Input: The meeting of the King County Council's committee, the hall for June 14th, 2021. If we start today, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional and the Puget Salish peoples past and present. We think these caretakers of the land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. I'd also like to acknowledge the many urban Indians in King County who have brought their cultural ways of life here and greatly enrich our community and happy Bloomsday to one and all. In light of the public health emergency, the governor has issued an exemption to the public record, the Open Public Meetings Act, that requires we have a physical space to hold our meetings. We have this down to a pretty good art at this point in time. More than a year into the pandemic and now we know two weeks out from the lifting of the mask mandate here in King County and a reopening, the couple of housekeeping items on today's agenda do ask us to help us manage this meeting would ask that everyone except from members keep your video off until just before you plan to speak. And additionally, if you're connecting to the meeting via cell phone and you wish to provide public comment, I would invite you to, if at all possible switch over to connecting via the Zoom application. We have had issues in getting people to unmute and even a time delay if they're not in the Zoom app and trying to offer a public comment. So I would invite them to do that without Adam Croke. Would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilmember Banducci. Councilmember Dombrowski. Here. Councilmember Dunn. Here. Councilmember Caldwell's here. Councilmember Lambert. Councilmember up the growth. Councilmember Vaughn right over here. Council members online here. Mr. Chair. Here. Mr. Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. Council member denied entertained a motion to approve the minutes of our June 2nd meeting. Move to prove the minutes of June 2nd, 2021. The June 2nd meeting, minutes before seeing new discussion. All those in favor of approving the minutes please signify by saying I oppose nay. The ayes have it. In an overwhelming majority, I believe we have people here for public comment. So let me go through the ground rules, both for how we manage it virtually and for public comment generally here at the council. Public comment items should be related to items on today's meeting agenda, not be used for the purposes of assisting the campaign for election of any person in the office or for the promotion or opposition of any ballot proposition. I will note we have an item on today's agenda that could end up on the ballot. It is on today's agenda and very open for comment today. I mean, your your presentation, your comments should not include obscene speech. And if a speaker fails to abide by these restrictions, they may be ruled out of order and they may be required to exit the virtual meeting. Now, the process member members, who as you as you've joined the public meeting, we can see either your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. The clerk will go through and call everyone on the line and invite you to offer public comment if you wish. If you're here to just listen, you can just say that. But when you are called on, be ready to undo your line and then simply state your name and pause so that the court can confirm that we can hear you. We know the audio is working. And then if you can begin your testimony by saying and spelling your name so we can have it accurate. For the record, please do not use the raised hand feature. As I mentioned, the clerk will go through everyone in the meeting. Reason feature moves people out of order and further confuses that process. And again, if you can use the Zoom application, it certainly helps. I wasn't reading and doing all this from memory and making sure I didn't miss anything. If you are listening to the audio in another format streaming or TV, please turn that off to our for your public testimony so we don't get feedback. And I think that pretty much sums it up. I may have neglected to mention that you have 2 minutes for your public comment. And with that, I know we have a number of people here to present. But Madam Clerk, if you would invite people to who are here for public comment to begin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first person is love, Alicia Elson Schwab. Please go ahead. Morning. My name is Lev Elson Schwab. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. And to spell my name, it's l e v is the first name. Last name is e l aso n hyphen s c h w Abby. Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Terry McDermott and the council members for having me here. My name is live, Allison Schwab and I'm representing the Seattle King County League of Women Voters. I'm here today to express our support for proposed Ordinance 2020 10232 to establish ranked choice voting for King County offices. Our support is based on a league study and of course the many demonstrated benefits of ranked choice voting to the electorate . Ranked choice voting gives a stronger voice to voters in elections, and it increases civic engagement. It incentivizes candidates to run more positive, issue focused campaigns, leading to reduced polarization. It encourages more women and people of color to run and leads to more equitable representation. And by combining primary and general elections into a single election, voting will be more efficient. Increasing turnout and saving money. Ranked choice voting is one of the rare issues that has strong support across the political spectrum throughout the country. We in Washington State have a very proud tradition of being leaders in democracy, reform and ballot access. And this is a tradition. I urge you to continue. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next person is Lisa. I'll. Lisa Aro, thank you. Go ahead. My name is Lisa. Arrow a y r a u l t. And I am the Executive Director of FairVote, Washington. Thank you, Chair McDermott and members of the committee. And I'm here to speak this morning in favor of Ordinance 2020 10232 proposing to ask the voters of King County if they would like to amend the charter to use ranked choice voting for King County elections. I want to especially thank the sponsor and co-sponsor of this measure, council members ally and Council member Carl Wells for your support. This is a national moment when people all over our country are wondering, can our democracy survive? Are we are we doing all we can to make it possible for this government, of the people, for the people, by the people to thrive and ranked choice? Voting enters this moment as a simple improvement to strengthen the votes, the voices of voters to to excuse me to realize the vision of this country for of a democracy that can be truly representative. Washington State has been a leader in democracy, voting for a long time. And this is a moment when Washington can lead. And yet right now we have a barrier. The current voting method, our top two method, is mandated statewide, and jurisdictions who wish to try ranked choice voting are unable to do so. King County is an exception. King County can help lead the way here in Washington by providing an opportunity for voters in Washington state to try ranked choice voting, you know, to a limited, reasonable extent in county offices only so that we can see for ourselves how ranked choice voting can improve elections in the ways that a representative from the League of Women Voters has just explained. I would like to underscore that don't be fooled by the experience of Pierce County about more than 15 years ago. Use ranked choice voting briefly. In that election there was a canned unfortunate candidate who one vote. Some will say that this was an example of ranked choice voting. Not working. Not true. Do not be fooled like that. Yes, I'm. Sorry to interrupt. That tone was what was your two minute time? Okay. And I ask you to conclude, I. Am so sorry. Thank you so much. I ask for your support council members respectfully for this measure. And thank you so much. Bye bye. Thank you. And I apologize from doing it from memory. I probably didn't mention the two minute timer and tone to indicate when you should wrap up and conclude. Got it. Thank you. You're very welcome, Madam Clerk. Thank you. The next person is camera shaking. Please go ahead. Thank you, chair, and members of the council. My name is Marsha. I live in Capitol Hill. I believe that's in the eighth District where I'm at. And I'm also here to support the ordinance to ask voters they would like to amend our charter to move to arrange choice voting system here in King County. I think if all of us are being honest with ourselves, everyone can see that our democracy is hurting for really urgent answers. And the problems we face have roots in in our founding institutions, like single choice elections that weren't designed for a multiracial democracy. And now King County has the opportunity to lead with solutions that would make that democracy stronger and better for everyone brought by the very communities who've historically been disenfranchized. I think since our county chartered in 1969, there have been less than five council members of color, and that isn't an accident. A feature of voters being forced to make one or two choices, sometimes not always having their votes affect the outcome with rain treated voting. Voters can know that if they don't get the candidate that they preferred, their vote can count towards the next door, which means they don't have to worry about wasting their vote. And instead of pitting communities against each other in these zero ten elections, like minded communities can vote together in coalition, and it incentivizes candidates to campaign to all voters in a positive way. Those candidates ranked high, and the people who try to demagog or, you know, demagog communities of color, Muslim communities, communities who are marginalized, they pay a political price for sowing that division. And that's why Rate Choice Voting has a broad support from organizations who joined the Washington for Equitable Representation Coalition, a pays agent, counseling restaurant, referral services care. Washington The Coalition of Immigrants and Refugees of Color Sir India Association of Western Washington Latino Community Fund, the Career Community Services Center. Christine Fund, the Washington Bus Transit Riders, Union Map, Samen and so many others. And I urge you are to give voters the ability to vote on and pass ranked choice voting in King County. Thanks so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe everybody on the line has had their opportunity to speak. Thank you so much. To make sure that we didn't miss anyone. I'll ask in a moment that we unmute everyone. And then if you're on the line, wishing to give other testimony and did not have the opportunity to say your name, give a little shout out and I will make sure I get your name and then we'll call you. Sir. Madam, can't you get on New Day, everyone? Mr. Chair, I'd ask everyone to unmute themselves. And you hear my other line ringing in the background. Is there anyone else on the line today who would like to offer public testimony and hasn't had the chance to do so? The one anyone else for public testimony. Great. Then I will close public public testimony and thank everyone. And that takes us to item five. On today's agenda, a briefing from Dwight Daley, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget, who will update us on the county's COVID 19 pandemic response. Mr. Lively. These briefings, as you know, have become a habit here in the committee of the whole. We appreciate them very much and want to welcome you back from vacation. We missed you at our last meeting during the pandemic. A number of us have been taking on extra loads. We appreciate the work you have done and we're glad you had some time off. And it's also a time to reflect while the work that you present is maybe, perhaps for administrative and financial and budgetary in the briefings of the full council from the Director of the Public Health Department, more regarding the pandemic itself and containment of the pandemic as we hit the opening and end of mask mandates announced yesterday. Well, we'll see how much longer we find it pertinent to make sure that I'm engaging in this. But I'm glad you're here today and expect we will have you back for some time to come. Great. Thank you, Councilmember. It's a pleasure to be here. For the record, Dwight Dave Lee, the director of the Office of Performance Strategy and Budget. And I have seven things to share with the committee this morning, most of which are COVID related. But a couple I thought I would sneak in that I know are also of interest to you. And most of this is really good news. So it's wonderful to be in the phase where I'm bringing you good news and bad news. As a year ago, it was pretty much all bad news. So let me start with just some signs about how our regional and state economy continues to improve. We don't yet have a new county revenue forecast. We'll get that in July. But I looked at the latest state revenue data and state economic data this morning, and I said there are just a few points that were worth sharing with you. I think you probably all know that the state's last formal forecast was in March and that's what