wouldn't go wine country and our member businesses use to leverage business growth. We grow our operations and we get a great return on investment for our community visit. Seattle, for example, connects us with tour operators, travel, media. We rely on the inclusion of WOODEN, the itineraries that benefit our businesses. I think that it's quite audacious, this proposal to say that 60% of these funds are going to when they only when they only generate 5% of room revenue. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Sarah. Rebecca, then Mona Lee. Hello. My name is Rebecca. I am a resident of District one and a graduate student at the Harvard School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. I also work 15 hours a week as a bartender, part time, and I'm one of over 100,000 households in King County that are severely cost burdened, spending over half of my income on rent every month. This is my first time testifying. I didn't prepare anything, but I am not one to mince words. So you know, this is ridiculous, right? Like the Mariners are a privately owned organization. They are profitable. They are owned by millionaires. There are 12,000 people sleeping outside, dying outside on the street. We look to you, our representatives. To send a message. We watch you. We watch what you do. And time and time again, I have gotten the message and my peers in my class and my peers on the street, that the interests of private organizations and millionaire business owners are prioritized over basic human needs, like having a place to live. I do not want our council to lose sight of that fundamental truth. There are people who are sleeping and dying outside. We have the resources. Use them wisely. Hello. I'm only. I'm a member of the Association Community Action Team. We work to improve the quality of our neighborhood and to hopefully increase the stock of attractive, affordable housing so that our neighbors will not be displaced from their homes. A couple of years ago, homelessness in King County was declared an emergency. Since then, very little has been done to resolve this crisis, and sites of people wrapped in thin blankets and lying in the streets or constructing makeshift tents on vacant lots has continued to increasingly ugly ify this city, which isn't a very nice. As the other gentleman said earlier, to attract tourists. It seems, therefore, that the county and the city ought to be searching their budgets for every spare dollar to increase our stock of affordable housing. If we collect an extra 185 million and hotel motel taxes or anything else, we should spend it on affordable housing, not unnecessary bells and whistles to enhance a baseball stadium. In housekeeping budget terms, we have to put a roof over our heads before we buy lace curtains. Oh. All right. We're making good progress. We got through the first sheet. We've got two and a half sheets to go. Jim Lobsters and then Edith Evergreen, then Tom Norwalk and. And then Velma. I can't quite make out the last name. Maybe Doyle Velma left helm of. Was it? Don't worry. Velma left. Okay. Hi, Jim. Good afternoon. Morning. I'm Paul. That microphone up so we can hear you. Good. Good morning. I'm Jim Lopes, and I'm a lifelong baseball fan. I'm a Mariner fan for about 40 years. And I'm here to ask you not to give the Mariners any money at all. Thank you, Mr.. Up there. If you were the first person to ask the question about how much profit does this corporation make, I listened carefully to the answer. The answer was, We don't have a clue. We don't know. They won't tell us. That's right. I heard the answer. They don't have to tell you. You can't compel them to tell you. They can't compel you to give them the money. The last time we voted for somebody who refused to give us our tax returns, do you see what we got? We got somebody who was running the country for the benefit of corporations. My understanding is that the largest shareholder in this corporation is Mr. Stanton. Bloomberg says he's worth $1.1 billion. He does not need public money. I went to a ballgame in April with a friend of mine. I walked down to the kingdom in the rain. I was not prepared for the rain. I got soaking wet. So did my friend. I had a good time. I paid for my ticket. I put my money in Mr. Stanton's pocket. Then I walked home. I walked up Fourth Avenue. I walked under the. Yes, the overpass. I walked past people living in tents who were in that rain. And they have nowhere to get out of it. Please don't give them any way. By Edith and Tom Norwalk. And we've got these. I'm Edith Evergreen, and I want you not to give any more money to the Mariners. I agree with the previous person. I think it should be put toward low income housing. People talk about affordable housing often, but I've seen it manipulated in my neighborhood because I live right near 23rd and Jackson and the affordable housing is a tied to the market rate. Everybody knows the market is going way up. We need to talk about low income housing. So I live two miles from Safeco. We love the Mariners. My husband's been a baseball nut for about 40 years, but he supports put it into housing also. And my daughter lives with us in our basement. We are retired and she's 32. And she has to live with us because there is no place. She's very poor and there's no place else for her to live. And I just want to mention El Centro de la Rosa. They have this wonderful low income housing project on on Beacon Hill. And it's amazing place. And I think it would attract tourists if they wanted to see how we do low income housing. Why can't the county or the city come up with the funds like El Centro de la Rosa did? Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I've got Nick aunt and then patients malama. Nicole Kenan. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Tom Norwalk, president and CEO. Visit Seattle, the official destination marketing organization for Seattle and King County. And I think we're also here to talk a lot about jobs, destination marketing, tribe's economic development through jobs, but through advertising, marketing, promotion meetings, conventions, sports events. Nearly 40 million annual visitors spend over $7 billion a year in King County. Not only generating jobs, 76,000 jobs are supported or created through tourism in the county, but they contribute $718 Million in Tax every year. The great thing about visitors is they spend their money and usually they go home. However, maintaining a growing tourism economic cycle takes investment, and it takes long term thinking. I want the Council to know that visit Seattle and the industry love the Seattle Mariners or partners. We promote with them. We travel with them sometimes around the world. But I think we're concerned that when 60% of the tourism money is allocated for Safeco, it leaves very little for the other needed services. It's challenging and difficult for the industry that's actually driving that tourism revenue to be at the very bottom of the list and especially as it comes to future jobs. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Okay, Nick and Patience and Nicole calls direct in there. Okay. As usual. Follow your lead here. All right. Good morning, Chairman Dombrowski and fellow council members. My name is Nicholas Erne and a member of the Resident Action Project in partnership with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. And I live in King County District Number four. The funds from the lodging tax are an opportunity to create desperately needed affordable homes. Tax dollars should be allocated in a way that benefits the 12,112 people who are experiencing homelessness in King County. We cannot afford to let another opportunity to for affordable housing in King County slide past us. A quintessential example of the desperate need for more than the state mandated minimum funding that King County is proposing is my friend Lori Mendoza, who died at the age of 41, now from a drug overdose, but from trying to survive the scarce resources and lack of affordable housing. Ryan had been on the coordinated entry parole waitlist for more than two years when she died at Harborview Medical Center on July 17th. I ask that you, our King County Council members, choose humanity and affordable housing over home runs. Please reconsider providing more funding for affordable housing. Similar stories like Lorraine's can be prevented. Thank you, Chairman Dombrowski. And Full Council. Thank you. Are you patients? Yes. All right. Good morning. Councilmembers. My name is Patients Malala. I am the advocacy mobilization manager for the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle King County. Our members are dedicated to the vision of ensuring that we all have access. Two safe, healthy and affordable homes within communities of opportunity. And I want to first recognize a lot of the great work that the King County has put forth towards achieving this vision through a thoughtful voice. So the use of phones and your work on the regional Affordable Housing Task Force, as mentioned already, the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force found that we need 156,000 additional affordable homes today and 244,000 by 2040. That said, there's still a lot of work to be done. The lodging tax revenue is an opportunity to begin to do more. Yet the proposed motion 2018 0266 allocates only the state mandated bare minimum for affordable housing. We urge you to allocate. Funds in a way that benefits hundreds of thousands of King County residents who are in need of affordable housing maximum that maximizes public dollars to create as many affordable homes for working people as possible. We also urge you to be champions for affordable housing as we stand ready to board, support and work with you to ensure a successful increase in affordable homes for all people in King County. Thank you. Thank you. Patients. Hi. I have the opposite problem of Eric Pettigrew. So I can relate. My name's Nicole Valastro King, and I am the executive director of Puget Sound Stage. And I'm here in solidarity with many of the people who are seeking to put this money towards affordable housing. I want to make a couple of quick economic arguments. In particular, the economic impact of building affordable housing. When you have an affordable place to live, you can put more of your money towards food, childcare, rent. I was raised by a single mom who was a hairdresser, and because of having an affordable place to live, was able to put me through preschool and I was able to read by the time I was four because of that investment. So I just want to make that very clear. The second is the economic impact of sports ball teams. Is this the real thing that we're actually talking about again? So here, if you don't believe me, I've actually conducted economic impact and input-output analyzes in the past and the economic input and output of a baseball team is essentially the same as a mid-sized department store. So according to Michael Leeds, a sports economist at Temple University, there is no impact of investing in large sports teams in terms of how it ripples out into the economy. But I do know for a fact that when people have more money in their pockets as a result of affordable housing or higher jobs, that there is a ripple effect that happens when people have more money to spend on housing and childcare. And then you can look up several other studies. Richard Noll at Stanford University has also put a number of things out as well. Thank you. Thanks, Nicole. Rachel Leitner, Jason Austin, Katie Wilson, Michael C with Lauren Transue on sunny side. Hello, council members. My name is Katie Wilson and I'm here on behalf of the Transit Riders Union. The first thing I'd like to say is that this meeting is taking place with about one week's notice, 10 a.m. on a monday in the middle of summer. And as you see, you had a packed house. You also have a overflow room which earlier in the meeting had at least 50 people in it and probably some people outside as well. I think that means that people care about this issue. And I would like to request that you all make a point to hold an evening public hearing sometime before this decision is made so that the many, many people who cannot get out of work during the day can come and have their voices heard. I'd like to echo some of what Nicole just said. Economists overwhelmingly agree that public subsidies for building sports stadiums are not a good deal for the public. Please look into the economics of this decision. So that raises the question why do we keep doing it not just here, but around the country? Well, maybe it's because that's what the politically powerful billionaires and corporations that own major sports teams want. Well, I want to believe that King County is better than that. I want to believe that all of you are better than that. So, please, we have a crisis, an affordable housing crisis. I don't know what that word means anymore. If we're faced with a decision like this, we do the bare minimum. Please do the right thing. Are you, Jason? All right. Go ahead. Good morning, counsel. Thank you for having us. And thank you to everyone here. Who sacrificed whatever you needed to do to be here today. My name is Jason Austin. I'm here with Catholic Community Services, one of the oldest and most respected faith organizations in Washington state. King County is currently behind to the tune of about $400 million a year in what it should be spending for affordable housing. That's per the Chamber of Commerce funded McKinsey report that you should familiarize yourself with as a housing case manager. I see this reality every day. My program, Housing and Essential Needs, offers a fairly generous housing voucher of up to $1,000 for qualified people. Yet I still struggle to place these people into housing due to the incredibly overheated market that we're in. And that's not just our program. There's a crisis in Seattle of people losing their Section eight vouchers after waiting sometimes ten years or more to get them because there is simply not an affordable unit to go use them. And we are wasting money and leaving money on the table by not investing more in affordable housing. And every single budget is a moral document. And when you put the bare minimum that you're legally required to do so for affordable housing, you're communicating your morals loud and clear to your constituents. Please search your heart and ask yourself if that's who you really are. Thank you for your time today. Thank you, Jason. Do we have Michael or. Okay, Michael. And then you'll be next. What's your name? Okay, Lauren. Great morning. Members of the King County Council. My name is Michael Sira. I'm on staff with Capitol Hill Housing. We develop and manage affordable apartments throughout Seattle and in unincorporated King County. We have apartments for working families, individuals, seniors and those that are disabled. Many of our residents are one paycheck away from homelessness, and the need has never been greater. What we're doing is providing an affordable home so that a single parent doesn't have to choose between paying rent and buying an inhaler for their kid and Capitol Hill housing. The good news is we have a half dozen new sites secured that are transitory in development and can be ready to be developed at affordable housing. And we're only one organization with all of our other colleague organizations. We can help solve this problem. But I'm here urging you for the swift allocation of more lodging tax funds and going above the bare minimum so we can actually address this affordable housing crisis. Thank you very much. Thank you, Lauren. And then I've got Michelle Bufano, Karen Olsen, the Seattle Raging Grannies. All right. I hope to be one when I'm yourself. Hello. Martin Luther King County Council members. My name is Lauren Kazee. I'm a longtime resident of Seattle. I moved here in 1980. I love the city and I'm also a long time early childhood educator. People in my profession struggle every day, and many of us are a few paychecks away from being homeless ourselves, as are seniors, teachers, SROs, social workers, nurses, service workers, etc.. Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing is in a state of crisis. The many people living on the streets are elderly, elderly, veterans, African-Americans, Native Americans, Latino and Latina, the disabled, the youth and immigrants. People have died and are dying in the streets. There's a moral imperative here. There are $185 billion proposal for Safeco must be used for housing. The ball is in your court. Please do the right thing and please go to bat for affordable housing. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry, ma'am. Give me your name one more time. Lauren. Thanks, Lauren. Okay, I've got Michelle. The final Karen Olson, the Raging Grannies. Good morning, shadow panel to who we garden in glass. My comments are about the allocation of tax collections intended for tourism. We live in a culturally rich, unique Northwest. We offer experiences for visitors from all over the world that nobody else can offer. The role that visit Seattle plays as their official destination marketing organization is so important to our cultural attractions throughout the county. It's imperative that we are competitive in our approach to bring visitors to our region. And many smaller nonprofits and museums do not have the resources that they need to do the marketing that is required. We rely on Visit Seattle to connect us with the tourism industry, from domestic travelers to international travelers, visiting convention groups and tourism. When visitors come to experience the Northwest, they invest in our communities not only through their spending, lodging, dining, retail, but also their attendance at cultural organizations. Supports jobs and museums. It supports the preservation of arts and culture of our region, and even more directly supports individual artists who are struggling themselves. We are fortunate to have an organization like Visit Seattle that works with all cultural attractions in this county. They recently developed a program that helps to serve 30 museums throughout King County, including small museums like the Bonsai Museum in Federal Way and the Shoreline Historical Society, museums that would not be able to support themselves with the marketing. I respectfully request that we find a way to support all of the necessary initiatives here and that we work together for a win win for all the people of King County. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Colonels and the grandniece Kathryn Kurtzman, our Queen Bee King Rose and Yvonne Speakman. And then we're done with page two. Good morning. My name is Karen Olson and the chief marketing officer for the Space Needle, Julie Gardening Glass. I'm here to comment on the motion to propose an allocation of future lodging taxes intended to promote tourism while I oversee major marketing attractions here in Seattle, had the honor of acting more like an ambassador to the city. Actually, all of our team members do. We have visitors from across the country and from around the world. We feel fortunate that forward thinking, destination marketing organizations in our region such as Visit Seattle. Compared to the tourism budget of other states, is it Seattle's able to use its limited funds smartly? They partner with the port and with other attractions such as ours to host band tours of tour operators and host international media and these from around this country. They create content like visits to our TV to showcase the uniqueness of our region. They help bring visitors to Seattle and beyond, and the whole region benefits from their work and consideration of the economic impact that visit Seattle and the other nonprofit destination marketing organizations help yield for us. We support the continued funding to help ensure that they have what they need to continue doing their great work. Thank you. Thank you. How are we getting a song or. All right. This is an old one, but it has a couple of new verses. Take me out to the ball game. Take me out with the crowd. King County is paying these billionaires with my tax dollars. It just isn't. Fair. So it's route win win for. The whole team. Why not? We're paying their way. It's three strikes. The taxpayer is down at the old ball game one. Miller. Take me out to. The ball game. What I'm going to pay twice. Mariners sucking up all. The dough when. There's no housing for regular. You. User taxes for people, not for corporate welfare. And it's one, two, three strikes. You're out if you just don't care. Thank you. Never disappoint. All right. That was enjoyable. Catherine Kurtzman, Green Bay and Yvonne. Good morning. I am Katherine Kurtzman, president and CEO of the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. And I come to you today wearing two hats. I'm testifying today on behalf of the 38 Seattle Southside Tourism Promotion Area Hotel Ratepayers and the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority Board of Directors. The destination, Seattle Southside, is composed of the suburban city surrounding SeaTac International Airport. Travel and tourism plays a significant role in our local economy. Seattle Southside is home to nearly 9000 hotel rooms. We host 4 million overnight visitors annually who spend 72 $6 million in visitor spending that generates 5000 jobs and contributes $75.4 million in local and state tax receipts. Many travel and hospitality professionals agree that the heart of a travel destination success lies in its marketing efforts. We can't afford to be a destination that people simply