they use to develop and approve the state budget. Since the March forecast, state conditions have improved dramatically. And just to give you a couple of examples of that, the state revenue in the last 30 days was 9.2% higher than their forecast just in March. So three months after they did their forecast, the revenue, our overall state revenue was already 9% higher than they had predicted three months ago, which is great news for them. The personal income forecast for Washington residents has gone up substantially since March, and I think a very positive indicator is their forecast for statewide unemployment in the fourth quarter of this year. So this is prospective is only 4.6%. And back in March they had been forecasting 5.2%. So on revenue, on income, on unemployment, there's lots of good news statewide and I'm sure we'll see that same information when we get a county revenue and economic update in a month. So rolling pause there as we usually do and to see if any there are any questions about that. Colleagues. It's all thumbs up. That's great. Go ahead and continue. Do I? Okay. So the second item and almost every month I've been reporting to you on hotel occupancy, because that's going to be the sector of our King County economy, that is going to be the last one to recover. And I'm pleased to say that we're starting to see some very good signs there. So in the last week of May, across the entire county, our hotel occupancy was up to 54%. And, you know, compared to where it normally would be in the seventies or low eighties, that's not great. But considering a few months ago it was 18%, that is a very, very rapid improvement. And the good news is it's across the whole county. It's not just concentrated in a few geographic areas. And over the Memorial Day, weekend occupancy almost everywhere in the county was over 80%. So we are starting to see people travel again and go out again. My family has a tradition of over 30 years where every Saturday we go to Pike Place Market and get our groceries for the week. And I got to tell you, last Saturday, I could not tell the difference between a cold pre-COVID Saturday at Pike Place Market and a post-COVID Saturday. It was just as crowded and just as many tourists as there were two years ago. So we're starting to see lots of good signs even in that last sector to recover. There's lots of optimism about cruise ship starting in July or August that'll help a little bit more so that that last sector that's kind of been dragging us down a bit, it looks like it's finally turned the corner. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Colleagues. Point as a kid, my family used to go one Saturday a month to the market, and among many other stops, we would stop in what is now known as the original Starbucks. And while mom and dad did buy their coffee beans, my sister and I would get to buy hunks of solid chocolate that they sold by. Wait and eat that walking down the street. Now, I remember when they did that, that was probably about the same time. The structure. Dwight, you generous? If that. If you're going to give me a security hearing. Thank you. Councilmember Caldwell's. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick comment. Every time I go by the market, which is quite frequently now and for quite a while, that Starbucks has a lengthy line waiting outside of it. And even in overcast days or rain bags, it's just really a long line. So that's good news. All right. Well, let me move on to the third item. So thank you for all of your work on the COVID seven ordinance. Just to give you an update on where implementation of that stands for all of the things that are funded with the American Rescue Plan Act, the ARPA money, we are now working with the consultants and the lawyers on eligibility review. So some of the things that you approved are obviously eligible, won't take very long to approve those. Others are going to be a little more work to figure out exactly what the program is and where it fits, if it fits with the federal guidelines. And since there are over 40 new programs in DHS alone, it will take a while for us to work through that. So I just want to beg your indulgence that this is a, you know, fairly extensive review process that involves a lot of people with law degrees and accounting degrees. And so we're trying to prioritize the ones that obviously need to get going first. So a great example of that is the money you appropriated to help festivals get restarted, because that's obviously happening this summer and some of the others are going to have to be a little longer in the queue. So if we continue these briefings, I'd be happy to kind of give you an update every couple of weeks on where we stand with those reviews and if any of you have a particular question. I believe there is a meeting with your chief of staff today, with Aaron Robart, our budget deputy. And feel free to work through Aaron with questions about a particular program and kind of where it stands in the eligibility review. So let me pause there and see if there's any questions about that. Council members. Right. Okay. Fourth one is there is no new news from FEMA. We still have a lot of loose ends with FEMA. I checked in with our Office of Emergency Management yesterday, and they haven't gotten any meaningful change in either payments or reduced data assistance. So I'll keep that on our agenda because there's still a lot of loose ends out there, not only about COVID, but about the big winter storm from two years ago. And I'll just keep you updated, but at this point, there's nothing new there. And I assume there would be no questions about no news. Please continue. Okay. So item five tomorrow the executive will transmit his COVID eight supplemental appropriation ordinance proposal to you. This is on the schedule that Councilmember Cole Wells has been discussing with her colleagues. I am not going to steal the executive's thunder, but I will tell you that about two thirds of it is money that is either federal or in a couple of cases, state money that is dedicated for a particular purpose. So I think you'll find that most of those are pretty straightforward and aren't going to raise a lot of questions. And so the other the focus, I think, frankly, for you is going to be on the other third, which is the money that is more flexible and can be used for multiple purposes. And as I think I mentioned to you a month ago, we received over three times as many requests from both county agencies and external partners for the amount of money that was available. So the executive had to make some very difficult choices in deciding what to fund and what not to fund. And I know you all understand that's going to be the same situation you're going to be in here starting tomorrow afternoon. So I just to give you a heads up, it turned out, frankly, pretty much as I expected in the sense of that was where all the discussion and focus was. And I think that will be the same as the PFM committee takes it up at council. And obviously more details will be available on that tomorrow. Thank you. All right. So let me move on to item six. And this is not really COVID related, but it's something that we've talked about before. So you're all aware that the state Supreme Court in the Blake decision threw out the drug possession statutes retroactively for 50 years. So there is a huge amount of work that will be required to resentence individuals to refund fines that they may have received, vacate convictions and so on. So on next Thursday, the 24th, the executive will be transmitting to you an ordinance that will appropriate funds to various departments to implement a plan that has been developed across the system to do that work. And so this has been a good cooperation between the courts, DPD, the prosecutor's office, and also setting up a mechanism where we'll have an account to refund these legal financial obligations once they are processed through the court. It's going to be a pretty large number of finalizing it right now. But I do think it reflects a coherent proposal that was developed by all the participants in the system. And I really want to thank them for coming together to come up with a way to do this as effectively as we can. As you know, the legislature set aside money in a couple of different places in the budget to help pay for these costs. We are working through the Association of Counties to have a voice in how that gets done. There's obviously lots of organizations and and groups that are trying to influence that. The judges defend their organizations, the public interest organizations. So it's going to be a complicated process at the state. And most of the money and certainly the most flexible money is being handled through the Administrative Office of the Courts. And so I want to just acknowledge that Barb Minor, who is the director of the Department of Judicial Administration, has been involved in all of those negotiations . I'm in touch with Barb all the time about this, as are our lawyers and the potential litigation around this. So we are actively working on it. There's still a lot and I'm not surprised. There's not a decision from the Administrative Office of the Courts about how they're going to allocate that money among counties. So it is likely, just as you all know, going to be some contention about that. So I will keep you posted on that. But I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that lots of folks at the county are actively involved in those negotiations and making sure our interests are reflected in Olympia as they have those conversations. So let me pause there and see if there's any Blake related questions. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the legal quicksand, in the ordinance you're going to get, there's a small amount of money, general fund money that we do not expect to get reimbursed, because it is for other sentencings that were authorized by the legislature in this last session, and they did not appropriate money for that. So as part of the plan where we've worked with the courts, prosecutor and public defense to make sure there's some resources for that as well. So I'm sorry to forget that in my presentation. Thank you. Thank you for all you're doing. And Parminder has worked very closely on a number of issues over the years with. So I'm glad that she's your partner on this. The black decision is huge and I have been on all the WhatsApp calls about this. My concern is that this is the camel's nose under the tent. If we can go back 50 years and have to repay all of this, what other legislation 50 years from now are they going to come back and say, now you need to redo all of this? So the uncertainty of there being no statute of limitations or whatever and the upheaval, especially in some of the smaller counties that are around the calls, is mind boggling. So I think as we go through this, we need to be looking at how this can be dealt with in the future as some kind of statute of limitations , because times do change. And what we believe, what we think, what we that don't respect whatever and going back and doing this is really a lot of work. I did see something where they talked about how many parties were going to need and each of the agencies are those 80 is going to be funded as part of this or how is that going to work? Yes. Council member. So the vast majority of what you're going to see next week when we transmit this ordinance is funding for additional staff, and we'll probably not do them as funds because this is a, you know, relatively short term thing. So they'll be term limited, temporary employees. But yes, we are going to need additional staff, the prosecutor's office and the courts and public defense. And so those are the bulk of what we are funding. A smaller amount is the actual amount of money that is estimated that we will have to refund to individuals. But yeah, the, the, the bulk of it, probably something like three quarters or more is going to be staffing costs. And is there interest on the back of reimbursements for former inmates? You should probably raise that with the prosecutor's office. At this point, the calculations assume no, there may well be a litigation around that that you might want to take up with prosecutor's office if you're interested in, you know, the issues and arguments around that particular issue. Great. Thank you. Because I've seen it both ways. Thank you, sir. Further questions. Back to the director. All right. And so my last point, I saved some of the news for the end. And some of you were where you probably got an email recently about the latest King County bond sale, which was some limited tax general obligation bonds. These are the bonds we sell with your approval that are not approved by the voters. And we sold $52 million of bonds that had an average duration or an average term of about 14 years. We got ten bids, which is great. I mean, there's a lot of interest in our in our bonds because they are triple-A rated. And just to share two really good pieces of information, the what's called the true interest cost. So you can think about it the as the average interest rate on the bonds was 1.895%. So we're borrowing money for 14 years and paying less than 2% interest. So despite all the news about inflation and that interest rates are still remarkably low. And the other good news is there