pass through. Travelers need to be aware of the amenities, products and services we have to offer. Destination brand awareness is critical to generating additional tax receipts for our local economy that can support human services. We ask that you consider a carve out of at least 15% of the future tourism promotion allocation for Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. Thank you. And then we've got Queen Bee right here and then Yvonne Speakman. Good morning, King County Council. I am Queen Bee King Rios and formerly homeless and disabled. I'm also a member of Will and a leader of Women in Black. I'm here as a women and black leader right now to let you guys know that there's been 61 outdoor violent homeless deaths already this year in King County, and we have no way to pay for desperately needed affordable housing. So many people are living and dying on the streets of Seattle and King County. This isn't just Seattle's problem. The county's problem is the whole world's problems. Right now, it's our problem. I was fortunate and blessed to be able to move downtown, and I heard some people that were tourists here talking the other day saying to one another, Ah, the money the city has, they can't get these people off the streets. Do you know how that made me feel as a resident living here? Right here in the heart of the homelessness crisis. It hurt me and it broke my heart. We are grief stricken. I don't know how many times we have stood vigil for someone. And it shouldn't be. We should be able to build affordable housing, low income housing, lower. We need to have more resources and people lives should matter, not just a ballpark. Save lives, not just the stadium. Thank you. Thanking Queen Yvonne Speakman and then I have Kelson, Caldwell, Alex Finnane. I want to let folks know that normally our meeting would end after charters at noon we're going to go tell 1230 work to get everybody in. So if you are listening in and expecting a noon meeting here at the County Council, that will start 1230 or later. Hi there. My name's Calvin Caldwell, and I'm here on behalf of the Known Youth Jail Coalition, which is very concerned about Constantine's continued mass misuse of public money is for projects that don't fundamentally address the needs of people who are living right here in King County right now. The council you are have the chance to address the needs of people in this county by maximizing funding for affordable housing through the lodging tax and to repurpose the new youth jail and courthouse buildings for meeting actual basic human needs instead of traumatizing our youth. Saying no to the jail, saying no to unnecessary spending on Safeco and yes to housing will show that you all actually prioritize addressing racism and heartlessness in this county. We don't need cages for kids. We don't need fancier stadiums. We need housing. Dow Constantine wants to pander to rich billionaires so that he can pave the way to become a governor. And that's part of the reason why this is happening. So y'all have a chance to say that public officials can be actually be accountable to the people rather than to billionaires by prioritizing housing and not cages and not state. COFIELD Right now, thank you. CARLSON Thank you. I've got Alex Finn and then Kyle more than Pam Fernald from SeaTac. I. I apologize about that handwriting. It's Finch. I'm sorry, Mr. Finch. I got bad eyes. So sorry. My name is Alex Finch. I'm a member of the Share Board of Directors and also a resident of Tent City three. And I have a letter here from Share Dear Councilmembers Members Executive Constantine, who appears to be absent today. Cher. Participants living in Seattle searching for low income and affordable housing. Has been very difficult to find. The recent city upgrade, such as stadium upgrades, have been placed above the increasing need of building low income. And affordable housing throughout. That could help the. Homeless and struggling families throughout the entire King County area. The methods of building expensive housing forces. People that are in poverty to give up and move away from Seattle. Rather than giving them a chance to feel motivated and continue living and investing in the city itself. More affordable housing gives people the hope of. Knowing they can continue living in the great city of Seattle without the constant fear of continuing the downward spiral of being homeless. After being housed every person in Seattle and throughout the country and county, even. No matter if they are rich or poor, deserves to feel they have a home to come home to no matter what their financial status may be. From the men and women of Sharon, thank you for your time to listen to our concerns. And Tent City three is currently in Tukwila if you care to visit. Thanks, Alex. Okay, Kyle. And then we have councilmember for an old. M, Kyle Moore. I'm the government relations manager for City of SeaTac. And I'm just here to drop off a letter from. Our city manager, dated from May. 29th to King County executive Dale Constantine. All right, you can hand that to our clerk. And copies will be distributed to all members. Now, Pam, for an old. Happy Monday council. Happy Monday. Bottom line, don't give any more public funds to a private, for profit baseball stadium. Excuse me. We have worked for many years with our city and county officials to ensure that a return of a fair distribution of funds would occur once the pass obligations like the King Dome were met. We respectfully ask, if strongly urge you to withdraw the proposed misuse of tourism funds and explore other avenues for financing the ongoing maintenance of the capital assets of the Public Facilities District. The county's proposed reallocation of the additional 1% lodge tax reneges on a 2011. Bill. Bill which promise was SB SB 5834 which promised a mutually agreed upon allocation of funds between arts, housing and tourism promotion. This morning I am asking you to honor these longstanding promises and to commit at least 15% of available funds for tourism promotion to the Seattle Southside RTA lodging guest staying at the City of SeaTac generate over 1.7 million annually of this additional 1%, and our hoteliers and residents have been patiently waiting for this mutually agreed upon allocation in order to at least see a direct return on this contribution. We will continue to support the original. Thanks and gotcha. Okay. Thank you, Councilmember. Let's see, I've got Ladd Moore and then I've got Godsil and Nunez and I've got Shelley Cohen of Shelley still here. Ladd. Shelly Crutchfield. Go ahead, Shelly. Mr. Chair. Shelly Cohen, vendor with real change, advocacy with real change, and also member of the board of directors of Real Change. It's all been said. Every one of them has been said. And it's obvious. Yes, we need sports. I agree with that. However, if you're going to end up giving money to the sporting event with billionaires. Not putting in their fair share to homelessness. Maybe, just maybe, the answer to get a letter. Of agreement. From the billionaires to put money. Into homelessness. That might be the best answer. They could solve homelessness. And I'm talking about the lowest possible level. I'm in Seattle Housing Authority. I'm comfortable not able to do other things that should be down mount. However, if you put money or get the money from the. Billionaires and put into homelessness, they've got it. Thank you. Thank you, Shelly. Hey, guys. Sheila. Hi. Good morning. Honorable council members. For the record, my name is going to say Spartacus, and I am the political and community organizer with SEIU 775 The Caregivers Union. And our mission is to uplift our 45,000 members out of poverty. I urge you, while for this reason, SEIU 775 opposes any transfer of public assets and wealth to for profit sports teams, billion dollar sports teams, or their public sector standards standards like stadium development authorities. We strongly urge the council to put these funds towards addressing the housing crisis and the homelessness crisis. Thank you. Thank you. Darren Griffin. A neat try when he was still here and then Barbara's iPad. Lisa sawyer. There. Christie Copeland on there. You know what? You're on here, Christie? I'm sure I missed you, but go forward. Thanks. My name is Christie. I'm a resident of North Seattle. Today I'm asking that you allocate the maximum allowable to affordable housing and to repurposing the youth jail building under construction, away from incarcerating young people, and towards meeting the real human needs of families and youth in King County. Subsidizing the Mariners like the like the racist investment of $230 million in the new youth jail is yet another example of bad budget priorities in King County. King County is in a housing crisis. People, especially black and brown people, are being pushed out of their housing, out of shelter entirely at a ridiculous pace. One out of 13 kids in Seattle Public Schools is experiencing homelessness. 700 people have died on King County streets in the last six years. And we're on track to set a new record this year, around 200 people. Let's not balance the needs of a first class stadium on the backs of our most vulnerable residents. What's the point of saving our culture at the expense of our humanity? We don't want a sports team with such unsportsmanlike conduct paying themselves $156 million in salary annually and then demanding public funds that could house homeless children. The Mariners are emphasizing that the stadium is a county building with over 6000 unsheltered people in King County. Imagine what else we could do with a county building that big with plenty of bathrooms, showers, food services and a frickin retractable roof. King County Council. Align your budget with our values and support affordable housing. Thank you. Okay. I need to go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Anita Freeman. I am when I am a member of Chair and Wheel Homeless organizing efforts. And in 2000, I helped start women in black vigils. Whenever somebody's homeless dies outside or by violence in King County. That first year, we stood for five people. Last year we stood for. 108 people this year. And the last speaker said, We've already stood for 61 people. Now that speaker pointed out, that means we're on track to go over 200. That's not a batting average you want. Council member Von Marek Bauer said, You know, it's great to take your family up to the ball game. When my grandfather took me to the ball game, he could afford it. When I took my son to the ball game, I could afford it. Today, if a family of four has a choice between paying rent and paying over $100 to take everybody ball game, they're going to pay the rent. Make that same choice yourself. Thank you. Barbara and Lisa. And then I have Councilmember Peter Quan from SeaTac. Councilmember Quan is still here. I'm Barbara Zepeda. And I came to this room in 1955 when young Democrats was run by Wing. Luke And I liked the architecture much better then than I do now. And we worked with Gaylord Nelson in the National Young Democrats for Clean Air, Clean Water and using public funds for public purposes. The neocons have taken over all of our federal dollars for war, and then our local people took to Seattle or took low income housing, state money and subsidized these two stadiums. After the people in Seattle voted against them twice. Now, none of our elected officials at the national level had the gray cells of FDR, because when he gave the banks a bailout in the thirties, he said they had to renegotiate those predatory loans because he believed in real capitalism, which means that small farmers, homeowners and small businesses. And I've been working I've been doing bookkeeping and small businesses for 40 years. And right now, September 11th, there's going to be a foreclosure on hundreds of homes. And it was the public notice. And 611, our county prosecutor is going to put hundreds of people out of their homes. And you guys can't figure out a way to do what the hedge funds that got all the $4 trillion from the federal government and they're using that money to buy up all these foreclosed homes in every city in this country at $0.10 on the dollar. We don't have a democratic government in this country because you're not using the money for the public and the 43rd District. Unanimously, except for one abstention, passed a resolution saying. And, Barbara, I'm going to have to. I'm going to say this. Other folks three, I'm going to ask you to hand the resolution on the floor. You know. I'm going to say to the clerk of the 43rd District, Democrats oppose current spending proposal and urge King County Council to vote against the current proposal and courage. King County Executive Dow Constantine to submit a new proposal increasing the percentage of funds dedicated to affordable housing. All right. Thank you. And I would love to hear more from you, but we have 20 other folks on that report. Peter, United States Cities. I'm sorry. They can't even build a public toilet in all our major cities. Lisa, are you Lisa? And then. And then Peter. Good afternoon, King County Council members. My name is Lisa Sawyer. I am also a real change vendor and also a member of the Resident Action Project with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. I was homeless over six years and I had my housing voucher just not that long ago. Right now I'm back into homelessness. You guys want to put more money into Safeco Field and rather pay money into affordable housing, which is ridiculous because the banners go for their own. I went to Manors games when it was cheaper. Right now you can probably pay close to 50 bucks for one ticket if you're lucky, if you're not season ticket holder. But you could use that into affordable housing. I've been in hotels, I was in outside. I was sleeping outside, in hotels, in tent cities. Right now, it's as of yesterday. A friend of mine that used to volunteer with real change, she invited me over to her home over Amityville and let me camp out in her RV for a couple of months until I found a about affordable housing. I know I have no no way to get into housing. I have no voucher. Nothing is me and my boyfriend. We both work. We can afford a plus. A 13,000 a month. Right now, we just can't. You need guys to get into into gear and get put this towards affordable housing because people are dying. People are watching their backs. 