is a market index that is used. You can see how your bonds compare to others. And because we don't have an income tax in Washington state, our interest rates are always a little higher than this index because people can't deduct the interest on it from their state income tax. And in this case, it was the narrowest, what's called spread, the narrowest difference between the index and our actual interest rate that we have ever had. And so that's another indicator of the market's interest in debt issued by King County, that they are even narrowing that that's spread that difference more than we've ever seen in the past . So I just want to congratulate everybody who was involved in working on that. We've got a really good team of folks in our finance and business operations division and in my office and in the departments that work on this. And again, that's saving a lot of money for our taxpayers and in this case for our solid waste ratepayers, because some of the debt was also associated with the Solid Waste Division. So I just wanted to share that good news with you and I'm happy to answer any other questions. But that was the end of the items I had for this morning. I was going to have good news. Colleagues, any questions? Dwight, I want to thank you very much and enjoy your trip to the market on Saturday. Okay, will do. Thank you very much. In a few weeks. Colleagues. That brings us to item six on the agenda, our annual briefing from representatives of Harborview Medical Center. The county's hospital will first be hearing from labor representatives from SEIU 1199 North Health Care Northwest, and from the Washington Federation of State Employees. Ask me Council 28. We have Jane Hopkins, R.N., executive vice president of SEIU Health Care, 1199 Northwest, and Katie Briney, R.N., also with 1199. And Mike Strunsky, President Washington Federation of State Employees, asked me, counselor, 28, here to provide the briefing. I'd ask you, I don't know who wanted to begin, but I'd ask you to take it from here. Mike, do you want to go first? Now I was going to defer to SEIU, so if you'd like to go ahead, Jeanne, and then I'll I'll finish up. Thank you. Look. Thank you very much for inviting me to speak today. I'm Jane Hopkins, executive vice president of SEIU 1199 Healthcare. And I'm a registered nurse and I was actually a nurse at Harborview for a long time. The more for this, over 200 2400 healthcare workers of SEIU at Harborview and the work they've done this year has been remarkable. Remarkable. You know, we a lot of times have been calling, you know, health care workers heroes of I would like to say that I think they've always been heroes. They've just it's just shown up a lot more this year. As caregivers at our county hospital, we serve this mission of mission population that we really care about. And this work cannot be replaced. Our members are Hubble, who were on the front line of the COVID pandemic. They've always been on the front lines, whether it's the duck of the duck accident, whether it's Ebola. And they also showed up this year during the COVID crisis. And what was really difficult this year, though, for all our members, is every single day when they came to work, they had to worry whether they going to go home and take the virus home. And, you know, that's going to kill their family members. What was really frustrating this year, too, is that they had to work with inadequate PPE, even though. Our members knew that. What the CDC and the state was saying about the virus was not true and that they needed the maximum amount of PPE. They still showed up when they didn't have adequate PPE. They brought their own PPE from home just so that they could look after patients. They stayed overnight in hotels. They stayed in garages to keep from exposing their families to COVID. They worked long, grueling hours, caring for the sickest patients. Our members were the last ones that COVID patients were dying were seen. They were there for those patients. Some of his bedside caregivers spent most of the last year at the bargaining table. They were not bargaining for a contract, but instead they were bargaining for basic protections they needed during COVID. Frontline workers who are asking who are asking for their lives to take care of the community during the pandemic. Only one universal access to 95 masks this spring, 14 months after the pandemic began. The COVID pandemic hit in the middle of a health worker shortage. For well over a decade, we have been talking about the nursing shortage. Now bedside workers are already walking short every single day. We know that there's burnout. We know that there is not enough staff to, you know, and our members so worked hard to make sure that they have, you know, that there was enough staffing in the hospital. We could not ignore this shortage anymore. The University of Washington, having a policy of philosophy of paying only 80% of the median has come. It is going to be detrimental. We have nurses and health care workers that are up to 20% behind area market because the state because of universal Washington has not treated the health care facilities, the hospitals as hospitals. They've been treating them as working in the upper campus. That cannot be. Wages are different in hospitals and we have to catch up. Um, we are asking we are in Berkeley right now and we, it's really important that we have these, the things that we asking for. We need to continue to recruit and retain our workers. We are so behind on wages that we cannot they cannot recruit and retain. There needs to be COVID relief. I know that the hospital and the University of Washington had up to $24 million donated by different. Philanthropy's saying that they need that this money needed to go to heroes. Our members have not singing about money. They need heroes. Bonus. They need heroes. Pay. They also need time off. They have not been able to take time off. They are tired. They are frustrated. We need to create a way so that nurses and health care workers can take time off. We need to continue to create a culture of belonging. Yes. The proposals on the table are a lot. We are asking for a lot, but that's because the University of Washington has continued to underpay workers over the last few years. This is an opportunity for them to make it right so that if workers and nurses are considering whether to go to Swedish or whether to go to Harborview, that will choose Harborview because that is the number one trauma center. We need to continue to need staff. Over the last contract at Harborview Costs the university 22 million over two years. Over that period, Harborview has spent over 30 million. On travelers to fill staffing gaps. 30 million. In recent years, Harborview has received over 55 million in ongoing state assistance, in part because of the work joint work that we've done together as a union and in King County. Harborview has received over 85 million in federal COVID financial assistance through the CARES Act and Medicare advancement payments. And an additional 24 million was donated to the UW Medicine, Djokovic emerged as heroes. I think you'll agree that the frontline health workers are the heroes of COVID. Meanwhile, despite initial financial challenges in the COVID crisis, Hobbled is currently outperforming its projected revenue margin and has the highest number of days of days cash on hand in recent history. We are also asking, we know that Hubble view and the universe and the universe, he can afford to have safe staffing. They can afford to have safe staffing up a meal, a rest break as required, and pay wages and benefits that will recruit and retain workers in a county hospital. There is a law that's been passed expanding protections for mandatory overtime to other other healthcare workers. All we ask is that management apply the same rules to those workers as they do to the nurses. Caregivers are burnt out and have a Harborview, but I believe there's room for hope. Our members have made a time to volunteer for the campaign for Harborview Levy. Winning over billions of dollars for necessary capital improvement. There has been a great relationship between our union and management through. But that is not reflected during the daily experience of our members at Harborview. The members are deeply committed to the mission of Harborview and they want more than anything to be able to afford it. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak today, and I'm going to pass it over to Katie. Thank you, Katie. I thank you so much, Jane. Good morning. My name is Katie Bray. Katie, why the r e h e? I've been a nurse at Harborview the last 14 years. Thank you so much for letting me speak on behalf of myself and my coworkers while we bargain our contract that will affect our working conditions and livelihood. But most importantly, this will have impacts on how patient care is delivered and patient outcomes. I've spent my entire career at Harborview because I truly believe in the mission. I believe in serving my community, and I believe in providing the best care to the most vulnerable. It's difficult for me to reflect on the last two years from when we bargained our last contract. What has become evident is that years of paying below market wages, the increasing cost of living and the COVID pandemic have magnified health care worker shortages and exposed vulnerabilities in the health care system, where staff worried about basic safety needs , such as whether we would have enough teaching. E At the start of the pandemic, there was so much unknown. The fear is always present, even to this day as we work. Early on, Harborview Nurse was exposed to COVID by a patient and died. Another nurse younger than myself was hooked to ventilator on her own unit that had been turned into the COVID ICU and had to have her own coworkers take care of her. As a nurse, I've had patients die. It's part of the job and I've had more patients die this last two years than my entire nursing career. There were shifts where we ran out of body bags. I had a coworker that got evicted from her rental when the owner found out that she was taking care of COVID patients. She briefly slept in her truck. Thankfully, she was able to stay in the free hotel rooms actually made possible by this council. And we truly thank you for that. And we did all of this during the pandemic while being short staffed in the staffing shortages have continued. I'm also on the Nursing's Nurse Staffing Committee, where a four month audit last summer revealed that every single day the ICU or short staffed basic needs, such as getting a sip of water going to the bathroom, are difficult. One staff member urinated in a cup in a COVID realm because there was no one to give her a break and safely a sister to accept. Another coworker afraid of having to do this just didn't drink water and didn't go to the bathroom and ended up getting a UTI. Staff ended up wearing counterfeit and 95 masks and COVID positive rooms for hours, and this happened over a period of over a month. We've been hailed heroes and then had to apply for unemployment when Harborview instituted furloughs. And I could go on and on with these stories. Staff are burnt out. Many have sought out counseling and other mental health services. We have proposals to ensure we can afford mental health services and have the time off we need to recover. I've still yet to see my family since the pandemic, and it's been over a year and a half. Staff from Quest, the inpatient rehab unit who a large proportion identify themselves as people of color and immigrants, are still fighting for a break. Nurse. They are the only acute care unit at Harborview that does not have a break. Nurse. Nurses on that unit have described how it feels that as a person of color, you have to work so much harder to have your work respected and that it feels like Harborview doesn't value their contributions to patient care. We want this contract to honor the work that Far West does by giving them a break nurse giving them breaks. We also need break nurses in the emergency room in ICUs. We want this contract to fix the equitable pay structures where, for example, nurses are given a bigger pay differential for working night shifts and, say, our radiology technician or respiratory therapist, even though we're making the same sacrifice to our body. We really are striving to address inequities, racial discrimination, and uplift inclusion in our workplace. Despite some normalcy returning like we even heard just a bit ago. Health care workers at Harborview can. Need to be stretched thin. We're still fighting a pandemic or still. And on top of trying to meet the needs of patients where even before COVID. Harborview runs at 100% capacity most of the time. You don't needs to show they respect their workers by investing in safe staffing. And that means for all of us at Harborview, not just nurses. There's many staffing shortages in all job classes. We brought forward proposals months ago to fix staffing from incentive shifts pre-scheduled overtime. Hosting more permanent FTE is rather than relying on travelers that you just painted 2 to 3 hour times than their own staff. As you just heard from Jane Harborview will continue to lose their most precious, precious resource, which is the staff as these unsafe staffing practices persist and low wages that cannot keep up with Seattle's rising cost of living staff are actually the heart of her review, and yet we have felt undervalued and disposable. This is truly a patient safety issue. Tonight, I'm working overtime because there are not enough trained staff to take care of the COVID patients. Ekman is a machine that basically provides lung bypass for our sickest COVID patients. I worked last night. I held an iPad over my patient who's battling COVID so his wife could speak with him over Zoom, even though he can't speak back. They're not originally from the U.S., but have over time built a life here. He's not even 40 years old. His wife cried and told him that he had to make it because they were living the American dream. How? They have two kids, a dog, a cat, and that he has to come home to her new home to her in the new house they just bought. I'm exhausted. And as much as I want a night off, I couldn't say no. Because this is who Harborview is, is truly meant to serve. But this is not sustainable. We need to do better for the workers at Harborview and our community. I believe we all have the same shared goals, and that's why I stay at Harborview. But we need your help. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Mr.. Mr.. Yesterday Romney. Thank you, Mike. Yes, Stransky. I'll spend my last name as y tr am a sky, and I'm the president of Ask Me Council 28 Washington Federation of State Employees. And first off, Katie, that. That was powerful that, you know, I'm just I'm kind of at a loss for words as far as what to say after that. But yeah, but again, so we represent the the Washington Federation of State Employees, quite a few employees at the hospital, job classes, a wide range of classes up to and including, you know, our food service, our EBS custodial service, all of these folks that as Jane and Kelly both said. Throughout the course of this pandemic, we've been hearing how, you know, their heroes and their are essential. And I think that no one would argue that they were heroes and that they were essential. They were essential to us, you know, getting through this pandemic that we're we're still in the middle of. You know, they were really what kept the hospital in and, you know, sort of Seattle and King County as a whole running through all of this, you know, continuing to show up to work. Every day, as both Katie and Jane had said, you know, working double shifts, not seeing their family. And, you know, despite the danger, despite all of the physical and mental toll that it has taken on them, understanding that, you know, it was about society, it was about our community and the greater good and doing what needed to be done again for their patients and for our community. And. They need to be applauded for that. But not just applauded and not just with platitudes, not just with words, but we continue to have folks who, again, are incredibly overworked, are incredibly underpaid, you know, still struggling to get the adequate PPE that they need, even though it's been over a year at this point. You know, and again, we have a large amount of. Folks out here who publicly want to talk about, you know, we we respect the workers and we appreciate them by when push comes to shove, the actions aren't there. There's a. Latin phrase that, you know, a lot of people have used that I like to look back on it's opera nonverbal, you know, which means deeds, not words. So. You know, again, I I think we all appreciate again, the nice words. We all appreciate the, you know, signs on the busses saying how great they are and how much we respect them as workers. But again, the reality is that needs to be action behind it. Folks need to be able to. You know, live and pay their basic necessities. As others have mentioned, is no one on this call from the meeting is unaware. King County is incredibly expensive. It's an incredibly expensive place to live. And as others have said, I have members within our union who we're going to work working hours again as custodians and other maintenance folks who during the pandemic, you know, again, lost their home. You know, some of them, again, their marriages fell apart. All of their kids got sick, yet they continued to go to work to serve the community and. I just cannot emphasize enough the need for us to other than this this body, to truly put our money where our mouth is and really show the people the respect that we we say they deserve. They need to see it. They need to feel it. And that is up to all of you to make that happen. Thank you. I want to thank all three of you and through thanking you, all of your members for the work that you have done and your members have provided the care your members have provided at Harborview, particularly over the last year, historically as well. And my Hopkins, thank you also for serving on the president's advisory committee on COVID 19 and that you were appointed to in December. I very much appreciate the dedication of all of the staff at Harborview to caring for people within our health care hospital. And I particularly want to underscore and recognize Miss Hopkins for COVID as far as the toll the work over the last year has taken. In fact, I was having a conversation with Dennis Wilson, the interim director of public health, recently about the need to, as we think we come out of the pandemic, to make sure that we also take care of the people who have been staffing so heavily over the last year and make sure that they're able to take care of themselves and reconnect with family. As we've heard as well, colleagues questions for our Liberal Labor panelists Council member Cole Wells. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'd like to thank everybody for coming and speaking with us today, but also imparting to us all the stresses and strains and everything that you've been going through and your colleagues as well. I do have a question of Katy Perry. Not sure if I'm pronouncing Green's last name correctly. Yes, that's correct. And she came. And you mentioned when you were speaking about one of the nurses, you know, having been infected from her rental because the landlord found out that she was working with COVID patients. Correct. Indeed. Any more information on that about was she given notice in advance or how that actually happened? I find that very distressful. She was renting a room in a house and the homeowner that she was renting the room from was very fearful of catching COVID herself. And this coworker owns a truck and she briefly slept in her truck in the garage at Harborview. And then, luckily again, thank you so much. When the hotel rooms became free for health care workers, she was able to take advantage of that. And and also, you know, as health care workers at the start of the pandemic, we didn't know a lot about COVID either. And this coworker also was also afraid she didn't want to expose her landlord to COVID because you just didn't know much about it. So. She was willing to to sleep in her truck to protect this member of the community as well, and that included her landlord. Thank you for relating that. And I can understand in a way that landlords living in the same hall where it's a little different than having the tenant in a separate apartment, certainly. But it really points to the the huge amounts of challenges and difficulties that so many of our essential workers, including frontline health care workers, had to experience over the year. Thank you. Thank you. Lambert. Lambert. Thank you. I, too, want to thank you for your sacrifices that humanity that came also. So my question, as we continue to hear these problems year after year, I'm wondering, is there not a salary grid like the county? We have a ten step program, not program that lays out your abilities and your years of service. And so you know what your salary is going to be. Is there nothing like that so that there is some continuity and some predictability? Could you tell me how they do this? Yes. So we do have a salary. We have a a grid. It's years of experience which as unions, we've worked very hard for that. The problem is they are below market rates. So, yes, there's transparency. You can go online and you can have a look and say, hey, as I have of your nurse, I'm a five year nurse. I'm at the step. The only problem is like when you look at Swedish or you look at the other hospitals and you look at their steps, you are maybe anything between 7 to 16% behind. And so as a worker, I wouldn't want to go. I mean, I want to go wagons. I'm going to get paid more. Right? You know, even though, you know, Harborview is, you know, unique workers can work here. Right. So, yes, there is the grid. But the thing is, the university has always used they've got this value that the only they can pay up to 80% below the median. So very. So they're way below. Right. So people are places where people make less. In the past six years where hospitals were paying 3 to 4% every year, Harborview goes with what the state pays and they were getting 2%, 2%. So over the years, they have their behind. So because of that philosophy, they're so behind now that it's very hard for them to recruit a retain. Mean for asking the next question, but is there a part in your contract that talks about how often you need to do a market comparison? We can do it at any time in which we have, you know, it's like we've had these conversations. It's like we don't come to bargaining and all of a sudden it's a surprise. Right. We talk about it all of the time. But the reluctance of the University of Washington to really. Do something different for the upper campus than it is for the health care industry makes it really difficult. We compare ourselves to other hospitals. We don't compare ourselves to, you know, other universities. Right. And so when you look in the area and you look at what the other hospitals are paying, you have a beast way behind because of that all across the board. Thank you very much for. Colleagues further questions. I want to thank again each of you and by doing so, convey thanks and appreciation to your members for the work you do for the people of King County and beyond in providing care at the county's hospital. Harborview. And value ongoing relationships and conversation with you in this work. And now we turn to a presentation from the board chair and interim CEO. And we have Stephanie Fain, the president of the Review Board of Trustees. In summary, Covenant Wiley, the interim CEO of Harborview to provide a presentation. And this is her review's annual report to the King County Council. Good morning and welcome. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to go ahead and share my screen if you are okay with that. Please. Is that showing or. No, it is not. Okay. You seem to have permission to do it. We can certainly make you ask the court to make sure you have permission to do it to me. Help me! Help me. Okay, hold on 1/2 here. We've had some glitches this morning with this. No worries whatsoever. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Chair, something is wrong with the share screen mode here. Yeah. I'm sorry. I understand that meeting in a dry run. Yeah. Was you planning on showing the slides? Because we've got them. Yeah. Maybe I'll just. Maybe I'll just let you. If this doesn't work here, that's a really good option here. Yeah, I think depending upon where you want to start, it looks like certainly around slide ten. Oh, it's what you see now. Yes. Yes. Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. Let me back up here. Oh, right. Does that work? Does that work, Mr. Chair? Yes, it does. Okay. All right. Thank you. So I'd like to start out this morning by introducing myself. My name is Summer Clavin and Wally. I am the interim chief executive officer here at Harborview Medical Center. I've had the very unique privilege, though, of being not only a leader here at Harborview, but also a clinician at Harborview. Over the last 24 years or so, as as Katie said, Harborview is is near and dear to my heart. And the mission is something I lived by. I'd also like to start off by pausing for a minute and acknowledging the that the remarks and the and the comments by our labor partners this morning. I absolutely agree with you that the pandemic has been unprecedented. And Harborview has done an incredible has played an incredible role in the community because of our staff, because of the sacrifices they have made and because of their incredible dedication to this community and to the mission that Harborview serves as part of this community. I also have very much appreciated the partnership that I that you have Medicine Harborview and in particular myself have experienced with our labor partners throughout this pandemic. I know myself as being the incident commander for use of medicine during the during the height of the pandemic. Was able to sit across the table from our labor partners and really talk about things that were happening in real time and how we could best partner together to ensure we were not only providing that critical care to our patient population, but also ensuring the safety and well-being of our staff. The pandemic was, as I said, unprecedented, and it was something that really brought everyone together. And that is something I'm very proud of. In addition to myself presenting today, Stephanie Fain, our Board of Trustees president, will also be speaking at the end of my overview of the current Harborview Stage, and she will give a board report and update. So you'll be hearing from her a little bit later. So today I want to talk a little bit about a few really key things, and I want to make sure I cover them all. But if you have questions as I go along, don't hesitate to stop me. Or we can we can wait to the end. I'm flexible either way. So again, as I've said before, we are really living through the greatest public health crisis of our lifetimes. And never has it been more important or has it been more clear of Harborview, whose mission of providing health care to the most vulnerable than it has been during this pandemic and the success of that mission and the success of how we have come through this pandemic together is really because of our partnerships with many organizations and entities that support Harborview. So first of all, I'd like to thank each and every one of you, not only for your support during the pandemic, but also for your support of our bond and the process. I'd also like to thank our King County executive, the King County voters, our faculty and staff, our Board of trustees, and then also once again, our labor partners who who work with me very closely to ensure that our staff have voices and to ensure that we take care of the staff that help deliver on the mission. So a huge thank you to everyone. And in particular, I would like to remark on something that Jane said. Jane, I can't thank all of the unions enough for that partnership during the bond process. What we were able to accomplish together was incredible. And we're going to talk a little bit more about the bond and where we are with that. But what that provides for the future of Harborview and the future of our community and the residents of this county is beyond all of our dreams. So I just really wanted to pause and thank everybody for that. So if we talk a little bit about the bond, I know you'll be getting a full update soon on this from the director of the project, Leslie Harper Miles. But I just wanted to give a kind of a brief update on where we are from a B perspective and how we're really partnering well with the county to ensure that this is going to be an incredibly successful process. So right now, we are working very closely with the county who is doing an incredible job on ensuring that we get together an 18 to 24 month project plan that focuses on setting up the foundational elements of what we need to have in place in order to successfully execute on these bond funded activities. We have worked really closely on not only the planning and sequencing of how this will roll out to ensure operational needs will not be impacted at all. So Harborview will continue to fulfill its mission and its important role throughout not only the county, the state and the region as level one trauma center. We also have established, with the help of Leslie Hopper, Miles and Kelly Carroll, the Bond Program Oversight Committee, which is something that will be part of how Harborview and the county will collaborate with both. The president of UW Medicine, Lisa Brandenburg, and myself will sit on that and help facilitate and collaborate to ensure that we have a successful project throughout this. As we move forward with the bond, we will continue to see how we will work into a place where we are developing more community engagement and small business plans, developing and sequencing options for how we're going to do the pre-designed elements and how we're going to design the buildings. That design will be really important from a perspective of the clinical care that Harborview will need to provide in the future in order to remain financially viable, but also to really be able to deliver on the mission we are so dedicated to providing. So we all talk a little bit more about that today as I move through these slides as a key function of this, as the county is driving the bond process from a facility standpoint, Harborview and Madison are in parallel working really closely with our Board of Trustees on a clinical strategic planning process. So really looking at our key strategic service lines, how they're performing and what we need to do to position Harborview in the future in order to ensure that as we bring these these new capital buildings online, we have the necessary funds to support them, and that we also continue to have the necessary funds and infrastructure to be able to provide the mission to our population. We are doing all of this, though, with a very strong focus on equity, diversity and inclusion. And part of that is really looking at how we look into the future to ensure everything we do here at Harborview has an equity overlay to it all the decision making processes we are doing, the clinical programing, how we build, but also how we serve and provide clinical care. And one of the important things we're doing is looking at what our community needs is and and listening to our stakeholders. What do they need from Harborview? What do they need from a care perspective, and how best can that be delivered? That's something we learned a lot about throughout the pandemic and something I'll talk a little bit. More about. When we talk about how we approach testing and vaccination efforts, really thinking about how Harborview can can continue to provide that mission in maybe a different way, where communities need us to go to them more than having them come to us. One of the other really important things that we are working on right now at Harborview is an interim plan to provide more capacity for single patient rooms. Now, this is something I know you've heard about in the past and and continue to hear about. And our labor partners are very active in communicating about this also, which is a need for additional single patient bed, single patient rooms that can provide better clinical care for our patients that have infectious diseases and and then also be able to provide better clinical care for other patients that are in the hospital as as we've talked about in the past. Harborview provides exemplary care in a very challenging environment. So many of our rooms still are double patient rooms. And oftentimes when we have patients that have infectious diseases, we no longer can use the bed next to that patient. So it limits the amount of beds we actually have. Never was this more prevalent for us than during and during this. We are working currently on taking two floors that currently are occupied by clinics in our mailing building and moving them over to the MJB building where there currently is it infrastructure in that IT infrastructure is moving out? We will be moving the clinics into the MJB building with a very strong focus on really trying to deliver an ambulatory plan from that perspective that looks at equity and patient experience, along with strategic planning for the for the feasibility and sustainability of Harborview into the future. As part of that, though, what we have done or what we will be doing is opening up two entire floors within the mailing building that are scheduled for inpatient care. We will then build those into 40 new single patient rooms that will be state of the art rooms. So a little bit of a bridge to a future of a new build, an inpatient building where we have all single patient rooms. But this 40 patient rooms will will be a really huge benefit from both a clinical and a quality of care perspective, but also from a staff and provider satisfaction perspective. This is being funded with 75 million from Harborview, and our project plan is well underway and the county is partnering with us on this and we look forward to seeing that within the next two years. That transition a little bit to our COVID 19 response. And I would like to reiterate something that that Katie mentioned, that the pandemic may be slowing down and perhaps doesn't seem as real out on the streets and in the community as it did at the height of it and during the surge. But to staff and leaders and providers at Harborview, it is still very real and very present. We continue to provide care to the sickest of the critically, critically ill patients, and that continues to take a toll on our staff. And that is something that I'd like to to frame today and have everybody recognize that although the numbers are slowing down, the people that are sick currently are still very sick and require a lot of specialized care from our providers and staff. During this pandemic, Harborview has played a huge leading role. Our commitment to caring for the vulnerable has never been more prominent, and providing equitable care was something we we really never lost sight of. And we are very, very proud of that. And that is seen through how we how we responded initially, how we worked with Seattle King County Public Health on and other community agencies on testing and growth and also vaccination delivery. The initial response, if we think back to March and April, Harvey played a huge role. We were the first in North America actually to have strike teams that went into patients homes. And I have a picture here of Dr. John Lynch, who was at the forefront of this pandemic for you to have medicine, but also for the state at the state level, really trying to help drive not only real time changes to how we were responding as a community and as a health care community, but also writing policies and procedures that we were putting out nationally. So other health care facilities across the country were able to gain and benefit from the experience we were having here. Things were changing rapidly as we were learning about this disease. But Harborview was really a was really a source of information for the rest of the country. We mobilized very quickly to set up testing resources that were really focused on vulnerable populations. We implemented surge plans, as you can see, by one of these pictures. You see the respiratory tent we mobilized very quickly outside of the city. And the other thing that we did that was is is still very, very much in play was we developed in coordination with several other agencies, including the Northwest Health Care Response Network, the Washington Medical Coordination Center. That's something that we run here through Harborview and at Harborview, and that is set up and staffs the transfer of any patient with COVID throughout the state. So when when the state becomes at risk, so different area hospitals, whether they're rural or large facilities or if they're nursing homes or prisons, etc., were the first call to help ensure that we find a safe place that has the capability to place patients in. That doesn't mean they all come to you. That medicine. What it means is the state has placed trust in Harborview to be that that decision making point from our providers to decide where best to place patients. So we have equal distribution and no one area takes a bigger burden and we avoid any type of situation like happened in New York. Very important function that remains very busy even to date, even with lower COVID numbers. As we moved from the surges and the testing and started to see light in the winter, kind of around the first of the year, it became very obvious that vaccines were on the horizon and there was some hope and there was hope to providers, there was help to staff, and there was hope to leadership in the community . Our vaccine delivery has been very, very successful. In fact, from a UDV medicine perspective, I believe in the city of Seattle, we've provided 16% of all vaccinations that have occurred in the city. So and a lot of those have occurred at Harborview. In fact, you see in this picture here, the 100,000 vaccine that was done for use of medicine was given at Harborview. And this was a picture from that day that we celebrated. We took the vaccine program and really looked at our delivery from a partnership perspective and an equity perspective, really looking at how we support our most vulnerable populations. Those are that are homeless, limited English Bipoc How do we ensure that we don't just fall into the same trap that the rest of the country was falling in where vaccinations were going, to those that had the most resources, who had technology to call and schedule appointments, who have the ability to get to facilities and to maneuver to figure out how best to get a vaccine. The way we did this was to look at a three pronged approach mobile vaccine teams, community vaccination clinics and hospital based specialized clinics at Harborview that really focused on specialized communities. We did that through community partnerships such as the different health boards that Harborview is very active with. We also had a very strong partnership with Public Health, Seattle and King County and the city of Seattle, along with a lot of different community based organizations and foundations. And that's one of the biggest lessons we've taken away, is that working more with our community based organizations that really help us provide the care to the communities that need us, but also those community organizations that give us feedback about how we're doing, providing care to their their populations of individuals and how best we can partner with them to entrust in the health care system. And in and in providing or in, in, in providers has been really key. Those populations often do trust