24 seven. I didn't get comfortable, but I have my housing and I had my housing for ten months. You guys need to have these portable housing and these programs to have a longer period of time. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Councilmember Quan. Thank you. You know, I wrote down good morning but now with. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, councilmember. I am SeaTac City Councilmember Peter Quan and I'm here today to comment on the motion proposing the distribution of state shared king. County lodging tax collections intended for tourism, promotion and development. So we ask the King County Council to carve out 15% of the funds allocated by the state legislature for tourism promotion to the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. That translates to about 25% of the funds that are generated in our communities being reinvested back into destination marketing to sustain the long term viability of this fund. Our region is home to 9000 hotel room, the second largest grouping of hotels in the entire state. To the marketing really matters to us. Our national award winning destination marketing organization, the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority, is dedicated to enhancing the image and economic strength of the region. The RTA also generates an impressive return on investment of $42.86 for every $1 spent. Please consider the economic boost destination marketing provides our region and modify the recent motion to guarantee funding is directed toward the Seattle Delta Regional Tourism Authority. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay, I've got Zack de George t0p, a Z, maybe on 60th Avenue Northwest, then Marla, Vendor Water and Ethan Goodman. Any of those folks still here come forward. And then I've got Michael Nash, Gene Darcy on tape. Hello. Topaz. Topaz. Real change vendor. Props for the Spinal Tap reference earlier. Turn it up to 11, huh? Yeah. Thank you. Even a blind squirrel finds a note once in a while. I think that's why I. I found it interesting that most of the people wishing for the money to go to the Mariners were using mathematics and economics. And most of the people wishing for the money to be spent for the people are. We're using hearts and cultural references. So to throw its weight behind the cultural references, the daodejing chapter 34 mentions the door of heaven is the building of the bow low become high and the high become low. This means obviously that that when you have an abundance to share to those who are not in abundance is the wise thing to do. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about giving to those that ask it Do not turn away the borrowers. Once again, a reference to sharing when you have an abundance and to mention some science. Stephen Hawking in his book The Brief History of Time, the chapter referencing Black Holes Ain't So Black. He mentions how if you add two boxes of different molecules, they all eventually blend themselves together where they will become indistinguishable. This science cultural philosophical reference is something that the Council needs to announce to the community, to the city and to the nation. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mala and then Ethan Goodman. Michael Nash. Gene Darcy. Josh Cassell. Go ahead and just come forward and you can take your turn. Just let me know who you are. Hi, I'm Ethan Goodman. Thank you, counsel, for extending this hearing to hear from us today. I'm the lead organizer for Tech for Housing. We're a grassroots group of technology workers who believe the tech boom can and should benefit every resident of our region. We just had a divisive fight in Seattle over the head tax, which very visibly resulted in no new. Investment for affordable housing. And then here we have a. Proposal to spend 180 million on a stadium. So I want to ask, did we declare a state of emergency around stadium maintenance three years ago and. Congress stuck in 2015? And we've been struggling despite that declaration of emergency to find any funds. To put towards stadium maintenance. Have we hired multiple rounds of outside consultants to study how other cities best put money towards stadium maintenance? Have we attacked the efficiency of the current providers. Of stadium maintenance? Have we instituted the asked for reforms around performance monitoring and still not seen any increase in funding for stadium maintenance or. And we called for more regional. Solutions to stadium maintenance as businesses threatened to run a campaign to repeal stadium maintenance if it's passed. Why is it so hard to find some things and so easy to fund others? Why can we. Find $100,000,180 million. For stadiums without breaking a sweat? And yet we still can't find the money for affordable housing. Thank you. Hello. My name is Marla Vandy Warner. I'm a member of the Friends of Writers Union, and thank you for letting me speak. I first learned about the way those with wealth used the system. Nothing seems. To move. You're hired, ma'am. Money to private profit businesses. In a book by David Cay Johnston. Sports stadiums are a prime example of this. The Mariners are a private, for profit corporation owned by very wealthy people. The wealthier the person or corporation, the more adept at moving public money into private business and hands. I oppose using much needed public money that should be used for the construction of much needed low income housing in our ongoing housing emergency. To benefit a rich corporation. Even though I enjoy baseball. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We're heading toward the finish line here. I think we're going to get done. Come forward, sir. What did I call your name? No, I've got Michael Nash. Gene Darcy. That's Michael already laid on Michael. Thank you. So I would like to thank the council and everyone in attendance. I am here to represent housing now, Seattle, and I ask that the 177 $180 million that are proposed to be used for the PFG be used for affordable housing instead. I've heard a lot about how the Seattle Mariners and the hotel and hospitality industry contribute to the local economy. And I'd like to point out that our economy cannot continue to grow if workers can't afford to live here. Yeah, and I also want to say that I in my neighborhood of Lake City, I walk by the tent city at 101, Northeast 125th Street every day. I believe those people are more in need of these funds than the Seattle Mariners. And I'm sorry to hear that Major League Baseball attendance is down, but I feel like that's not really my problem as a taxpayer. I think the the problems of our citizens are far more pressing and are more deserving of these funds. So thank. You. Thank you, sir. Than Jean, are you Jean? Come on up, Jean. And then I've got Amanda Parsons, Erik Burke, Tammy Morales. In the afternoon. Council members. According to an ABC News report, the rising numbers of homeless people have pushed abject poverty into the open like never before and have overwhelmed cities and nonprofits. In addition, we have a growing number of people living in conditions of housing insecurity due to the lack of affordable housing. The Oxford reference defines bread and circuses, a term that was first coined during the time of the Roman Empire as referring to the potential of spectator sports and mass spectacle to divert populations or factions of a population away from the weightier business of politics and society. It's tempting to say that this is what the council is doing by diverting public funds to subsidizing profitable sports organizations instead of directing those funds to the greater needs of the public, such as affordable housing. I strongly urge you all to consider allocating the maximum of the hotel motel tax to affordable housing in a way from subsidizing . Profitable sports organizations. Thank you, Jean. Amanda, Eric, Tammy. Si. Tammy, I've got Eric or you, Eric. Come on forward. And then Tammy may have lost Amanda. Thank you. My name's Eric Burke. I'm the former president, longtime board member and and parent and coach with Ranger District Little League. We serve families in the Rainier Valley, which is extremely diverse, both in terms of race and economics. And when I became a board member ten years ago, I ended up with something very different than what I thought I signed up for. We the topics that we deal with on our board of of Little League parents volunteering their time, are dealing with homelessness, living in our dugouts we deal with how do we deal with gang and gun violence on the Rainier Avenue in close proximity to our home fields? These are the types of big, real big issues that we deal with. So our approach to this is to ensure that when we're defining community, we don't define community with a small C like a lot of organizations do. In my estimation, people define communities by segmenting out their part of the community. The beautiful thing about Little League, Bob was up here earlier. We represent families and we're tied to a specific geographic boundary. And so the homeless living in our dugouts are part of our Little League community. The gang members that are shooting guns are part of our Little League community. We need to find a way to solve problems there. What we've done is tried to create an opportunity for kids to connect with one another across all those boundaries. We're not going to wait our kids down with these types of issues. We're going to solve problems for them. And so the way we do that is to ensure that they all have opportunities. The Mariners have played a big part in that they're a partners for us supporting our Little League organization. I'll leave you just with how that works out in a real, real way. So real quickly, real quickly. So this past spring, an opportunity to get together with kids from all from our League of All different abilities and disabilities. We walked in to catch the train, a light rail, and with the help of the Mariners, we enjoyed a game together as a team, as part of the community. That type of experiences helped to make for a memory that we work with the Mariners to do with our kids and our community. And so the Mariners have an excellent, excellent tenants. I would encourage you to ensure that we're balancing solving real world problems with ensuring that baseball has a long term place in our in our community . Thank you, Eric. Okay, Tami. And then I've got I think Elena Scott has made a name on certain Park Avenue South and Heidi Park and Robbie Stern and Carey Moon. Hi. Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for having me. My name is Tami morales. I'm a resident of District two. Councilmember Gossage District. I'm also a resident of the 37th District where almost 70% of our schoolchildren are on free or reduced lunch. I think there are two principles at play here. Are we going to spend the revenue that we already have to meet, the needs that we've already declared are in crisis? And is our local government going to allow itself to be extorted by private entities? And I think you've. Heard from. Many people today that we really hope you don't do the latter and that you do do the former. Your job as our elected representatives isn't to make the balance sheet of a private entity more rosy. Your responsibility to our community is to ensure that we have the infrastructure we need to meet the basic needs for the most vulnerable in our community, like the children whose parents can't afford to buy groceries because they have to pay rent. And so they're on free or reduced lunch. Like the seniors in our community who are splitting pills. Because they can either pay rent or get their prescription refilled. These are real problems that people have every day because of the affordability crisis in our city. And we need hundreds of thousands of new. Just not enough busses. It's pretty bad. Traffic is horrible. The number of people living and working in Seattle is booming at a time when funding for public transit is at an all time high. So why are transit advocates feeling angry and frustrated? Well, right now it's just kind of like we're all in a pickle. After helping to pass the Move Seattle levee in 2015, activists say the city's Department of Transportation is backpedaling on its promises. We're going to now figure out how we got here and what we can do to make it better. How can the city rebuild public trust while dealing with budget overruns and work stoppages? It's getting more expensive. Our panel weighs in. We've waited long enough. Trying to stay on track as Seattle enters three years of major traffic and transit challenges. Next on City Inside-Out. Welcome to City Inside Out. I'm your host, Brian Callanan, from some multimillion dollar projects put on hold to some traffic choking major construction projects at the Seattle Department of Transportation is under fire. The city says it's going through a reset following some newly revealed projected cost overruns for Seattle's streetcar project and a new network of bike lanes. But transit advocates who helped pass the city's move Seattle transportation levy to pay for projects like these are feeling frustrated and angry, with the city bracing for major traffic with a new convention center downtown and the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Scott is looking for ways to build public trust as it tries to build a transportation network. It doesn't matter if you drive a car. What do you think of tracks. That are community experiences when nurses can't afford to live in the city they work in? When my children and my grandchildren live 3000 miles away because although both of them work long hours. All three of my grandchildren live on the East Coast because they can't afford to live here. And I think we lose a lot more than a family friendly place to take our children when our community can't stay together. Thank you. Thank you, Eliana, Heidi Park and then Robbie Stern and then Carey Moon and then Doris. Good afternoon, King County Council. My name is Heidi Park and I'm here as a member of the King County Alliance for Human Services. See our King County Coalition and Homelessness and a housing development consortium for Sale. King County, both King County Alliance and Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness sent letters to council asking that you consider the most cost effective use of our public funds, which should go towards affordable housing rather