in Harborview, but this was even more substantial in that we were able to really partner to think about how best to deliver and to provide education so people felt comfortable getting something like this brand new vaccination that was so foreign and scary to a lot of us. I'm going to show a quick video as long as it works of a Frontline video that was taken of one of our mobile vaccination programs. This was specific to a Paul Allen Family Foundation donation that we were given. We've also had a lot of other donations that medicine helped us procure, particularly from the Mariners also. But I want to pause and show this because I think it really gives light to how we've been out in the community and working. Right out of the gate with this pandemic, we saw youth of medicine respond quickly to this pandemic. We have been a partner of theirs for some time now. And so it was an easy decision to make to work with you, Deb, have medicine to on testing, on vaccine delivery and to start thinking about how we can respond to the needs of our community. All right, my dear. Here we go. One, two and three, four. The Paul Allen Foundation has been extremely supportive during the different phases of the pandemic. Early on, they provided support for us to set up our mobile COVID 19 testing program, and more recently, they're really supporting our efforts in terms of jumpstarting and developing the infrastructure for our mobile vaccination program, which is your first dose. And yes, our community and here in Washington is staying. At six times. The rate is the worst rate out of any community. There's so many linguistic, cultural and technology, technological barriers. And without partnerships like this, it's literally a life and death situation. All right. You're back. Hi. Yesterday. I get to hug my family again and I'm waiting to do that. I've been waiting to do that for a long time. And I wanted to be safe. I wanted to be smart. And I'm ready. We're starting to see a glimmer of hope through the increase in vaccine distribution. I think by closing this vaccine equity gap will begin to close the darkest chapter on this pandemic. Okay. So I think that video kind of tells it all looks okay. I'm going to transition from our COVID response, which was pretty much most of what we've done over the last year into the future of Harborview and really thinking about how we come out of this pandemic with the bright future of having this this capital infusion that comes to us through all the partnerships you provided us with the bond, but really thinking about how we positioned Harbor Harborview to ensure that we can continue to do what we did during the pandemic, do what we do every day and do what we do. What you've seen through that video. We are working very closely and in collaboration with our Board of trustees and whether you have medicine on analyzing our clinical programs, in particular on level one trauma status, to really think about how we position ourselves. However, I want to emphasize we are doing all of this without losing focus on our mission and on the on the real reason we're here in ensuring that equity, diversity and inclusion is part of all the decision making we do at Harborview. From a clinical program perspective, one of the things I wanted to share with you guys today is a little bit about how we at Harborview maintain financially viable. We have. 324 primary services that help ensure we can deliver on the mission throughout the region. Orthopedics. We really capitalize on our incredible surgical talent. Neurosciences. We're really working on utilizing our expertize to do new things like developing and marketing a brain aneurysm center that will be coming online this fall. From a cardiology perspective, we're really looking at how we grow our cardiac procedural capacity, really with this service line to support our mission population from a cardiac perspective. We are primarily a footprint for mission populations, those of which that are the most vulnerable in our community. And we want to be able to, here at Harborview, ensure we can provide all of the procedural support that they need so they can continue to deploy to receive health care in the place that they feel the most comfortable. And then from a spine perspective, we're really looking at how we can expand our surgical spine footprint to help ensure that Harborview is able to maintain a margin moving into the future. I'm going to talk a little bit more about this in a minute, but I wanted to pause and think about and provide an update on one of our key service lines that provides an incredible support system to our community and to the King County residents. And that's our Behavioral Health Institute, something that we are extremely proud of here at Harborview. You've probably heard in the news over the last several weeks or months that we were very popular during the legislative session, and that's something that we are very proud of, how we were able to procure $5.5 million in partnership with the Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium in the Washington Council for Behavioral Health, our SEIU 1199 Multi-employer Training Fund and the Workforce Training Education Coordinating Board, along with the King County and and the executive's office. This money will be utilized to really help build infrastructure, to train a behavioral health workforce that is so desperately needed in our area and in our community. We have also been given 2.8 million to improve the crisis diversion system, so to really work at the state level. Harborview was named in HB 1477 as the facilitator of this statewide work group, which is quite an honor and something that we are working very quickly and very in-depth in order to get ourselves positioned to start this work in July. You'll also see other moneys came to us to really look at developing curriculum through our chief for law enforcement and correctional officers, in particular, in how they interact with mental health patients who experience mental health crises in the community. And also, really, we have a portion of money where we're going to really look at how to evaluate behavioral health inequities. So really looking from an equity lens on the behavioral health infrastructure we have for care and how that's not serving well all populations. I hesitate a little bit putting this into a single slide as this really is something that we do and and believe in throughout all activities we do at Harborview. But I wanted to pay, you know, give a little bit of special attention to the fact that at Harborview we are advancing equity in patient care across across the system, actually, not just at Harvey Bell's that you have medicine. We have built a blueprint that provides tactics for each year, not only that are focused on how we ensure we are moving Harborview into a world in which the institutional racism that has always existed in in large, large systems and large companies, we start to break down those. Board those. Borders and we start to break down those. Walls. To correct that, such as looking at policies and procedures, strengthening relationships with our partners and our bipoc populations, but also fostering a workplace where we really support our staff and ensure that they feel safe, respected and supported. Lastly, we're really looking at different equity measures to ensure that the care we deliver is equitable and fair, no matter who the patient is walking in through the doors. Thank. Lastly today, I want to give us an overview of trauma and really talk about how crucial trauma is to everything we've talked about today. And I know I know, Harborview, we are known for being a level one trauma center, but I don't think we always do a good job of explaining it. How important being the level one trauma center is to Harborview and is to our ability to continue to provide all the other services we provide, including our primary care and behavioral health to our vulnerable populations. So we are in extremely high volume, high acuity, level one adult and pediatric trauma and burn center. Because of this, we have incredible critical care expertize. We have incredible expertize in surgical neuro medical burns and pediatric and cardiac. The reason why we are so good is because we get a high volume of patients, because we are the only level one in a four day radius. So our physicians are surgeons, our staff, our nurses, our respiratory therapists. They get a lot of practice at doing trauma. And that is why our outcomes nationally are known at being over, that we are part of the top 10% of outcomes for trauma, which is unheard of. We have incredible outcomes here and we should all be very proud of that and how we serve our region. However, the trauma system in itself is being looked at right now at the state level. So currently the trauma system was designed to be inclusive with a single level one, but regional level two, three, four and five programs to cover suburban and rural areas across the state. The Secretary of Health determines a minimum and maximum number for how many trauma systems exist in our state, and that has been historically based on population and geographic need. The distribution of these trauma centers and the dealing of these trauma centers is all under the purview of the Secretary of Health. If you look at this, you'll see where Harborview sits and the corridor of which we've built infrastructure to ensure that you do have level twos distributed across. If you note, the middle of the state doesn't have as many, it doesn't have as much robust infrastructure. But you have medicine. With our airlift, Northwest presence has really ensured that we continue to provide the same support and outcomes for patients of trauma that live in this part of the state by our Airlift Northwest program. So by our helicopter program that that brings patients within record time into Harborview to be treated. So currently Department of Health is looking at methodologies to relook at how designations are done and if there should be more level one or level two trauma centers within the state. The current goals for that new methodology for Min Max is looking at, and it's something we're supporting, is looking at providing access to a level one or two trauma care program for 95% of the population in Washington within 60 minutes of injury. And this is how this is best practice standard and also supported by the outcomes you see at a national level. We want to ensure, though, by balancing the fact that you still need that great level of volume coming into a certain into into limited numbers of facilities to ensure that your staff and your physicians have enough practice to remain at top of their game. So we want to ensure and the state wants to ensure optimal patient outcomes by maintaining the volume of injured patients in currently well-performing level one and two centers. One of the things I want to stress today is although this is being discussed at the state level and being relooked at, Harborview and Utah Medicine have been extremely active in this work. We have people sitting at the table as part of our trauma leadership at the state level. We are also actively engaged in discussions with the Secretary of Health around this. But I did want to make sure that everybody here on on on this call, as I'm giving you an update at Harborview, understands that trauma support, about a third of Harborview population and inpatient population at any given time is is brought to us through trauma. And that feeds those service lines that are most key to our financial sustainability for Harborview and those service lines that provide the benefits to the rest of our ability to provide on the mission. We're about a $1 billion organization and we shoot for a 1% margin, so about 10 to 11 million every year for a bottom line of that. We know that any time there's a percentage in shift of volume or market share in trauma, that's about 2.7 million to $3 million for Harborview. So not only is is is the fact that trauma is the level one good for the the fact that Harborview is a level one trauma center, good for the region because of the quality outcomes we provide. Being in the top 10% of the country, it's also vitally important for our ability to continue to provide the mission and the other resources we give to the residents of King County. I'm going to pause there before I turn it over to Stephanie to see if you have any questions regarding that. I really wanted to make sure that I, I provided that update. Thank you for the presentation from the interim CEO. We'll look forward to hearing from Ms.. Fain. Are there questions at this point in the presentation? We we do want to hear from this thing. And we have one more item on today's agenda. Hello. Council members. Hello. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. What do I call you as the executive summary right now? Thank you so much for for being here. And that presentation was awesome. Really great to see all the amazing work that Harborview is doing. I wanted to ask a little bit more about the comments that we heard from the labor partners. I completely understand how COVID has exacerbated the situation, but we know that the issues that they brought up are new to this year. They've been saying this for many years now. Can you speak to us a little bit about what the plan is to ensure that next year, even as the pandemic wanes and we return back to whatever normal looks like that, they won't be back making the same comments before us at this committee this time next year. What is that plan to address those issues in a way that is different from how we've addressed it in the past? Thank you, Councilmember, and it's nice to see you again. So I appreciate that question. I think I know we are all committed, but I am very committed to ensuring that our staff feel heard and feel appreciated. I would say one of the first things we're doing is ensuring that we have a very collaborative and fair collective bargaining process. Right now we are doing that with our labor partners. 1199 and they'll be further bargaining with our other labor partners as we move forward. But I am very committed, as we all are, to ensuring that there are fair wages and fair proposals that are done and that in that process. What I would say, though, is Harborview is very focused on recruitment and retaining staff, as we know, and as you're going to continue to hear, staffing shortages are going to be a real problem in not only health care, but you're also hearing it in all other types of industries. But it is going to be a huge problem post-pandemic. Health care workers are tired. Health care workers are needing breaks. And that has led to many deciding to leave the field and or meaning deciding to go into other fields. And that's something that all health care industries are facing right now. We spend a great deal of time working on strategies like recruitment, bonuses, retention bonuses that are going that are given to staff. However, I think some of that some of that is going to work. COUNCILMEMBER But some of it is going to have to be because Harborview is the place to work. We are the employer of choice. And we do that because we provide a safe. Equitable workplace that people want to work for. Right. And that's something I'm committed to. And I'm committed to continuing to listen to the staff, listen to our labor partners and find ways to to to improve that, to continue to dismantle things that make them feel like there are barriers to that. So I think it's a combination of both fair wages and recruitment and retention strategies, but also building a structure in which we have psychological safety at Harborview and we have a place where people want to work. One of the ways I feel very proud that we did that during the pandemic was ensuring that even though we did have a furlough process, we did not furlough employees that made under a certain amount of money. We were very careful to protect protect our lower paid employees because we knew a furlough in those areas would cause a lot of a lot of the things we were talking about, where people were going to lose homes, people were going to lose an ability to have a car, etc.. So I think those are the types of things companies committed to, and that's what I'm committed to continuing to ensure we take into account. Thank you so much, Summer. Really, really appreciate that. And whenever we have time understanding the ways that the Council can be helpful in those efforts in really specific ways would be awesome. Yeah. For I know for myself and many of my colleagues, but the protection and happiness of Harborview staff is our top priority. So whatever we can do to support that, please do let us know. Thank you. Thank you. And I've already appreciate your partnership. It was wonderful seeing you at the vaccination event and being able to talk with staff there with you at my side. So I really appreciate that, Councilmember. Thank you so much. I don't see any other questions at this time. Mr. in northern costumes. And this time, Stephanie, please. Sure. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair. And committee members. First, I'd like to start by reiterating Summers statements about the importance of our labor partners. The Board greatly appreciates our employees dedication to Harborview Mission and the citizens of King County, particularly during this last incredibly challenging year. We recognize that it is their expertize and their compassion that make Harborview a trusted provider of care in our community and a model of high quality care nationally, and that we are grateful. As trustees, we have no formal role in labor negotiations, but we do believe that it is our role to listen to our employees, and that is a role that we take seriously. We also bear our employees concerns in mind as we discuss employee related issues as a board. So I wanted to extend a special thank you to Jean, Katie and Mike for sharing today. My role as board president started in January, and I have already had an opportunity to meet with many council members over the last few months to provide board updates or discuss opportunities for Harborview. But I again wanted to share the board's appreciation for your unanimous support of the Harbor View bond measure last year. This project will mean so much to our patients, caregivers, community, and particularly to our mission population. As you heard from Sommer, our board is already doing quite a bit of heavy lifting this year by evaluating Harbor View's programs to ensure that we are able to embrace all of the opportunities raised by the passage of the bond while maintaining financial viability and effectively serving our mission population. This year, the Board is also working to ensure that diversity and inclusion is incorporated into all facets of Harborview, including at the board level. In addition to continuing our own personal work, which includes all day or multi-day training sessions, the board is also underway in revising our governing documents to incorporate diversity and inclusion language that fully encompasses our purpose and function. Of course, our work is ongoing, but we are committed to assisting Harborview with transforming the way care is provided to eliminate race based inequities and improve health care outcomes for historically underserved populations. Finally, as you know, we are in the midst of hiring a new CEO to replace Paul Hays, who retired in December. We have been very fortunate to have Sommer as our interim CEO. The CEO search committee, which is an external committee created under the Hospital Services Agreement, is made up of three Harborview board members and three new medicine members. The search committee is working with the consulting firm to identify and interview a diverse slate of candidates. And I understand that the consulting firm has reached out to all of the council members as stakeholders a few months ago to present an opportunity to speak directly with the consultants and that many did participate in those discussions . Please do let me know if you would like to speak with them again or if you were able to participate before and would like to do so now. The board will actually be receiving a detailed update from both the search firm and the search committee at our next board meeting next week. And we will continue to keep the council apprized of the search process. It has been a busy but exciting few months, so I'm happy to answer your questions. And you're also, of course, welcome to reach out to me directly any time, if you have any questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Fein, for your services on the board in this board chair. I feel like I've had some separation anxiety from Harborview after serving on the workgroup that forms the bond and then working with my colleagues as the bond legislation made it through made its way through the Council last year. I've devoted a significant amount of time to Harborview issues and then supporting your work and being aware of Harborview response throughout the entire pandemic. Before and after the November vote on the bond. But don't think that I haven't been. I'm still engaged on a very personal level with Harborview when I needed some medical treatment in the middle of the night several months ago. It was Harborview that I went to. Thankfully, it was minor and fine, but I received, as expected, exceptional care and was glad to know Harborview was not only the best hospital, but the closest hospital to me. Colleagues questions. I would have warmly warmly thank both of you for the presentation today and the we look forward to having the PowerPoint and being able to refer back to it and very much appreciate your work on behalf of the people of King County to serve people seeking health care at the county's hospital and particularly for your care to our mission population. Thank you so much for joining us today and most importantly for your work throughout the year in the coming year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. This takes the item seven. Our final agenda item is an initial discussion of an ordinance that would place a charter amendment on the November ballot. This amendment would change the charter to utilize ranked choice voting for the election of county officers. Randy Luskin of Council Central Staff is here to give us an overview of the legislation. Ms.. Luskin, please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Members of the Committee for the Record, Randall scanning with council staff. I'll begin by noting that a copy of the full text of the proposed ordinance was emailed to members yesterday morning at 11:59 a.m. on Next Notes b as the chair of the committee noted, and the scope for today's briefing will be to Orient Committee members to the language of the proposed ordinance, and also to provide a few notes regarding process. I will note that staff analysis is ongoing and a full written staff report will be included in the packet materials for your next committee meeting, I believe, on July the seventh, as well as any follow up from any questions from today's meeting. So with that, I will begin by noting that the proposed ordinance before you would propose to amend the King County Charter, specifically Section 610, and to utilized ranked choice voting for the election of county officers. This would be effective against subject to voter approval and would be effective January 1st following the council's adoption of an ordinance that would approve protocols for ranked choice voting. If the Council were to propose to adopt the proposed ordinance, this proposed charter amendment would go to the voters on the November ballot. So with that, I'll go ahead and walk through the proposed changes in the ordinance. So as I mentioned, the proposed ordinance would utilize ranked choice voting for the election of county officers, including the county executive, the county assessor, the director of elections, King County Council members, as well as the King County prosecuting attorney. And again, subject to voter approval of the proposed amendment. This would take effect January 1st following council's adoption of an ordinance approving protocols for ranked choice voting. And the general premise would be that ranked choice voting would give voters the option of ranking candidates in order of preference and that the voting would be conducted in rounds. So in each round, each voter's ballot would count as a single vote for whichever continuing candidate. The voter has ranked third the highest. And then in each round, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated. And then the eliminated candidates and votes would be redistributed to the next ranked continuing candidate until one candidate would receive a majority of votes, and then the candidate would be deemed elected at the time of certification. I'll note that in the proposed ordinance there is a provision that if at the end of the candidate filing period, there were only two candidates that filed for an office that the election for that office would be would there be a choice , essentially? So it could be conducted by either ranked choice voting or in accordance with general laws governing nonpartisan county offices. I will note that the proposed ordinance is silent in terms of who would make that decision. That's a policy choice for this council as to whether that would be addressed in the protocols ordinance that council would be required to adopt, or if council would prefer to address that in this proposed ordinance. Lastly, note that when ranked choice voting would be conducted per the proposed ordinance, there wouldn't be a primary for the impacted offices and all of those qualified candidates would appear directly on the general election ballot. So those that's an overall high level overview of the proposed ordinance language. Just I'll wrap up by noting a few notes on process. So this item was introduced and referred to this committee at yesterday's council meeting. As I mentioned, if the Council were to approve this proposed ordinance, the proposed charter amendment would be placed. On the November ballot. As such, the last regular council meeting for action on this item as a non emergency would be the July 20th meeting of the full council. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks for today. Thank you much. As the prime sponsor. I'll ask council members hello if he has any comments to begin. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. We all share the goal of creating a more fair, just and multiracial democracy. And this requires that we address not only who can vote, but how we vote. Right now, we have an either or electoral system, a winner take all system, where voters are limited to choosing just one candidate. And too often, candidates win, even though a majority of voters chose someone else. The winner take all system that we have right now is at the heart of so many political problems. It creates negative partizanship and polarization where the different sides and the different candidates and their supporters attack each other in hopes of becoming the one candidate who's elected. Instead of pitting communities against each other, though in zero sum elections, ranked choice voting allows like minded communities to vote together as coalitions. And furthermore, winner take all elections also incentivizes people to vote for who they think will win rather than the candidate who reflects their values. So ranked choice voting provides greater electoral access that creates more equitable results, and it can even save money by combining the primary and general elections into one. This all would bring us one step closer to that multiracial, fair and just democracy that we described at the beginning. And lastly, I just want to say, for those who are still not certain about this legislation, I just want to emphasize two things that Miranda already shared that may give you a little bit more is, number one, we're putting something on the November ballot. So ultimately it will be the public that decides what kind of voting they want. If they want ranked choice voting, we can move in that direction. If they say no, then we won't. The other thing that I wanted to add to maybe put you at ease is this ordinance is permitted. It does not obligate us to immediately adopt ranked choice voting, for example. The plan would be if the voters approve this change to our charter in November, then we could all come together and work on an ordinance that lays out the details, that hammers out the timeline, the technology, the getting state level permission for the technology, getting all of our buy in and ducks in in order from our wonderful elections director Julie Wise and her team. So this is number one adopted by the public. Number two, a permissive ordinance that would allow us to get our ducks in a row later down the line. But the clock is ticking since November is coming up fast. And our our timeline for putting something on the ballot is coming up soon. So I urge everyone's support. I know we're not voting today, but we will have time to work through this, think through this and ask all our questions. Finally, I wanted to say thank all of the advocates who have been working on this matter. My co-sponsor, Councilmember Cole Wells and also Miranda and all of our central staff and my my team, Graciela, for help on this legislation. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. I would encourage members to surface their questions, though. It's not a branch. Today, I would encourage members to surface the questions in this conversation today so the staff has a chance to prepare and have responses to them either at our next conversation regarding this legislation or even before then individually. Councilmember Bellevue. She. That actually wasn't me speaking up. But I do have questions after whoever was speaking up. Councilman Raquel Welch. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I don't have a question, but I want to let you all know that The New York Times has a very timely and informative article in its publication today. It's titled The Dove into Ranked Choice Voting. I will forwarded it to everybody, but it profiles the race right now for the New York City mayor's race, which involves ranked choice voting. And also that name has been used in federal elections since 2000. Team in Alaska will begin doing so next year that more than 30 cities, including Oakland, San Francisco and Minneapolis have decided to use it, as have state parties and Kansas for children. So it's certainly interesting and I will again look forward to this article. Council member, Balducci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Apologies. I have to step away from my computer as we reach the end of our scheduled time here. But I'm going to do the best I can on my phone. So I am very intrigued personally by the concept that our our electoral methods have not evolved in a very long time. And by there's there's a lot of promise, in my view, and in ranked choice voting. A lot of it was described by council members. Charlie I do as I as I do want to make sure that we fully think through the pros, the cons, the implementation challenges, the implementation costs, all of the things that we should as fiduciaries of this government really care for when we make major changes. I really appreciate what council members Angela has offered to do in making this change to the charter to be permissive. I think that makes a lot of sense and it enables me to feel more comfortable moving forward on the timeline that we're on, because if the voters say, yes, we want this, then we we can work through details in a in a legislative process that we will have to do. But this did come out of the Charter Review Commission with the recommendation that we not proceed with it. They suggested a study and involvement of a community based process to do public engagement with diverse communities and make sure that we had thought this all the way through and involved people who would be impacted. I am a little bit skeptical and we haven't done that. Just to be clear. I'm a little skeptical that there's any cost savings to be had unless we move all levels of of of of government on any particular ballot off of the primary, because we'll still have to run a primary. It just doesn't include county members. And truthfully, I'm very interested to see what happens this August. We have a very diverse slate of candidates, more than we've seen in the past for multiple levels of local and county offices. And and so the the the case that this will that this will be needed in order to diversify our council is I think I think being tested right now as we speak. So I'm I'm appreciative that we had this time to talk to to hear the briefing. I would like to ask staff to bring forward some analysis of places where ranked choice voting has been used and what has been the results in those places compared to prior to their adoption of ranked choice voting. In terms of the the candidates that have been attracted, the results and and demographics and all of the things that we like. Let's look at what we think we want to achieve with ranked choice voting and put that to the test by looking at those places that have used it and see in what outcomes they have had. Truthfully, I'm not sure that means federal elections are what I want here. So, you know, I am concerned that ranked choice voting might lead to us sort of wiping off the rough edges, if you will, and electing the most inoffensive candidates in the middle, as opposed to people who really stand for something strong in a policy way. You know, and I offer for your for your consideration, Senator Susan Collins. So thank you for this moment to say that. I do I do look forward to moving forward this proposal. I've stated my concerns for the record and asked for whatever analysis we can get on how this actually works in other places by our staff. I would appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the questions. Councilmember Lambert. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Taylor. I look forward to the article that Council Member for Wales is talking about. I too would like some more information. I've been briefed by some very good enthusiasts about this recently and they admitted it's complicated to explain. They said if you can do it in a group of people, move around, it's easy. But doing it on paper is a little more difficult. So it is complicated for people that figure out to begin with. So I think how we are going to all figure it out is going to be important. And I know Julie's been working with our members, and that is good. I, too, would like to know more places where it's been used. I think there was a town in the south of us who did use it for a short time and abandoned them. So I would like to know what happened there. Worse is that law bars certain local governments from doing this kind of thing. We are not under that because we are a home world charter. But I'd like to know why the legislature decided that. And apparently this last legislative session they decided to not forward this in the legislature. So it would be interesting to know what the debate was in the legislature and why they chose not to do it so that we have an open cross. Opinions on what this is before we jump on in. Thank you. Councilmember DEMBOSKY, thanks. And I know we're late here. Mr. Chair, I'll be brief. I'm in the analysis that comes back from Miranda. I would like us to pay particular attention to whether our top two system that we have in this state makes any difference when comparing to other states. And I heard comes from Brazil, I talk about a candidates winning with less than a majority and I know that can occur. It's occurred in a number of presidential elections. Right. We have a plurality, but I think that often occurs in partizan elections here with our two step process, a primary and a general with top two advancing . I think someone always gets a majority to get elected in November. And so I'm kind of curious about the implications of that and whether that mitigates. And I want to say early on that I'm a little agnostic, I'm interested in this. I have some serious questions. I'm concerned about the timeframe. I'm concerned about getting a general green light from voters and then having politicians pick the rules about how we're going to be elected. That I just I'm interested in thinking through that. And and and and I guess I'm losing track of my last question there. But that kind of the timing here is of concern because this is very important in terms of our democratic processes and in how we do it. Oh. This is maybe my biggest concern, eliminating the primary. I really think there is tremendous value in a winnowing process and then a debate that with clear competing values and ideas and proposals for voters to look at and weigh in on, and I get that that's not totally lost when you go straight to a general. But it's a it can be a lot more crowded and tougher to decipher out and distill out those messages. And I have some real concerns, just at least out of the gate. I want to share with you all about eliminating a primary and going straight to the general and and then resolving it. I know in New York, they limited their ranked choice voting proposal in the mayor's race to the primary. And they're because they're partizan, I guess the primary kind of solves their race. But in our top two system, I see tremendous value in having that debate through the fall, where voters have time to assess things, where candidates are , where there's time for the press and the community to vet candidates and for that real robust debate in our democracy. So those are some of my initial thoughts. I'm really interested in this debate, and I appreciate the advocates bringing them forward in the kind the goals that are attempting to be achieved. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Other colleagues. Seeing none. I want to thank Miranda for the briefing and my colleagues for surfacing questions and issues that can be looked into between now and our next meeting, our next regular meeting of the committee. The whole and Mr. Chair, can serve double duty. I'm sorry. I just had one last question very briefly to the list. I want just to confirm that we all mean the same thing when we say permissive. I just pulled up and I'm looking at the language and I see a lot of shells. So I just would like to make sure we understand what what we're actually asking the voters and what happens if they say yes to this language. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you. I might suggest that for those of us visual learners, also some sort of graphs, some visual representation of what would happen, say, if there were four candidates for a particular office. How ranked choice voting, if implemented, might play out, would help me track and follow through. With that. The only vote we've had was on it on the agenda approving the minutes of our previous meetings. So I won't ask if anybody missed that vote and having no other business before us today, we are adjourned or remain members. We have a special meeting of the committee of the whole. A week from today in the afternoon. And I'll see you then. And now that our next regularly scheduled meeting as well. Thank you and good afternoon. Thank you.

Output: AN ORDINANCE proposing to amend the King County Charter to utilize ranked-choice voting for the election of county officers, including the King County executive, the King County assessor, the King County director of elections, the King County councilmembers and the King County prosecuting attorney, effective January 1 following the council's adoption of an ordinance approving protocols for ranked-choice voting; amending Section 610 of the King County Charter; and submitting the same to the voters of the county for their ratification or rejection at a special election to be held in conjunction with the November 2, 2021, general election.