than subsidized stadium maintenance. Homelessness is not just an affordability issue, but also a racial equity issue. Homelessness. People experiencing homelessness are disproportionately people of color, the systemic issues of racial inequity in the policies that drive that inequity. For example, there are 21,500 applicants to the 2017 FHA housing choice voucher program. More than 35% came from people of color. Our tax dollars should be allocated in a way that benefits those most impacted by the homeless crisis. And I certainly hope that you will consider allocating more than just the state mandated minimum for affordable housing. Thank you. Thanks, Heidi. Robbie Stern, Kerry Moon, Doris. Steve. And then Jonathan is the last one I have signed up. Yep. So we're going to run a couple of minutes over, but I think we're going to get done. Yeah. Come on forward, ma'am. Jonathan Black. Okay. Kerry, go ahead. Hi. Thank you so much for sticking around to listen. I could not be more proud of our Seattle community coming forward with such eloquent, heartfelt, compassionate, but also incredibly intelligent, effective arguments for affordable housing. We all see our collective failure to deal with the crisis of affordable housing in our region. We hear stories of working people commuting 90 minutes each way to work. We hear stories of young people paying three quarters of their paycheck to rent. We all know there are 12,000 people trying to survive on the streets of King County. We all see the housing crisis and the state of emergency every single day in our lives. But today, we have a rare opportunity to do something significant about solving it. Our first priority is housing. I'm not going to repeat all the great arguments that my fellow citizens and residents and neighbors and friends of King County have already said. But I will just try to reiterate. Housing is the priority. The Mariners make incredible profits. They can afford to pay for their own upgrades as any other for profit private enterprise would have to do. Please be bold. Be heroic. Spend this money on affordable housing. The next generation will remember you for your good work. Thank you. Thank you very much. Doors are your doors. Come on forward. And then Steve Colter and Jonathan Rosenbaum. Thank you. In 1995, the state legislators enacted various revenue sources to to support the construction of Safeco Field. Now, CenturyLink Field. At that time, the legislators promised that any levies used to pay for Safeco would go away when the new bonds were paid on a promise. This promise was broken in 2011, when the Washington state legislators passed SB 5834, extending some of the sources of revenue, including the lodging tax. This statute continued the expenditures and allocated the funds to support the arts, to support transit oriented oriented housing, and a certain percentage amount to promote tourism. Regional destination marketing organizations like Seattle, Southside, RTA and Visit Seattle were promised they would receive a certain percentage of the tourism portion and some background information on Seattle Southside RTA. In 2011. The state. Made a decision not to fund tourism. The city of SeaTac and its businesses, particularly the hotel motel operations, thought this was a bad idea. So the city and hotel motel industry formed a public development authority. Give us your highlights and then we'll have copies. Of the remarks for kids and bands. And now they want to use some additional moneys to put heads and beds, help butts in seats, the theater seats, if any seats stayed in seats, and I might add, putting dollars in the coffers of the state, county and city. So I want to use the money as was promised. Thank you so much. Thank you. And if you'd like to provide your written remarks to our clerk's staff, we'll copy them for all members. It's discretionary. Okay. Steve Colter, Jonathan Rosenblum. Steve Colter. Counsel, I would like you to consider a few things as we talk about another subsidy for for a private corporation. This is a private corporation that Forbes has valued at $1.4 billion. They have the wherewithal to take care of this stadium. It we built for them over the last ten years. We're told that Major League Baseball attendance is dropping. This is not the case for the Mariners. There's just been increasing. They settled at two and a half million seats last year. If we stretch that out over the 25 year lease, it's less than $3 a ticket to get this $180 million. How come they can't do that? The Paramount Theater has a little thing on their tickets that you pay to maintain that building. There's an extra fund just to do that. The Mariners should do the same. I live in Pioneer Square. Right now, I'm being asked to fund a public amenity by being asked to fund the lid to rebuild the waterfront. How is it that my $220 million weighs against $180 million to fund a private corporation? I just want to know why we can't find some other way to get that money. It doesn't involve going back to the public trough. Thank you. Thank you, John. Jonathan is the last person I have signed up, so if I've missed you, let me know. But this may be our last speaker otherwise. Thank you. Jonathan Rosenblum, speaking on behalf of the office of Seattle City Councilmember Selma Sawant We stand in solidarity with everybody in team housing here today. I use all my time to list all the organizations that have spoken here, but we salute you. And we all need to move forward and build a movement to keep fighting for housing. The question before you council members is not whether we root for the Mariners when they hit a home run or pitch a shutout. The question is whether the existing housing emergency that was declared by the county executive more than two and a half years ago still exists. And whether the Mariners need for money outweighs that housing emergency today. It's not just the thousands of people on our streets who are living without housing. It's the 46% of people, renters in our region who are rent burdened, hundreds of thousands of people who are one or two paychecks away from being on the streets themselves. We have to weigh that against a mariners team value of 1.4 or 5 billion, a mariners owner who's worth 1.1 billion and so on. The fact that we're even having this debate, that we have a King County executive who's putting corporate handouts before people's needs, show why we need to build our own fighting movement of activists pressuring the political establishment. And I would close by urging the county council scheduled that evening hearing, as Katie Wilson suggested, so that all Seattle King County residents can come out and have their voices heard. Thank you. All right. That's the last person I have to sign up. I want to thank my colleagues and everybody who attended today to share your views. It's an important part of the council's deliberative process. This committee will take this item up again on Wednesday, the 29th of August, at 930 here in these chambers with that.

Output: A MOTION proposing the allocation of future lodging tax collections to support arts, culture and heritage programs, workforce housing and youth services, and capital or operating programs that promote tourism.